Chapter 26 - Luke
Everything feels like it’s slipping through my fingers lately, regardless of how hard I try to keep it all together.
While my authority is still intact, I can feel my control wavering, and the respect that had once seemed to come so naturally from the others is more precarious than it ever has been before. In a way, the ground beneath me doesn’t even feel steady anymore.
The pack watches me differently. While they aren’t openly defiant, they’re assessing and measuring. I know they are.
And Dad, like usual, keeps his distance, like he can sense the fallout coming.
Between the pack, my father, and Sera, nothing feels certain, and I don’t know if it ever will. But I chose this, and I don’t regret it. Even so, the pressure is there, and it has weight that doesn’t hesitate to dig in.
Moving along the north-east boundary in wolf form, my paws sink into the earth with measured steps while I follow the rocky cliffside that eventually leads to Briarwood.
Since the land forms a funnel shape with Coldreach being the thinnest point, the channel running between all three areas is the hardest to monitor through the dense woods.
All the while I track, my mind drifts to Sera and our conversation.
While it wasn’t outright rejection or a refusal to work with me, leaving everything out in the open makes it feel unresolved, and I’m restless because of it.
Still, I know I can’t push. I have to let her come to me, regardless of how excruciating that feels.
A strong gust of wind stirs up my surroundings, throwing the smell of salt and decaying underbrush into the air. Then, an unfamiliar scent joins it, and I freeze.
Immediately, I know it isn’t one of mine. The foreign presence makes my hackles rise instantly, and I grit my teeth.
There’s movement near the north-east border, I send through the pack link. Possible breach.
Isaac responds first. How many?
Not sure yet. I’m checking now.
Pivoting, I follow the scent trail, weaving through the dense trees to try and grasp the situation before it has the chance to get out of hand.
Then I feel like the world is crashing down around me. A sharp, panicked tug on the bond slams through my chest and demands every scrap of my attention. My heart clenches, then her fear comes rushing in right after.
It’s so immediate and violent that my steps falter, and I pause to regain my bearings.
Sera doesn’t say anything down the tether, but I know it’s her, and I know something is wrong.
Right after, Eve’s voice crosses the pack link, There’s more on the west side. I smell Sera up ahead.
They found her.
Everything in my goes ice cold as the pieces click into place at once, letting me know this isn’t random. This is coordinated.
I’m already running in that direction with fury curling low in my gut. I reach out to the guys to make sure they don’t miss this.
They split us up. I need half to push them out from the north-east border, and the rest with me.
I catch their responses as they coordinate, but I don’t wait for the fine details to be ironed out. Branches whip against my fur as I rush on, watching the forest blur around me. Regardless of how fast I push myself, it still doesn’t seem fast enough.
Sera’s magic flares through the bond, kicking in to defend her. Even if I can’t see her, I can feel her panic and the way she braces herself as if she’s surrounded.
I’m coming, I tell her through the mental link, wanting her to know she isn’t alone. Just hold on.
She doesn’t respond, and she doesn’t need to. I know she’s fighting and doing what she can.
The closer I get, the louder it all becomes as I catch sight of the others closing in. The desperation I feel to get to her claws at me from the inside, and despite the snarling that begins around me once we move closer, I can only think of her.
When I break through the treeline, I see her.
Standing in the small clearing, her back is against Eve’s while they brace themselves, eyes on the assailants. Light emanates from Sera’s palms, glowing from her magic.
From what I can see, she looks unharmed, and that’s enough to keep me from rampaging, at the very least. Six of them surround the girls—two unshifted and four in their wolf forms as they try to keep them pinned in that circle. More hover in the background, likely to offer backup if necessary.
Though with my wolves starting to surround them, they won’t linger for long.
Sera’s keeping them back with the threat of her magic, but I can tell she’s hesitant to use it to avoid draining herself too quickly. She doesn’t know how long this will last, or just how far she’ll have to push herself. She’s conserving what she has, and that’s a good thing.
