Chapter 15

Nathan

I left the guest bedroom door open a crack to make sure I would hear it if Celeste got up or called for me. I didn’t want to be patronizing, but she’d clearly overworked herself, and I had no intention of letting her unnecessarily take another ounce of strain for as long as she’d let me look

after her.

Tempting as it was to just take my laptop and sit outside the bedroom door, I decided that would probably come off as excessive, so I made myself go downstairs. I left the door to my office open, too. It was just me in the house aside from Celeste, and I’d be quiet enough not to disturb her.

My phone went off, and I fished it out of my pocket. It was a text from Micah. Hey, where are you?

Celeste wasn’t feeling well, so I brought her home, I replied.

Rereading the message, I realized it wasn’t clear, so I added, Set her up in the guest room to sleep it off.

There was a pause, then he texted back, Want me to hold off on coming over, then?

No, I typed back promptly. Come whenever you’re done at the reception. The Elders are coming anyway.

Right. See you soon.

I sent back a checkmark emoji and tossed the phone on the desk. Then I stripped off my suit jacket and tie and threw them over the back of my chair. There wasn’t any point in trying to work with the Elders arriving soon, but it wouldn’t hurt to start a pot of coffee. Striding toward the door, I stopped, all my senses going on alert.

Something had moved, I was sure of it. Darting toward the wall, I flattened myself against it and slunk up next to the giant windows that overlooked the front and side yards. Again I caught movement at the tree line at the edge of the yard. Then a figure emerged. Even at a distance, I knew instantly who it was.

Kurt.

More figures emerged from the tree line, shifting as they came. Rage tore through me. This was more than my turf—this was my home. The woman I loved and my baby were upstairs, vulnerable. How dare he come here?

I tore my clothes off, shedding them as I ran for the front door.

Elation joined the rage in my blood as I yanked the door open, already

shifting as I dove through it. This was the fight I’d wanted for months. Even the Elders would have to concede that I had a right to defend my home ground and my family from direct assault. I could right everything here.

The cracking of bone echoed in my ears as my paws hit the ground, my body still finishing its transformation as I bolted across the grass.

I stood a solid six feet tall in human form. As a wolf, I was

enormous—a solid wall of sinewy muscle and thick, gunmetal gray fur. I knew every inch of my property in both forms, and I used it my advantage now.

Kurt’s pack charged at me, snarling and snapping. My bloodlust

spiked, everything but the fight bleeding out of my awareness. They were a threat to my pack, and it ended here.

I darted right as they closed in, evading the trap they’d tried to set, and clamped my jaws on the hind leg of a reddish-brown wolf who’d been leading the charge. Elias. I hadn’t forgotten the threats he’d made to

Celeste, and I took my vengeance for them now, sinking my teeth sank through fur, skin, and flesh. I wrenched my head and felt the bone snap. He howled, and I flung him to the side.

Two others darted in, one lunging for my throat, the other for my haunches. I recognized the one at my heels as Rudi, and pain stabbed into my hip as he sank his teeth through my skin. At the same time, his partner snapped under my jaw, trying to rip out my jugular. I body-checked him, the two of us rolling over one another as we tumbled. I was the first back to my feet, and it was my turn to lunge. My fangs dug into his unprotected belly, and his yowl of pain rang in my ears as I tore him open.

Rudi was back on me almost immediately, the others forming a ring around us as he dove at me. I didn’t hesitate, throwing myself at him and digging my claws deep into his side. He yelped and scrambled out of my reach, blood coating his side.

The others closed in, hitting me from three sides at once. There was no strategy after that. No clear thought. My mouth and nose were full of blood. Cutting, tearing pain was everywhere. The howls of the other pack filled the air as I ripped into them, pouring more than a year’s worth of fury and frustration into the fight.

There were no rules when one pack attacked another. There was nothing but a raw, feral need for dominance. Nothing mattered but protecting my pack.

