Chapter 19 #2
"Ah," he said. "There they are." He took a step forward, casual, as though he were simply strolling through his own camp.
Two of my wolves on the line growled, low and simultaneous, and he stopped.
The smile didn't waver. "You shelter what belongs to me," he said, his voice carrying clearly in the still air.
"Two females. One wolf, one human. Both taken from my hunting party before they could be properly claimed. "
"Claimed." The word tasted like ash. "You attacked four travellers in neutral territory, wounded two of them, and left them to die. That is not a claim. That is savagery."
"They were on the edge of your territory, not within it. The boundary stones are quite clear on that point, as I'm sure your elders have reminded you." Karik's smile widened. "And I did not leave them to die. I was in the process of collecting them when your wolves interfered."
I didn't turn around. I couldn't afford to take my eyes off Karik.
But I heard Ellie's voice, low and strained, translating in quick, clipped speech flavoured by her unusual accent.
Nathan's response, louder, angrier, the words I couldn't understand but the tone I read perfectly. Outrage. Fear wearing the mask of fury.
Karik's eyes tracked the exchange with open amusement.
"The weak male speaks loudly for someone who could not defend his own female.
" His gaze settled on Nathan with the idle contempt of a wolf watching a rabbit puff itself up.
"I remember him. He went down before my wolves had even finished their approach. Pathetic."
"They were within a half-day's walk of our western boundary," I said. "Closer to our territory than yours. And your wolves weren't claiming them. They were brutalising them. One of the humans had a broken leg. You nearly injured the females when you went after them.”
"Unfortunate." Karik didn't sound remotely troubled.
"My wolves can be... enthusiastic. But the outcome would have been the same.
They were found, they were taken, and they would have been brought to Broken Ridge.
You intercepted. That makes this a dispute between alphas, and I am here to resolve it.
" He paused, letting that settle. "Civilly. "
Behind me, I heard Ellie's voice again translating for Nathan and Megan. Her words came quickly, stumbling slightly over the more complex phrases, but she was keeping up. I hadn't known she'd progressed this far with the language. The knowledge landed somewhere between pride and anguish.
Nathan's response was immediate and explosive.
Even without understanding the words, every wolf on both sides of the line read the tone—raw fury, barely leashed, the sound of a male who knew he was outmatched and hated it with every fibre of his being.
Ellie's voice followed, translating his words into our tongue, and I heard the strain in it, the way she was trying to smooth the edges of what was clearly something far less diplomatic than what came out.
"He says... Megan is his mate. He will not give her up."
Karik's eyebrows rose. He looked past me toward the sound of Nathan's voice with an expression of such thorough, dismissive amusement that even I felt the sting of it on Nathan's behalf.
"The weak male claims a mate bond?" Karik said.
"How touching. And yet, when my wolves came, he could not protect her.
Could not even stand. He lay in the dirt while she screamed.
" He tilted his head, eyes bright with malice.
"A true mate would have died before allowing that.
Perhaps the bond is not as strong as he believes. "
A snarl came from behind me as Nathan was told what Karik had said.
The Broken Ridge wolves behind Karik shifted, a ripple of aggression moving through the formation like wind through grass.
Several of them stepped forward, hackles raised, lips peeled back from teeth that gleamed.
The message was clear. Nathan's outburst had been noted, and it had not been appreciated.
I heard Ellie translating again, her voice tight and quick, and then Megan's.
I caught the movement in my peripheral vision.
Megan's hand on Nathan's arm, drawing him back.
Not gently. The grip of a woman who understood the situation far better than the man she was trying to save.
Good. Someone needed to control him before he got them all killed.
Karik watched the exchange with the lazy satisfaction of a cat watching mice argue amongst themselves. Then his gaze slid sideways, past Nathan, past Megan, and settled on Ellie.
Something in my chest went very, very cold.
"The wolf female," Karik said, his tone shifting to something almost conversational, "may indeed be mated to the weak male.
