WolfeStrike (De Wolfe Pack Generations #2) - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,14

and unsheathed their weapons. Whether or not they were actually going to make a move against the young knight would be something for debate in the days to come but, at the moment, it looked very much like Ronan was in trouble.

That was when the room exploded.

Nat and Jeremy came flying in through the window over the table, their broadswords arcing in the weak light of the common room. That was all it took for Tor to jump into the fray as the entry door and the rear door blew open to reveal more armed de Wolfe and Hage knights.

In an instant, people begin screaming and scattering as the battle turned very bloody, very quickly. The crowded tavern cleared out rapidly because no one wanted to be caught in the midst of a knight fight. Not just any knights; de Wolfe knights. The tavern keep, a tall and slender man, didn’t even try to enter the fight or stop it. He began screaming at his servants to clear the floor, and the frightened wenches ran for the doors. The safest thing was to clear out the place and let the knights do what they did best.

Destroy.

It was unfortunate and a little confusing for the de Royans knights, who recognized Thomas early on. They knew he was the Earl of Northumbria, so raising a sword to the earl was not only forbidden, but confusing. They didn’t know what to do. Thomas noticed their confusion because when he came near, they lowered their weapons. So he used that to his advantage.

Explaining to them that this was a fight that did not involve the House of de Royans, but only de Featherstone, he ordered them away in the hopes that they would comply. Three of them did, but two of them did not, and it was those two who engaged in a nasty battle with Alec and Nat as Ronan went after Steffan.

Tor and Jeremy and Nathaniel manhandled the de Royans knights out of the tavern as Alec and Nat subdued their opponents. They didn’t want to kill them, but they did move to disarm them and as their weapons fell away, they grabbed the knights and pulled them away from the table where Ronan was still battling with Steffan.

Now, it was the brother of the bride against the runaway groom.

Tor and Thomas monitored the situation, watching Ronan battle against a man who had excellent skills. Ronan may have been young, but he was a de Wolfe, and that meant his talent was limitless. He was quite skilled with a blade. Just when it seemed that Ronan might gain the upper hand, something unexpected happened.

Tor saw it first but there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He could see his youngest half-brother, Alexander, back in the shadows because he had come in through the rear entry. He hadn’t engaged in the battle so far, but mostly lingered on the fringe to make sure no one else was going to try to jump in and injure any of his relatives.

But Alexander unexpectedly moved.

Before Tor could stop him, Alexander came up behind Steffan. The de Royans knight caught the movement out of the corners of his eyes and turned into panic with his sword leveled. Alexander had his sword lifted and it was enough to prevent him from being killed, but not enough to prevent part of Steffan’s blade from cutting into his chest.

That brought Tor on the run.

Steffan de Featherstone never had a chance with Tor bearing down on him. Tor’s sword came up and over, completely overwhelming Steffan as a man tried to defend himself from the attack. Thomas started shouting, begging Tor to back away, but it all happened so fast. Tor wasn’t listening to him and the price of Steffan cutting into Alexander was Steffan’s very life.

Big brother Tor wasn’t going to let the man injure his younger half-sibling without consequence. He struck hard and struck fast, as he was the de Wolfe with the hardest strike of all. Before anyone had realized what had happened, Steffan lay on the hard-packed earth of the common room, bleeding out all over the dirt.

Tor had nearly sliced his head off.

“Christ,” Thomas hissed as he rushed forward, crouching over Steffan to see the damage. Already, he could see that it was hopeless. “Damnation!”

But Tor wasn’t listening, nor did he care. He was bent over Alexander, peeling back layers of tunic and mail to see how badly the young man was hurt. It