Hold On

Hold On
Kane

The heat hit me first.
By the time we broke through the clearing at the treeline, smoke had already thickened into a curtain. The air tasted like ash, sharp on my tongue, heavy in my lungs. The forest groaned around us, alive with fire, cracking, hissing, snapping like a beast let loose.
My territory. My forest.
Rage boiled up inside me, violent and sharp. Someone had dared set it alight. Without the cover of darkness, no less.
“They lit the bastard thing up like tinder,” Nathan muttered at my side, coughing against the haze.
Serg spat into the dirt, voice low and venomous. “They’re not trying to burn trees. They’re trying to smoke us out.”

Cole shifted forward, eyes narrowed against the flickering glare. He pointed into the wall of haze. “No, they want us distracted. Look.”
I followed his line of sight, narrowing my eyes. Through smoke and fire, movement cut sharp, shapes slipping between the trunks, not frantic but measured. Too steady to be deer, too precise to be chance. Wolves. Rogues. I caught a flash of yellow eyes, the ripple of muscle beneath skin, the glint of teeth as one bared its grin at the firelight.
“They started this,” I growled, the words rumbling up from my chest.
Fire in daylight stripped me of my strongest weapon. I couldn’t darkness into claws and a chokehold. With the sunlight left, even the flickering shapes cast by the flames were too broken to give me purchase.

I turned on my heel, facing the guards who had followed. Some already looked uncertain, wide-eyed at the flames licking higher, smoke clawing at their throats. My wolf snapped, furious at the hesitation.
“Listen,” I barked, my voice cutting through the roar of burning timber. “Serg, Cole, Nathan, you shift with me. We cut these rogues down before they scatter. The rest of you....” I curled my lip, showing teeth. “Put the fire out.”
A ripple of doubt rolled across their faces. I tasted it like rot on my tongue.
“We trained for this,” I snarled.

I’d made them prepare. Months ago, after lightning struck too close to the southern ridge, I’d forced drills. They’d mocked me for it....Kane the paranoid, they’d whispered. But I’d ordered canvas troughs stored by the borders, trenches dug into earth, collapsible channels rolled and hidden near the river. They’d groaned through it then. Today, it would save them.
“Unroll the canvas. Drive it deep into the earth and run it to the river. Get the current flowing into the burn. Dig trenches. The rest of you, beat down sparks before they spread. Do it now.”
That cut through their fear.

Smoke curled hotter around me. My attention went back to the shapes in the haze. Snarls ripped through the chaos.
My wolf pushed at the edge of me, furious, hungry. The bond with my inner circle flared. The calm, steady weight of Nathan’s loyalty; Cole’s sharp-edged focus; Serg’s ice-cold readiness.
They looked to me, waiting. They already knew what I’d say.
“Shift,” I ordered.

Pain tore through me as my body gave way, bones breaking, muscles stretching, fur ripping out across my skin. I hit the earth on four legs, claws digging deep into scorched dirt. The fire’s glow painted everything blood-red. My wolf surged forward, teeth bared, ears flat.
We didn’t wait.
I launched myself at the first rogue, my weight slamming it sideways through burning brush. The ground tore beneath us. Ribs cracked under me. My teeth sank into its throat before it could do more than snarl, and hot blood sprayed across my muzzle. I ripped free, spat it out, already searching for the next.
Nathan tore past, his wolf tearing into a flank with brutal precision. Serg’s wolf went for the spine of another, snapping it with a savage shake. Cole darted around them, forcing rogues into our kill zone.

But there were more. Five. Six. Seven shapes slipping through smoke, circling. Too many for chance. Too coordinated to be stray hunger.
My hackles rose. Too clever.
I lunged, claws raking a shoulder, when the bond jolted hard through my chest.
Not Nathan. Not Cole. Not Serg.

Amelia.

Her fear slammed into me...raw, sudden, sharp as a knife. Not worry. Not nerves. Fear. Real, visceral, enough to steal my breath for a heartbeat.
My claws dug deeper into the rogue beneath me. The wolf twisted, trying for my throat. I roared, crushing it down, rage tearing through me hotter than the flames licking the trees.
The sound that ripped from my chest was primal, a roar that split the haze, that made even fire hesitate. The rogues froze mid-lunge, faltering at the sound.
Whoever had touched her, whoever had made my mate afraid, would drown in their own blood before this day ended.

