by Raye Wagner
‘You’re going to be an amazing leader,’ I told my mate.
‘Thank you, love.’
“Courage Midnight,” my grandfather said, turning to face us. “Have you picked a member of your pack to officiate?”
“Noble Midnight,” Rage said.
Gramps stepped to the side, and Noble walked out of the crowd and into the center of the empty circle, microphone in hand.
‘This is it.’ Rage looked at me and winked.
Rage descended the steps and crossed the red rug to where his brother stood in the center of the room. Unable to sit, I stood as well, nerves churning through my belly.
Gramps shuffled over to me and leaned in closely. “I need to talk to you about something…” he wheezed. “As soon as this is done.”
“Of course.” Poor guy had been through the wringer the past few days with me and needed his rest.
“Wolf clans of Shifter Island!” Noble bellowed. “Come forth and pledge loyalty to the new alpha king … Courage Midnight.”
There was a thunder of applause that reverberated through the wooden platform all the way up to my chest. I scanned over the crowd and frowned because a significant portion from the Daybreak Clan remained … quiet.
My father stepped forward and then dropped to one knee. “As alpha of Crescent, we pledge fealty to Courage Midnight as alpha king.”
He bowed his head, and Crescent cheered. I felt so much pride I might burst.
Kaja’s father came next. He looked so much like his daughters with his shock of red hair. Representing Harvest Clan, he bowed his head and dropped to one knee. “As alpha of Harvest, we pledge fealty to Courage Midnight as alpha king.”
Justice stepped forward, and my momentary confusion cleared as I connected the dots. As the next heir, he would have to concede his place and not contest his brother.
With a deep bow, Justice took a knee. “As second alpha heir of Midnight, I pledge my fealty and that of our pack to Courage Midnight as alpha king.”
Holy. Mother. Mage.
Midnight Pack roared.
And then all eyes landed on Mallory’s dad.
Clive Daybreak stood in front of his pack, his chin jutting forward as he sneered at Rage. He had yet to move a muscle in support of the new king.
The seconds stretched.
Rage narrowed his gaze as my father, Justice, and Kaja’s dad stayed on their knee.
No way. I stared, waiting, each breath becoming more shallow as panic wormed through me. What would happen if Daybreak refused?
Clive stepped forward.
And I exhaled with relief.
“I challenge Courage Midnight for the alpha king position. Wolves-only fight.”
Wait. What?
No!
The wolves rumbled their disapproval, and my father, Justice, and Kaja’s dad shot to their feet.
“Be reasonable, Clive!” Kaja’s father yelled over the noise.
Then, the Daybreak wolves started to chant, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Oh shite.
A stone sank in my gut. This could not be happen—
“I challenge you, Courage Midnight,” Clive growled once more, pointing at my mate for added intimidation.
‘Can he really do this?’ I asked Rage.
Instead of responding to me verbally, my mate plucked his crown off and handed it to Noble.
‘No!’ I cried out. He’d barely healed from the horrible fight with Declan. This was insane.
I ran down the stage steps as Rage slipped off his coat, and then he started to undo the buttons on his shirt. By the time I reached him, Rage was shirtless and seething at the Daybreak alpha.
‘Stay back, love,’ Rage growled to me. His fury seeped through our bond; its depth indicated far more feeling than today’s betrayal. He chucked his shirt and coat at Noble and snarled. “I accept.”
‘No!’ I lurched forward, intending to do something, and Justice folded his arms around me, pinning me to his chest.
“Be cool,” Justice whispered. “He’s got this.”
I blinked, and both men had shifted into their wolves. Rage’s black animal was just slightly smaller than Clive’s silver and gray beast. They stalked each other in a slow circle, and the crowd backed up, giving them more room.
“What is wolves-only?” I whispered.
Justice sighed. “Clive Daybreak was never strong with his element. ‘Wolves only’ means they can only fight as wolves. They can’t use their magic.”
Frick. That’s what I figured.
Before I could dwell on it further, Clive bared his teeth in a vicious snarl and then lunged at my mate.
