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His eyes rounded as he glanced over my shoulder. “No,” Jax whispered. “He is.”
I turned around. The werewolf behind me stood about six feet tall. Stocky build. Nondescript features. His only noticeable trait was the glint of menace in his eyes that put my nervous system on high alert.
“This must be your vindictive alpha,” I said.
Jax didn’t seem to hear me. The stocky werewolf advanced toward Jax, oblivious to my presence.
“I told you to shift faster, boy,” the alpha snarled. “Haven’t you been practicing?”
Jax dropped to his knees. “It hurts. My bones aren’t mending like they’re s’posed to.” His voice belonged to a younger version of Jax, not the tough guy outside the cabin.
The alpha towered over a fearful Jax. “You best hope that’s not true, because you know what happens to weak links in my pack, boy.”
Jax’s head bobbed as he struggled to maintain his composure.
“I told you to shift!”
“Yes, sir.” Bones crunched, prompting a sharp cry of pain from Jax.
I couldn’t let the nightmare continue, for my sake as well as Jax’s.
I brought us both back to reality. Rising to my feet, I wiped his blood off my hands.
“We’re done here,” I said.
Jax’s fur and animal parts receded, leaving a man with a bleeding ear in their place.
The other wolves took notice of his condition and reverted to their human forms. The one dripping in Gran’s potion staggered toward Jax as the wolf struggled to his feet. For a moment I worried he’d try to fight on, but his silence emboldened me.
“I let you live so you can go home and tell your alpha that Fairhaven and Weston Davies are off limits to you and your pack,” I said.
“Bitch,” Jax hissed in a pained whisper.
He was angry that I’d subdued him, but even angrier that I’d glimpsed the abuse he’d endured. Shame was a powerful weapon, and never more so than when we wielded it against ourselves.
West stepped into a patch of sunlight, putting himself directly in the spotlight. “Tell that murdering bastard that if he wants me, he can come and get me personally, if he dares.”
Jax pressed the heel of his hand to his ear. “You’re a disgrace, Davies. No wonder your line was nearly wiped out. No self-respecting alpha would leave a woman to defend his sorry ass.”
“A woman just kicked your sorry ass,” Sage shot back. “And no self-respecting alpha would murder an innocent family and consider it a power move.”
Jax whistled, and the other wolves fell into line behind him. They slunk away from the cabin in a single-file line.
Sage massaged the back of his neck. “It’s over, West. They’re gone.”
West didn’t look convinced.
“You were brave to stand up to them, Sage,” I said.
“Never underestimate a fae with an axe to grind,” she joked. “What I’d like to know is how you subdued Jax. All you did was cut off the tip of his ear.”
“I guess it’s a really sensitive spot.”
West pulled her closer and leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m so sorry I put you in danger. I should’ve gone somewhere else. Once I fled the tunnel, your face was the only one I wanted to see.”
“Are you kidding? This was the most fun Gran’s had in ages.”
On cue, the elderly fae appeared in the doorway wearing only a white dressing gown. “I got to use my experimental tonic on that one wolf, and it worked. That’s a win-win.”