The world had started to telescope, a sign that I was losing blood dangerously fast when other howls joined the chorus. Howls I knew as well as I knew my own—my pack. Micah, I thought, ripping the throat out of the wolf attacking me. Micah and the Elders had arrived.

The pile of attackers on me thinned, some of the smaller wolves peeling off to throw themselves at the new arrivals. The handful that stayed with me redoubled their efforts, desperate to finish me off before the reinforcements waded in this far.

Everything hurt, and the ground had gotten slick with blood, making it harder to maneuver. More than once, I lost my footing, and my

adversaries and I tumbled to the ground in a writhing, slashing heap. Each time, I was the only one to stagger back to my feet.

Around me, I could hear the tide turning as my pack chewed its way through our assailants.

Growling turned to yelps of pain as they took out one after another.

When I finally took down the last wolf immediately beside me and lifted my head to survey the scene, Micah was shredding a midnight-black wolf, his father beside him entangled with a smaller but equally vicious fawn-colored one. Beyond them, Phillip and Daniel were tag-teaming a large brown wolf. The yard was strewn with bodies, injured wolves limping or dragging themselves toward the tree-line.

And there, waiting and watching, was Kurt.

A growl started deep in my chest. The bastard was watching his pack die. My front left paw gave in when I started to stalk toward him, and I stumbled. I saw his muzzle wrinkle in a laugh, and fresh rage crackled

along every nerve in my body. Feeding on that furious energy, I loped

across the yard, channeling everything I had into finishing this fight. Kurt’s laugh transformed into a snarl, and he braced himself.

It did him no good. I slammed into him with my whole weight, driving him down into the ground. He pawed at me, but I was so matted with saliva and blood that he could find no purchase. We rolled, my claws digging into him, carving furrows down the tender flesh on the insides of his haunches. I jerked and twisted, trying to evade his savage fangs. He lunged for my eyes, snapped at my ears. I yowled in fury and agony as he caught the tip of an ear, tearing it open, fresh blood smearing his muzzle.

You won’t have my pack, I thought. You will never threaten what is mine again.

With a herculean effort, I contorted myself, ignoring the pain

screaming in every part of my body. Driving my hind feet deep into the ground, I shoved my head up and buried my teeth in Kurt’s throat. I felt him go rigid, aware in that second that he’d lost. Without pause, I ripped his throat out.

Kurt crumpled, and I sprawled backward, spitting out fur and flesh.

Get up, I told myself. You have to check on the others. Get up.

My body didn’t respond. The pain started to recede as blackness crept in along the edges of my vision.

“Nathan!” Micah appeared above me, already shifted back to his human form. “Hell! Shift back,” he demanded, going to one knee beside me. There was a gouge across his shoulder, and he was covered in stains

and streaks. “It’s over, Nathan—Kurt’s dead. They’re all dead or retreating. Change back, and let us get you inside.”

I couldn’t answer, my body already beginning to shift back into its human form of its own accord. “Celeste,” I croaked, as soon as I could

make a sound. I grabbed for Micah, yelping when pain shot through me at the touch. Only then did I realize my hand was broken.

“We’ve got you,” he said.

I thought there were hands on my legs, but I shook my head, desperate to make him understand even as the darkness swallowed more of my vision. “Celeste. Upstairs. Safe.” I watched his eyes soften in understanding.

“Yeah, she’s safe,” he promised, his hand gentle on my shoulder.

“They never made it near the house. I’ll make sure she’s got everything she needs, okay?”

I thought I nodded, but then the world was tilting, and everything blurred together.

“Nathan.”

Dimly aware that someone was saying my name over and over, I dragged my eyes open. It hurt. Everything hurt.

“Nathan.”

I knew those eyes. “Celly,” I slurred.

A small hand touched my face, and she leaned in closer. “It’s all right. You’re going to be all right. I’m here.”

I was inside, lying on something soft. I could hear Micah’s voice in the background and feel Celeste’s warmth against my side. Everything will be all right, I thought. We won.

I tried to smile for her, but my grip on reality crumbled, and everything went black.