Chapter 14
A cacophony of voices exploded as the shifters screamed and bellowed indiscriminately. Male and female voices, filled with panic, malice, contempt, and anger, merged into a grating tumult. My heart thundered against my ribs, and the noise faded as blood rushed in my ears.
Rage darted away from Clive’s attack, my mate’s movements fluid, agile, and fast. His ears remained erect and forward-pointing, and his tail curved upward in a clear show of dominance. As Clive’s wolf lumbered past, Rage swung around, his tail stiff and upright, and my mate tore into the gray wolf’s flank. I exhaled with relief.
He’s got this.
Clive spun and bared his teeth, snapping at the air as he stalked forward.
Rage paced the center of the circle, the bold move declaring this was his territory and Clive was the interloper. Clive’s ears leaned forward, and he sniffed the air. There was no way he needed to scent the air to know Rage’s temperament; every wolf in the room could smell the dominance rolling off my mate.
As if to emphasize his place, Rage raised his lips high, exposing the full length of his teeth. His nose pulled back and ears shot out to the sides like horns. As Rage snarled, his muzzle seemed to become wider, displaying his powerful jaws.
‘Why’s Clive waiting?’ I asked Honor. ‘Maybe he’s rethinking this.’
The black wolf, almost identical to Rage’s, settled next to me. Cocking his head, Honor studied the two wolves. ‘No. Clive smells of aggression and greed. Not fear.’ Honor sniffed the air again, and his eyes narrowed as his ears straightened. ‘Something is wrong.’
‘Wrong?’ What did that mean? I started to inhale, desperate to understand, when Clive charged again.
The gray wolf’s hackles and mane were raised, and just like Rage, the Daybreak alpha’s posture indicated confidence and power.
Rage sprang through the air to meet Clive’s attack.
My heart skipped a beat as it leapt into my throat.
The two wolves collided, snapping their jaws as they tumbled to the ground.
Each of them jockeyed for position as they rolled across the red carpet, their snarls tearing through the din. Rage came out on top, standing over the other alpha, and dived at Clive’s exposed throat.
I sucked in a sharp breath, fierce pride thrumming through me—before he was … bucked off by an unseen force. Rage flew through the air, landing with a thud on the other side of the circle, right in front of Daybreak Clan.
What the…?
His body shuddered heavily and, through our bond, I felt agony pulse through him.
Fear sucked the air from my lungs, the sound echoed by hundreds of others in the room. What the mage?
‘Rage!’ I jumped to my feet, but Justice caught me around the waist before I could step into the circle.
“If you go out there, you’ll shame your mate,” Justice said. “He’s not done.”
‘I’m okay,’ Rage said, climbing to his feet. He shook his head, and his entire body wobbled. ‘That … what was that?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘Did he kick you?’
Clive stalked toward Rage, who snarled at the gray wolf while he spoke in my mind. ‘It smelled like magic.’
Rage’s declaration punched me in the chest. If Clive was using magic … wasn’t that cheating in a wolves-only fight?
‘Honor, what’s Clive’s element?’ I asked. Was it even possible for the Daybreak alpha to use his magic as a wolf? If so, I’d never heard of it happening before.
‘His element is earth,’ Honor replied, his voice filled with confusion. ‘But he can’t use it as a wolf. None of us can.’
If he wasn’t using magic, who was?
I watched the two wolves intently.
They traded nips and gouges: Rage clipped Clive’s ear and then his snout, and the gray wolf opened a gash along Rage’s shoulder.
Both males used their advantages, Rage his speed and agility, and Clive the bulk of his body to throw Rage off balance when they collided. But Clive was older. Slower. Eventually, the gray wolf couldn’t keep up with Rage’s relentlessness, and once again, my mate forced the other alpha to his back.
Only this time, Rage hesitated.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!” the Midnight pack chanted.
My stomach clenched.
Rage dove for the gray wolf’s throat, and a faint flicker of blue energy sparked at Clive’s neck. Once again, Rage was hurtled through the air.
