Chapter Ninety-two

Chapter Ninety-two
Chapter 92

Lia’s POV

The night did not warn me.

The first blow came from behind.

It drove the air from my lungs and sent me sprawling across the dirt, palms scraping stone. Pain flared sharp and immediate, but instinct screamed louder. I rolled before the second strike could land, coming up on one knee just as a shadow detached itself from the darkness.

Connor.

He didn’t look like a man who had come to talk. His eyes burned silver, feral and controlled at once, his posture loose in the way of someone who had killed often and efficiently. He didn’t wear pack colors. He didn’t need to. Everything about him carried ownership, entitlement, fury barely leashed.

So this was how he chose to appear.

Alone. No witnesses. No elders. No council.

Just me.

“You shouldn’t wander without guards,” his voice said calmly, almost mildly, as if we were discussing weather instead of murder. “It makes things… uncomplicated.”

I forced myself upright, ignoring the way my ribs screamed. My heart pounded, but fear did not take me. Not fully. Not when I felt the life inside me stir, not when I knew exactly what he was here for.

“You picked the wrong night,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “And the wrong woman.”

A smile tugged at his mouth, thin and humorless. “Everyone says that right before they die.”

He moved.

There was no warning, no dramatic lunge, just speed. Too fast. Faster than Edgar on his best day. I barely got my arms up before the impact sent me skidding backward again, my spine colliding with one of the standing stones hard enough to blur my vision.

Pain exploded behind my eyes.

He was on me instantly, one hand fisting in my hair, dragging my head back. The moonlight caught his face as he leaned close, breath warm against my cheek.

“You’re weaker than I expected,” he murmured. “All that fire, all that talk… and this is it?”

I slammed my knee upward, catching him square in the thigh. He grunted, not in pain, but surprise, and that was enough. I twisted, ripping free of his grip, and lashed out with my elbow.

It connected.

He staggered half a step, eyes flashing, and something dark and pleased crossed his expression.

“There you are.”

I didn’t wait. I couldn’t afford to. I drove forward, striking where I could, throat, ribs, jaw, using every scrap of training Edgar had drilled into me, every instinct sharpened by survival. I fought dirty. I fought desperately.

He blocked most of it.

Each counter came precise, punishing. A blow to my shoulder that sent my arm numb. A kick that clipped my knee and nearly took me down. He was stronger, faster, more experienced, and he knew it.

“You should have stayed quiet,” he said as he caught my wrist and twisted hard enough to make stars burst behind my eyes. “Should have let the council tear itself apart. Instead, you stepped into a role that was never yours.”

I snarled and drove my forehead into his nose.

This time, he did bleed.

He laughed as he shoved me away, blood streaking his lip. “Oh, Edgar’s going to hate this.”

Rage flared white-hot in my chest at the sound of his name. I tasted iron and fury and something ancient, something that had nothing to do with rank or title.

“You don’t get to speak his name,” I said.

I felt it then, not a shift, not a full transformation, but something deeper. A tightening in my bones. A steadiness in my core. The quiet, terrifying clarity of a mother who would not fall.

I attacked again.

This time, I didn’t aim to win. I aimed to survive.

We collided hard, bodies slamming together, rolling across the ground. His fist caught my jaw, snapping my head sideways. I bit down on a cry and raked my nails across his face, feeling skin tear beneath my fingers.

He roared then, real anger now, and flung me off with brutal force. I hit the ground hard, breath knocked from my lungs, vision swimming.

He stalked toward me, shadow stretching long and monstrous across the stones.

“You think the pack will follow you?” he said. “You think carrying his child makes you untouchable?”

He crouched, grabbing my chin, forcing my gaze up to his.

“It makes you a liability.”

The word detonated something inside me.

I drove my thumb into his eye.

He screamed, staggering back, and I surged to my feet, every nerve screaming, every instinct blazing. I didn’t give him time to recover. I grabbed a loose stone from the ground and hurled it with everything I had.

It struck his temple.

He went down hard.

For one heartbeat, the world went eerily still. I stood there shaking, blood dripping down my chin, chest heaving as I stared at him.

Don’t stop, a voice inside me whispered. Finish it.

But I couldn’t.

I backed away instead, keeping my eyes on him, every muscle coiled. He groaned, rolling onto his side, blinking hard as he dragged himself upright. He looked furious now, but also calculating.

“This isn’t over,” he said hoarsely. “You’ve just proven my point.”

He melted back into the darkness as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving blood on the stones and fire in his wake.

I stood there long after he was gone, hands trembling, body screaming, heart pounding not with fear, but with certainty.

He had come to break me.