Father shot him a mocking grin. “What will a little brat like you do? Enlighten me.”
“I’ll have you dead.”
It was the first Jez had heard Father laugh in a long time. He’d forgotten how chilling it sounded. “You? Have me dead? You can’t even catch a fly.”
Jez’s rage couldn’t be expressed in words. Watching Father grip Dahlia made Jez’s surge with hot anger. Inside, he howled, his wolf calling him to rip his own father apart.
But he knew he couldn’t fight his alpha. He was merely a child. And so, he took out the weapon he’d stolen from Father’s belt—a switchblade. He growled—it sounded like a pup’s, which irked him. Physically, he wasn’t strong enough to save Dahlia, and so he needed to be strong at heart.
“What are you going to do with that little thing?” Father asked. “Skin a rabbit?”
Jez challenged Father with a glare as he placed the switchblade to his neck.
The alpha stilled. “You wouldn’t.”
Mother had died in a fire long ago. She was Father’s true mate, and so Jez was the only thing Father had left of her. Father wanted Jez to be a strong heir to his clan. Jez wouldn’t be able to do that dead.
“D’s the person who means the most to me,” Jez said. “I’ll do it.”
“Silly brat.”
“Please.”
Dahlia shook her head. She looked panicked. “Jez, it’s all right.”
“No, it’s not.” His next words came in a low whisper. “Let her go.” The knife dug into his skin. It hurt, but not as much as seeing Father hold Dahlia like that. Jez shivered from desperation and fear. “Stop… stop making me repeat myself.”
Father flicked his chin upward. Jez didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean, but the answer came to him before he had a chance to react. Father’s henchman ambushed Jez from behind, sweeping him up and snatching the blade from Jez. Jez yelped.
“Ow!” Father yelled.
Jez turned to where Dahlia was. She had used the distraction to stab Father with his other dagger. The knife protruded from Father’s thigh. Father let Dahlia go from shock. He reached to pull the knife out.
Relief surged through Jez as he watched Dahlia hop onto a dumpster and grab the nearest railing. She might only be seven, but she was a talented fox shifter, and once she started climbing, Father couldn’t catch her. Father reached out but narrowly missed her foot, and Dahlia was off.
“Get her!” Father screamed, shaking a meaty finger at Dahlia’s scurrying silhouette. The henchman dropped Jez to the ground. His knees slammed against the cement, but Jez didn’t care. All he wanted was to make sure Dahlia was fine. He turned his head up to look at her. She paused when she stood at the rooftop. Solemnly, she waved at Jez. Her wrist flicked back and forth weakly.
They stared at each other longingly. Dahlia seemed so distant… so unreachable. Jez should have kissed her when he could have. He’d been told that kisses were the key to love.
The wave looked an awful lot like a goodbye.
Jez returned it, even if he didn’t want to. He still hadn’t touched that hairpin.
Watching the interaction between Dahlia and him seemed to rile Father even more. The oversized man snarled and picked Jez up, throwing him over his shoulder. “You are never seeing her again, little wolf.”
Jez ached, because he knew that was true.
Dahlia and he couldn’t be together. Now that Father knew, Jez would be caged, and Dahlia would have to fade into a memory.
The agony of that knowledge was too much to handle. If all he had was distant turmoil, then Jez wanted to forget. He blamed himself for getting her into that position. Father would never have gotten to Dahlia if Jez hadn’t been with her. She wasn’t safe when with him—even as a child, he knew that.
And so he began locking away his thoughts.
Brick by brick, the seal to his memories covered whatever he’d shared with Dahlia.
Jez had to forget her.
Chapter 7
Jez woke with another headache.
The fucking visions wouldn’t stop plaguing him. He hissed out a breath through his teeth. He’d knocked the back of his skull on the hard pavement, right before reaching his subordinates.
One of them, a gangly wolf shifter still in his teens, leaned over him. He had buck teeth and wore thick-rimmed glasses.
“The alpha says to not let you out of our sight,” the teen said.
