Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Walking out of Akela’s house felt like whiplash.
The light, laughing mood inside her walls was a world away from the one waiting for me outside her front door. At least I was prepared for it.
We’d all sensed a preview of what was to come when Tauren and Hektor returned with Kyre in tow. Striding into the house hours after they’d left to find us still giggling around the kitchen table, their faces were like dark storm clouds rolling in over a bright sunny day.
We all knew in an instant that things hadn’t gone well.
But when Akela asked what had happened, Hektor just shook his head.
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” he said before grabbing Akela’s tea towel off the wall and wrapping it around his knuckles. Even from across the room, I could see the deep red splotches of blood blossoming on the white cloth.
Oh God.
A potent mixture of fear, anger, and guilt propelled me out of my chair. In a flash, I was at Tauren’s side, grabbing his hands and looking him over. His knuckles were just as red and raw as his friend’s, and there was a long but shallow cut along his jaw, just above his dark beard.
Hell, even Kyre was sporting a busted lip.
“You’ve been fighting,” I stated the obvious.
“It’s fine,” Tauren assured me.
“The hell it is.” I glanced over my shoulder at Calindra. “Come take a look at these guys.”
But Tauren shook his head. “I don’t need a healer. Most of this blood isn’t mine.”
Fucking hell.
Hearing that, Akela rushed out her back door to pump a basin of water from her well so the alphas could wash up. And I have to admit, after scrubbing their hands and faces, they did look a little better.
Not great—but better.
At my insistence, Calindra gave them a quick once-over and promised me there were no broken bones, no major injuries.
“See,” Tauren said. “I told you we were fine.”
Strangely, doubling down on that fact didn’t make me feel any better. Guilt still surged and roiled inside me, thinking that while I’d been in here, blindly yucking it up, Tauren and his friends had been out there taking blows.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, grabbing Akela’s hands. “This is all my fault. I never should have come here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she tried. “You didn’t do this.”
But we all knew I was to blame.
Maybe I wasn’t out there, throwing punches, but there was no denying I was the cause of the fight. My presence in the village was the reason tensions were high. Just by coming for tea, I’d brought trouble to my new friend’s front door.
In a sharp change from just minutes before, Akela’s house was nearly silent as Tauren and I stepped outside.
I’d hoped to slink away in shame, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen.
The path outside of Akela and Hector’s home was packed with alphas. Some of them I recognized from their visits to Tauren, but others were strangers to me.
At least it was easy to tell the hostiles from the allies. The glowers and scowls they directed at me were nothing short of terrifying. It didn’t matter how close I pressed myself against Tauren; there was no stopping the rush of adrenaline that pulsed through my veins at the sight.
Never mind the night of the full moon; if we made it through today, it would be a miracle.
We hadn’t even made it off of Akela’s property before one of the more aggressive-looking alphas pushed his way to the front of the crowd. Sporting a darkening bruise near his right eye, he stopped right in front of Tauren, blocking our path.
With his beefy fists balled tight on his hips and his barrel chest puffed out, the alpha looked every bit Tauren’s equal in size, strength, and fury. If this was the guy Tauren had been scraping with, then it was easy to see why there had been no clear winner.
After a few long, tense seconds of sizing each other up, Tauren broke the silence.
“Out of our way, Lash. I told you we were done.”
Lash? The unusual name fit the furious alpha. Every part of him—his frown, his narrowed eyes, his clenched fists—was a promise of violence.
“Nah,” he snarled. “We aren’t done until I say we are.”
“You looking for another black eye? ‘Cause all you have to do is ask.”
Dear God. My stomach churned as the tension ratcheted up.
Behind me, Akela’s door flew open, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Hektor and Kyre stepping out onto the patio, ready to throw down again if they were needed.
I pulled on Tauren’s arm, silently begging him to stop riling the already angry alpha up and keep walking, but it was useless. I couldn’t move him any more than I could drag one of these towering redwoods away.
“Tauren, stop,” I pleaded. “Let’s just go home.”
