Chapter 23
Jason
Silver burns like ice where it digs into my wrists.
The chains bite deeper with every breath I take, each pulse sending a fresh sting of molten pain through my nerves. They’ve forced me into human form, kept me there, and tied me to the center of their judgment circle, knees sunk into damp earth. I had no dignity left, no strength to shift.
Not yet.
Talon and Thorne sit on either side of me like twin sentinels of muscle and fury. Two monsters carved from the same breed of brutality. Their scents are sharp enough to sting my nostrils—iron, dominance, rage layered thick enough to choke on.
Their pack circles in a loose ring around us, teeth bared, breath steaming in the cold light of morning.
They want blood. They want a show. They want me broken.
A hiss of pain escapes me as the silver pulses again, crawling up my arms like frostbite on fire.
Talon leans forward, boots sinking into the soil. “You look smaller than I remember.” His voice is a low purr, designed to provoke.
I raise my head, jaw clenched. “You look older.”
A murmur ripples through the circle, some amusement, mostly anger.
Thorne smiles. A cold, precise, predator’s smile. “Still got a mouth on you, Jason. We’ll fix that soon enough.”
The chains yank taut as he grabs my hair, forcing my head back so I’m staring up at both of them. My scalp screams. My wrists burn as silver bites down harder.
I grit my teeth but refuse to give them the sound they want.
“You ran for weeks,” Thorne says softly. “Slipped through every trap. Survived every hunt. Made a fool of us more times than we can count.”
Talon crouches beside me, eyes glowing feral gold. “But look at you now.” His gloved fingers trail along the chain, sending a fresh wave of agony through my skin. “Caught. Collared. Pathetic.”
My breath rags out of me, but I hold his gaze. “I wasn’t running from you.”
That gets their attention. I drag in a shaky breath. “I was running toward something.”
Talon’s grin sharpens. “Ah. The girl.”
A primal snarl tears up my throat, but the silver burns hotter, punishing me for even thinking of shifting.
Thorne’s eyebrows rise. “So, it’s true. Our stray pup found himself a soft, blind little human to protect.”
My muscles lock. My heartbeat spikes. They know about Violet. Froggy told them. That betrayal stings worse than the chains. He was my brother.
Talon circles me like a shark tasting blood. “She smells… delicate.” He inhales theatrically. “Untouched by our world. A perfect lure.”
Something inside me fractures and ignites.
“You go near her,” I rasp, “and I will tear your fucking throats out with my teeth.”
The pack snarls back, a chorus of fury, but Talon only laughs. “So loyal. So foolish.”
Thorne grips my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes. “We don’t need to touch her…yet. Not if you cooperate.
My chest twists painfully. “And then?” I grit out.
Thorne’s smile widens slowly. “Then,” he murmurs, “you’ll break yourself for us.”
The silver flares, hot enough to blister. And through the agony, one thought cuts through everything.
Violet.
I have to get to her. I have to warn her. I have to survive. Even if it kills me.
“Repeat the charges,” Thorne commands.
His beta steps forward, posture rigid, and he recites the charges like he’s reading off a grocery list instead of announcing someone’s execution.
“Destruction of property. Trespassing on Eustace land. Seduction of the alphas’ daughters. Attempted evasion. Disrespect of alpha command. Disruption of pack peace. Theft. Harboring of pack secrets.”
Snarls ripple through the circle at the charge of seduction, because of course that’s the one they care about. Not the fights. Not the border raids. Not the running.
The daughters.
Talon leans forward, voice a pleasant, sickening growl.
“And turning yourself in,” he says, “does not erase what you’ve done.”
My throat is raw and dry. “I know.”
“And yet,” Thorne muses, rising slowly, like a judge preparing to deliver sentence, “because you surrendered instead of making us chase you again… we’re feeling generous.”
Talon smirks, teeth flashing, his voice almost cheerful when he says, “A quick death. Much quicker than you deserve.”
A murmur of approval rolls through the pack.
My breath gets stuck in my throat, but I keep my face neutral. I swallow hard. “I ask for one boon.”
The circle erupts in mocking laughter.
Talon barks a cruel chuckle. “A boon? From us?”
“That’s rich,” Thorne sneers.
But I lift my head, meet both their eyes and I pull. I pull hard. The chains rattle in a metallic scream. Silver burns my skin, my nerves, my bones, but I keep pulling.
The earth shifts beneath me as the anchor stakes bend.
The links stretch.
Snap.
Bite.
Burn.
Pain detonates up my arms, bright and blinding, a white-hot starburst behind my eyes, but I don’t stop.
I can’t stop. I had no idea I had the strength for this, but for Violet I’d break through any chains.
With one final, guttural roar from me, the final chain gives way, whipping apart in a spray of dirt and sparks.
Gasps burst around the circle. Wolves stumble back, hackles raised.