It took a moment for Jez to get the fog out of his mind. The image of her kept running through it, spiraling and growing and making him dizzy. Now he knew why he’d been drawn so much to the fox woman. Dahlia was the girl he’d loved the most, and now that she was back, he wanted nothing more than to hold her.
He took the hairpin out of his pocket and clenched it tightly, so hard that his fist shook and his claws grew. They dug into his palm, drawing blood, but Jez didn’t care. He had no doubt in his mind that Dahlia was his true mate, and how he’d let her slip from his paws was something he couldn’t forgive himself for.
He only had to get a whiff of liquor to know that Loki was standing next to him. “You should probably get yourself checked. I don’t think it’s healthy for you to keep passing out like that.”
“Says the person killing himself with poisons,” Jez replied, standing up.
“Sit back down,” Loki said.
“No thank you.”
“Where the fuck are you going?”
Jez leapt at Loki and grabbed him by the collar. He had to stop himself from punching the asshole, because Loki deserved a couple of broken teeth and then some. “To find Father.”
“What? The alpha? He’s pissed at you as is.”
Jez swept aside the fear that tried to take hold of him. “I’m pissed off too.”
“Nobody stands up to the alpha. Caspian’s the person who ended the lupine wars, undefeated and—”
“What time is it?” Jez asked, cutting off the long string of accomplishments that Loki was about to list. Jez knew them far too well. He’d been constantly reminded of his father’s achievements as a child, and that had been one reason why he was so terrified. How was he to stand up to a figure whose name casted such a great shadow?
“We’re about to launch the—”
“Call it off.”
“The alpha said—”
Jez snarled. His hairs stood on their ends and his canines poked out from his upper lip. “I’m the alpha now. Don’t do anything unless I order it.” Perhaps he should have done this long ago. Secretly, he’d known that he had to potential to overthrow his father, but he’d never had a reason to until then. Father maintained order for the most part. Caspian enjoyed ruling and being alpha. Jez didn’t. He’d never let power get to his head. He saw how it corrupted and destroyed. But maybe that was why he ought to be the leader of their clan—he recognized the pitfalls of power and wished to avoid them.
“No, you’re not,” Loki replied, not showing a hint of concern. “But you’re going to challenge him. Good luck. Your father is the most skilled wolf shifter in all of the west side.”
“He trained me.”
Loki snorted. “There’s talent, and then there’s training. You’re not nearly as large as he is.”
“Hard work pays off.”
“All the best, then,” Loki said. “I hope you don’t die too horribly.”
The gangly teen attempted to block Jez’s way. “We’re not supposed to let you—” Jez shoved him aside. Loki didn’t bother fighting Jez because he knew he’d lose miserably.
“The first thing I’m going to do once I’m alpha,” Jez said, “is to put a ban on alcohol and tobacco. Just for you, Loki.”
Loki snarled. He straightened and prowled toward Jez, baring his lengthened teeth, but didn’t lunge forward. Jez tipped his chin up in a challenge. Loki looked fearsome but was ultimately a weak beta. He merely had the sweet tongue to get on Caspian’s good side. He stood no chance against Jez.
“You can try me,” Jez
taunted Loki.
Loki took a step back and slackened his posture.
Jez smirked. “Thought so.”
Jez had no time to participate in small squabbles like that. He had an entire fox shifter clan to save. “I suppose it’s too much to ask you to try and stop the assault?” he asked.
“Fuck you,” Loki answered.
Jez cracked his knuckles and pulled the metal door of the shack open. He stepped out into the sea breeze, and with that, realized that he was already too late.
Jez ran through the ocean of fire, watching in horror as flames licked every corner of Kingstrot Street. This couldn’t be happening. He prayed in his heart to the lupine gods that Dahlia would come out unscathed. She was a strong girl. That was the main reason why a doe-eyed, confused boy like him had been attracted to her in the first place.
She could survive a catastrophic, genocidal fire, right?
