Chapter 28

“What did you do?” Rafe roared, his voice echoing off the trees, the pain of Scarlet’s death still tearing through him. “Where is Devon?” he demanded of the pack members who stood around staring.

“Where the fuck is my father?” he asked again, stalking through the camp. He was met with a heavy, uncomfortable silence.

Knox found him first.

“What is it?” his brother asked, putting a firm hand on Rafe’s chest. He stopped in his tracks, his chest heaving with angry breaths. Knox looked genuinely confused, a small comfort. His brothers weren’t in on it then.

“Scarlet.” The name burned his throat, but Rafe kept going. “He killed her. The bastard killed her.”

“Christ.” Knox blew out a harsh breath. “Why the hell would he do that?”

“To keep me in line. He did it to punish me.” Rafe’s voice shook with rage. “It’s my fault.” He shrugged off Knox’s hand and continued his search, his brother trailing him.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to kill him.”

Knox grabbed his arm and pulled him back, hissing in his ear. “You can’t say shit like that, Rafe.” Knox glanced around. They both knew his father’s top men were never far. “Just calm down. Who was this woman anyway?”

Rafe spun to face his older brother. “It doesn’t matter. She was innocent, Knox. She was so fucking innocent and he slaughtered her.”

They were outside Devon’s tent now and Rafe didn’t wait. The rage boiling under skin wouldn’t allow him to think, to pause, to consider his actions. Those were things humans did and Rafe’s last bit of humanity had just died in a sunny field. He tore open the flap of the tent followed closely by Knox. Their father sat sprawled in a camp chair, cigarette dangling from his fingers. He’d been waiting for them, of course.

“You,” Rafe spit, lunging forward, but Knox had him by the arm and tugged him back.

His father chuckled. “I warned you,” he growled. “I told you to stay away from town. To stop sniffing around humans.” He took a long drag of his cigarette and then stubbed it out under the toe of his boot. “I’ll give it to you though, she was a pretty little thing.”

Rafe roared and lunged for him again, this time flinging Knox off his arm and knocking his father to the ground. He got in two punches before his brothers hauled him off again. He didn’t know when Theo had shown up, but now all three of the Alpha’s sons stood panting in front of him.

Devon sat in a heap on the dirt floor, surrounded by his usual cloud of smoke, his lip bloodied.

“My sons,” he said with a sneer. “All think you’re so much better than me.”

“Father—” Knox started, but Devon cut him off.

“Someday, I’ll kick the bucket and one of you assholes will take my place.” He stood and dusted the dirt from his pants. “But until then, I am still your Alpha and you will obey me or you will pay the price.”

Rafe spit at his feet. “Fuck. You.” Theo and Knox each tightened their grip on his arms and he’d never hated them more. Never hated them more than when they held him back from giving their father what he truly deserved.

“Let him go,” Devon growled.

“What?” Theo asked. “Devon, really…”

“I said, let him go. And get the hell out. I want to talk to Rafe alone.”

“Shit,” Knox whispered under his breath, but they both let go. Theo gave him one last glance before they left him alone with the Alpha.

Rafe’s body coiled tight, ready to spring, but Devon assessed him coolly. “It should be you,” he said, stepping closer, crowding Rafe against the side of the canvas tent.

Rafe gave a low growl of warning.

Devon chuckled. “You are the biggest and strongest of my sons, Rafe. And look at how the beast sits so close to the surface. I want it to be you.”

“I don’t want it.”

His father grunted. “I know. I also know you’ve been planning to leave.”

Rafe didn’t bother to try and figure out how his father knew that. He knew everything.

Devon leaned forward until Rafe could feel his hot breath on his face. “But know this, son: that little human was just the beginning.”

Rafe flinched and his father laughed.

“You’ve got friends here, yeah? Those brothers of yours too. Don’t think I would hesitate to make their lives a living hell if you leave. Nell, too.”

“Jesus Christ, Devon.” Rafe’s stomach rolled in disgust. “You’d use your own pack, your own goddamn family against me?”

“It’s what’s best for them in the end. Having a strong Alpha. It’s what’s best.”

Rafe shook his head and nearly laughed at his father’s logic. He was willing to torment some members of his pack just to get the strongest leader for them in the end? What a sick son of a bitch. But what choice did that leave Rafe with? Leave and try to make it on his own? At what cost to the rest of his family? Or stay and live with whatever little tests Devon cooked up until the day the old bastard died?

“I want the fights to stop. The sparring.”

“What?” Devon’s bushy brows rose in surprise. “You’re trying to make a deal with me?”

Rafe shrugged, feigning a casual calm he didn’t feel. He couldn’t feel calm with Scarlet’s blood still fresh on his hands and his father’s latest threats ringing in his ears.

“You want me to stay? Then no more of these bullshit fights. I’m tired of it.”

Devon stepped back, his mouth twisted into a frown as he thought Rafe’s offer over. Rafe couldn’t bring Scarlet back and the thought tore through him with fresh agony, but maybe he could make life slightly more bearable for him and his brothers.

His father turned back to face him, familiar silver eyes flashing. “Deal.”

* * *

Devon kept his promise for a while, but as the old Alpha weakened he ramped up the competition for his place all over again. And Rafe had been too exhausted to stop him until the final fight, the one he’d refused to win.