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Without needing to be told, Kinsley shifted again, and this time, Markus did as well, revealing brown fur that had hints of red filtered in. As soon as Lia dropped her shield, four or five wolves jumped over each brick wall, foaming at the mouth.
Lia disappeared from sight, and the second round began.
I stayed as close to Kinsley as I could, but a wolf slammed into her side, pushing her farther from me, and I couldn’t get to her again without leaving my back exposed.
My claws tore the skin of the nearest wolf’s neck. He howled in pain, but he didn’t back down.
The distraction of needing to know Kinsley was safe had my eyes constantly darting to the left to make sure she was okay. That likely wasn’t necessary, given what I’d already seen, but I couldn’t help myself, especially after just admitting that I wasn’t going to fight the bond.
The wolf I’d hit sank his teeth into my front leg while I was otherwise occupied, and I instantly felt my demon power surge forward.
I did my best to keep the flames at bay, but that energy was harder to hide when another wolf jumped onto Kinsley’s back, biting deeply into her shoulder.
She cried out, but the sound rang more furiously than painfully.
I tried to keep my eyes on her, but the wolf on me wasn’t relenting. It was time to show these pups what a real shifter was capable of.
Just as the first lick of flames began to come forward again, Ryder threw the door open. “Enough.”
His voice bellowed over us, holding no alpha power, which surprised me, given he was leading his own faction.
His wolves immediately backed up against the wall, but there was too much rage pumping through my blood. This man had put my mate in harm’s way without proper warning. For that, he needed to pay.
Ryder held his hands up and stayed by the door. “This is only a preview of what you’ll face out there. Would you have rather I took your mate to face this in real life, where the wolves may have been even more ruthless? I needed to see what she was capable of. All of you did.”
Fuck.He wasn’t wrong, but still, this hadn’t been the right way. Not in my eyes.
I continued to move forward and shifted back to my human form. When I approached Ryder, I wrapped my fingers around his neck, squeezing hard enough to lift him a couple of inches off the ground. “If you ever fuckingtesther again without giving us a heads-up first, I will rip your heart from your chest.”
It didn’t matter that he’d given us a place to stay. We could have found that anywhere. We owed him nothing and, from what I could tell, he should have been fucking kissing our toes in gratefulness that Kinsley saved his son and wanted to help this House.
Ryder held my sneer for a few seconds before his eyes cast toward the left. “I was only—”
I cut him off with a growl. “You were acting as if you were in charge of us. Which I want to make very fucking clear right now, you are not. We are not a part of your faction, but we are willing to help keep your people safe if you don’t piss me the fuck off again.”
Kinsley joined me at my side and placed her hand on my shoulder. “Let him down.”
Only because I wanted to support the fact that she was the future Alpha Supreme here did I loosen my hold on Ryder.
“I understand why you did what you did,” Kinsley said, “but you didn’t know what Lia could do and that could have gone very differently. I would have never willingly put myself into a situation to be attacked until I felt more comfortable with my wolf, and you had no right to put me in one, either. I assume you realize your mistake now?”
He nodded and rubbed a hand over his bruising throat. “They were under strict orders not to hurt you any more than you might have been during a training session, but I can see now that surprises won’t work well for this situation.”
“No, they won’t,” Kinsley replied. “I’m glad we’re all on the same page now.
Ryder didn’t seem to agree as his stare moved between me and Kinsley. “Are you going to tell me more about Lia? She’s the only reason your group wasn’t overtaken within minutes.”
Kinsley moved to stand in front of the unicorn, who wasn’t recovering as quickly as I’d expected her to. “That’s not for us to share. If she’d like to tell you more, then she will. When she wants to.”
I could sense Kinsley’s alpha power rising to the surface, and I wondered if she realized when she did that. Her wolf didn’t seem to like to stand down to anyone. Not even her mate.
It was going to be interesting to see how that worked moving forward.
Hell, all of this was going to be more thaninteresting.
Chapter20
KINSLEY
