a P

a cloak around my shoulders. Each step was a victory. I could feel Bart

ge of the crowd, a wall

yal warriors, and Elna's most ardent admire

umble. "You think you can just walk away

s scent, stale sweat and aggression, an assault on my senses. "You

pression perfectly blank, my body perfectly still. M

t girl in this pack. She treated you like a real sister, even after you came back from being missing and acted like a stranger to everyone. She was the only one who welcomed y

at. "I did nothing to her. She was the

through the air between us, a primal warning that any wolf in the pack would have heeded. "Elna was crying! That's all the proof anyone needs! You're her sister, and you made

fold. They wanted to see the fallen Luna be put through one final humiliation. They didn't care what

bhorred any attack on a female within his territory, wanted to intervene. But his

ers were inches

hen I

f a weak woman. It was the precise

ep back. I

is clumsy grab. My own hand came up, not in a fist, but open, fingers held stiffly t

knowledge. I targeted the prec

belonged to someone else, his mouth opening and closing in stunned silence. His wolf yelped, a sharp, surprised sound that cut through the murmuring crowd. The beast inside him was just as stunned as the man,

ng his ear, my voice a blade of i

, "put your filthy hands on m

entire exchange had taken less than two seconds. To the crowd, it was a blur. One mom

olf. It was something else. Something ancient, precise, and utterly lethal. It was a strike designed not to overpower a wolf's strength, but to bypass it en

fted my gaze, past the sea of stunned f

carrying across the square with an authori

" I called out. "C

. His wolf, I knew, would be pacing frantically. It had just watched its mate, former mate, disable a

" I continued, my tone businesslike, final. "I have no desire to

kward glance, I tur

no one dare

arrior, and an Alpha who was just beginning

ver known