to the throat. A dagger to the heart. No guns. Nothing of that nature.
Nothing mechanical.
Only blunt force and the will to kill someone who had dishonored the line.
He’d made a mistake in transforming me. He’d just meant to slaughter me and thought to use his wolf to get away with murder.
A wolf attack was a lot different than homicide.
“You’re a hypocrite,” I rasped, my thoughts whirling as I tried to get myself under control.
My brother was dying soon, and I needed answers, answers he wasn’t going to give me.
His tight mouth and the way he stared blankly at the ground told me all these things.
I knew he wouldn’t give me the peace I needed.
I knew he wanted me to suffer, but he would suffer too.
Striding over to him, I waited for Eli to hold me back, but he didn’t.
“How did he manage to transform her, that’s what I’d like to know?” Frank muttered. “The bastard’s always been alpha-type, but not strong enough to best me.”
Of course, that pricked the fool’s pride. “I never showed you just how strong I am.”
“Makes sense,” Eli murmured. “Something in the line is powerful. Just look how it bred Sabina.”
I jerked my chin up at that, taking heart from his words.
To my men, I wasn’t a victim. I was strong.
I was powerful.
I was their omega, their mate.
Their equal.
Recognition slammed into me as I processed all that before I grabbed Cyrilo’s chin and forced him to look at me. “May Kali Sara heed my words. May she whisper them into God’s ear and beckon him to send you straight to the pits of hell for what you did to Joshua and Kian.” I lowered my face, closer to his, knowing he could attack, but I didn’t care. “May the evil in our family line die with you, may it rot in Satan’s arms with you—”
He snarled at me, his teeth snapping, but the touch was all I’d needed.
I could feel his energy.
It was different than the pack’s, different than my mates’.
This was familial.
Blood.
It was black in my being, and the second I closed my eyes, I didn’t have to touch it to know who it was.
And because I knew the energy was affected by sounds, I called on my she-wolf, and she responded.
As did the bitch at my side, who went straight for Cyrilo’s throat as I let out a snarl that any natural wolf would be proud of and let it echo in his head as the creature who was tied to me in ways we’d never understand, who was Mother blessed, took the threat away.
As he bled out on the floor, I kept my eyes closed, watching as the black ball of energy withered away and died.
Only when it was snuffed out did I open them, and I saw the carnage.
I didn’t have it in me to care though.
Instead, I watched as the she-wolf pranced back to me as light on her feet as a ballet dancer now that she’d attacked, and with her bloody maw still dripping my brother’s lifeblood, she returned to my side and waited for me to pat her head.
That was her payment.
My mouth curved into a smile, then I heard Frank say, “Well, I figured I’d seen a lot in all these years, but I never thought I’d see that. Are they tied together or something?”
“Or something,” Eli rasped.
And that was the way of it.
Whatever was going on here, whatever was happening with me and the she-wolf, how linked we were…I wasn’t about to question it.
The Mother had known I’d need help, and here she was.
At my side.
And I knew that her pups would be at my babies’ sides too.
Austin
Nothing was starting to surprise me.
I was getting used to batshit, because ever since Sabina had come into this world, she’d shaken things up.
So, watching the she-wolf bitch scratch at the door like a dog needing to be let out didn’t come as a surprise. Nor did the way she didn’t go outside, just howled on the doorjamb, and within seconds, the pack of natural wolves was running to her side.
Two males approached her, bowing their heads as they did so, and when she sniffed then retreated to Cyrilo’s corpse, I wasn’t surprised when they began to drag him out.
The bloody mess they left behind, the trail of guts, was something I was grateful our maids would have to deal with.
It was, even for me, pretty fucking gross, and when they were outside with the body, when they took him