Chapter 21 Chapter 21
JAX
I watched through the tinted window as Mira was ushered into the car, her small shoulders stiff, her eyes still wide from fear she tried so hard to hide. She was clutching the seatbelt like it was a lifeline.
Good. She should hold onto something.
Even now, her scent lingered on my clothes. Warm, soft, terrified. It gnawed at something primal in me, something I couldn’t shut off no matter how hard I tried.
Luca was still flushed from kissing her, his heartbeat too loud, too uneven. Zane pretended to be calm, but even he kept dragging a hand through his hair, his wolf pacing so violently I could feel it through the bond we shared as brothers.
But me?
I wasn’t calm. I wasn’t pacing.
I was furious.
Furious that she had been scared. Furious that someone else caused it. Furious that I hadn’t been the one to kiss her first — to claim her mouth, feel her breath shake against me, taste the panic and softness mixing on her lips.
Luca had gotten that.
He hadn’t deserved it.
He hadn’t earned it.
My jaw clenched until something popped.
The car carrying Mira turned a corner and disappeared from sight. My chest tightened as if something had been ripped out of it and taken with her.
Behind me, Zane exhaled sharply. “Fuck. Dad’s going to lose it when he hears.”
Luca swore under his breath, rubbing his neck. “She was panicking, Zane. What was I supposed to do? Let her pass out?”
I didn’t answer. Couldn’t.
Because in my head, all I saw was Luca’s mouth pressed to hers. And the sound she made, that little gasp.
That should’ve been for me.
Before I could sink deeper into the thought, I caught movement across the courtyard. Four Alphas — the same ones who had cornered her — heading toward the trees behind the meeting hall. Laughing. Lighting cigarettes. Bragging.
I heard one of them say Mira’s name.
I saw red.
Zane heard it too. He rolled his neck slowly, cracking each vertebra like he was warming up for a fight. Luca’s eyes darkened, the blue swallowed up by his wolf.
None of us spoke.
We didn’t need to.
We followed.
Our footsteps barely disturbed the gravel as we trailed them down the path, through the trees, toward the clearing behind the neutral hall where the lights didn’t reach. Their voices drifted through the air, smug, drunk on power and ego.
“…did you see her shaking? Little human slut—”
“—bet those triplets fucked her stupid. Might pass her around next, the way she looked—”
Someone whistled. Another laughed. A third spoke:
“I heard they share. All three taking her at once? Shit, I’d pay to watch—”
I didn’t feel my wolf rise. I didn’t feel the shift in my breathing. I didn’t feel my vision tunnel.
I only felt the moment I stopped being human.
Zane stepped forward first, slow, controlled, rolling his sleeves up like he was about to wash dishes instead of bury bodies. Luca cracked his knuckles.
I walked straight toward them. The tallest Alpha turned, frowning. “The hell do you want?”
No one answered.
He scoffed, stepped closer, and shoved his finger in my chest. “You lost or something? Or did Daddy send the three little princelings to—”
My hand closed around his throat before he could finish. I didn’t bother with warning, or threats, or speeches.
His eyes bulged as I lifted him off the ground, his feet kicking in the dirt. The other three froze, stunned, until Zane lunged like a shadow, slamming one into a tree so hard bark exploded. Luca grabbed the last two by the collars and smashed their skulls together with a sickening crack.
The forest filled with gasps, chokes, and the wet sound of bodies hitting earth. The man in my hand clawed at my wrist, sputtering. “S-stop… wait—we were just—”
“You touched her,” I said softly. My voice didn’t sound human anymore. “You looked at her.”
His legs kicked harder.
“And you spoke about her mouth,” I added, squeezing until I felt tendons snap, “while I haven’t even tasted it yet.”
His face turned purple as he tried to speak.
I slammed him into a tree. “Pathetic.”
Zane had one Alpha pinned under his boot, the man’s hand twisted backward at an unnatural angle. Luca held the other two, who were already unconscious, dragging them forward like dead animals.
“Jax,” Zane said lazily, “don’t kill him yet. We need him awake.”
The Alpha in my hand whimpered and I threw him onto the ground and planted my foot on his spine, leaning forward until he screamed.
“Aw, man…” Zane looked down at himself. “I’ve got blood on my shirt already.”
“Then don’t get close,” I muttered and he grinned, wolfish and cruel.
Luca, quiet as always, stepped forward, pushing his glasses up with his wrist — the only clean part left. “What do we do with them?”
“We make sure they never speak her name again,” I said and then we dragged them.
Through the trees. Across the cold ground.
Deeper into the woods where no lights reached.
The man I dragged kept screaming for help. I savored it.
His fear.
His begging.
His realization that he hadn’t cornered some helpless little human girl this time, he had cornered her mates.
His voice cracked as he pleaded with me. “Please… please, we were just—we didn’t touch her—”
I yanked him up by his hair so hard his neck snapped back. “You thought about it.”
He sobbed.
Pathetic.
I shoved him again, forcing him forward until we reached the ravine. The moon hung above us, silver and indifferent.
Zane dumped his bodies like trash. Luca followed and I released mine, letting him fall face-first into the dirt. He coughed violently, sucking in air like it hurt.
