THORN
My hand slams Koa’s neck into the dirt with a satisfying crack. Blood spews from his mouth and he doesn’t rise.
Olcan howls into the night, my nails extend and slice him across his cheek silencing him.
“Traitor,” I hiss, dragging my claws across his face as I pull my arm back.
Olcan snarls, spitting blood into the grass. “Now you know how it feels.” He bucks under me, slippery as a snake. “Koa and Scar were my blood.”
“Is that what this is about? Winning Alpha from Scar?”
“No, this—” Olcan shifts his bottom half into wolf form. He kicks me square in the chest, the double blow launching me backward. I skid across the dirt, nails digging to stop the slide. “—is about that pretty virgin pussy. Revenge for Scar’s death is just icing on the cake.”
My vision goes red. A growl rumbles from my core, vibrating my chest like thunder even in human form. “Don’t you dare talk about Ember like that.”
He smirks, standing there half man, half wolf, lips curling back over sharpening teeth, “Or what?”
“I’ll rip your fucking head off…just like I did Scar.”
His answering roar splits the air. Olcan lunges, his body snapping fully into wolf form, silver-gray fur bristling under the moon. His jaws clamp at my face, breath hot and foul. Gods, he could use a mint leaf.
I twist, catching his throat, shoving him down into the grass. My nails embed in fur and flesh, his growl rattling against my palm. I shift in a flash, white wolf slamming down on him, but Olcan writhes free, rolling away with a snarl.
We collide again; fur, teeth, and fury. The world narrows to blood and rage.
One moment I’ve got him pinned, jaws inches from his jugular.
The next, his weight crashes on top of me, claws raking down my side.
We tumble, gouging trenches in the earth, snapping at each other’s throats, neither yielding.
I dive, fangs aiming for the kill. He turns, and I come away with a mouthful of fur, ripping it free. His yelp is high and sharp. I taste his blood hot on my tongue.
I rise once again in human form, but pain stabs white hot through my ankle. It buckles, sending lightning up my leg. My breath hitches, and that’s when Olcan’s wolf steps back into my line of sight.
“You’re weak, Thorn. Admit it.” His wolf eyes gleam as he shifts back to taunt me. “The pack needs a real leader.”
I bare my teeth. “And I suppose that’s you?”
“That’s right.” His voice is sharp, but beneath it I hear it — the hunger, the madness.
“What makes me weak, Olcan? That I don’t slaughter my own during a long winter?”
“The fact that I can beat you. That you’ve been chasing after a mate for ten years instead of leading. You can’t even stand before me. Things were better under Scar. He kept the pack fed, kept them strong.”
I spit blood into the dirt. “Scar was a menace. Cruel to females, worse to males. He didn’t lead, he consumed.
Everyone expected to mate in the trials.
Produce offspring we can’t feed, and when they didn’t reproduce, or you were deemed weak?
He’d eat them. He didn’t care about the pack, only his hunger. ”
Olcan’s eyes flare. “Caring makes you weak. Winters are long. Wolves need a leader who’ll make the hard choices, no matter the cost.”
“That’s what you don’t understand,” I growl. “Caring is what makes me strong. It’s what makes me Alpha.” Then I shift to wolf form, towering above his newly shifted grey wolf.
I slap him across the muzzle with a paw. He stumbles, snarling, blood dripping from his nose. Before he can recover, I pounce, sinking my teeth into his shoulder. He thrashes, claws slicing across my back, hot lines of fire. I rip flesh free, his whimpering breaking through his growl.
But he rallies, fury fueling him. He slams into me with the force of a boulder. Pain explodes in my ribs, the taste of copper flooding my mouth. Then he’s on me, teeth snapping at my throat.
I swivel, barely keeping him from crushing my windpipe. His breath scalds my fur, his weight slamming down. My bad ankle crumples when I try to rise, he slams me sideways into the dirt.
“Don’t worry, Thorn,” Olcan snarls, voice guttural in his wolf form, his saliva hot on my maw. “She’ll still be an Alpha’s mate — just not yours.”
My blood pounds, rage boiling. I lunge, but my ankle gives. Olcan’s paw slaps me across the muzzle, stars bursting in my vision.
Then the killing blow — his skull slams into mine, hard and merciless. White light blinds me, ringing fills my ears. My legs buckle. The world tilts.
Ember’s scent fades in the haze.
Darkness swallows me whole.