Chapter 15
Dagen looked at the run-down cabin, then at Conall. “This is it?” It seemed too easy that one of their sentinels had spotted the wolves entering a cabin not far from Petronilla territory.
“Looks like it.”
Not to mention it smelled like it. He could smell wolves in and around the area. “These are my kills.” He wasn’t asking either. Richard’s brother had hurt Keva, and Richard would have killed her.
The wolf had come after her for one purpose: to make her talk whether she wanted to or not. This wasn’t going to go down easy. Dagen knew that and accepted it. Unlike humans, he didn’t fight his primitive nature. And he would feel no guilt after he killed these wolves. He inhaled deeply. Definitely two wolves. These fools never should have been in this territory. They’d broken a basic shifter law and then when corrected hadn’t done anything to rectify the situation. They knew the punishment for that was death. They had no one to blame but themselves for this.
“Come out here now!” he shouted. There was no need to infiltrate the cabin—and walk into a possible trap—when the wolves would hear them. If they didn’t come out, Dagen would make them come out with a little fire. One of the sentinels had been circling the house, making sure no one left, so he knew they were still inside.
A few seconds later two wolves in human form strode outside, both naked. Yeah they were going to be shifting soon. They wanted to fight too. He could scent their rage, their hunger for battle.
Tension crackled in the air, Dagen’s dragon clawing just underneath the surface, ready to come out and play. He hadn’t had a good fight in a long time and he was ready for this. He’d do anything for Keva. That need to keep her safe was a driving force inside him.
“We just want to know what happened to my brother,” Richard snarled, looking between Conall and Dagen.
Conall stepped back, however, the action clear. Because an Alpha would never back down from any fight. It was clear that Conall was giving him the go-ahead to tear these wolves apart.
Dagen fought the urge to incinerate the enemy where they stood. “I think you know what happened to your brother. He’s dead, in case it’s not clear. And Keva had nothing to do with it. But if I had to guess his whereabouts, I’d say he’s rotting in Hell right about now for the way he treated her.”
Richard’s face transformed into a mask of rage as he half-shifted. “She’s just a human,” he spat. “She’s fucking food, prey—she doesn’t matter.”
Oh yeah, he was going to enjoy this. Dagen rolled his shoulders once, readying to undergo the change. There was nothing left to say—this wolf was dead. They both were. Suddenly, lightning fast, the wolf next to Richard grabbed a weapon from behind his back that he must’ve had strapped to his actual skin.
Puff. Puff.
Dagen scoffed as the darts found their mark, and ripped them out of his chest. He wasn’t susceptible to human drugs or poisons. But as he took a step forward, agony sliced through him. Whatever they’d shot him with burned through his blood and it fucking hurt.
His dragon fought back, burning the poison out of his system at a rapid speed, but he couldn’t shift. Fuck. That was just as well. He was lethal in any form.
Ignoring the burning sensation coursing through his veins, he let his claws out and raced at Richard, who’d now fully shifted. They clashed midair, Dagen slashing his claws into the belly of the giant animal.
The wolf snarled and tore into Dagen’s shoulder with his teeth as they crashed to the ground.
Dagen was vaguely aware of a sentinel from the sky incinerating the other wolf. He’d wanted to kill them both, but the real target was Richard. And he’d enjoy every second of it. It was rare he enjoyed a kill—or at least he didn’t revel in it, but this one he would.
Striking hard and fast, he sliced across the throat of the wolf with his claws. The poison was burning out of his body fast, his metabolism working overtime in tune with his adrenaline. He was aware of discomfort in his shoulder from the bite, but he was already healing.
The animal gurgled, but was already healing as it jumped to all fours. Dagen kicked out at him, slamming his boot against the animal’s muzzle.
The wolf jumped back, and Dagen ducked, swiveling to the left even as he twisted and slashed out again, raking his claws over the male’s face, blinding him in one eye. The male howled in agony.
Good.
They continued fighting, slashing and attacking over and over until Dagen could feel the poison fully out of his system. He could shift if he wanted to.
But no, he was going to take this guy down in human form. This wolf wasn’t worth the effort of the shift. Even as his dragon snarled in annoyance that he wasn’t going to get to play, Dagen stumbled and fell on his back, feigning injury, letting the wolf think he’d won.
As the wolf pounced on him, he brought up his claws, crisscrossing his hands to slash at the wolf’s neck. The male never saw it coming. By the time Dagen rolled to his feet, the wolf’s head was separate from his body, a few feet away on the grassy plain.
He wiped at the blood on his face, but it didn’t do much good. He was covered head to toe, the metallic scent filling the air.
“Good job,” Conall said as he approached, his hands shoved casually in his pockets. Then he looked upward and made a hand motion. A few seconds later one of the sentinels burned Richard’s body and head as well. “You feel any better?” he asked.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah…I kind of do. At least I can tell Keva the threat is gone.”
“Or you could just let her stay at your house for a while.” His Alpha lifted a shoulder.
Dagen shook his head. “No. No lies between us. And I don’t want her afraid for a second longer than she has to be. She needs to know the threat is gone.”
Conall slapped him once on his uninjured shoulder, though he was mostly healed anyway. “Spoken like a true mate. Good answer. We’ll get rid of anything they left in the cabin and I’m going to set up a meeting with their Alpha. I already know what he’s going to say, that they weren’t acting in the interests of the pack, blah, blah, blah.” He shook his head, his expression dark. “Guy shouldn’t be an Alpha if he can’t control his pack.”
“You going to start a war with them?”
Conall shrugged. “They’re not that big, and quite frankly not worth our time. But if you think they’re still a threat to Keva, we’ll fly in and destroy them this week.”
“I’ll talk to Keva.” Because he would do whatever it took to keep her safe. If that meant eliminating an entire pack of wolves, so be it.
Now it was time to get back to his woman. The woman he had completely and utterly fallen in love with.