The sound of my voice caused a cruel smile to curl the other alpha’s lips.
“Yeah, Tauren,” he mocked. “Listen to your bitch. She wants you to drag her back home.”
Oh, no.
Underneath my hand, I felt Tauren’s whole body go rigid.
“Watch your mouth, Lash,” he warned with a low growl that shook the ground beneath our feet. “That’s my woman you’re talking about. Now apologize.”
The other alpha responded by throwing his head back and laughing.
“You want me to apologize?” he shouted loud enough for the whole village to hear. “Fine. I was wrong to call your mate a bitch when everyone knows she’s nothing more than a rotting pile of kirre meat.”
Tauren’s growl grew louder. Harder. More feral.
His hand twitched and pulsed under mine, bones crackling and muscles lengthening.
What the fuck?
My gaze flickered down to see the white flash of claws sprouting from the beds of his fingernails, thick and sharp and deadly.
I’d seen them once before. When he’d attacked Franklin. Back then, I’d only caught a brief flash of them. Now, in the bright light of day, I could make out every deadly inch.
My eyes flashed up to his face. Even though I knew what sight awaited me, even though I didn’t want to see it, I couldn’t help myself. Sure enough, fangs extended down, teasing his lower lip, long and terrifying.
The last time he’d been this angry, he’d ripped a grown man apart. He’d sliced through muscle and shredded sinew. He’d broken bones in half with his bare hands. It had been the most horrific thing I’d ever seen.
And it looked like Tauren was getting ready to do it again.
I threw down his hand as I stumbled back in shock. Unable to look away, I tripped over my own feet and landed on my ass as a cacophony of growls and snarls rose up from the assembled alphas.
My eyes flashed toward Kyre and Hektor, then Lash and the rest of the crowd. They were all in a similar state—claws and fangs out and ready to draw blood.
All because someone had called me a bitch.
This was madness.
“Stop it!” I yelled—but no one listened.
It was like the alphas couldn’t hear me. Like they couldn’t hear anything. Taken over by bloodlust and rage, the only thing they craved was to tear each other to pieces.
Forget about black eyes and busted lips, this was the kind of fight that ended in death.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not because of me. Not again.
But what the hell could I do?
It had taken five of us to come up with a multi-step plan for me to fight one alpha. There had to be twenty-five guys out here, ready to throw down.
I didn’t stand a chance.
A scream of impotent rage welled up inside me, but before it could slip out, a deafening crack blasted through the forest.
Thwack!
Sharp and sudden, the sound was loud enough to shake the alphas from their violent thrall. In unison, all heads snapped toward the source of the sound.
From down on the ground, I couldn’t see what everyone was looking at. First, I had to pull myself up, dusting off my backside as I rose, then angle myself to see around the massive sea of alpha bodies.
That’s when I saw him.
Drogan.
Standing several dozen yards away with Cenric at his side, his face was contorted into a mask of barely contained rage. His dark eyes burned with anger, and his frown pulled the whole bottom half of his face down.
But it wasn’t his expression that everyone was staring at.
It was his fist…buried deep within the crater he’d just punched into the twenty-foot solid trunk of a towering redwood.
“Do I have your attention?” the alpha snarled. I couldn’t speak for anyone else, but the man certainly had mine. “Good. Then which one of you mutts wants to tell me what the fuck is happening?”
“Father,” Tauren spoke up. The mix of raw anger and fangs had changed his voice. It was even more animalistic now. More feral bark than human voice.
It sounded like the physical change had affected his voice box.
Drogan shook his head the instant his eyes landed on his son. A look of pure disappointment swept across his face. Striding away from the magnificent tree he’d just brutalized, the Lykaon moved toward us.
Like magic, the pack pulled back and parted, giving him plenty of space as he moved down the path. Claws and fangs retracted as he passed by, something about the older alpha’s presence forcing their feral anger back into the shadows.
The only alpha who didn’t act particularly deferential was Tauren, who stood his ground with his head held high. His dark eyes still fixed on Lash, both alphas’ animal natures stayed on full display.
