008

BLADE

I let out a long sigh and opened my mouth to explain.

I never got the chance.

The door slammed open so hard it hit the wall. One of my guards stood in the doorway, chest heaving and eyes wide.

"Alpha. A female." He gulped for air. "We caught a female at the border. Some of the men have her. They're holding her down."

Everything in me went still.

For a second, I didn't hear Eric or the guard or my own breath. There was only one picture in my head: the female i had taken to my room.

The window. Of course. I had locked the door and never once looked at the glass. I should have known. A woman who would cross a border for a rabbit would not stay behind a door.

I ran.

I don't remember the stairs. I remember the corridor blurring past, the cold slap of night air as I hit the doors, and my wolf clawing at my ribs. Mine. Mine. Mine. Under it, far off but growing louder, came a scream. I would have known it anywhere.

Eric's boots pounded somewhere behind me. I didn't wait.

By the time I reached the tree line, a crowd had formed. Thirty men, maybe more, packed into a tight ring and jostling for a better view. Torchlight flickered across their faces, and I didn't like what I saw there. They didn't look worried or curious. They looked hungry. Every one of them stared at the middle of that circle like it was something to be won.

Maeve lay in the middle, on the ground.

She still wore my shirt. My cap lay crushed in the dirt, and her red hair had come loose across her face. Two men pinned her arms down. A third had a hand clamped around her ankle. She was kicking, twisting, snarling like the wolf she was.

I saw red.

The growl that ripped out of me shook the leaves. It came from somewhere deep, a place I hadn't known I had. They all flinched. Men stumbled back with their hands raised and their eyes on the dirt. The circle opened like a wound.

All except one.

A big warrior still knelt over her, one hand locked around her wrist. He lifted his head and met my eyes, and I stared back slowly, dangerously, giving him every chance to let go.

He didn't.

"Alpha." His voice shook, but he kept it steady. "I saw her first. Please. Grant her to me."

"You're out of your damn mind!" Maeve screamed. Her heel slammed into his ribs. "Get your hands off me, you—"

"Let go of her." I said it quietly. That was how they always knew I meant it.

The man swallowed. "I'm sorry, Alpha. I've listened to you for years. Every order, every time." His grip tightened. "But this is a woman. A woman."

"Let go!" Maeve twisted, clawing toward his face. "I'll gouge your eyes out, I swear it, I swear on my life—"

Her nails dragged across his cheek and found his eye. He yelled out a raw ugly sound, and jerked back with both hands over his face.

I was already moving.

I crossed the ground in three strides, caught him by the collar, and tore him off her. He was a big man. It didn't matter. I hauled him up by the throat until his boots left the ground.

"You dared," I said, low enough that only he could hear. "You dared put your hands on her. You dared hold her."

His mouth opened. Nothing came out.

I threw him into the dirt like trash. "Take him." I didn't look up. "Now."

My men moved at once. Two of them grabbed him under the arms and dragged him away, and he didn't resist. The rest stood frozen, staring at their boots.

I turned and pulled Maeve to her feet by the arm.

"What were you thinking?" My voice cracked on the last word, and I hated it. My hand was shaking. I would never admit it. "That you could just walk out? That you could escape me?"

She wrenched her arm back. There was dirt on her cheek and a scratch under her eye, and her chest rose and fell fast. "What took you so long?" Her voice trembled with anger. "He was on top of me, and you stood there like—like you had all night!"

It hit harder than I wanted it to.

"Don't touch me," she added, and pulled her hand free and turned to walk away, like she had somewhere to be.

I caught her around the waist and hauled her up off the ground. She yelped.

"Back to your posts." I didn't raise my voice. "All of you. Walk away."

They did. Slowly, reluctantly. And every one of them stole another glance at her over his shoulder before he went.

I'd remember every face.

"Behave yourself," I said into her ear.

"This is literally kidnapping!"

"This is protecting you."

"From who? From you?"

"From them." I jerked my chin at the retreating men. "Now that you've shown yourself, every wolf in this pack knows what you are. Do you understand what you've done?"

"What I've done? You locked me in a room!"

"Because you'd try to run and you did."

"Because I have a brother who thinks I'm dead!" Her voice broke, and she hated that as much as I did. I could see it in her face. "I want to go to Noah. Let me go to Noah."

I growled. I'd had enough.

I swung her over my shoulder in one move and started walking. Her fists pounded my back. She screamed, kicked, and called me names I had never heard from anyone's mouth, least of all a woman's. Her hair swung against my spine like a flag.

Eric stood at the edge of the clearing, and his mouth had dropped almost to the ground.

"Close it," I said as I passed him.

I kept walking. His footsteps crunched behind me, and I heard the smugness in his voice before he spoke.

"I was right all along."

Maeve twisted on my shoulder and looked straight at him. Her eyes narrowed. "Wait." Her voice dropped. "I know that voice. You were at the border. You're one of the bastards who dragged me in here."

Eric gasped, one hand pressed to his chest.

If I hadn't been so furious, I'd have been rolling with laughter.

"Count your days," Maeve told him, pointing a finger at his face. "I'm going to get you for bringing me here."