“Untie him,” Darius says.
Archer cuts the ropes. The alpha staggers to his feet, rubbing his wrists. His eyes dart to the tree line, calculating, measuring the distance and wondering if he can run.
He can’t. Silas stands between him and the forest. He won’t make it far, anyway.
The alpha shifts. It’s fast, and a large grey wolf with yellow eyes. He’s older than Darius, built for damage, but Darius is bigger.
Darius shifts a second later. The black wolf is enormous. Taller, broader, darker than anything in the clearing. His hackles rise, and a sound comes out of him that isn’t a growl. Lower than that. A vibration that rolls through the ground and up through the soles of my boots and into my ribs.
The grey wolf lunges first, and the crowd backs away around the alpha fight.
Teeth snap at Darius’s throat. He twists, catches the grey wolf’s shoulder, and drives him sideways into the dirt. The grey recovers fast, circling, snarling, snapping at Darius’s flanks. He gets a bite in. Blood sprays from Darius’s side, dark against the black fur.
My heart seizes. Archer’s hand lands on my shoulder, holding me in place.
Darius doesn’t flinch. He takes the wound and keeps moving, pushing forward, methodical and relentless.
The grey wolf snaps again. Darius catches his jaw between his teeth and wrenches sideways. A crack splits the air. The grey wolf yelps, a sharp, pitiful sound, and stumbles, his jaw hanging at a wrong angle.
Darius releases him. Steps back. Waits.
He’s giving him a chance to yield. To bare his throat and accept what’s coming.
The grey wolf sways on its feet. Blood drips from his broken jaw. His yellow eyes are wild, rolling, searching for a way out that doesn’t exist. His eyes lock onto me.
He lunges for me, determined to inflict one more act of cruelty before he is killed, but Silas wrenches me out of the way, and Darius meets him head-on. His jaws close around the grey wolf’s throat, and he drives him into the ground. The impact shakes the earth beneath my feet. The grey wolf thrashes. His paws scrabble at the dirt, claws dragging furrows in the soil.
Darius holds, his teeth sinking deeper. A wet, grinding sound I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
The thrashing slows.
Slows. Then stops.
Darius opens his jaws and steps back. Blood dripping from his maw.
The grey wolf lies in the dirt. Dead. The clearing is silent.
Darius shifts back to human form. Naked, blood-streaked, chest heaving. He stands over the body and stares down at it for a long time.
When he looks up, his eyes find mine.
I don’t look away.
Ten years ago, a sixteen-year-old boy showed mercy to the men who murdered his family. He let them live because he believed that was the right thing to do. Those men took that mercy and used it to build a new empire of cruelty.
I cross the clearing, stepping over the body without looking down and stand directly in front of Darius.
“Thank you,” I say, looking up at him.
He closes his eyes. His whole body shudders, one long exhale that seems to empty him of something he’s been holding onto for ten years.
“I’m sorry. I should never have let him live. He—.”
I cut him off. “It’s not your fault, Darius. You’re a good leader. This is not on you.” I grab the back of his neck and pull his face down to mine, standing on my toes to crush my lips to his. This big, burly alpha streaked in the blood of my abuser is finally mine. His arms engulf me as we press closer, and I wonder how I ever could have thought he was my enemy.
When we break the kiss, Elias drapes a jacket over Darius’s shoulders. Archer stands at his back. Silas moves to my side, his hand finding the small of my back.
We stand there in the clearing, the five of us. It’s over, and now I know what true freedom feels like.