“Ram.”

Ramsey squinted one eye open. His head was throbbing so hard he wanted to squeeze his eyes closed again immediately. Rike and Ethan were here, squatted down near the bathroom doorway. The floor was covered in shattered glass, and the light fixture above him had been destroyed. The shower curtain was in tatters, and the back lid of the toilet had been ripped off and lay cracked across his hip. His whole body hurt and was covered in cuts.

“What happened?” Ethan asked quietly from behind Rike. Both of their eyes were black, and they looked worried. Great. More worry. More pity.

Hoarsely, Ramsey said, “I locked myself in here.”

Rike looked back at Ethan, but whatever they said with their look, Ramsey couldn’t tell. “Why would you do that? Your crow wasn’t ever going to react well to being trapped. Even if you were…”

“Finish it,” Ramsey growled, sitting up. God, it felt like someone was battering the inside of his skull with a sledgehammer. “Even if I was what?”

“Even if you were okay.” Rike sighed. “We’ve got bad news.”

“Great. Let’s hear it.” Every day was fuckin’ bad news, so whatever.

“Grant and Kasey got into it last night. Over something stupid. Over one of the Crow Chasers. Sabrina. Grant said something to her, and Kasey lost his shit. No reason. He doesn’t even talk to her. The boys are all riled up because of…well…”

“Because I’m fucked up.”

“Yeah.”

“So? Crows fight all the time. If they weren’t fighting, I would be worried.”

Rike gave Ethan another look, and his Second stood and took over. “Kasey killed Grant.”

“What?” Ramsey barked out, sitting up straighter.

“Pulled a knife on him and went to town. Wouldn’t stop. We had to pull him off.”

“What the fuck? Why did no one wake me?”

“We looked in your room, but the light was off. We thought you were out hunting Tenlee again.”

“Hunting…? No, I haven’t been to Two Claws in days. At least I don’t think I have.” He couldn’t remember much from The Crow’s night flights. Ramsey scrubbed his hands over his bleary eyes. Was this really happening? And so soon? The killings? Momma Crow had told him the steps. She’d told him exactly what would happen to him and the entire Clan if he didn’t bring Tenlee back in line, but he hadn’t thought the killings would happen so soon. “Did he show remorse?”

“Nah,” Ethan said, trouble swirling like storm clouds in his eyes. “None at all.”

“Fuck! He and Grant were friends!” Ramsey couldn’t wrap his head around this. He’d just talked to Grant yesterday. He’d bought Ramsey a few shots of whiskey at a bar in town and talked to him about life, about their pasts, about anything but how fucked in the head Ramsey was becoming. Grant had been relief. And now he was dead?

“Did you call the cleaner?”

“Yeah. The body is taken care of,” Rike said softly. “Ram, I know you don’t want to give up your rank…but we can all see it coming. We’re gonna fold under you, and not everyone is going to survive it. And yeah, we’re a bunch of outlaws, but we have people who depend on us, too. Grant had a son. Yeah, he’s grown and lives far off, but he has to bury his dad. And we’ve already lost so much to Two Claws. It’s like they’re still here, poisoning us. You understand what I mean?”

Ramsey was staring at the glass on the floor, shaking his head. “What? No, I don’t understand. Spell it out. I had a long night.”

“What if we kill Tenlee?”

Ramsey was up like a shot, grabbed Rike by the throat, and slammed him against the wall so hard the drywall gave. “Don’t you ever fuckin’ say that to me. If she dies, you die. You understand?” he snarled in Rike’s face.

“Her life,” Rike choked out, “is not more important than your entire Clan’s lives.”

Stunned, Ramsey released his throat and backed off. He was right. She was one life and he was willing to sacrifice his people to protect one life. His. People. The root of the problems with Red Dead Mayhem all stemmed from the broken mating bond to Ten. Everything that was happening, this storm that was building, was a direct result of Ten not bonding back. It wasn’t her fault. It was his. His responsibility, it fell at the feet of his crow.

The animal had chosen wrong, and it was costing lives. Lives of outlaws and hell-raisers, sure, but there was good inside of his people. They were his Clan, the ones who had backed him while he rose to power. The ones who were killing each other because of his broken bond. The ones who were mourning the loss of their fallen brothers to Two Claws and to themselves.

This wasn’t on Ten.

This was on him.

Ramsey winced at the realization. Some of his people might make it out of this alive, but some would not. And there wasn’t an Alpha challenger powerful enough to best him while he still had this kind of strength and moments of lucidity. He couldn’t kill Ten. Couldn’t allow his people to kill her, but he couldn’t let his Clan fight to the death over unstable bonds either.

He had to find a way to fix this.

Ramsey strode past Rike and Ethan and into the bedroom, and there he yanked a pair of jeans out of his closet and pulled them on, leg by leg.

“Where are you going?” Rike asked from behind him.

“To see a moose.”