The rogues froze at the sound ripping out of me.
I didn’t give them time to recover.

My wolf lunged, faster than the smoke could cling, and I sank my fangs into the shoulder of the nearest rogue. Bone cracked beneath the pressure of my jaws. He screamed, but the sound was choked off as I dragged him down and ripped free, leaving him thrashing in the dirt. I didn’t finish him. Not yet. We needed one alive.
The rest came at us in a frenzy.
Nathan barreled into one, pinning it by the throat and holding until the body went limp. Cole cut wide again, circling and driving two more straight into Serg’s waiting fangs. I was merciless, crushing one spine before wheeling to tear into another.
I killed a third, and a fourth. Blood was everywhere, smoke turning it metallic in my nose, hot on my tongue. Each body fell harder than the last, and still I heard Amelia’s fear echoing inside my chest. It pulled at me, sharp and insistent, threatening to split me open with distraction.

I crushed another rogue beneath my paws. That left only two. One tried to bolt into the smoke, but Cole cut it off with a savage leap, teeth raking across its flank until it spun back toward me.
The other, the one I’d spared, snarled and feigned lunges, ears flat, foam and blood dripping from its muzzle. It knew. Even through its fury, it understood it was prey.
“Hold,” I sent through the link, sharp and clipped. My wolves slowed, circling, keeping the survivor penned in.
The rogue’s gaze flicked between us, calculating. I saw the moment panic cracked through. He spun, trying for the flames, but I was already on him. My jaws snapped just short of his throat, a warning, and I slammed him to the ground. His limbs kicked uselessly against my weight. My wolf growled low, a sound promising endless agony if he pushed.
He stilled.
Alive. That was all I needed.

I shifted back, standing naked in smoke and ash, blood dripping down my forearms. My wolf prowled just beneath the surface. I pressed a heel against the rogue’s chest, keeping him pinned. He snapped his jaws, but there was no strength behind it now.
“Shift,” I snarled, voice raw from smoke. “Who sent you? Why the fire?”
The rogue bared bloody teeth before the Alpha command forces his shift.. “The Alpha who hides behind shadows burns in the sun, doesn’t he?”
My vision bled red. I pressed harder, ribs straining under my heel. “Answer.”
He spat blood at my feet. “We are many. More than you can kill. And when your Luna screams, you won’t be fast enough to save her.”
The words landed harder than the smoke. My wolf howled in my chest, claws raking at me from the inside. I bent, fisting the rogue’s throat, lifting him until his feet barely touched the ground.

“You’ll tell me who,” I growled, low enough to scrape bone. “Or I’ll peel your skin from your body, inch by inch, until you beg to die.”
He choked, eyes wide now. The bravado cracked, fear leaking through. He said nothing, but I could feel his pulse hammering beneath my grip.
Nathan padded up beside me, blood soaking his muzzle, eyes sharp. “We should take him back,” his mind brushed mine. “Interrogate properly. He’ll crack faster in the cells.”
I held the rogue’s throat a moment longer, the urge to crush it fighting me hard. Amelia’s fear pulsed again through the bond, sharp enough to stagger me. My grip nearly tightened.
Nearly ended it right there.
But I forced myself to release, throwing the rogue down. He hit the dirt coughing, scrambling weakly before Serg loomed over him and pressed a paw against his spine, pinning him flat.
I dragged in a breath thick with ash. My lungs burned. My wolf burned worse.

The forest still smoldered, but water was carving through it now, beating the flames back with every rushing stream. My pack worked in unison—shouting, digging, slapping sparks—holding the fire at bay. They’d hold it.
But Amelia…

I couldn’t shake it. That flash of fear. That sharp, cutting terror still thrummed through the bond. It hadn’t dulled.
Smoke bit my throat as I raised my voice. “Secure him. Chain him if you have to. We march him back alive.”
Serg pressed down harder, the rogue whining under the weight. Cole already shifted back, tossing me a length of iron chain from his pack. Smart bastard, always carried restraints.

“Hold on, Amelia.” I mind-link and can feel her relief through the bond.