Page 67 of Piece You Saved

I’m no fucking good at this shit.Aden, I really need you right now.

“You tried to warn him. I know. But the fucker had to do his shopping, right?” I grin.

Dariel doesn’t react. He stares at the body of his brother lying at our feet, tossed over the gate and into our overgrown bushes like some unwanted bit of trash.

“Let’s go inside.” I grip his shoulder and pull him back toward the house. Inside, I can get him behind a door he can’t break out of.

He doesn’t move. “I should’ve killed him for what he did. I nearly did so many times.”

But he wouldn’t have. Family is family, even when they fuck you over. If Dariel is one thing, he’s loyal to a fucking fault.

I’m not Dariel.

I’d have torn into Leandro, walked away, and never thought about him again a day in my life.

Thisis why he didn’t tell us about what his brother did. If I’d known, I’d have gone after Leandro and his piece-of-shit father, maybe the mate too, and done what Dariel couldn’t.

I nod toward the body, pulling him more insistently. “Let’s go inside. I’ll deal with this.”

He draws in a deep breath, holds it, and then releases it.

The muscles in his arms tense and relax. White fur spreads over his jaw, his cheeks, and melts away again.

He’s fighting with his wolf, fighting the need to shift, and he’s losing.

Could really do with that reinforced metal door about now.

Fur sweeps his hands and claws edge out. “Go inside,” he bites out through gritted teeth.

My eyes narrow. “I’m not—”

Pain explodes in my face. Cold air rakes through my lashes. My head smashes against the door.

I push myself to my feet as I scrub the back of my right hand over my bleeding, broken nose. I straighten it as best I can and leave it to do its thing. Doesn’t hurt, so it’s easy to ignore.

What isn’t as easy to ignore is the large white wolf standing among a pile of torn, shredded clothes. He was on his way to losing his fight with his wolf, and he lost it.

Dariel the wolf peels back his lips from his teeth and snarls, canines glinting at me.

I reach for my wolf and prepare to shift.

Only for Dariel to turn away, lower his head, and stare at Leandro’s body.

He nudges Leandro’s shoulder with his nose and keens, a low, mournful sound that makes me want to punch something. Or kill it.

Grieving.

The wolf is grieving. Mourning a lost brother. Mourning family that didn’t deserve the title. But blood is blood, and Dariel’s wolf knows it just lost a packmate.

He throws back his head and howls a mournful cry into the sky.

That same killing urge grows within me until I shake with it.

I get up, pull the door open, and walk inside before closing it and leaning on it.

Dariel’s wolf howls his grief into the sky as I battle back my need to howl with him.

I’m not unhappy the fucker is dead. Leandro doesn’t deserve to be mourned by anyone here. But Dariel… He didn’t deserve to see that.

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