Daniel huffed a quiet laugh. “You’re not in a position to make demands.”
I tracked every movement. The angle of his arm. The placement of his feet. The way his finger rested on the trigger. I was looking for an opening, but there wasn’t one. Not yet.
“Funny thing,” Daniel continued, almost conversational. “I was starting to think you wolves might have pulled a victory over us, but I’m still alive.”
Mason didn’t move, didn’t speak, but I could feel him. The tension in him and the fear.
“I’m going to need you to take a few steps back, wolf,” Daniel ordered.
I didn’t move. The barrel pressed harder against Mason’s skin.
“Now.”
Every instinct screamed at me to ignore him. To rush forward and to tear him apart before he could pull that trigger.
But if I miscalculated, if I was even a second too slow, Mason would pay for it. And that wasn’t a risk I could take.
Slowly, deliberately, I took one step back. Then another. My gaze never left Daniel.
“Good,” he said. “See? Cooperation.”
He was close now. Close enough that I could see the faint sheen of sweat on his brow and the tension in his shoulders.
The way his grip on the shotgun wasn’t as steady as he wanted it to be. He was rattled. Good. That meant mistakes. I just needed one.
“Now,” Daniel went on, voice dropping, “here’s how this is going to?—”
A blur of movement. A sharp, sudden impact. Kai.
I barely saw him move. One second he was behind Mason, the next he’d lunged forward, foot slamming hard into the back of Daniel’s knee.
Daniel shouted, stumbling forward. The barrel jerked away from Mason’s head.
That was it, the opening I needed. I moved without a second thought. I slammed into Daniel with full force. He hit the ground hard, the shotgun flying from his grip as we crashed into the dirt.
He tried to scramble, reaching for something, another weapon, maybe, but I was faster. Daniel wasn’t going to escape a second time. My jaws closed around his arm before he could recover.
He screamed. The sound was sharp and high. I bore down, pinning him, teeth inches from his throat now.
“Wait!” he gasped, panic finally breaking through that smug control.
Too late, I ended it with a clean and decisive bite to the throat. Silence followed, broken only by my own breathing. The forest seemed to exhale all at once.
I stepped back slowly, shifting again, the world tilting as I forced myself back into human form. My chest rose and fell hard, my hands were still shaking, but it was over.
It was actually over.
“Mason.” I turned before I even finished saying his name.
He was already moving toward me. The second he was within reach, I pulled him into me, arms wrapping around him tight enough that I felt his breath hitch.
“You’re okay,” I said roughly, pressing my face into his hair, into his scent, grounding myself in it. “You’re okay.”
“We’re okay,” he whispered back, voice shaking.
I tightened my hold around him without thinking. Kai hovered close, still breathing hard, eyes wide.
“You did good,” I told him hoarsely, reaching out to grip his shoulder briefly. “That was real brave.”
