“Oh, we know. But you know the rules.”
“What rules? I thought you had this figured out?”
“They smell my want for you but not your want for me. He’s questioning our union. I knew it was going to happen. Stay behind me and don’t intervene. No matter what.”
I take a step forward, parting myself away from Clarissa. I growl at the men surrounding me, making sure they understand I’m marking my territory. My eyes lock onto every single one of them.
My back hunches, preparing for a fight. The Wolf in front of me bares his teeth, his sharp teeth dripping with saliva.
“Have you proven yourself to her?”
“I’m about to,” I say.
“What does that mean?”
But I shake Clarissa’s thoughts away as the man charges me.
He slips into his animalistic form halfway through his jump, but I can’t change into mine. I have no clothes if I tear these apart, and I curse myself for not coming more prepared. I clamp my hands down onto his massive jaw and pull his jowls from his teeth, causing him to skid around in the snow. He tries to bite down, but he’s off balance. I swing him around in the snow, catapulting him into a tree.
But he scrambles to his feet and charges me.
“Sebastian! Look out!”
If Clarissa isn’t really worried, then she sure is doing a good job of acting like she is.
He pounces on me, digging his claws into my chest. I roll him over and straddle him, then punch him across his jaw. If there’s one thing a Wolf hates more than anything, it’s a Wolf in his human form getting the best of him.
And I can see the anger rising in this Wolf’s eyes.
He throws me off, and I slide across the snow. My head crashes into a tree before I feel a pair of claws digging into my calf.
I’m swung around in the air, and I can hear Clarissa screaming.
Crying out for me as the other alpha wolves hold her back.
One glimpse of them touching her and the walls are gone.
I will kill this Wolf if that’s what it takes.
I scramble to my feet as the alphas in the distance taunt her. I brace myself for impact as the Wolf throws himself at me. We tumble to the ground, and I grab onto his teeth, pulling his jaw back until I can hear it crack. The Wolf is whimpering and struggling. Trying to backtrack from me as teeth pop from his jaw.
My body is shaking, and my vision is blurry, and I can feel myself about to change. About to rip from my clothes and lay my teeth into this pathetic Wolf’s jugular so his blood can paint the snow around us.
“Enough!”
I whip my head around and see Vlad standing at the open gate.
“He is allowed,” he says.
I drop the jaw of the Wolf and step off him as he morphs into his human form. He’s naked in the snow, holding his jaw and crying out for help. Pathetic. He’s no more worthy of the whores in the village. I see Clarissa running toward me, and I hold my arms out for her, encompassing her body as she trembles in my grasp. I stroke her hair, feeling her whimper into my chest as her hands clutch my shirt.
“What the hell was that?”
“I’m sorry. It’s not happening again. You stay near me. Within arm’s reach at all times. Okay?”
I feel her nod, and it brings me a bit of relief.
“Sebastian! Old friend. Come in, come in. Introduce me to this lovely woman of yours,” Vlad says.