As the wolves draw closer, snapping at their feet, another spark of blinding rage ignites in me, and I shift back.
“Back away from my mate,” I call out to them, body strained from barely holding back.
To my left, a wolf approaches with its predatory gaze set on me while it bares its teeth. Before it can do anything, Dominic barrels past me with a sharp snarl as he tackles it, bringing him down before it can close in. I sense that Hunter and Zane linger nearby, ready to defend and jump in.
Focusing on the girls, I step forward, and the other wolves hesitate just enough for me to catch.
Then, another scent hits me. It’s equal amounts familiar and infuriating, forcing me to stop.
To my right, Dawson steps out from the trees, dark eyes gleaming as he emerges from the shadows.
He moves eerily quiet despite his human form, and even if it wasn’t that long ago when he fought Caleb, or when he tried to appeal for Sera’s surrender, he looks older now. At least, hardened by desperation.
Every alarm goes off in my head at once, screaming at me that he shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Sera or the others.
Given how they tried to create a diversion, they didn’t mean to be here this long. But we caught them, and now Dawson has no choice but to face me directly.
Coolly, like he isn’t in enemy territory, his eyes scan the scene, flickering over to his wolves, then to Sera as she forces another wolf back a few steps. Finally, his eyes lock onto mine.
“Quite the reunion,” he says lightly, but I catch the tension coiling beneath it.
Gritting my teeth, I face him, well aware that I can’t let him get the upper hand now. “You’re trespassing. Did you forget what I said before?”
His features turn a little more smug. “I know exactly what you said…But I also told you this wasn’t over. Not while you have something that belongs to me, and I intend to take it back.”
My whole body feels like it’s on fire from having to restrain myself from tearing his throat out here and now. “She was never yours to begin with, and she never will be.”
Dawson tilts his head slightly as he examines me, caught somewhere between amused and irritated. “That’s not how I see it. She was in my pack, following my authority, until you purchased her. Marked her. But don’t assume some bond will stop me from taking what I want.”
I feel more tension building in the clearing as my wolves filter in, and they start to regroup while others can’t stop themselves from provoking. This is teetering on something bigger. This is the public stage he didn’t want before. He must be more desperate than I thought.
My wolf itches to be freed again, but I temper it for now.
“And what do you want then? Why risk whatever influence you have left over this?”
“Because my influence and strength depend on her,” Dawson says, voice sharper now as he steps forward, eyes flashing with anger. “She has the power I need to keep my status in balance. You stole the very thing I need to keep the others in line.”
The need to shift surges in me as my wolf demands blood, and I bite so hard I swear my teeth are seconds away from cracking.
Though it makes sense. After being defeated by Caleb, Dawson’s image suffered within his pack, and his questioned authority made him no different from the rest. He needs Sera as a tool to stop the others from challenging him and to maintain his Alpha status.
If his wolves lose faith in him, then he loses everything. That’s why he’s here.
“I didn’t steal anything,” I fire back at him. “You and your wolves breached Coldreach territory, and you have threatened my mate. I’m considering this a direct challenge if you don’t take your wolves and leave right now.”
Dawson studies me, the position he and his wolves are now in, then back to me. His expression is both hard and cold, and more unreadable than I want it to be. He’s unpredictable now.
After a drawn-out beat of silence, Dawson takes a breath, then his gaze somehow becomes even darker, like he has nothing left to lose.
“So be it.”
With a sudden crack of bone and tearing skin, he shifts, taking on that dark form of his that looks more akin to a dark omen. Scars, old and new, leave his fur looking patchy in sections, and his coat isn’t as thick as it used to be. He really has been pushed by his pack.
But I don’t feel any sympathy for him. Not when he brought this on himself.
Even if I want to get to Sera more than anything, this is a challenge I can’t refuse. Dawson is right here, right now, and he’s cornered, regardless of his reckless confidence.
I respond in kind, allowing the shift to take over with a snarl, unwilling to hold back now.
He doesn’t have a choice, and neither do I.