“He’s cheating!” I screamed, pointing at Clive, but my words were lost in the roar of the crowd. Whirling to Justice, I growled, ‘He’s using magic.’
Justice frowned and then shook his head. “I-I haven’t seen any magic.”
Was I the only one who could see it?
‘I saw it,’ Honor said, and I wondered if his time in the spirit world had affected him and given him powers or something.
Rage climbed to his feet, his entire body swaying with the effort. ‘It feels … like … I’m being … electrocuted.’
Clive charged toward my mate, his aggression increasing with every step.
Remembering the mage dressed in seafoam-green robes that had been talking to him earlier, I looked at the high mages. Kian and the others watched the fight, but my grandfather wasn’t on stage. ‘You said the high mages stayed out of shifter affairs!’ I yelled at my grandfather, hopefully projecting my thoughts into his head. ‘But someone gave Clive magic.’
Rage tried to shake off the effects of the magic, but as he bared his teeth at the other wolf, I could feel my mate’s trepidation.
My body trembled with emotion. Frustration. Betrayal. Rage.
‘What color is the magic?’ Grandpa Geoff replied in my mind.
‘Aren’t you watching?’ I asked, my chest heaving as the two wolves again locked in battle.
‘I’m… not feeling well.’ His voice trembled, and additional concern rolled through me.
As the two wolves bit at one another, my distress increased. Clive swung his head, giving Rage a clear shot at the gray wolf’s throat, but Rage didn’t take it. Instead, my mate went for the wolf’s shoulder—not a killing blow.
The crowd booed.
‘What color?’ Grandpa asked again.
Tears pricked at my eyes. ‘Blue. Electric blue, but it’s super faint and only at Clive’s throat.’
I told him what I’d seen before the ceremony started, racing through how I’d noticed a mage in a seafoam green robe give Clive something. ‘What could they give him to make this happen?’
‘Most likely a protection spell,’ Grandpa said. ‘Tricky. Depending on how it was cast, there may not be anyone besides you and the high mage who cast it who can see it.’
What?
‘How is that possible?’ Did that even matter right now? Maybe … but not nearly as much as my next question. ‘What can I do? How do we break it?’
‘You can’t. Not without touching the spell. And you’d need the spellbreaker root.’
‘I have it!’ I fumbled with my clutch and then pulled out the canvas bag, relieved that I’d brought it to return to him today. There was a large chunk of the root left. ‘Now what?’
‘You’ll have to mix it with your blood and get it directly on the curse.’
Chances of Clive stopping the fight so I could wipe him with the green-glowy concoction: 0.0001%. Maybe even less than that.
The two wolves snapped at each other, both tearing into the other at a furious rate. The red carpet was streaked with crimson—their blood smearing with bits of fur as they rolled, scratching and biting.
My heart thundered against my ribs with the terrible realization. There was no way for Rage to win this fight unless we broke the spell at Clive’s throat. It was keeping him from going for the kill. This was a fight to the death, and the likelihood of Rage getting to another significant artery was super slim. With our werewolf healing, the peripheral arteries healed too fast to bleed to death.
‘Can I send the magic of the mixture through our bond?’ I asked Grandpa Geoff as I chewed on the root and tried to think outside the box. I held my hand out to Honor. ‘Please bite me.’
He’d seen what I did for his mom, and without saying anything, Honor bit into the meat of my hand and tugged, opening a deep gash. I winced as the pain radiated from my palm, but I ignored it. Spitting the mixture into the wound, I grimaced as I mashed it into the blood.
‘Grandpa?’ Maybe if I rubbed the spellbreaker blend on me and then—
‘No. You need to apply it to the spell for it to break it.’
Damn. Damn. Damn.
I hollered to Rage: ‘I need you to get Clive over here so I can rub this spellbreaker mixture on his throat and break the spell he is illegally using!’ Still, no idea how I would do that.
Rage froze as I spoke to him, and Clive lunged.
The crunch of Rage’s bone tore through me, worse knowing I’d caused the distraction. I looked up to see my mate crumple to the carpet.
