Page 73 of The Forbidden Wolf

“I smelled you,” I whispered into her mind so Father and Sebastian couldn’t hear. “When Kenzo tried to claim you, and Damian said you’ll never mate at all if you can’t have Sebastian. You weren’t okay with that. It freaked you out. And it should! Why is he so obsessed with him?”

“He’s not obsessed with Sebastian; he’s protective of me,” Kiana said. “I deserve nothing less than the best.”

“Do you not hear yourself?” I asked, incredulous. “You are essentially saying you deserve nothing at all. And I know you don’t believe that. I don’t believe that!”

Kiana softened the tiniest bit. “Then why did you take him?”

“You know I don’t have that kind of power,” I said. “You know no one but Father could have intervened, but he chose not to. He abandoned me to keep the peace. It makes no sense that he came back the next day screaming that you can’t have any other mate. Frankly, appearing so desperate to introduce another alpha line made the Bronx look unspeakably weak.”

The flat of her palm struck my cheek just when I’d stopped expecting it. My head snapped sideways, and I staggered backward in a short circle, lights exploding behind my eyes as I crashed into the concrete barrier separating the pedestrian path from the road. I pushed into a spin, blindly throwing a punch that landed squarely in the center of my sister’s hand. She latched onto my fist, digging in her nails, and shoved my funny bone down on the top of the barrier. A numbing jolt of pain shot through my entire right side.

“You are even more spectacular than I ever imagined,” Damian’s voice boomed across the bridge, yanking Kiana’s attention back to Father and Sebastian.

My mate stood about ten yards away, the glowing square of his phone lifted stoically over his head like John Cusack’s boombox in Say Anything. His own voice filled the night, asking Damian why he was so obsessed with him. Kiana released me and fell back against the railing, eyes wild, breathing rapidly.

Damian launched into his bizarre screed about the finest Alpha stock in New York, causing Father to grunt with great offense and consternation. Damian was supposed to believe we were the finest Alpha stock in the whole world. Those words alone probably counted as treason in Father’s book. He turned to face us, the pain of betrayal etched in every line of his face. There seemed to be so many of those these days anyway…

Rubbing my stinging cheek and cradling my smarting elbow, I began walking toward them as Damian ranted about the bloodline. The moisture in the air gave the energy shift an extra electric crackle when it came. I had only a split second to note the surprise in Sebastian’s eyes before a heavy hairy body brushed past me with enough force to knock me over the barrier and onto the roadway.

Bells clanged in my ears. Red lights flashed in my eyes. The bridge itself seemed to quiver with Kiana’s charge, and when I found the strength to open my eyes, the stars themselves appeared to be spinning. The snapping and snarling of wolves joined in with the bells, dialing my migraine up to a nine. Clutching my forehead, I climbed to my feet, which felt as wobbly as they had when Father took us boating in Pelham Bay thousands of moons ago.

“Elyse!” Father called out over all the noise, and I spotted him lying on the road several yards away, looking terribly frail and human in the diffused red light. I ran toward him, so dizzied by my fall that the Manhattan skyline seemed to be sliding out of the frame created by the steel trusses arcing overhead.

We’re moving.

Her words brought the whole picture into focus. The skyline and the stars were standing perfectly still—the bridge itself was moving. The lights and the bells were warning the missing motorists to stay put as the center swing-span slowly rotated into the perpendicular position so a barge could pass through the Harlem River.

We’re trapped.

My eyes flew to the pedestrian lane where Kiana’s vicious white wolf kept driving Sebastian’s regal gray backward. If she kept going like that, he would eventually fall off the edge and into the river. If he hit his head and lost consciousness, he might drown.

My wolf leaped to the surface, shredding my street clothes in an instant. I raced toward the battle, determined to haul my sister over the barrier by the scruff of her neck, but Father’s tawny gray wolf loomed in front of me like a brick wall. He gave me a look that brought me to a sudden stop, nails screeching on the asphalt.

“Don’t. She will kill you,” Father said simply, and then he bounded into the fray.

I hesitated. Father was no longer my Alpha; I was not obliged to follow his orders. And yet, if I wanted to stake my claim as the rightful heir, then I needed to respect him and obey. But every muscle in my massive body quivered with anticipation for the fight as the bridge continued its slow, steady spin. I did not love Sebastian, but I wouldn’t lose him either. Not to her.

Father caught up to them and did exactly as I had planned to do. He locked his jaws into Kiana’s scruff as if she were a silly little pup and brought her next attack up short. She yelped in outrage, paws scrabbling at the air. Sebastian wasted no time jumping over the barrier, his magnificent wolf muscles rippling beneath his steely gray fur. Gods, why did both versions of him have to be so beautiful?

His golden-brown eyes found mine across the spinning distance. His ears pricked like a pup spotting a juicy bone, and his tail lifted over his back with a single happy wag that made my own tail respond in kind. My hidden human had never been more mortified. I ran toward him, ignoring her, and he ran toward me, ignoring Father and Kiana.

When we met, I pushed my muzzle against the side of his neck without hesitation, licking the wounds my twin had left. He hooked his chin over the ridge of my shoulders, nuzzling the back of my head with his cheek. Our heaving chests pressed against each other, and our hindquarters wiggled with the swishing of our tails. I had an insatiable urge to sniff every last inch of him.

Father howled in pain.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sebastian and I broke apart. Kiana crouched atop Father’s limp form in the middle of the highway, her white muzzle as red as the dress she’d obliterated. Her lips pulled back from her fangs as her human cackle echoed in my head. My blood froze in my veins, sealing me to the spot. Kiana had truly gone insane.

“How could you?!” I screamed, emitted a high-pitched yelp from my mouth to go with it.

“How could I not?” she shot back, still laughing. “Someone has to lead the Bronx, and he was obviously no longer fit if he was going to fall for your lies.”

My heart hurt too much to pound. It just sat like a cold hard lump in my chest, too heavy to even hold up. My front legs swayed. Father… at least we’d had a chance to reconcile, but… this wouldn’t have happened if Sebastian and I hadn’t been flirting like friggin’ Simba and Nala during “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” Why wouldn’t he just leave me alone?

I lashed out at him, driving my fangs into his shoulder. Sebastian roared and erupted from his own shocked stupor, barreling toward my sister with his head down like a bull. I followed because she’d left us with no choice but to capture or kill her. She couldn’t be allowed to take the Bronx throne. It didn’t even belong to her.

She knows.

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