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Ridge doesn’t get a chance to answer. Lawson takes advantage of everyone’s stupefied shock as he growls, lunging at Sable.
Trystan, Archer, and I surround her in a heartbeat, ready to rip Lawson into tiny shreds if he so much as blows on her fur. But we aren’t needed. Ridge leaps into action and shifts into wolf in mid-air, taking down his brother with ferocity. There’s something more feral, more vicious, about Ridge’s movements now, and I get it. This is no longer just a fight for alpha status.
This is about a man threatening his mate.
Lawson hits the dirt head first with a solid thunk, and Ridge latches on to his neck with his teeth. He throws the larger wolf across the clearing, where he rolls several times as the crowd backs away. Ridge stalks forward, teeth bared, then attacks again. The fight is short, violent, and bloody. By the end, Lawson is pinned to the ground, bleeding into the grass and whimpering.
He yields. Too much of a coward to die with honor after threatening his brother.
Sable heaves a visible sigh of relief and sits on her haunches. I inch closer to her, my wolf scenting the air around her.
Ridge shifts back into human form and holds up both hands, calming the uneasy crowd.
“Fellow pack members, please give me your attention.” His voice takes the tone of a commanding alpha, and even my wolf sits up and pays attention. “As you can see,” he goes on, motioning to Sable with a beaming smile, “my mate is a wolf. Like all of you. However, she also happens to be a witch—a witch who did not know her heritage, and as such, was not raised to fear us or hate us. Sable is on our side.”
I huff and let my tongue loll out in a wolfish grin. Ridge is the biggest bullshitter—as if we didn’t all just fucking find out there was actually a wolf inside her. I’ve never seen a man so beautifully avoid the truth.
“She is not only my mate,” Ridge says, turning as he speaks, his gaze moving over the crowd of shifters. “But she is mated to these men as well.”
As Ridge indicates the three of us still standing protectively around Sable, Archer is the first to shift back to human. He steps forward and puts a hand on Sable’s head.
Jesus, she must be so fucking soft.
“Sable is my mate,” Archer says, also using his alpha tone.
Trystan shimmers with magic and stands, adding his hand to Sable’s neck. “And mine.”
They both look at me, and Sable glances over her shoulder. I’m stunned by the beauty of her wolf, and by the hurt already touching her gaze.
She thinks I’m going to reject her. Again. Because it’s a pattern I’ve been setting up since the day she turned witch. But God dammit, I was fucked up in the head. Terrified. I’m still terrified of what this all means, of the witch inside her, of sharing a mate. It’s all new territory.
But I shift back and take two steps forward to bury my hand in Sable’s fur. I was right—she’s the softest thing in the world.
“Sable is my mate too,” I say, glaring around the clearing with an expression that dares anyone to argue.
Elder Jihoon steps forward, his gaze darting over the four of us. “Alpha Ridge, this is highly unorthodox.”
Ridge opens his arms and makes a full circle, taking his time as he looks out over his pack. “If anyone wants to challenge our claims to Sable, we will die protecting her. Or you will.”
His last words are so pointed, he might as well have stabbed them all.
But no one speaks up to argue. All those shifters who transformed into their wolves begin to shimmer back into their human forms, and the overall air in the clearing grows a little calmer. Even Lawson’s loud-mouthed supporters seem cowed by the show of Ridge’s strength as he took his brother down in a bloody display of raw power.
Buoyed, no doubt, by Sable turning into a wolf. Finally.
“Lock this traitor up,” Ridge says loudly, pointing at Lawson. His brother has shifted into his human form but remains lying on the ground, covered in blood and looking petulant. “Peter, Davies, can you take care of this piece of shit?”
“You should banish him,” Trystan says, staring down his nose at the defeated man. “He doesn’t deserve your protection as alpha, nor does he deserve the privileges of living amongst a pack.”
“Banishing him would be a death sentence right now.” Ridge’s voice is controlled and measured. “I’m not willing to condemn him to death at the hands of the witches patrolling our borders. He can rot in a cell for a while, until the council decides what to do with him.”
I’ve never had a problem with Ridge. Matter of fact, I’ve always had a little respect for the man. He’s fair and kind, but hard when he needs to be. His compassionate judgment on the situation with his brother only helps me respect him more.
If I were in Ridge’s place, Lawson wouldn’t be so fucking lucky.
Two men come forward from the crowd and haul the defeated shifter to his feet. They’re none-too-gentle with the traitor as they drag him away from the council barn and disappear into the deepening twilight to throw him into the pack’s jail cell.
Ridge turns to the crowd again. The chaotic panic that was stirred up by the appearance of Sable’s smoky magic seems to have dissipated a bit. The pack no longer looks ready to revolt, although confusion still fills a lot of faces. He holds up a hand, drawing everyone’s attention.
