hand. I look down, my eyes widening when I see the broken pieces of my mom’s hair clip in his palm. With choked tears, I pick up the cracked wooden pin, my thumb brushing over the rose blossom top. Then I curl Hess’s fingers over the rest of the pieces for him to keep. “Thank you,” I whisper, feeling more gratitude than I could ever express.
He lets out a shaky breath, and then Kier pulls him into his arms and hugs him with all his might. “You’re alright, brother.”
I grip my mom’s pin before my eyes land on Tyran’s tawny brown gaze where I see pride and love radiating from his stare. A smile crawls across my face, and I move toward him so he can wrap me up in his strong arms.
We did it.
We got our family back.
We cut out the cancer.
Even though Burke got away, there’s only so far he can run before we find him, and we will find him. I don’t doubt it for a second.
Tilting my head back, I kiss my mate’s lips and hold him close. All I want to do is get lost in him, to leave this place behind and truly start our life together, never to look back again.
“You are the most beautifully savage thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he whispers against my lips.
“Takes one to know one, Mate,” I purr, pulling back from him and surveying the damage all around us. “Did we lose anyone?” I ask quietly, almost afraid of the answer.
But to my surprise, Tyran releases an incredulous snort. “We had some bad injuries that Vorria had to sort out, including the two betas who first approached the woodpile, but this pack didn’t have it in them to truly stand up to us. It was like slaughtering drunk frat boys. They didn’t stand a chance.”
A voice cuts through the air. “Thank you, Alpha,” a Twin Rivers male offers, stepping out from the crowd. There are a group of Twin Rivers’ wolves huddled together, just set apart from the rest of the packs and being guarded by our betas, including Britton. “Thank you for rescuing us,” he adds, straightening his spine and pressing his shoulders back.
Tyran snarls at him ruthlessly, his eyes flashing. “I am not your alpha. I would never degrade my name or my pack by claiming the weak wolves in this one,” he bites out, and the male flinches and hurries back to the others. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Ashamed of what you allowed to happen here, especially to your own females,” he bellows, his voice like a brutal hit against the gathered survivors of those who surrendered in the Twin Rivers pack.
I can smell the fear and see submission quaking through them, but it disgusts me as much as it does Tyran.
“I will be back here in three weeks,” Tyran barks. “If you don’t have a worthy alpha by then, if you haven’t cleaned up the mess you let Burke make, I’ll cull the rest of you. None of you are worthy of what we are, so you better work hard and fast to prove that there’s hope for you.”
Gasps and cries ring out from them, and someone shouts to me from the crowd. “Seneca, stop him! Don’t let him do that to us!” I can’t see who, but a feral growl rips out of my chest.
Tyran’s alpha power pulses, muscles bunching as he stands before them like an immovable force. “Do not ask my mate for mercy!” he yells, each word laced with power and dominance as he stands proudly, hair windblown, expression brutal. “Where was your mercy when she needed it? You dare to even speak my luna’s name as though you have the right? You have nothing, you are nothing, in her eyes, and in mine. Don’t ever speak her name again in my presence!” he snarls, body shaking with protective ire.
It does all kinds of things to me to see him stand up for me, to see the fury aimed at the people who spat on me, threw things at me, shouted for Burke to put me down like a dying dog.
I move closer, pressing a hand to his cheek and pulling his rage-filled gaze to mine. “Let’s go home,” I tell him softly. The word home wraps around me like a warm blanket, burying me in its security and familiarity in a way I never could feel or recognize until now.
Tyran’s eyes flit back and