Eleven #2
“What the hell do you expect to gain by making that confession?” Cole asked, his voice hard and cold.
“I want what was promised all those years ago,” Matthias said slowly, staring at Cole like he was a piece of meat. “I want the firstborn son of an alpha.”
“Why would I ever go anywhere with you?”
It hurt to hear the pain in Cole’s voice, all the revelations of the day absolutely gutting him. He had prepared for an honorable contest, but he wouldn’t be given that at all.
“Because we have your little brother. He’s already seen the woman disemboweled, and he knows he’s next.”
Cole’s breath hitched, and he turned to look at me, absolutely broken.
“No,” was all I said.
But he was scared. I understood that, and I’d answered too fast for him.
“Mere,” he pleaded, needing more.
“No,” I answered again, slower, letting him hear the certainty in my voice.
His sigh was deep before he turned back to Matthias. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I will gut him.”
“You won’t,” Cole declared, and I could hear his conviction.
“Is this him? Your fucking mate?” Matthias asked snidely, moving over to stand in front of me. “I understand you’re formidable. You must be—you killed eight of my men. There’s no one in the pack other than Cole who could have.”
I squinted at him. “I have a question.”
He smiled at me, seemingly amused. Obviously, he hadn’t expected us to have a conversation. “Please.”
“When Tuss was here the first time, demanding tribute, why did he ask for Cole or Justin? If you specifically need alpha sperm,” I said crudely, “what was the point of that? I mean, that day, if Tuss had threatened to kill everyone, of course Cole would have gone with him. Sacrificing himself for his pack is second nature for an alpha. He would have done that in a heartbeat, and all this would have been over.”
“You son of a whore,” Tuss muttered under his breath.
“Did you want Justin?” I asked Tuss. “I mean, you’re wolves, so gender is meaningless, but still… Your father wanted Cole, but you screwed up, and now you can’t have him anymore.”
“And why can’t I have him?” Matthias asked, the amusement clear in his voice.
“Because he’s mine,” I said flatly, taking several steps back and letting my eyes begin to glow.
“They’re going to kill Evan,” Abel yelled at me. “Didn’t you hear them?”
“I heard everything,” I replied calmly, getting ready to change my form as Cole prepared to do the same. But at the moment that Cole’s eyes went gold, Matthias lifted his hand.
“Up!” he shouted, and all the men behind him reached into their coats and withdrew handguns, with a couple in the back even having assault rifles. All of which were immediately pointed directly at us.
I took a moment to contemplate the new situation we found ourselves in. If I were alone, the firearms would mean nothing. But with Cole standing beside me, they meant everything.
“What exactly were you expecting to happen here? That you’d shift and everyone, including me, would brawl with machetes and knives? Why would I do that?” Matthias mocked Cole. “You think you’re dealing with my son, whelp, but now you’re facing the sire.”
Cole froze. No matter how strong the wolf, in the end, they were mortal. Enough bullets, and they would die. On his own, Cole could probably escape, even being shot several times. But Reggie and the others, who weren’t as powerful, would definitely die.
I could see him thinking about the members of his pack as he turned toward me, so much pain there, his gaze beseeching me to save them.
I was a big believer in prevention. Set the boundary, keep the bad out, and protect what was good.
The problem was, every now and then, just like the previous week when I’d had no choice but to kill the two men Tuss had ordered to kidnap the children…
prevention failed. Now the same thing was happening again.
Evil threatened my mate and his pack, and there was no other path forward to protect them.
I turned to face Matthias and his men as I steeled myself for what was about to happen.
“Guns won’t help you against me. You have confessed your sins and now must suffer the punishment,” I intoned, my voice deep as I prepared to show them all my true form.
“No!” Abel screamed. “He’ll kill us all!”
“He’ll save us all!” Reggie yelled as he and several other men and women of the Swann pack readied themselves.
I concentrated, breathing out—
“You better think before you join this fight,” Matthias warned me. “I have people outside of your precious shelter, with guns, far enough away not to fall victim to your damn boundary, but close enough to kill.”