No!
What had Sara said about me being able to take some of Rage’s pain? Would it even work without us having sealed the bond?
I had to try.
Closing my eyes, I imagined siphoning away some of Rage’s pain, sucking the blinding agony into my body.
Nothing.
The only pain I felt was on his behalf—its own kind of agony.
Maybe I could send him healing vibes. Focusing on the mate marks on my finger, I visualized how the same lines traced his finger. The curves and swirls connected us—a connection I loved because I’d grown to love him.
Fate may have picked us, but we chose each other right back. The love I felt for him was more than blind adoration. He was brave. Kind. Thoughtful. Loyal.
My right forearm began to throb; then the deep ache of a broken bone sent a wave of pain through me, and I sucked it into myself, knowing I was sparing Rage a portion of the discomfort.
Thank the mage. It worked!
I looked up as Rage delivered a similar bone-crushing bite to Clive’s back leg.
The grey wolf went down with a whine.
This time, instead of Rage going for Clive’s throat, my mate took the opportunity to crawl toward me. Wait … why was he crawling?
My arm hurt bad enough—
That’s when I noticed his other wounds.
Blood dripped from Rage’s muzzle, his shoulder looked like ground meat, and several deep gashes ran along his ribs.
Clive was no less battered. The gray wolf’s face was marred by new wounds that oozed as did the ones on his flanks and middle. Like Rage, he had several deep gashes from where he’d been clawed during the fight.
The battle for alpha king had extended several minutes—minutes that were hours and lifetimes and eternities.
I opened myself to Rage’s other wounds … and crumpled to my knees, gasping.
Mother … Mage.
Anyone who looked on might have just seen a grieving mate, but Sarah had a knowing look in her eye and gave me a short nod of approval from across the room.
‘Let it go,’ he said to me, his gaze boring into me. ‘I can bear this.’
‘No,’ I gasped.
Clive climbed to his feet, barely resting any weight on his left flank. Baring bloody teeth with tufts of black fur between them, Clive hobbled toward Rage.
They
were four feet from me when Clive lunged.
Rage let him.
The crowd gasped as Clive bit into Rage’s flank and yanked him backward.
My mate bellowed with the pain; the sound shattered the din.
Panic bludgeoned me, and I reached to take more pain, but Rage snarled, ‘Don’t you dare.’
Shocked, I drew back, my eyes wide.
‘Get that damn paste on him,’ he gasped, dragging his shredded body closer.
I sucked in a deep breath as Clive stepped around from Rage’s back, coming within a foot of me, and circled in for the kill. This could still work.
‘Honor, get ready to knock me over into the fight. Make it look like an accident.’
The black wolf pressed in on my side in response.
My skin prickled, and my stomach churned. The timing would have to be right, but—
‘As soon as this is finished and that curse is gone, Justice can challenge him and win.’
Whatever hope I had drained away as Rage’s words registered. He was preparing to die…
‘Rage—’
He whined with the pain, and still, he dragged his ruined wolf the last few inches to me. As he lifted his head, I saw the light of his soul dimming in the vibrancy of his eyes.
I sucked in a sharp breath and reached for him…
As he dropped his head to the carpet—
And Clive lunged.
‘Now!’
Just then Honor leapt on his hind legs and pushed me down with two paws on my back.
“Ahhh,” I screamed, raising my hands instinctively to break my fall but aiming them right for the wolf before me. My opened palm, shredded and oozing with the spellbreaker mixture filling it, brushed against Clive’s neck as I half fell on him.
The mixture seeped in—a blue searing light flared, and then Justice was pulling me back out of the kill circle.
‘It’s gone!’ I shouted.
Rage pushed off, using his last bit of strength, and clamped his teeth around Clive’s throat.
His teeth sank into Clive’s neck and somehow held.
Both wolves tumbled to the ground, and with one heaving move, Rage tore through Clive’s neck, shaking him like a ragdoll.
Blood sprayed with each of Clive’s final heartbeats, the force waning with each beat until the crimson stream became a trickle.