Page 172 of The Ashpaw: Part One

A Bloodmoon ax buried itself in an Ironcoat’s skull, while another swiped across the chest of a Sabletail.

Tables and benches overturned, ale and blood spilling together across the floor.

Darion surged to his feet, his wolf exploding awake beneath his skin.

Kyntha clung to him desperately. “Darion!”

A Bloodmoon leapt onto the table, snarling, and Darion ripped a carving knife from the feast spread and hurled it straight into the male’s throat.

The wolfkin collapsed, choking just as another charged.

Darion seized the attacker by the jaw and smashed his face into the table hard enough to splinter wood.

Chaos swallowed the hall, but there was only one thought running through his mind.

Fern…

She was alone, still in heat. She could already be carrying his pup.

And if the Bloodmoons got even a whiff of her…

His head snapped toward the staircase.

Kyntha grabbed his arm again. “Don’t leave me!”

Darion looked at her, his mate, and a cold certainty settled over him.

Kyntha could run and hide, and her family was here to protect her, while Fern was drugged and half delirious with but a single wolfkin at her door.

And if Kyntha died…

There were other daughters of Head Alphas to choose from.

But there was only one omega.

He tore his arm free.

“Stay behind the guards,” he ordered.

And then he ran.

He shoved through the crowd, catching sight of his father ripping a Bloodmoon’s throat out near the hearth while his Uncle Norden dragged one of the Ironcoat she-wolves behind cover.

A Bloodmoon lunged from the side corridor.

Darion barely ducked in time, the ax head smashing sparks from the stone wall.

He slammed his shoulder into the attacker’s chest, driving him backward before wrenching a fallen spear from a corpse and ramming it through the male’s stomach.

The Bloodmoon spat blood in his face and laughed.

Darion snarled and snapped the spear upward through his jaw.

Another came. And another.

There were too many for this part of the castle if everyone was in the dining hall.

Not everyone, his wolf reminded him.