But Pappas probably didn’t even know he was there. He jerked on the ground, shrieking as he tried to get away from me. I knew he felt like he was burning from the inside out, and I hoped it would be enough to shock him out of whatever the hell had come over him. I held on for another beat, then two and three, and finally let him go when my Alphas came out of the trees, followed quickly by Carter.
All three of them were shifted, large and imposing and pissed off. The Alphas moved in synchronicity, one black, the other white, yin and yang. I felt Ox’s anger, Joe’s fury. Carter was confused, but the sight of his injured uncle caused him to whine. He went to Mark, nosed at the wound, lapped at it as it slowly healed, his tongue streaked with blood.
Pappas writhed on the ground. There was a handprint burned into his leg, charred black and smoking. He looked as if he was caught in his shift, hair sprouting along his face and neck, eyes flickering, claws lengthening, then shortening again. I knew he was trying to turn wolf because it’d make the pain more manageable, but something was stopping him.
Joe came to me, pressing his snout against my shoulder, whuffing out short, hot breaths along my skin. Questions were pushed through the bond between us, more ???? than actual words. I let it go on for a minute or two before I pushed his head away. “I’m fine.”
Joe grumbled wolfishly, eyes narrowed as he looked me up and down. His nostrils flared, and I knew the moment he caught the scent of another wolf’s blood as his head jerked toward the overturned SUV.
“Beta,” I told him. “Dead in the ditch. Said Pappas did this to him. I don’t know where the other one is.”
Joe wasn’t happy about that.
Carter backed away from his uncle. Mark’s leg looked as if it was healing, skin and muscle stitching itself back together slowly but surely. He was starting to put weight on it again as he gimped toward me, brushing against my side. I thought about shoving him away, but the heat of him next to me was calming. I told myself it was just for this moment.
Ox shifted, the groan of muscle and bone loud in the dark. He crouched nude next to Pappas, who continued to whimper. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. He called me. He sounded out of his mind. Talking about fraying and breaking. He said she knows. Something about infection.”
“Infection,” Ox repeated. “Who was he talking—Michelle.”
“Seems likely.”
He looked up at me. “I don’t understand. What kind of infection? Wolves can’t get infections.”
“It’s not—” I stopped. Because what had he said? About—
Omegas. All of us will become—
“Ox,” I said slowly. “You need to back away. Now.”
He didn’t hesitate. He trusted me. It was close. One moment Pappas was lying on the ground, whimpering in pain, eyes closed. The next he jerked his head forward, shifting more toward wolf than man, jaws stretching toward Ox and—
Snapped into empty air where Ox had once stood.
His eyes were orange.
Human.
Orange again.
And then, for the briefest of moments, they flashed violet.
Carter moved before I could, grabbing one of Pappas’s arms in his jaws and twisting it cruelly. It broke, the pop loud and wet. Pappas shrieked.
Mark looked as if he were about to rip Pappas’s throat out, but before he could, I brought my boot back and kicked Pappas in the head again. He grunted as his head snapped to the side, out cold.
“What the hell is going on?” Ox asked.
OX CARRIED Pappas back to the Bennett house over his bare shoulder. Carter and Joe had the Betas, the second of which had been dead in the woods, his throat torn out. Mark and I stayed behind, covering up as much of the blood as we could, his paws doing a better job than my boots. We went for the SUV next, both of us grunting as we pushed it over onto its wheels. My head was pounding, as it often did when I exerted myself heavily. Getting older didn’t make things easier. I hadn’t used the fire rune in a long time. There’d been no need for it.
Mark stood at my side as I called Tanner, telling him to get Chris and the tow truck to pull the SUV out of here before it was found. Rico would meet them at the garage to see what—if anything—could be done with it, or if we’d need to junk it. They knew to get rid of the plates and the VIN so no questions would be asked, just to be safe.
I hung up the phone in time to see Mark shifting.
Which, after the night I’d had, wasn’t something I was ready to face.
But of course, given the way my life went, a naked Mark Bennett didn’t give two shits about that.