“They’re innocent,” I choked, horrified by his threat.
“I don’t care.” He laughed at me. “Walk to the side, away from the others, or they die.”
I glanced at Cole a moment, saw his anger at his current helplessness, and had to turn away, moving as Matthias had ordered.
I couldn’t go, and if I didn’t, women and children would die. But I couldn’t leave my mate either, it was impossible.
Never had I needed help before. Even the other night when I’d been torn as to what to do when Ondine had returned to the house, I could have filtered through the noise, changed, and shown everyone my true power.
But now, in this moment, I absolutely had to be in two places at once. I had to save my mate, and I had to save everyone at my shelter.
Someone hit me from behind, hurling me to the ground, and I found myself under Justin, along with two others, trying to rip out my jugular.
“We’re going to see if what you said was true,” Justin snarled at me as he slit my throat. The arterial blood sprayed, hitting him, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. “But I think if you’re dead, my power will return.”
“Merritt!” Cole screamed. “No!”
Images tumbled through my brain, eons of time rushing by faster and faster, my memories flashing by, jumbled together, all coming to a stop suddenly on Cole smiling at me. I wanted him desperately, so I struggled to move.
The blood loss would mean nothing if I could change, but it made the process itself harder to accomplish.
What a terrible choice Matthias had given me. This was what came of your enemies knowing what you loved.
It was my fault, all of it, because I had changed my nature, and losing my mate would be my divine punishment.
“Eirich,” came the sharp, biting command in my head.
I gasped as tears filled my eyes.
“Rise,” her voice ordered me for the second time, the demand lancing through my body, the pain of her anger far greater than anything I’d ever felt before.
I shuddered in agony, feeling as though I was being ripped apart.
“Creid!” Her roar roiled through me, and my body arched up off the wet, bloodstained ground. I was nearly blown apart by the voice of the goddess.
Believe, she’d said. Not in myself, not even in her, but in the power of community, family. I had to have faith in others and not simply believe, in every instance, at all times, that the burden of protection fell only to me.
There was a blessing there as well, and I felt her power call to mine, because yes, I’d been made to mete out justice, to punish, to kill, but I’d changed. And even though it was my choice, my free will…still, she had allowed it to be. My purpose now was to avenge, but also to shelter.
Unmade with the shedding of blood.
Remade with the infusion of her essence.
Justin stood over me, his foot on my throat, pressing down, watching the blood drain from me. His expression when I shoved him off, rolled to my feet, and turned to look at him was priceless—absolute, soul-searing terror.
“How in the hell,” Matthias rasped, staring at me in astonishment.
“Mere!” Cole was beside me fast, crushing me in a hug of pure relief. “You scared me. Thank God you’re all right.”
“I am, and I know what to do,” I assured him, staring into Matthias’s eyes.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” the alpha yelled at me. “There are those here who will die, and there at your shelter. I hold all their lives in the palm of my hand.”
“The humans I care for aren’t as helpless as you seem to think, and not everyone here needs me to save them either,” I said, feeling the conviction in my body seep into my voice.
I breathed out, and the change was instant, and I shook off my fear as the power rolled through me, making me whole.
“What are you?” Matthias gasped, punching buttons on his phone as he stumbled back.
All eyes were on me as I glanced at Cole.
“Follow me,” I commanded in his head, and in every other member of his pack before I rushed at Matthias and his men.
“Fire!” Matthias shouted in response.
Bullets flew through the air, enough to destroy any normal being, man or wolf. But I was neither. The lead hit me like gnats on glass, unable to hurt me or slow my advance in the least.
I rammed into the men, sending bodies flying. I was huge after all, and the attack had Matthias’s men scrambling, some running away, others on the ground, dazed, hearing his repeated order to shoot, but helpless to do so.
Cole was right behind me, now shifted to his wolf, with the rest of his pack falling on the men, howling for blood.
“Kill them all!” my mate roared, having shifted back to a man for a moment, enough time to give the order, before he was his wolf again, and going straight for Matthias.
Reggie led the others, attacking the rest of the distressed Haviland Pack.