THORN
The moment the second horn sounds, I launch from my spot like a bullet, white fur ripping through the night air. The wind stings my eyes, but I don’t care. Nothing matters except her.
My nose is locked on her scent — sharp jasmine tangled with frustration and panic. She’s fighting something. She needs me.
Shadows leap from the trees, fangs flashing. Four wolves fan out, blocking my path. Their eyes burn with shared hatred. I recognize them, Steele’s and the widows’ family.
But before I can break deeper into the forest, three more shapes prowl out of the shadows. Ash, Lucia’s brother, is at their center. His eyes glittering like a predator who knows he’s trapped his prey.
“Going somewhere, Alpha?” His lips curl back over his teeth. “Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of your mate. You won’t need one where you are going anyway.”
A snarl rips from my throat as I lunge, but claws catch my flank, another slamming into my shoulder. Two more males. The pack descends.
They’re not here for Ember. They’re here to keep me from her. Not again. Never again.
Rage floods me, molten and unstoppable. I whirl, snapping a foreleg between my jaws.
Bone crunches. His scream gurgles into silence as I toss him aside.
Another leaps for my throat. I catch him mid-air, sink my fangs into his jaw, and rip until the lower half of his face tears loose. He falls twitching into the dirt.
Ash doesn’t flinch. He only grins wider, circling me like a vulture. “She’ll never be yours. By the time you crawl to her, she’ll be bred by someone younger, stronger. Someone worthier of Alpha.”
“Over. My. Dead. Body.” I launch forward, but two more males crash into my sides, teeth digging deep into my haunch and neck. They’re trying to drag me down.
I let them.
Because once they think they have me, my power surges. I twist, ripping my body free in a spray of my own blood, then spin, jaws clamping down on the throat of the one behind me. I shake him until his spine snaps and his body goes limp. His blood coats my tongue, hot and metallic.
The other still clings to my shoulder, claws digging in. I slam backward into a tree. Once. Twice. Until his ribs collapse with a crunch. He slumps to the ground, gasping for air.
I finish him with a stomp of my paw, crushing his windpipe.
Ash’s grin falters.
I stalk toward him, chest heaving, white fur painted in blood that isn’t all my own. Around me, the bodies of his packmates litter the forest floor.
“You’ll never stop me,” I growl, voice gravel, fangs dripping red.
His smirk returns, but his eyes flicker with fear. “Then I’ll meet you at the Sacred Tree. And when you fall, I’ll be the one standing beside her.”
He whirls, vanishing into the trees before I can close my jaws around his throat.
Fine. Let him run.
Ember’s howl splits the night — raw, feral. She did it. My heart pounds with pride. My mate is victorious.
I lower my head, muscles bunching, and tear through the forest like a storm. Nothing will stop me from reaching her.
She’s mine.