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No one stepped in. No one could stand against him. But every blow that fell on the little girl felt like it was piercing my heart. She struggled to crawl away, but Blackside kept beating her.
“Stop,” I croaked. “Stop hurting her!”
Van’s lip curled up, and he adjusted his grip on the belt, letting the metal buckle hit her back, breaking the skin. Her tiny face turned, and her eyes met mine, gleaming gold in the moonlight.
“Just die already,” Van muttered, and I saw acceptance in those tiny eyes.
She was about to die. Something deep inside me broke… and something else was made whole.
“Mine,” I whispered. I let my muscles go slack, and the Enforcers released me.In seconds, I was across the ring, my body draped over her small, bloody form, the blows Van was raining down on her hitting me instead.
He didn’t stop. In fact, the blows came faster, harder. There was no way for me to carry Flor to safety, no time to do anything but take the punishment intended for her. My skin burst open on my back, my own blood mingling with hers as it fell.
Mate, I realized. This little girl would someday be my mate.
If we lived.
That had been the same night I shifted for the first time. It had been both a punishment for daring to question the Head Enforcer, and a last-ditch attempt to save my life.
My father had appeared in time to stop Van from killing me, and the concern he’d shown that night had fooled me into thinking he might truly love me. I was his son, after all. He’d forced my shift to save me… or so he’d repeated often over the years.
I’d tried to believe he loved me, but he had never felt anything of the kind. He was rotten to his core. And so was his wolf, I thought, as I noted his reflexes slowing. I was exhausted, in pain, and had begun the fight wounded, but the Alpha was growing sloppier and more desperate as the fight wore on.
Was I stronger than him? Maybe not, but my love for Flor was. My need to get her free of this pack, to protect her from him and all the others like him, was a force as strong as the moon. I would do anything, give anything, to secure her freedom. To make sure she had the chance to flourish and run free.
I feinted left, rolling under my Alpha’s legs, causing him to stumble, and in a flash, had his throat in my jaws, my teeth piercing his fur… No, his skin.
He was shifting. Why? Confused, I gazed around the ring, as my opponent did the one thing I wasn’t ready for.
He begged for mercy.
25
Keeping Her Alive
BRAND
“May the moon have mercy on her,” my father murmured, echoing my thoughts. “May Her justice be done tonight.” He kneeled below me, his hands keeping pressure on Flor’s wounds, one ear pressed every so often to her chest, as I stared out at the ring where Luke fought against his Alpha.
I didn’t feel merciful. I wanted to charge into the ring and slaughter the Southern Alpha myself. I would kill him slowly, and as painfully as I could, to punish him for all the harm he’d done to my little flower. But I had a more important task: keeping her safe.
“I need to touch her, Dad,” I muttered, though he’d asked me to watch his back while he guarded her. Neither one of us trusted her pack not to take advantage of her current weakness. A few feet away, Finnick and Glen were guarding as well, along with an assortment of fighters and Enforcers from the Mountain and Northern packs who circled us. “I have to protect her. I can’t?—”
He settled a hand on my leg, squeezing a warning. “You’re too close to the edge, son. I can sense it. You’ll shift, and your wolf will be out of control. The rest of the Council is watching; we have to follow their rules. And our own tradition.”
I didn’t need the reminder. I knew the Southern and Eastern members of the Council would jump at the chance to discipline us. Our pack, the Mountain wolves, were seen as a threat. We had greater numbers than the next two packs combined, and our wolves were enormous, almost as if we were an entirely different species.
I’d asked Dad once why we were different, and he’d explained that it was only because we lived in harmony with the land. We followed the old ways of the Moon Goddess, and for that She rewarded us with great strength.
Dad never went to Council meetings anymore, and I wasn’t sure he was wrong to avoid them. The corruption that I knew ran through some members of the Council was shocking. They had even begun to hold their meetings in New York of all places, and Dad would never leave our packlands for the city, unless he was forced to. Like this Conclave.
“Breathe. Be patient; she’s holding steady. This little one’s a fighter.”
“You have no idea what she’s gone through here,” I rasped. “The males hunted her for sport, to force her into a mate bond, from the time she was fifteen. Every night, every worthless male that lives here, chased her, for years—” I broke off, and concentrated on fighting off my shift. Dad cursed softly as I struggled.
“They’ll pay for that.” He hesitated. “She’s Luke’s true mate?”
“I’m sure of it,” I replied.
