Chapter 25

My mate advanced one more step until he could have reached out and grabbed the other male’s shoulder, tossed him aside, and done the job he’d come to do—saving the life of the one-body behind Grey’s back.

But he didn’t. Instead, Hunter planted his feet, smiled slightly, and stared into Grey’s cold, blue eyes.

Immediately, the air between the opponents solidified into a semi-solid haze. So this is what an alpha stare-down looks like from the inside, I thought, interested despite myself by the way the world appeared entirely different through someone else’s vision. Tendrils reminiscent of the pack bonds I’d created on my own teased outward from each uber-alpha, twisting around throats, stopping up ears, flooding senses.

The view should have been beautiful. Unfortunately, the magical scenery was counteracted by my mate’s agony, the pain intense as Grey’s force of will nearly drove him to his knees.

In response, the stronger uber-alpha growled out his pleasure, took another step forward, reached out hands to finish the battle once and for all. Because why stop with demanding complete and total submission? No, Grey intended to follow through by snapping my mate’s unyielding neck. A battle between two alphas was never truly complete until one lay silent and dead on the floor at the other’s feet.

No! I wanted to shout. Stop! This is insanity!

And maybe Hunter heard me this time around. Because the force that had been crushing against our shared chest eased ever so slightly as my mate inhaled a tremendous gulp of life-giving air. Vision that had dimmed gradually cleared. And legs that had faltered now stood firm.

“Robert, step back,” my mate said, preventing the intrusion of a one-body who wanted to help but would only get himself killed in the process. I was surprised at the clarity of both the thought and the command. Because wasn’t Hunter’s wordless wolf at the helm? Wasn’t he straining with all of his might against an unbeatable foe?

Nope, he wasn’t. Instead, my mate broke free of the encircling tendrils of alpha compulsion as easily as if they had been spiderwebs. He brushed aside the intangible ropes pulling him toward the ground, swept intrusive threads away from his eyes and out of his ears. Then he stood erect, strong, and tall. Unbreachable.

“But you failed the last time,” Grey ground out. Our opponent was the one struggling against invisible weights now. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cold air still streaming in from the outdoors. His arms trembled then rose of their own volition to encircle his throat with clenched fingers.

“I let you win before,” Hunter said coldly, the tone of his voice matching the ice-cold wind that flooded out from his body. Here inside his brain, I couldn’t smell the freezing spring-water aroma that came along with the compulsion. But I’d been caught with wolf awake enough times when Hunter was deeply angry to imagine what Grey must be experiencing.

Even without the hands squeezing at his throat, Grey would be unable to breathe. The air would catch in his lungs, would burn at the mucous membranes of his mouth and nose. He’d gasp, terrified, flail wildly in search of succor.

But none would come. Because Grey had crossed a line he never should have crossed when he threatened to rip me away from Hunter’s side. My mate’s wolf would never deign to let me go.

I appreciated the sentiment, really I did. But there were times and places for overprotectiveness and this wasn’t one of them. If Hunter forced his opponent to squeeze the life out of his own body directly in front of a FBI agent, our tenuous truce with humankind would splinter and fall irredeemably away.

Worse, Hunter would never forgive himself for the monstrous work of his own inner beast.

It was hypocritical to worry, I knew. After all, my own animal half was doing who-knew-what back on that beach and I’d fled here rather than dealing with the consequences. But I couldn’t allow Hunter to face the same trauma that was waiting for me. Silent passenger or no, I was abruptly intent upon making myself heard.

It was tough to act upon that resolve, though, since I wasn’t currently able to speak. On the other hand, it occurred to me that I was still able to move, which meant I could affect the course of further events if I was clever. So, following in the footsteps of my oft overlooked wolf, I slipped down Hunter’s trachea and squeezed at his lungs. When that didn’t work, I dug deeper, ripping at the soft flesh inside his belly.

A hand cupped bare skin, rubbing at the spot that must have twinged with inexplicable agony. And as he rubbed, I realized that Hunter had run here in lupine form and was even now unclad, never mind the human sensibilities of the one-body behind his back.

If we make it out of this mess alive, I’m going to have a bunch of explaining to do for the sake of mending my relationship with Robert, I couldn’t help thinking.

Then: Fen? My mate was abruptly beside me, his human chest warm against my bare skin. I realized I was as naked as he was, stripped down to my fundamental essence as I hopped from wolf’s body to mate’s brain.

Or perhaps my extremities were numb because my wolf currently raced through whipping winds toward witless one-bodies she hoped to turn into lunch. Worse, the sensation might have been due to Stormwinder cutting me off entirely from the body I’d formerly shared with my animal half. Neither option sounded like a church picnic.

My teeth began to chatter as I remembered the dangers I’d left behind, and I winced against the thought of returning to murder and mayhem. Then fingers brushed across my face as Hunter slipped into my recent memories. Together, we replayed my wolf’s rebellion, her unilateral decision to tear, to kill...just as Hunter’s wolf was about to rip the life out of the enforcer dropping to his knees before our physical body.

I’m not going to kill him. And you need to go back, Hunter demanded. Face Stormwinder. Face your wolf. I’ve got this.

He was right, of course. Because my mate’s human half was already mitigating the ire of his inner beast. As we watched, Grey’s hands loosened and the enforcer sucked in a gasping breath even as he bowed his head in total surrender.

Then the air hummed as the previously sworn oath kicked in. To my surprise, Grey didn’t attempt to fight the change, didn’t rip and claw at the pack tether materializing between the two males. Instead, I got the distinct impression that the enforcer was relieved. That he was tired of attempting to cling to the moral high ground while following an alpha as twisted and wily as Lucas Stormwinder had proven to be.

“I’m yours,” Grey breathed, his eyes now trained on the floor in total submission to the alpha who held the enforcer’s life in the palm of his hand.

And, with Hunter’s human brain awake, I was now confident that my mate would treat Grey as kindly as he treated everyone else in our pack. All that was left was the cleanup.

My task, on the other hand, wasn’t so easy. I lacked uber-alpha superpowers. My wolf was weak and currently, or at least so I suspected, being controlled by Stormwinder’s much more dominant inner beast.

Like Lupe, I wanted to rail against my own handicaps, yearned to beg for help from someone older and stronger than myself. But, instead, I closed my virtual eyes to better see the tether linking me to my physical body. Then, with a sigh, I accepted the responsibility I’d long since shouldered.

See you on the other side, I told my mate. Finally, I yanked.