Chapter 23 – JAX
JAX
As Tanner curses, scrambling away from me and dragging her with him, Camille’s head lolls forward, chin nearly touching her chest. The magic is still affecting her. Her necklace isn’t working well enough to protect her or let her wolf fight off the effects of whatever that potion is.
I need to get rid of that stone.
I drop Williams without a thought, his body hitting the stones with a meaty thud. As I step over him, his hands go to his torn neck, trying to hold in what’s already lost.
Blood bubbles between his fingers with each laboured breath, running down his sleeve and dripping onto the earth beneath him.
Tanner sees me moving toward him, and all the colour drains from his face as it dawns on him that I’m coming for him, too.
He stumbles backward, still tugging Camille with him, using her as a shield from my anger. But nothing’s going to protect him.
“Stay back.” His voice cracks with terror. “I’ll kill her. I swear to the Moon Goddess.”
He means it, or he thinks he does. The desperation in his scent tells me he’s gone too far to back down now. Accomplice to attempted murder, caught red-handed in the middle of a high-profile event trying to alter the outcome with stolen weapons, and now witness to an alpha’s death.
He has nothing left to lose.
The lake bottom drops off sharply just a few feet behind him. Everyone who grows up here knows about the ledge, how the lake goes from knee-deep to over your head in a single step.
Kids dare each other to jump off it in the summer. Adults warn about the undertow that forms where cold, deep water meets warm shallows.
He’s backing straight toward it without even realizing, and taking my mate with him.
I stalk forward, a continuous growl rumbling from my chest. Each step is deliberate and measured, allowing him to see me coming, relentless, unstoppable, and letting his fear build. I want him to understand the price of touching what’s mine.
“Please,” he babbles, still retreating. “It wasn’t supposed to go this far. Williams said we’d just weaken them, making it easier for Ryan to get through to the final. Nobody was supposed to die.”
Lies. Even if he believed them at first, he knew the truth when that wolf nearly died last night. Knew what Williams’s intentions were when they followed Camille to the lake. He knew it when Williams talked about pinning the murders on me.
Camille’s eyes flutter open for a moment, unfocused and glassy. She tries to say something but manages only a weak cough.
“He ordered me. I had no choice.”
Tanner takes another step back. Water rises to his thighs now, soaking through his clothes. The cold makes him gasp, but he keeps moving, pulling Camille deeper. Her arms float now, supported by water instead of her own strength.
“I don’t even understand magic.” He’s crying now, tears of frustration and regret. “I have no idea where he got it from, but maybe I can help find out.”
He’s desperate now, grasping for anything, so the lies keep coming.
“I was going to stop him. I wouldn’t have let him hurt her.”
If Camille hadn’t thrown her knife, leaving herself completely vulnerable, Raven would be dead. Tanner is no innocent by-stander.
“I mean, maybe he promised me that I’d get to be beta in the new pack. But who wouldn’t want that?” he argues. I continue to prowl forward. This man is no beta.
My paws enter the water. Cold shocks through my pads, but I don’t slow as he scoops up the crystal and grips it in his other hand, like it’s going to be able to help him.
“Think about what Dean will have to deal with if you kill more people.” His voice rises to near hysteria. “You already attacked an alpha. If you kill me too, they’ll put you down.”
Maybe. Probably. The council doesn’t look kindly on wolves who can’t control themselves, especially those who savage pack leaders. But they also don’t like alphas abusing their power or cheating in competitions, and they especially hate dark magic.
“Zane is already watching you. He knows you’re a mess, and now you’ve tried to murder his father? He’ll take you away.”
He might have a point, but my wolf doesn’t care about any of that. All he wants is for Camille to be safe.
“I’ll let her go.” He tries one last bargain. “I’ll testify. Tell them everything. That Ryan didn’t know what was going on. That you had no choice but to take Alpha Williams down.”
He takes another desperate step back, still in the shallows but getting closer to a danger he doesn’t even realize is there. Water swirls around his upper thighs as he carries Camille with him.
She’s limp now, barely conscious, supported only by his grip on her shirt.
The crystal is still in his hand, too close to her for my liking.
It’s no wonder she’s out cold.
“Fuck, Jax, please.” His voice breaks completely. “I’ll do anything you want.”
Deciding this has to end now, I lunge.
He releases Camille to throw his hands up in defence, but his actions are useless. My weight drives him backward into the shallow water, jaws finding his shoulder. He screams as we go down together, thrashing in the knee-deep water.
But Camille...
Released from his grip, she sways for a moment like a felled tree, her weak legs trying to hold her up but then, in horrifying slow motion, her momentum carries her backward, one step, then two, closer to where the bottom drops away.
She tips back, with no attempt to catch herself and no strength left to swim, then drops straight down into the black depths. There’s no splash. No struggle. She’s just… gone, swallowed by water so dark, it might as well be oil.
As I release Tanner, tearing a chunk of flesh from his arm and striking him hard enough to take all the fight from his limp body, all I can see is blonde hair, fanning out like seaweed across the surface before disappearing into the abyss.
She sinks instantly, just dead weight vanishing into black water that swallows her without a ripple.