I will concede the possibility, however unlikely.
Mate bonds are sacred, even when they are wasted on the undeserving.
" He paused, letting the insult land, then continued with the careful precision of a man laying a trap.
"But the human female is not mated. Not claimed.
Not protected by any bond recognised under pack law. "
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
"She has no pack," Karik continued, his voice carrying with practiced ease across the space between us.
"She carries no bond. She bears no mark.
She belongs to no pack, no male, no one.
" His eyes stayed on Ellie, and the hunger in them was not the kind that had anything to do with desire.
It was the hunger of acquisition. Of ownership.
"She is unclaimed. And by the old laws, an unclaimed female found in disputed territory may be taken by the pack that found her first."
Behind me, I heard Ellie's voice falter mid-translation.
Just for a heartbeat—a catch in her breath, a stumble over a word—before she forced herself to continue.
The sound of her voice breaking, even that fractionally, made my wolf spirit throw itself against the inside of my ribs so hard I nearly staggered.
I kept my expression carved from stone.
"She is under Hanging Rock protection," I said. "She has been sheltered by this pack, fed by this pack, healed by this pack. She is a guest under my roof, and guest-right is older than any claim you could manufacture."
"Guest-right." Karik tasted the word like it amused him. "Guest-right applies to wolves, Rivik. She is human.”
“Then why do you want her?” I enquired, desperately trying to keep my own rage from boiling over. “She is no use to you. Wolves do not mate humans.”
“We do not. But wolves do not need to mate in order to breed.”
The implication hung in the cold air between us, obscene and deliberate.
Behind me, I heard the sharp intake of breath that told me Ellie had understood every word.
Karik wasn't talking about mating. He was talking about using her.
Breeding her like livestock, passing her between his wolves like she was nothing more than a vessel, a tool, a thing to be used and discarded when it broke.
My vision narrowed. The edges of the world went dark, and for one terrible, suspended moment, the only thing I could see was Karik's face and the only thing I could feel was the white-hot certainty that I could close the distance between us in three strides and tear his throat out before his wolves had time to react.
I didn't move. I couldn't. Because behind me stood eighty people who needed me to think, not feel. To lead, not lunge.
"You speak of a woman," I said, and my voice came out quiet.
Dangerously quiet. The kind of quiet that made the wolves on my own line shift nervously.
"A living, breathing person under my protection.
And you stand on my ground and speak of her as though she is a brood mare to be passed among your males. ""
"I would provide my pack with every advantage available to them.
" Karik's tone was mild, reasonable, as though we were discussing trade routes or hunting rights.
"The breeding crisis affects all of us, Rivik.
You know this. Your own females struggle to carry to term.
Mine are no different. But humans breed easily.
Prolifically. The offspring may not shift, but those that do not can still serve. They can—"
"Enough-"
The growl that came from behind me was not mine. It was deeper, rougher, a sound that belonged to something far larger than a wolf.
Daska had moved, shifting position and placing himself between Karik's line of sight and the cluster of noncombatants behind us.
Between Karik and Ellie. He stood with his feet planted, shoulders squared, hands loose at his sides in the deceptive stillness of a man who could break bones with his bare hands and was currently calculating which ones to start with.
He didn't speak. Didn't growl again. Just stood there, a wall of muscle and quiet fury, and the message was as clear as if he'd carved it into stone. I admired his self control. I barely had mine under control and I’d been careful not to be around her, touch her.
Daska had not. His bond would be stronger.
Karik noticed immediately. His gaze shifted from Ellie to Daska, and surprise flickered across his face quickly replaced by a sharp, calculating interest that made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
"Ah," Karik said softly. "The bear."
The way he said it made my skin crawl. His eyes moving over Daska's frame with the cool appraisal of a man sizing up an obstacle and already thinking about how to get around it.
Daska may be large and in a fight, there was not one wolf who could come close to outmatching him, but Karik had twenty wolves at his back.