He heard less screaming than he thought he would. In fact, there was none at all. The flames were burning wood and metal, not shifter flesh. As Jez ran through the chaos, relief swept through him. He’d blamed himself for being too late, but it looked like he wasn’t completely—perhaps warning Dahlia about the attack had been enough. It seemed like she took care of most of it.
“Dahlia!” he called. He needed to see her. “Dahlia!”
He shouldn’t be wandering about the aftermath of the explosion. Like all shifters, he was vulnerable to fire. Regardless of how strong his father had trained him to be, one mishap would be all it took to end him.
“Dahlia!”
A silhouette, hidden behind the orange embers, caught his attention. Jez leapt over the ashen debris to near the figure. But just a few feet closer, and he could tell it wasn’t Dahlia he had been chasing after, but Karla.
“Jez,” she gasped.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I wanted to make sure nobody else got caught in the fires. They didn’t want me coming in, but I used my need to check on the tonics as an excuse.”
“You shouldn’t be risking yourself.”
“What you said got to me,” Karla replied. The embers formed a circle around her, closing in on them and blocking them from the outside. If they didn’t escape soon, they never might. “I didn’t think what the clan did was right.”
“Where are the foxes?”
“I let them out.”
“You did?”
Karla followed Jez through the compound as he navigated their way out. He’d been to Kingstrot only a few times before, but he had a decent memory.
Karla continued, “They were all gathered at the south side. I noticed it. So, I used my sleeping potions and knocked out the wolf shifters there to clear a path. Dahlia let the rest of her clan members out through the entrance, but…”
“But?”
Karla’s features hardened. “Your father isn’t one to accept it when plan goes wrong. There’s a plan B.”
“There’s always a fucking plan B.” Jez found a fence that had been warded by the wolf shifters. Karla forced him out of her way to take down the barrier, then climbed over it with lupine dexterity.
“The alpha has all the wolf shifters summoned. All of them. Including the Greytails from the east side. They’re splitting the foxes into two groups—divide and conquer.”
“Then the foxes don’t stand a chance.” Jez muttered a curse. “And the women and children?”
“They’re still going to be—”
“Fuck this shit.” Jez’s resolve to overthrow his father strengthened. The fires continued to make whooshing and crashing noises behind him. That was enough damage caused by the blind lust for power. “I’m going after him. Don’t search the compound anymore. It’s not safe. Focus on getting the foxes to band together again and distract the groups of wolves so they won’t be able to catch up.”
“Me?” Karla pointed at her chest. “Alone?”
“You’re capable,” Jez said, having full confidence in his ex-mate. Her skill and competence had been one reason for his initial attraction.
He darted through the north side of the city as quickly as his legs could carry him.
Please be fine.
The desire to see Dahlia again thrashed in him like a storm. Father had gotten to her once, and that guilt had crushed Jez enough to make him block out the most beautiful memories of his life. If that happened again…
He swallowed that thought and forced himself to focus on his mission. Why had he tried to forget as a scared boy? He should have spent most of his life trying to search for her.
Howls—the battle cry of the wolves—chilled Jez’s heart. Wolf shifters were meant to be loyal. Clan integrity stood first. Pack before individual. But with numbers also came foolishness. The wolves were too busy relying on each other for affirmation and orders to think for themselves. And when their alpha was misguided…
Mother’s death had driven Father to bloodlust too long ago.
Jez spotted them from a rooftop, trapped in a larger-than-usual alleyway. The huddled foxes were boxed in from both sides, and the only way was up. Some of them tried reaching upward, but Father seemed to have planned too well, for this alleyway was closed in by walls that had no windows or protruding surfaces. The foxes had nothing to grasp.
Dahlia positioned herself at the edge of the group, acting as a shield. She lifted an arm to block the crowd behind her. Father stood right before her, smirking, as he often did. He was overconfident, just as always.
“Any last words?” Father asked.
Dahlia spat at the alpha’s feet. “Get out of my way.”