Zane tsked. “God, you’re loud. You’d think Alphas would scream prettier.”
The man gagged. “We’re sorry—we—we won’t go near her ever again—please—”
I knelt in front of him slowly, letting him see my face.
“You won’t go near her,” I whispered, “because you won’t leave these woods.”
His begging turned shrill.
Good.
Fear gave people a different scent — sour, metallic, sharp. It filled the air like incense, pushing my wolf forward until my hands shook with the need to tear something apart.
I let him run. For two steps.
Then Zane stepped in front of him, almost bored, and hooked his foot behind the Alpha’s ankle, sending him crashing to the ground face-first.
“Oops,” Zane said dryly. “Clumsy.”
The man scrambled, coughing dirt, but Zane placed one boot on his hand. Slowly. Deliberately.
And pressed.
The bones didn’t break all at once. They cracked in soft, wet little snaps like bubble wrap. Zane watched every second, head tilted, a smile pulling at his mouth.
“You talk big for someone whose hands break this easy,” he murmured.
The man screamed.
Luca didn’t even look up. He already had one Alpha by the jaw, fingers digging into pressure points that made the man twitch violently.
“You tried to touch her,” Luca said quietly. “So we’ll take the part of you that touches things.”
He tightened his grip, and with a sharp, practiced movement, ripped the man’s thumb clean out of its joint.
Not ripped OFF — worse — dislocated and split.
The tendon dangled like a string. The man shrieked so loudly birds took off from the trees.
Luca shoved a hand over the Alpha’s mouth. “Don’t be dramatic. You have nine more fingers.”
And then he slammed the man’s head against a rock and he went limp.
Not dead.
Just out.
Luca liked them awake for the last part.
But me?
I preferred silence.
I grabbed my Alpha—the one stupid enough to speak about Mira’s mouth—and slammed him back against a tree so hard the bark cracked. His breath whooshed out of him in a single shaking gasp.
“You wanted to know how she tastes?” I said, leaning close. “You won’t live long enough to learn.”
He clawed at me and I caught his wrist mid-swipe and twisted until the bone tore through the skin.
Not fast.
Not slow.
Just enough for him to understand exactly when it broke.
He wailed, sobbing, “Please—please—I won’t—”
“You already did,” I growled.
I hauled him by his broken arm and swung him sideways into a boulder. His skull made a thick, heavy thud. He slumped, dazed, drooling, still conscious enough to feel everything.
Behind me, Zane had his Alpha by the jaw, forcing him to look up.
“You really thought you could talk about her like that?” Zane said softly. “Did you also jerk off imagining it?”
The man shivered and Zane smiled wider. Then he dragged his thumb across the man’s lower lip.
“You know what?” Zane mused. “Since you like imagining mouths so much…”
He put two fingers between the man’s teeth.
“Bite,” he ordered and he shook his head violently. Zane slammed him against the tree. “Bite.”
He obeyed.
And the moment his teeth closed around Zane’s fingers, Zane’s entire expression went blank.
Then, with one savage jerk, he snapped the man’s jaw sideways out of place, leaving it hanging crooked, tongue lolling uselessly.
“Now you can’t talk shit about her ever again,” Zane whispered.
Luca stepped beside me, eyes cold behind his glasses. “Jax.”
I knew what he wanted. We killed them together.
Always did.
I hoisted my Alpha to his knees, yanked his chin up, and asked softly:
“Who does Mira belong to?”
He sobbed, blood dripping from his lips. “Y-you—p-please—”
I grinned. Wrong answer.
I snapped his neck so fast the sound barely echoed. Luca finished his with the same efficient twist, a surgeon cleaning up.
Zane?
Zane waited until his Alpha tried to crawl away, then he stepped on his spine hard.
The crack echoed through the trees, sharp and final.
Silence fell.
Zane wiped his hands on his ruined shirt and groaned.
“Great. I need a shower.”
Luca pushed his glasses back up, smearing blood across the lens. “We should go before someone notices—”
I shoved Zane hard in the chest, breath still ragged. He stumbled back, eyebrows rising. “The fuck is your problem?”
“My problem,” I growled, “is that you two were so busy playing hero with our mate you didn’t notice something.”
They both looked at me sharply.
“I found Sofia.”
Zane’s entire expression shifted, from annoyance to something colder. Something empty.
“So?” he asked flatly.
I bared my teeth. “So she’s Mira’s friend. The one Mira is fucking worried about.”
Zane shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets like this was a casual conversation. “She was going to tell Mira that we fucked. How do you think that’d go? Mira’s finally warming up. She’s going to be ours. I’m not letting some jealous bitch ruin that.”
Luca snapped, “Zane—”
“Shut up,” Zane cut him off.
I stepped closer, chest to chest with him. “If you’re going to kill her,” I snarled, “kill her. Don’t keep her tied up like a fucking pet in the old cabin.”
Zane scoffed. “Fine.”
He took a step away, muttering, “She gives good head anyway.”
Luca looked sick.
Zane walked off, kicking dirt off his shoes, hands back in his pockets. I followed, Luca behind me.
None of us looked back at the bodies.
We never did.