Page 106 of Marked Wolf

Stiff and achingfrom the intense fights, Kodiak’s wolf gazed down at the still body of his alpha in disbelief.

Olcan was an amazing fighter, always able to outsmart any opponent. Except maybe him. And even then, the fight—a real fight for the leader position—would have been evenly matched.

The alpha’s skills had been legendary, and he usually won fights. Just not this time.

And the loss was the worst sacrifice of all: his life.

Tamaska sat next to Olcan’s wolf, tears staining her cheeks, blood on her arm.

Warring emotions stormed through him. He’d let this happen. His want for change and his coming push to be alpha had somehow willed it.

With all his arrogance, he’d caused harm.

Now Olcan was dead and Tamaska injured.

With a deep breath, he knew he had to get himself together. The whole bullshit of self-blame had no place. And this wasn’t the time for introspection. Olcan would rip into him if he were still here.

But Tamaska… She still lived and the injury wasn’t anything near life threatening.

She still lived while Olcan was dead.

She still lived although the vampires had sent in waves of their fanged soldiers.

Olcan had been a real fighter. The army of vampires, relentless. And yet they hadn’t killed her, drained her, or turned her.

Why?

They wanted her alive. That was the only explanation. And he’d bet anything it had to do with the opal.

How he wished he could deal with that, dig down to the bottom of it. But his duty was to his pack in the aftermath of Olcan’s death, and the opal needed to wait. Right now, the vampires attacks had stopped.

Maybe they were gathering more forces, maybe not.

But first they had to deal with this.

Kodiak’s pack connection sharpened. He instinctively recognized when the last wolf had entered the room to pay their respects.

For the sake of grief management and the pack’s unity, it was important for each member to have the chance to honor the fallen alpha in their wolf forms. Otherwise, their wolves might not process their grief, resulting in a fractured pack. When the pack wasn’t functioning properly, they were at risk of being discovered by humans.

Or worse. At risk of splintering, and splintering meant weakness, and they couldn’t afford anything but a united front right now.

Because he knew the vampires weren’t done.

It was just how they planned to complete the next step that he didn’t know.

But it would take them a while to regroup. This had been a good portion of the Blood Moon enclave.

They had that, at least.

So small it almost didn’t count as a victory, but right now, he’d take it.

Kodiak’s wolf surveyed the room, taking a headcount. There should have been so many more. The losses were high. At least they’d defended their home and sent the vampires away. But to have so many dead, especially Olcan, meant they would need to rebuild the pack under a new leader. It would be difficult after losing so many, and even more so since they needed to continue searching for the Blood Opal.

Thank fuck right now the bloodsuckers were in the same position of loss and diminished numbers.

But that was a bitter pill.

The room was unnervingly quiet.

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