Page 81 of Rabid
“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 notyouralpha. 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. “Donotask my mate for mercy!” he yells, each word laced with power and dominance as he stands proudly, hair windblown, expression brutal. “Where wasyourmercy 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 wordhomewraps 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 forth in my gaze, softening only for me. I don’t know what he’s looking for or what he ends up finding, but he nods, leaning down to kiss me briefly before pulling me to his side and setting his arm around my shoulders. As one, we turn away from the remnants of Twin Rivers, done with the battle and the threats for now.
We move to join the rest of our pack, and Tyran presses his nose to my hair and pulls in a deep breath. “Best idea ever, my mate. Home it is.”
And just like that, my past is left behind, and the future is bright, with my mate by my side and a new pack to belong to.
Home it is.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
The edge of the lake is littered with she-wolves. The water glitters in the afternoon light, and the sun pours down its blessing, warming us despite autumn’s languid approach. The sound of happy squeals tickles my ears as wolves play. Some of them are wrestling, their mouths and feet kicking up water and splashing anyone who gets too close, some of them race to swim across the large expanse, and some wolves are lying next to me on the bank, like Harlan, Presley, Trinity, and Daisy.
Discreetly, I watch the two former members of the Twin Rivers pack as they relax and unwind, two things that haven’t been easy for either of them since they arrived here. I look to see where they’re touching. They always are, a hand, a foot, an arm pressed against another arm. No matter what’s happening around them, or what they’re doing, the two of them are always connected physically. It’s as though they need it so they can remember they’re not down in those cells anymore, they’re here now, and they’re safe.
We took in all the females that we found shattered and abused that night. It was weird at first to have familiar faces around, faces I grew up with and didn’t have the best opinion of, but the reality of it is that none of those girls are the same, not after what was done to them. Slowly, with a lot of help from the pack, they’re starting to open up again, starting to believe that the worst just might be behind them.
“Are you going to shift back anytime soon?”
The sound of Tyran’s voice has my wolf perking up, tail thudding against the ground where she’s lazing on her side. The four females next to me do nothing more than cast Tyran an impassive glance. Even Trinity and Daisy, who used to go as still as statues and bare their necks in fear every time Tyran came near. It’s nice to see them realize that while my mateisa savage beast, he’s also a good male and nothing like Burke.
Tyran snorts at the sight of us. “Look at you, spending most of your day on paws instead of feet. Ruin Falls rubbed off on you.”
My wolf looks up at him with bright violet eyes, tongue lolling, gray fur warmed, with an expression like,yeah, and?
“Oh, don’t give your luna such a hard time,” Healer Vorria calls from where she’s sitting in a wooden porch swing against the back of the house behind us. “She was busy working with me all morning, flexing that spark of hers. She managed to help Ash during labor. Fucking brilliant, that. Your mate is getting stronger.”
I laugh at the old woman’s foul mouth, while a flash of pride crosses Tyran’s face. “Is that right?” He kneels down beside my wolf, his hand coming up to stroke her gray fur. She instantly rolls over onto her back so he can scratch her belly, and a deep chuckle comes out of him. “Belly rubs and sunning herself. Just look at our rabid luna now,” he teases.
My wolf halfheartedly attempts to nip at his fingers, and he shakes his head at her. “Attacking your alpha? That’s not very nice.”
He stands up again, and when he blocks the sun’s rays for too long, she kicks out her back leg at his ankle in a playful reprimand. He knows these lazy sunningmoments are quickly tapering off as the cold threatens to set in.
Tyran dodges her kick. “Shift, you vicious thing.”
It’s not a command, but I’m eager to talk to him for myself, so I give my wolf a little nudge. She huffs at me but lets herself fold in as my body takes over. In a few seconds, the fur and tail are gone, and I grin up at my mate as I stand.
