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“I made a deal,” I state calmly, allowing Iver to wrench my arm harder despite my wolf’s insistence that I fight back. “The terms are our surrender in exchange for the rest of the pack being granted asylum within the six-pack.”
It’s not ideal, but it’s what’s right. My pack was never part of this scheme. I refuse to let them go down with my mother and me, so my last act as their alpha will be to deliver what they always wanted.A home.
Thisis what it means to be Alpha. Leadership is about selflessness and making sacrifices for the greater good, and I’m not above swallowing my own pride to do this for my pack.
“I willneversurrender,” Mom spits, not bothering to keep up pretenses or conceal her outrage. “You areweak,Javier! After all I’ve done for you, how could you be so stupid? I didn’t raise you to cower to our enemies!”
“They’re not the enemy, Ma!” I yell exasperatedly.
She shakes her head in disappointment. “You stupid,stupidboy,” she admonishes, aiming a glare at me so cold that I practically get frostbite, my throat tightening in response to the icy look of hatred in her eyes. “If your father could see you now, he’d be ashamed of what you’ve become.”
“Good,” I fire back, and I mean it. If she’s trying to weaponize my father’s memory against me, her efforts are completely misplaced.
Her face screws up in disgust. “If you do this now, you’re no son of mine. I raised my son to be strong, to take what he’s entitled to and leave a legacy to be proud of.”
“It’s too late, it’s already done,” I grit out, clenching my teeth as Iver takes the liberty of twisting my wrist harshly in his grip. “And if this is the legacy I leave behind, then I’m proud of it. At least now, the pack has a place to call home and a chance to move forward. This was never their fight.”
A flash of movement draws my attention, and my eyes widen in horror as I see Lo rush out of the forest behind my mom and into the parking lot.
“Stop!” Lo yells to the men at my back, the soles of her shoes slapping against the pavement. “What are you doing?!”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, FUCK.
I wanted my mate to be as far away from this as possible when it all went down, and now she’s running headfirst straight into it, Cheyenne not far behind.
“I told you to keep her away!” I shout to Chey, and a sense of true, unshakeablefearsinks its claws into me as I watch my mother dart toward Lo to head her off.
“No!” I shout desperately, fighting to yank my arms free, but it’s too late. Without her wolf, Lo’s weakened, and my mom manages to snag a fistful of her t-shirt, yanking her backwards and wrapping her arms around her slender frame to pin her in place.
“You’d really give up everything we’ve worked for over agirl, Javier?” she scoffs breathlessly, tightening her grip around Lo as she yells out in frustration and struggles to free herself.
Everything happens so fast.
In a single blink, Cheyenne rushes up behind my mom in an attempt to intervene, Iver abruptly lets me go to run for his sister, and Madd and Tristan advance, too. Archer swoops in to help his brother restrain me, but my wolf delivers a surge of brute strength and I break away, bound and determined to get to my girl.
Like always, though, my mother is one step ahead. I don’t even know where the knife comes from, but suddenly a silver blade is in her hand, way too close to Lo’s throat.
Everyone freezes in place, white-hot rage simmering beneath my skin as I grind to a halt.
“Back up,” she commands, and all of us begrudgingly comply.
“Get your hands off her,” I growl, my wolf becoming feral in response to the threat our mate is under.
My mother chuckles cruelly, rolling her eyes. “So defensive,” she tuts, my eyes glued to the gleam of silver as she brings the knife closer to Lo’s neck. “Are you sure you don’t want me to end her suffering now?” she mocks, the blade glinting in the light as she turns it over in her hand. “Everyone here will be dead soon anyways, now that the hunters are on their way.”
My blood turns to ice in my veins. “You’re bluffing.”
The corner of her mouth lifts in a little smirk, her eyes flickering to me, then back to the knife she’s still toying with in front of Lo. “You know they’ve got a message board on the dark web,” she murmurs boredly. “It was easy to send in a little tip about where they could find some shifters.”
I wish I could call her bluff right now, but I know my mother well enough to recognize when she’s telling the truth. And a chilling realization sinks in that all this time, she’s playedme, too. She promised that if we carried out her plan, we’d be able to stay here. But now it’s apparent that she never planned on settling down. She doesn’t care about me or the pack or what’s best for us. All she cares about is herself.
She’ll never stop scheming and plotting.
“Why?” I rasp, my chest squeezing painfully as I look upon the woman who raised me in a whole new light. I see Chey inching closer, her focus trained on the knife in my mom’s grasp.
I need to keep her talking.