“For a person begging, you don’t ask very nicely.”
Father cracked his knuckles and stepped forward, nearing Dahlia. The sight hit Jez with full force. Shock made him sputter, and his feet were glued to the ground before he knocked his senses back into himself. He wouldn’t—couldn’t—let the events of the past happen again. And so, he shifted. He called to his wolf form, limbs morphing and clicking and forcing pain through his muscles.
He welcomed the ache. He used it for strength.
Tensing his limbs, Jez leapt down the building in wolf form. The force sent a shock through his bones, reverberating toward his skull. Jumping from such a height wasn’t entirely safe, but he would rather risk death than let his father grab Dahlia again. With a snarl ripping through his lungs, Jez sank his fangs into Father’s shoulder.
The alpha released a half-human, half-lupine howl. He was pushed backward, away from Jez’s true mate, and slammed against the wall.
Caspian pulled himself from his slumped position. “I taught you that,” he said.
“As you did many things,” Jez replied. “And maybe you shouldn’t have.”
“I never thought of you as the kind of person who lusted for power.”
“Unnecessary power, no, but sometimes it’s needed. Especially when you’re threatening my mate and her entire family.”
His gaze met Dahlia’s when he made the proclamation. All shifters, fox and wolf, stilled.
“Mate?” Caspian said. “How can you be sure? There is no scent of a true mate bond between you.”
“I’m sure.”
Dahlia’s mouth gaped, and she moved her lips, as if starting a protest, but then smiled. Jez wanted to smile back, but he had a bastard of a father to take care of.
“There’s no winning this, son, mate or not.” Caspian shook his head. “The wolves have the foxes surrounded.”
“But all the wolves answer to you,” Jez said.
“Because I’m the alpha.”
“And what if you’re not anymore?”
Father gave Jez a look that was part incredulity, part sneer. “You wish to challenge me.”
Jez nodded. “You and me in a Match of Power. To determine who is alpha.”
“You cried and begged fifteen years ago,” Caspian said. “In an alleyway, quite similar to this one.”
Jez sensed the prickle of tension in the air. It zipped back
and forth, sparking tiny bits of electricity that made his fur stand on end. He pushed away the boy in him, shoving aside his longing to cower before his father. The time to hide had passed. He now had to stand up for himself—and, more importantly, Dahlia.
“You’re just as afraid as you were when facing me as a boy,” Caspian continued. The old man was trying to incite the fear that he’d ingrained into Jez when he was younger. It was what he was counting on to make Jez back out. What Caspian didn’t realize was that Jez had finally found something worth fighting for. He could withstand the shaking, the doubt, the cowardice. He could be brave for the love of his life.
A caress at his ear gave him pause.
He looked up, seeing Dahlia peering at him with her blue eyes. They carried the same sparkle he admired as a child. Her eyes were like two precious gems he wished to keep for himself, never letting go.
She said no words to him, but her touch was encouragement enough.
He could defeat his father.
But his father wasn’t one to play fair. He hadn’t appointed an official to man the fight. There was no warning. Quickly, Father shifted into a wolf and lunged at Jez.
Father had always been a big man, and a big wolf, too. Jez had always been more sinewy, but with his smaller size came quicker movements. As the fastest of the Diremere wolves, Jez reacted quickly, and Father’s jaws failed to reach his throat.
Never let the alpha get your throat.
The phrase repeated in Jez’s mind. Father was said to have the strongest bite of all wolves, and once his canines sank into flesh, they wouldn’t let go. Many of Father’s enemies had died from just one bite, because it was lethal enough to kill a shifter with blood loss.
“Your skills are mine,” Caspian said. “You have me to thank for everything you have.”
“I want none of it.” Father and son circled each other. Any passerby would think that Jez would be crushed in seconds, but Jez had to believe in his own abilities. The years of torture had to mean something. The sharpest blades were forged in the hottest of flames, and his childhood had been a sweltering furnace.
“Then what do you want, boy?” Father growled.
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