Chapter 34 #2
“You held me down, and you carved that knife into my skin so slowly, I knew you were enjoying it,” she seethed, stepping closer.
“I felt your pathetic little cock pressing against me, hard for the blood, for the violence.” She snorted with disgust. “It’s the only way you can get hard, isn’t it, you piece of shit.
” Her sneer was ugly. “You think I didn’t know why you played the suitor?
” she said, stepping closer again, Thalia and I mirroring her.
“You listened outside my window when Diesel was in my room, in my bed.”
A slow mocking smile twisted his mouth. “You moan like the whore you are,” he said with disgust.
My skin crawled at the way he looked at her.
“So you three are the heroic little pack that are going to drag me back in chains?”
Adair snapped, “You don’t get chains.”
His chuckle was weak but cruel. “Planning to kill me yourselves?”
Thalia stepped forward, voice shaking with fury. “You killed Brand.”
Axel blinked once. No remorse. No flinch. Nothing. “I killed a lot of wolves,” he said simply. “Brand was hardly special.”
Thalia lunged forward, but I grabbed her arm. Axel watched us with mild interest, like we were entertainment.
“You’re sick,” Adair spat.
“No,” he corrected. “I’m efficient. The Pack Council wants packs and shifters broken. I did what needed doing.” He said it as if he were discussing the weather.
My wolf snarled so loudly it scraped my throat. “And you think you’ll walk away?” I asked.
“I think you’re sentimental idiots who won’t kill me,” he replied calmly. “Wolfe will want answers. Others will want a trial. You…” His eyes lazily drifted over me. “You’ll want justice,” he smirked.
“There is no justice for the likes of you,” I said coldly.
“So?” Axel said with a shrug. “Most of you are too stupid to understand the bigger goal.”
The bigger goal. Did he mean destroying the pack system? My stomach twisted. I stepped closer until I was within arm’s reach.
“Axel,” I said softly. “We’re not here to save you. We’re not here for sentimental reasons.”
I watched Adair take a step to the left; Thalia mirrored her to my right. Circling him.
He raised a brow. “No?”
“No.”
I assumed a fighting stance, and I saw him tense—finally—because even a sociopath understands what it means to lose control.
“You three won’t keep me down for long,” he warned. “And when Wolfe gets to me—”
“He won’t,” I cut in.
He frowned. “What—”
“I have no intention of keeping you alive,” I said. “We’re keeping them from you, for them.”
Confusion flickered. Then fury. “You stupid little—”
I lunged forward, shifting in mid-air, the crack of bone and rush of power surging through me as my wolf took over. Thalia and Adair were seconds behind, their bodies transforming into their wolves.
Axel tried to shift—but he was too slow.
Too arrogant, never expecting us to attack him.
The three of us hit him at the same time.
Our combined weight slammed him into the ground with a crack that echoed through the trees.
Dirt exploded around us as our claws dug and tore into him.
Axel’s wolf form burst out, but my claws sank into his shoulder, pinning him down.
Thalia tore into his flank. Adair went for his back leg, her jaws snapping shut with bone-crunching force.
Axel howled—a raw, furious cry—but he couldn’t find leverage. He was trapped beneath three wolves driven by grief, rage, and the need to stop a monster from slipping further into the shadows.
He thrashed, kicking up dirt, teeth snapping blindly, but we didn’t give him space to breathe. Didn’t give him time to think. Didn’t give him a single inch.
He’d killed Brand. Killed Cale. Killed the Grumps.
He’d betrayed all of us, and now three furious females held him to the ground like the prey he finally was.
I leaned in harder, my weight crushing his lungs, claws digging deeper until I felt muscle tear.
His blood hit my tongue, metallic and bitter, and a growl rumbled out of me—long, dark, and satisfied.
This wasn’t mercy.
This was justice served before my mate and his betas got the chance to turn revenge into destruction.
Axel’s movements slowed. His struggles weakened.
Pinned beneath the three of us, he finally stilled—not beaten, not unconscious, but contained.
Until he wasn’t. He roared out in fury—a sudden surge of rage giving him strength—and shook us off.
Thalia was knocked aside, her wolf whimpering as it hit the ground.
Adair fell to the side, and I scrambled back to my feet, ready to face him.
He charged at me, and I responded. I had always been fast. Killian had trained me to be faster. Cody had shown me how to use my lighter weight to my advantage. Thalia had taught me how to absorb a hit. And my father had taught me how to fight dirty.
I dodged his charge, my wolf dropped low, and I sank my teeth into his underbelly and pulled.
His scream tore through the air. Adair’s wolf jumped onto his back, her teeth locking into his neck, her head shaking furiously, ripping through his flesh.
Thalia was in front of him, her wolf on her hind legs, her front claws swiping down and across his face.
Axel fought back, claws ripping at my leg.
I heard Thalia’s yelp as he knocked her backward.
Adair was shaken off him as easily as a rag doll.
We stepped back, panting, ready to attack again when I saw him lurch.
His wolf was panting heavily, so loud it drowned out our snarls.
Blood flowed out of him from his wounds.
He took a step forward and then staggered.
I dared not blink. Then Axel—killer, traitor, monster—crumpled as if his strings were cut, hitting the ground with a dull, satisfying thud.
The three of us froze. I watched the blood spill from his multiple wounds. Adair edged forward, but I growled, causing her to step back. I moved closer, my snout nudging his limp body. He didn’t react.
“Rowen, be careful,” Adair cautioned. She shifted back to her wolf, back to her human form, healing herself.
I backed away, keeping my eyes fixed on Axel. I shifted rapidly, following Adair’s lead, healing my body. I stood and reached for my power as a druid. There was no sense of life from the fallen wolf.
“Are you both okay?” I asked them quietly.
Thalia exhaled. “I will be when I see my husband,” she said simply. “Thank the Goddess that he wasn’t expecting us.” She ran a hand over her hair. “That was well fought.”
Adair spat on the ground next to his limp body. “He’s lucky that’s all he got.”
I looked down at him, my jaw trembling with rage and grief. “No,” I said. “His luck ran out. Justice was served for the ones we lost.” I nudged his dead body with my foot to make sure he was completely down. “Because when Wolfe wakes up,” I said quietly, “Axel won’t be alive.”
Thalia’s voice was barely a whisper. “What do we do now?”
I looked at the traitor lying in the dirt—cold, empty, irredeemable. “Now,” I said, “the pack can start to heal.”
Adair moved forward, her claws extending. She lifted his head, and with a quick swipe, she cut his throat. “You thought he was dead the first time,” she told Thalia, almost casually. “He isn’t coming back this time.”
I didn’t criticize her for overkill. I wasn’t the one who would wear his scar for the rest of my life. “We burn him here?”
“Wolfe will want his bones for Stonefang,” Thalia said grimly.
The wind shifted, carrying the cry of a falcon high above us.
I clenched my fists. “Alright, let’s carry the fucker back to Blueridge Hollow and face the music.”
Thalia rolled her eyes theatrically. “Dibs on saying you drugged me into submission.”
Adair snorted. “I was blackmailed.”
I grinned and was about to give a sassy reply when the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
“And what’s your excuse, princess?”
Damn it. They woke up too early.