Dumped the Alpha, Mated to the Lycan

y

ix of them, maybe eight. I lost count when the firs

lia

around my forearm. Pain shot up to my shoulder. I drove my othe

an, h

. He turned toward my voice, and for half

n pas

her and threw it into the rocks. He pulled her up by both arms, checked her face, her h

look back

surged in years, not since the night that took her from me. I grabbed a fallen branch and swung it into th

That was a warrior's

wn, long enough that the world narrowed down to the next swing, the next bite, the next breath. By the time the horn

h hard against the bite on my shoulder. "Easy

lose for one se

vy

s and for half a heartbeat let

ray creeping along his collarbone, thin lines spreading toward his throat. "It's b

from four pl

up, and waited the way he always waited, lik

didn't say anything. Nobody said anything to

o rest first," he tr

r." Julian didn't

Julian

ou to occur to him. He took the vial and drank it down in one motion. The gray along his collarbone faded as I watched, color easing b

a glance and stood. He didn't look at the bandage dar

aid, not looking back

t he came all night

ge. I'd thrown myself between Julian and a rogue with its jaws already open for his throa

at my mother with the grim face peopl

p doesn't clear on its own, not with herbs, not with time. It takes blood with the ol

ong?" my m

long as

and she never fully woke up again. No shift since. No howl since. Just a

t. "Do you understand what that means for the rest of your

derst

sk kindly." She said it like a

me like I'd handed him something he could never give back. He

y you. I swear I'll be good t

t means." I meant it

ollowed them into the ground before that winter was out. Nobody was left to ask if a sixteen-year-old's promise still held at eighteen, except a kid brother t

I counted from the bite. I'm twenty-two now, and not onc

y legs barely held me up the stairs. I sat on the edge of the bed and let

without knocking. "I

m f

ood soaked through the bandage on my arm. "Julian was so frightened tonight. Did you

there,

you know. How close I came tonight. He couldn't sleep after the

talking about

ost gentle about it. "But you never do ask him much, do you. You just give him wh

othing to say that she didn

ing off it. "He asked me to bring you this before I left his

sked

, the kind that already knew exactly what it

ainst her smug little face. Instead I picked it up, because some small idiot part of me still wante

" she said. "D

later, humming something under her bre

e sound of her footste

nd I doubled over the edge of the bed with a sound I didn't recognize as m

me was turning red, fast, fas

gainst myself like that coul

running. Nob

saw my own hands, red to the wrist, and understood what they wer

t of me before I could stop i

b