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“You could start by locking the door,” Sasha quipped as she pushed the rest of the way into the restroom, taking in my disheveled state.
The woman looked ready for battle and my spine straightened automatically at the determined gleam in her eye.
“I can’t handle one of your hissy fits, Sasha. Not tonight.” I pulled my ruined shirt over my head and wrapped it around my bleeding fist. “Take your people back to your room. Someone will come up with dinner shortly.”
“Yeah, that doesn't work for me. You’re not my alpha, remember? You don’t get to order me around.”
She strutted to the sink that wasn’t full of glass and began to wash her own hands. Not that it would help, my mate was covered in blood. The sight—even if it wasn’t her own—pulled at my wolf even harder. Made his need to claim her all the more urgent. A matter of life or death.
It wasn’t. Claiming my mate wasn’t going to save her life. It was only going to bind it further.
Tie her to a life of endless violence. Because that’s what this was. Under my rule, the Soul Reapers MC had sworn to dedicate our fists, teeth and claws for good. Running one battle into the next for exactly this reason. To give decent wolves, decent people—like Sasha and Viola and Addy and all of them—the opportunity to lead a better life.
Alongside the spicy aroma of her usual fire, sadness curled in the room. Our mate was hurting and my wolf was desperate to fix it. We couldn’t fix death, though. Not even the strongest alpha in the world could do that. It was final for us all.
“What do you want?” I sighed. The sooner she was gone, the faster I could lick my wounds in peace then prepare my pack for war. “Because if you hadn’t noticed, I’m a little busy.”
“Killing the bathroom mirror? Yeah, I noticed. An alpha’s job is never done, huh?”
“Speak, woman,” I growled. Sasha shivered, her eyes dilating. She still wanted me, needed me, as much as she hated me for it. The call of the Blood Moon Goddess was driving us both insane. “Tell me what the fuck you want, then get out.”
Please, I added silently in my head as I gripped the sink a bit tighter so I didn’t slip and reach for her.
“A wolf.”
“You want a wolf, Sasha?” I shook my head in disbelief. Were we doing this? Like, now? “You already claimed two. Pick one, I gift him to you. You know what? Take them both. You already have anyway.” I laughed bitterly at that one. This woman really would be the end of me. “I’m sure by now you’re well aware that they come as a boxed set.”
Waving her away, I carefully picked the larger shards out of the sink and tossed them into the nearby trash can.
“I want my own.”
I rounded on her then with a furious growl as my exhausted brain finally picked up what she was laying down. “You fucking what?!”
She tipped up her chin and looked me dead in the eye.
“I want my own wolf, Grimm. And you are going to give her to me.” I stared at her, slack jawed. Whatever I’d expected my infuriating mate to demand this time, being turned was not it. Perhaps taking my silence as consideration for her bat shit crazy idea, Sasha pressed on. “Louise is dead, Grimm.”
My heart jolted. No, it didn’t just jolt, it fucking stopped beating.
Louise? That tiny, sweet human who had been giggling and gossiping in the window only yesterday was gone? My wolf howled as I gripped the glass in my hand all the tighter, willing it to cut me as deep as yet another death of those under my care did.
“And Addy?” I growled, the beast thick in my throat.
I had to know. Had to face up to this cruel reality. The sooner the better.
“She’ll live,” Sasha allowed. “She’s a survivor. But Louise? She only got through all that bullshit at the Bone Crushers MC because of people like me, Grimm.”
Sasha's eyes shimmered with tears she wouldn’t shed, not until she was in private. I wasn’t part of her inner circle. She didn’t trust the likes of me with her softness. My mate held her pain like a warrior’s shield between us, tucked close to her chest. I knew the tactic well.
“Viola, Addy, and me. We had to be the strong ones. Don’t you see? I have to be stronger than the bad guys. Or I won’t be able to save any of them.”
Her fingers twitched as if they were begging to reach out. But to do what? Shake me or beg me? I couldn’t tell. I watched the brief moment of vulnerability fade away, only to be replaced with that inner certainty. The absolute determination to do what she knew was right.
“I need to be able to fight alongside you, alpha,” she demanded. “To have a place here in the Soul Reapers’ pack, to give my people a permanent home with you, I have to be more than human.”
“Are you insane?” I roared, wanting to throttle her for even suggesting such a dangerous plan. I settled for throwing the shard of glass I was still holding into the can. Hard. It shattered like a grenade in the safety of its metal canister. “Did you not see what those girls went through? The agony of a first shift? What happened to Louise was not uncommon, Sasha. It is the norm!”
I saw her ramping up but I beat her to it.