Even the twins, Talon and Thorne, surge to their feet, shoulders snapping back, power spiking like lightning through the clearing.
But I don’t attack.
I stand.
Blood drips in slow, steady lines down my fingers, darkening the earth beneath me. My breath fogs in the cold air, deeper now, fuller now, the first inhale of real power I’ve had since they forced me to my knees.
And I speak.
My voice is low, shaking with pain, but steady with something far more dangerous. “If I wanted to hurt you,” I growl, “I would have.” My gaze sweeps around the circle. “I could have torn through half this circle already.”
A beat.
“You know it. Your pack knows it.”
Silence falls like a guillotine.
No one moves. No one breathes. Every wolf here knows the truth: a shifter who can break silver restraints is either suicidal, or unstoppable.
Talon’s lips curl, but not in amusement. In calculation.
Thorne’s golden eyes narrow, nostrils flaring as he scents my blood… and my rage.
Somewhere in the back of the circle, someone whimpers.
Not in fear of me. In fear of what the alphas will do now that I’ve made them look weak.
I roll my shoulders, ignoring the scream of torn skin and burned flesh.
“You don’t want me dead,” I say. “But you need me scared. Broken. Obedient.”
A low, unsettled growl ripples through the pack. Talon takes one step forward. Thorne takes another. Mirror images of fury and pride and the absolute refusal to be defied.
“You think you have leverage?” Talon asks, voice dangerously quiet.
I smile. Not wide. Not unhinged. Just enough for them to see my teeth.
“You’re terrified,” I say. “Because you know if you push, if you touch her, if you even breathe in her direction”—my bones snap, the shift bulging under my skin—“I won’t stop.”
The wind stirs behind me, carrying a scent I know too well.
Fear.
Blood.
And Violet’s name whispered like a warning in the scent trail.
“I’m here to surrender, not fight. Give me your word you won’t touch the human woman, and I give you mine that you can live.”
Every member of their pack stiffens.
A tremor ripples through the grass as my wolf shoves against my skin. My bones vibrate with the pressure. My vision tunnels. Heat races under my flesh.
Thorne feels it.
Talon feels it.
Every wolf in the circle feels it. Their hackles rise. Their growls die in their throats. Because this isn’t a threat. It’s a promise.
“You have our word,” Thorne declares, voice like iron dragged across stone. “Our beef is with you, not a defenseless human.”
If only they knew there is nothing defenseless about Violet.
“It’s time,” Talon roars. “Kill!” The executioners surround me, and I let them. They chain me again and I let them.
A distant roar of an engine, too big, too angry, too impossible for this quiet stretch of woods, suddenly breaks through the tension in the air.
Every wolf whips their head toward the ridge.
“The fuck?” Talon snarls.
The sound crescendos, like a beast made of metal and fury. Tires tear through mud and dead leaves. Something massive hits the hill.
A car.
A classic monster of steel and reinforced bumper and pure murderous horsepower flies over the ridge. Wolves scatter like startled birds. The car lands with a seismic crash, spraying dirt in every direction. And there, behind the wheel, an elderly woman that can only be… Meemaw?
Wild hair whipping like storm flags, jaw set in the grim determination of a woman who has seen the apocalypse and told it to shut up.
One hand is on the wheel, the other has a shotgun cocked and ready.
“Move, assholes!” she bellows. The pack recoils like she hit them with silver-infused water. And then, hanging out of the passenger window… Violet, brunette hair flying just as wild as Meemaw’s, expression furious and terrified and so heartbreakingly brave I feel something in my chest break.
What the hell is in her hands?
Barking sounds over the chaos. Buff. The crazy idiot.
And Hattie sitting beside him, not looking at all surprised that she’s sitting next to a wolf.
What in the hell is happening? A grin all but splits my face.
My smile is short-lived as one by one the wolves turn.
The alphas turn, shifting instantly, bones cracking, fur exploding outward.
The two hulking monsters charge toward the vehicle.
A second blast echoes—buckshot peppering the air, ricocheting off trees in a spray of sparks.
The car slams down in a spray of mud and dead leaves, suspension screaming but holding because whatever this hell-beast of a vehicle is, it was built for violence.
Violet lifts the mystery object to her lips, and I can’t help but laugh. It’s a megaphone. “You furry little bastards picked the wrong family!”
The car skids sideways, forming a barrier between me and the alphas with a perfect, show-off drift.
I shift too, instinct blazing, fur ripping through skin, teeth baring. But an ungodly sound erupts through the clearing. A shriek. So loud wolves clamp their paws over their ears.
“Stop hurting my boyfriend, you soggy toilet rolls!”
Fuck, I love her.
Beau howls dramatically.
Meemaw cackles.
The car door swings open, and Violet steps out, the sun hits her hair like a halo.
Like a knight.
Like a savior.
Like everything I never thought I deserved.
And my heart, my wolf, my entire being… kneels.