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Now, I just had to buy us some time until everyone came.
They would. This pack had been through a lot together. They could survive anything, so long as they stuck together. I had to show them that. They’d been focused on themselves for so long, always worrying about their own hide.
Together, we would escape Alvin.
I straightened and rolled my shoulders back. It took every ounce of willpower that I could muster, especially when Alvin grabbed Ness by the upper arm and yanked her closer, like she was a petulant child.
For a moment, her gaze narrowed as it slid in his direction. I thought, maybe, Alvin had made a mistake and Ness had come back to us. Then her expression went blank once more.
My beast roared defiantly. It stamped its feet inside me. The creature was ready to shake the earth and the skies for our mate.
The leaves shookas beasts prowled out of the dark. They kept their heads low. A chorus of growls rose in unison. My spirits lifted, and I let out a breath that I must have been holding. Several wolves moved to put themselves between Alvin and myself. I stepped up alongside them because that was my place, not behind them.
Two wolves stared Alvin down with murderous intent. The cinnamon-colored wolf bared its teeth. Though Connor had failed Ness in the past, it seemed that he was intent on doing better. He still had feelings for Ness, that much I could tell.
The other wolf was darker, with a streak of white down his back. Ness’s father stalked towards Alvin. But Alvin noticed. Alvin yanked Ness off balance and dragged her between himself and her father.
My growl rumbled like thunder. The storm above answered with fury. This would be Alvin’s last stand. I wouldn’t allow him to keep entering our lives and throwing everything off balance.
The pack deserved time and space to heal. Ness deserved to be safe and loved.
Ness
Alvin had done it again.
The eerily glowing walls of the red room surrounded me. The light in here made my heart race. Though I knew I was only a thought trapped in my own head, the thunder of my heartrate shook me.
Furious, I kicked and pounded on the walls around me. They shuddered under my onslaught but didn’t fall. Nothing I did brought them down, no matter how hard I tried.
“You dirty son of a bitch!” I screamed into the void. “You keep acting like a sniveling puppy dog.”
He couldn’t hear me. Nothing I said would shake him, but it did make me feel a little better. I needed to find a way out of here. He wouldn’t even show me what was going on outside. In here, I couldn’t tell if Ryder was safe.
Ryder.
If Alvin touched one hair on Ryder’s head, I would burn everything to the ground. I would make sure that Alvin’s last breath came out as a scream. I would savor that sound for the rest of my life. If Alvin usedmeto hurt Ryder…
That scream wouldn’t be Alvin’s last.
Cold fury settled my heart. It turned me to ice, no longer brittle and easily shattered. I became the immovable force of an iceberg. If Alvin thought he would control me, bodyandsoul, then he was sorely mistaken.
Though my senses were muted, I could hear a little of what was happening beyond my body. I could smell my pack, too. Panic hit my senses and ramped my heartrate. Alvin couldn’t have them. I would throw myself into the line of fire a dozen times over before I let him take them.
But my hound nudged me. It was an odd experience, seeing her standing outside my body for once. She looked up at me with her big, hopeful eyes. At first, I didn’t understand the sentiment. My panic made my thoughts tumble, one after another like a tsunami crashing down over my head.
I stared into her eyes and found the center of the storm where all was calm. My hound asked me to have faith.
Faith?
In my pack? I wasn’t sure if I could do that yet. They hadn’t earned trust, let alone faith. Though I loved them, they’d failed me left and right. Now my hound wanted me to have faith?
It wasn’t in me yet. I couldn’t muster the trust that it took. My core shook. I didn’t know how to put my life in the hands of others. As everything else spiraled out of control, I grasped onto what I could. I made my own choices, even if they’d all ended poorly.
I had a mate, though—a man who loved me enough to sit beside me every night even though I’d tried to kill him. He was out there.
Even if I couldn’t trust my pack, I could trust him.
Alone, I could sink into the cold chill inside me and show bravery in the face of adversity. When I had to put my life in the hands of others, I shuddered. That couldn’t last forever, though. If I asked the pack to change, then I had to change, too.
We would all change for the better.
And Alvin would fall.
