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As X arced through the air, my father’s wolf joined him. Fang on fang, razor-sharp claws ripping and tearing. As X intended, my father, Tucker McGraw, drew first blood.
X flipped end over end, landing on his back. I ran toward the melee, knowing it was far too late. X had stoked them, letting his bloodlust take over. Making it so the Alphas of Wild Lake would not be able to quell their own protective instincts.
“He’s on a suicide mission,” Dr. Olivet shouted. “My God. He’s going to let them tear him apart.”
“For you,” X whispered. Then he closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate.
“No. Fucking. Way!” I yelled. I turned to her.
“Can you find a better way?” I said to her, my chest heaving, sweat pouring down my face.
She’d gone white. Her eyes were wide with shock, and she couldn’t seem to form words. I grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her.
“Dr. Olivet! If I save him, if he’s willing, can you find another way that doesn’t involve anyone dying today?”
Then, a shadow fell over the house. Thunder followed. A mighty wind nearly blew me off my feet.
I looked up. And up.
Pat smiled. “It took you long enough!”
There, flying high above us, was Xander Brandhart, shifted fully into his glorious dragon.
He banked hard left and let out a blast of blue and gold flame that heated the ground, but did not let it burn.
A warning shot. A distraction. I knew at once it was all I needed. I shifted, then leapt forward on my powerful haunches. Moving fast as lightning, I leapt through the line of pack leaders and landed at X’s side.
He’d been bitten by my father. By Luke Tully. The others were closing in. I put myself between X and the Alphas.
“Stop,” I shouted, letting myself shift again. Above me, Xander let out another arcing column of flame.
Finally, the wolves stopped advancing. X’s wolf lay on his side. Wounded. Bleeding. But his eyes had gone from deepest red back to silver.
“Enough!”
Pat stepped into the breach. She came to my side, standing over X’s fallen wolf. He shifted. Not into his human form. But his black fur faded, becoming white again.
This was Anson’s wolf. His white fur was stained with his own blood.
“Nobody is going to die on my land today,” Pat said, pointing the shotgun at the pack leaders. They began to shift, one by one. Weakened. Falling to their knees. Their own bloodlust finally fading, leaving broken men behind.
“Oh, God,” I whispered. Pat cried out too.
We had saved them all from a massacre. But time was running out. I knew it might already be too late. We would need a miracle at Wild Lake.
Chapter Sixteen
For a moment, I couldn’t move. My feet felt frozen in place. Anson seemed like a mirage. I saw him as he was in the dungeon cell, bleeding, dying, when I only knew him as the man I loved. I saw him as he held me when we took refuge from Turk’s men. When I’d poured out my heart and soul, my guilt over everything that had happened. How I thought I’d killed the man who haunted my dreams.
In that instant, his scars faded. There was no trace of X left. Only Anson. And as fresh grief washed over me, that’s when I knew.
“Go to him,” a voice said. It came from inside me at first. Then, clear and strong, I felt her standing beside me. My mother.
“Neve!” My father croaked out her name. Covered in blood, he ran to her. He was cured. I felt it. Anson had given him his life’s blood. He’d been willing to die for it.
“Go to him,” my mother whispered, eyes shining.
And then, no power on this earth could have stopped me. I fell to my knees in front of Anson. In front of X.