“Of course it’s you,” he said. “The moment Cenric said something about a fight, I knew in my bones you were the one to blame.”
“Tauren didn’t start this,” Kyre stepped up to defend his friend. “We were just talking when—“
“Did I ask you for details, pup?” Drogan snapped.
Kyre’s jaw clenched, the muscles along his throat and cheeks twitching with a mix of insult and barely contained rage. Behind Drogan, Lash let out a laugh at seeing his enemies muzzled.
But apparently, Tauren’s father wasn’t in the mood for cheer because he rounded on Lash the same way he had Kyre.
“Silence!” he commanded before curling his lip at the sight of Lash’s fangs. “And put those damn things away in my presence, both of you. Unless you want to finish this fight at the bottom of the pit.”
Despite the direct order from their pack leader, it took Tauren and Lash a few seconds before they were calm enough to slide their claws back and tuck their fangs away.
Only once they were back to normal did Drogan turn his attention my way, scowling like I was a venomous viper that had slithered into his village on my belly.
“Was all this about her?”
“Father, I—“
“It’s a simple yes or no question, boy,” Drogan barked. “Did you throw fists at your brother alphas over this kirre?”
Tauren stiffened. Staring his father dead in the eye, he tilted back his head, raising his chin high.
“Yes,” he answered proudly. “But no law was broken. My mate was slandered; I defended her honor. It’s as simple as that.”
“How can I attack what doesn’t exist?” Lash countered. “Everyone knows the kirre have no honor.”
Tauren’s upper lip curled back at the taunt, the tips of his thick fangs starting to show. His growl shook the air, and was instantly joined by Lash’s answering rumble.
But Drogan wasn’t having any of it.
“Enough!” he bellowed. “As the Lykaon of this pack, I am the one who decides the law. No one else. Is that understood?”
If Drogan was hoping for an obedient chorus of yeses, then he must have been disappointed by the murmur of vague rumbles that weakly moved through the crowd. But at least he was a shrewd enough leader to know not to press for more.
At least not with the other alphas.
But with his son? Well, that was another story. Piercing Tauren with a sharp glare, he stretched out his arm and pointed straight at me.
“Wherever that kirre goes, chaos follows,” he declared. “Again and again, she has shown herself to be a divisive force. One that threatens to tear the foundations of this pack apart.”
“That’s not true.” Tauren emphatically shook his head.
“Hannah wasn’t even present for the start of the fight,” Hektor argued.
But Drogan didn’t care about details like that.
“Silence!” His shout shook the tops of the trees above. “Today has proven that she cannot be trusted within the boundaries of our village. Maybe not even within our territory.”
Tauren’s face hardened, his lips barely moving as he asked, “What are you saying?”
“That it’s past time my advisors and I sit down and decide whether or not this pack should have to endure the presence of a kirre.”
Drogan’s statement instantly split the crowd. Approving whispers mixed with deep grumbles of discontent. Tensions started to mount once more.
“Don’t lie to your people,” Tauren shot back. “You know full well Hannah is no longer a kirre. She is something new. An omega to my alpha. The Lore Keeper told you himself.”
More rumbles rose up from the crowd. It sounded like this was the first time most of them were hearing about my change.
Surprisingly, Drogan didn’t deny it.
Instead, he dug in his heels and doubled down.
“Even more of a reason for us to deal with the problem,” he stated. “Who knows what damage her new nature could cause if she were allowed to stay?”
“Allowed to stay?” Tauren parroted the question right back, his face growing redder with rage by the second. “Are you talking about banishment or death?”
“That is the question,” Drogan declared to the crowd. “For now, I order both of you to stay far away from the village. You may return in a week, at the start of the full moon bonfire, to hear my final decision.”
Holy shit.
I gulped down past the lump that had formed in my throat and looked over at Tauren apologetically.
All I’d wanted to do was spend a little time talking with new friends. To share some laughter and conversation. To have just a few hours where I felt like a normal person again.
But all I’d done was screw everything up.