Chapter 33

Jayden snarls and snaps back, and Liam rolls over as they wrestle. 

Jayden’s blood spatters over the ground, but he does seem weakened in any way; if anything, the wound seems to have heightened his rage, and maybe werewolves feel adrenaline the same way that humans do because he seems stronger even than before, throwing Liam back with teeth to his side that clench in a vice.

Liam howls. His blood joins Jayden’s, staining the earth.

Kira thinks nothing will be able to grow here after this.

She whines again, in despair at not being able to defend her Alpha. Noel could move. He’s free of the command, but he just stays close to Kira, putting his body between her and the fight that Kira has to duck to see. It’s clear what his instructions are.

Whether Noel knew that this fight was going to happen and Kira thinks he does not, he’s been told to protect Kira.

And he’s taking that seriously.

Then, Kira hears another voice in her head, and she shrinks further in on herself. It isn’t Jayden or Noel. It’s a familiar sneer, throatier as a wolf but still recognizable.

‘What? You don’t want your bitch getting in your way?’ Liam has an Alpha voice, either born in him or developed over time with the sycophants who followed him in the pack.

Jayden’s claw tears three slashes down the wolf’s side, but they’re only skin deep. Liam manages to dart away before worse damage is done.

The wolf paces, eyes on Jayden.  ‘A pack should die defending their Alpha. That’s where you’re weak. You treat them like your friends.’

Jayden growls and advances on him again. He doesn’t respond to the taunts. That’s the kind of leader he is and Kira feels a wave of pride. 

A wolf like Liam would never understand that someone like Jayden wouldn’t let anyone get hurt for him.

Kira doesn’t care what wolf-lore says. Jayden is a real leader. 

He would put himself on the line to protect his pack, not the other way around.

But his honor is also the reason there’s blood dripping down his shoulder and his haunches. 

Kira needs to get to him. She needed to lick his wounds clean and get him home safe. She can’t even move.

The brawl starts too fast again. Liam leaps around the clearing, deft and quick, and Jayden can turn, but he isn’t fast enough to stop him from lunging at his side, ripping at him with vicious jaws. 

Jayden is rolled on his back just long enough for Kira to howl in fear, but he soon rights himself and bites back, latching on to the vulnerable inner joint between Liam’s front leg and chest. Blood covers his snout: dirty blood, Kira thinks.

Liam manages to bite Jayden’s ear, and Kira is sure she sees a chunk torn clean off, but it could be more bubbles of blood rather than skin. 

She closes her eyes, unable to watch anymore, but then opens them again because the sounds are worse than what she sees. 

The tearing of flesh is vivid, something that Taehyung will hear in his nightmares forever. There will be no forgetting it.

They fight like wild wolves. Kira can see replays in her mind of documentaries he’s seen on TV. Animals will fight to the death.

And she can see nothing human in either of them now. 

Their wolves are competing for dominance. Any human dislike has been replaced by the more violent instincts in their blood.

Noel is in a defensive pose, like he’s ready to join the fray and put himself in front of Jayden if things get too bad, but Kira doesn’t know how he will. Noel respects their rules more than Kira does. 

Whatever loyalty he has to his friend and his Alpha, she thinks he’ll respect the sanctity of such a duel.

The thought frightens her.

Would Noel or the rest of the pack stand by and watch Jayden die? No.

There’s too much human in them for that.

There has to be.

A growl rumbles low in Jayden's throat, and he throws Liam off him again with such force that the smaller wolf’s back cracks against a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. 

He isn’t quick enough to scramble up. Jayden is on him with claws at his belly and throat in a second, and Kira feels a fresh wave of horror.

She wants Jayden to win the fight, but she doesn’t want Liam dead either. 

Jayden can’t do something like that. He isn’t a monster.

Fighting the magnetism that keeps her pinned back by his orders, Kira manages a step forward. 

Her wolf trembles. Noel turns back and growls at her to stay down.

‘Submit.’ Jayden’s order is razor sharp.

Liam snaps up at him but he’s pinned.

‘I don’t want to hurt you more than I already have.’

If Liam senses weakness in the words, then it’s a weakness Kira will always love Jayden for.

The young wolf writhes and snaps up, catching a bite on Jayden’s throat, and however shallow it is, blood drips down onto his own face, into his eyes, and Kira sees Jayden’s claws tighten, pressing into Liam’s chest until they start to break the skin through his thick fur. 

He’s panting. They both are. The claws close in a grip and Liam howls.

Kira thinks his wolf must have better instincts of self-preservation than his human, because he rolls his head to the side, showing the vulnerable length of his throat, and Kira whines in relief, pushing at Noel to get past, but Noel keeps her firmly behind him.

Jayden lifts his paw, and with every step back he leaves bloody paw prints on the earth, illuminated by the moonlight.

‘Go.’

Liam looks too weak to stand, but somehow he clambers upright on trembling legs. For a split second, Kira thinks he might be stupid enough to lunge again, but then Noel throws his head back and howls. 

Kira’s instincts know that he’s calling the pack. The howl is heart-wrenching and ethereal, magical and guttural at the same time. Liam turns to limp away, slow and anguished, and Kira feels a flash of sympathy. The creature is badly wounded.

But Jayden is bleeding.

She reminds herself not to give a damn about the thing that hurt Jayden.