Page 41 of Trusting Her Mate

I’m on him again. My teeth are in his scruff and I’m slamming him into the earth. He yelps, whines, tries to submit, but I hold him there. My jaw is locked on his throat, not biting, not killing, just holding. Making him feel what it’s like to be pinned by someone stronger. Someone who won’t be controlled.

The clearing goes deathly silent.

Dax lies beneath me, trembling. His golden fur is matted with blood. His breath comes in wet, ragged gasps. My teeth press against his jugular. One bite. That’s all it would take. But I don’t bite.

I release him and step back, hackles raised, daring him to move, but he doesn’t. He stays down. Whining. Broken. The change rips through me as I shift back, leaving me naked and heaving, standing over Dax’s crumpled wolf form. The afternoon air hits my bare skin, but I don’t care who is seeing me right now, let them look.

Boone is beside me in seconds and his shirt lands on my shoulders. I pull it closed, but my eyes never leave Dax.

“Stay down,” I say. My voice is wrecked. Ragged. But it carries.

Dax’s wolf whimpers. He tries to rise. Falls. Tries again. Falls.

Alpha Mercer rushes forward, face pale. “Dax. Shift. Now.”

Slowly, painfully, Dax shifts back. He’s bloody. Battered. His left leg bends at the wrong angle. Claw marks score his shoulder and side. He lies in the dirt, chest heaving, staring up at me with something I’ve never seen in his eyes before.

Fear.

“Get him out of here,” Caine says. His voice is ice. “If any Ashstone wolf crosses Katu territory again, they will be treated as hostile.”

Alpha Mercer doesn’t argue. He gathers his broken son and the enforcers close ranks. The elders turn and they retreat down the mountain road. Dax looks back once and I meet his gaze.

There’s nothing left in it. No cruelty. No possession. No threat. Just emptiness. And then he’s gone.

Boone’s arms wrap around me and the shirt falls open, His chest pressing against my bare chest. The bond blazes, fierce and bright and unbroken.

“He’s gone,” I say.

“He’s gone.”

“I shifted. I didn’t plan to. He was going to...”

“I know.” His mouth presses against my temple. “I saw.”

“I could have killed him.” The words are true but emotionless.

“I know.”

“I didn’t.”

“I know.” His arms tighten. “You left him alive. That makes you a better wolf than him.”

I turn in his arms. His shirt hangs off my shoulders. Blood—Dax’s, not mine—stains my fingers. The claiming mark on my throat pulses. Behind us, the Katu Pack is silent. Watching.

Peyton has tears on her face, Talon looks like she wants to applaud, and Raine is grinning so hard her face might split. Calum just nods once. Approving.

Caine approaches. His gaze moves over me. Assessing. Checking for injuries. “Are you hurt?” he asks.

“No.”

“Good.” He pauses. “You fight well, Wren.”

The words settle over me. Warm. Heavy. Real. “Thank you, Alpha.”

He nods, then turns to the pack. “It’s done. Ashstone’s challenge is defeated. The bond stands. Wren Smith is Katu.”

The clearing erupts. Howls. Stomping. The raw, physical approval of a pack that has decided I belong. Raine screams so loud my ears ring. Max pounds Boone on the back. Iris presses her hands to her mouth, eyes shining.