Page 47 of Alpha’s Wife

She nods.

I know I shouldn’t trust her, but I’ve waited a lifetime for this moment, and I have work to do.

I turn just as the tree line breaks open and the island comes through, and the beach turns into a riot of noise and violence as the packs hit the upper cabins, which, thank the goddess, are empty, as was always the plan.

My wolf feels huge under my skin tonight. Bigger than I’ve ever been. Selene’s bond magic burns through me and through every wolf at my back, and we move like one animal, fast and vicious. Two years of quiet, careful work. Two years, for this exact moment.

Somewhere behind me, my people are moving into position, and the sound of it is enormous, but I keep my eyes forward, because I decided years ago how tonight ends. It ends with me standing in Callum’s hall, Ralph’s old grounds. It ends with every one of them finally knowing my name. I’ve wanted it so long I can taste the victory before the battle has even begun.

I don’t waste my time on foot soldiers.

I cut straight up the beach toward the high ground, toward the three men I crossed an ocean of patience and vengeance to reach, and the crowd gives way in front of me because there isn’t a wolf on this island stupid enough to get in my way tonight. They all feel the bond magic; I know it. At my back, I feel Ryder’s presence, his previous argument dropping away, and I know he’d follow me anywhere, even if I don’t doubt he’ll have enough to say when it’s done.

The brothers are waiting. Callum out front, Tristen and Aiden at his flanks. And behind them, three women I assume are the mates that Selene has been talking to: Ava, Serena, and Emily. Their eyes go wide when they see me approach.

“Stand down.” Callum’s voice cracks over the top of everything. He isn’t even shifted. He’s standing there with his hands open, holding his ground, and that only makes me even angrier. “Ronan. Call them off. We don’t want to slaughter your people. We don’t want to kill anyone here tonight. Stand your wolves down.”

I hear him. I just don’t care.

Aiden’s head snaps toward me, and I watch it hit him. “He’s got a bond witch,” he says, low, to his brothers. “Feel that. That’s why they’re moving like one body. He’s got one working through the whole pack.”

“Then it’s worse than we thought,” Tristen says grimly.

Good. Let it be worse. Let it be every single thing they should be afraid of, because that’s exactly what this is.

“We know what he did to you.” Callum again, even while more of their wolves break through the trees. “To your mother. He did it to us, too, Ronan. Whatever you think we got, it wasn’t gentleness. We’ve spent years erasing his evil hand from this island and rebuilding. He’s dead. You don’t have to bleed for a dead man.”

“Don’t.” My wolf snarls it for me, low and terrible. “Don’t even try to pretend we’re the same.”

“We’re on the same side of this—” Tristen calls out.

“We are not the same,” I growl.

And I stop listening. Because listening is just a distraction at this point, and I didn’t do all this, build all this, to be talked out of taking what is mine. What is Ryder’s, too, even if he can’t bring himself to see it.

I go straight for Callum.

He says he doesn’t want this, but I can see how pissed his alpha wolf is behind his eyes. I see one moment of hesitation, like he’s wondering if I’ll pull back. But I give him nothing, and he shifts mid-step and meets me head-on, and we come together hard enough to shake the ground as all hell erupts around us. Distantly, I note Ryder shifting too, and I realize there was never any doubt he’d stand beside me.

He’s strong. Alpha recognizes alpha, and I can sense his natural advantages—brought up here with his brothers, healthy, fed, not living on scraps. I don’t care what he says about Ralph; I know enough about these brothers to know they haven’t struggled the way we did. Callum may have a strong wolf, but I have the bond magic running through my veins. I can feel my pack behind me, sense their willingness, and how they’re all following the plan we set, flanking left and right through the tunnels I built so they can ambush from the rear. All I have to do is focus on the three alphas.

I drive him back toward the rocks, and I feel it coming, everything I’ve waited thirty years for, his throat open under my jaws…. He twists from under me, and his claws rake up to try to throw me off.

Someone screams my name, and it cuts straight through the violence. I’d know that voice anywhere because it speaks straight to my soul.

Then, all of a sudden, she’s there. Selene is in between us, throwing herself into the closing gap between our wolves as Callum’s claws come up. Even if he wanted to hesitate, there would be no time. His claws catch her straight across her slender body, and the sound she makes tears through me as she drops to the ground and doesn’t get up.

Everything stops.

The whole beach. Both sides. Every wolf feels the ripple of her bond magic, and they freeze. The air feels thick with something I can’t even comprehend, and I realize that I’m screaming her name. Everyone stares, shocked that a witch would throw herself in between two warring alphas. No one could survive that.

Callum shifts back so fast he staggers. He’s staring at his own hands, at the blood on them, at her. “I didn’t…she came out of nowhere…” He holds his hands up, his voice unsure. “I was aiming for you…”

I don’t even hear the rest of what he’s saying. I’m already on my knees with her, and there’s so much blood, too much, and her eyes are open, but they’re drifting somewhere I can’t reach, somewhere I can’t follow, and I have never been this afraid in my whole life.

“No.” My hands start shaking, and I feel Ryder at my side. “No. Selene. Look at me. Stay with me. Look at me, come on…”

Her lips move, but nothing comes out. And the words tear out of me. In front of all of them. In front of my half-brothers, my enemies, and every wolf in the cove, and I don’t care. I will never care about anything ever again.