Chapter 8

Morning found Wilde, Rob, and me grubbier and sleepier, gathered in my truck in the sheriff's station parking lot. Wilde sounded hoarse. He'd spent the night outside that window spinning tales of his misspent youth, edited in case a human was listening or recording. Rob and I had patrolled the perimeter after sending Blake home to rest, but no strange wolf had shown up. A couple of drunks and a man with bloody knuckles had been hauled in during the off-hours. All had clearly human scents, and Wilde reported no more than mumbling and cursing from the direction of their cells.

He said Asher wasn't talking back much, just enough to show he heard. In my head, his bond had settled to a low pulse of fear, which was a step better than panic.

On the stroke of eight, a shiny new SUV pulled into the lot.

"Silverstein." Wilde got out and walked over.

I rolled down my window to hear them.

The woman who got out wore a power suit, complete with a tailored skirt and heels. She was tall even before the heels, middle-aged, and polished like glass. Her blond hair clung to her head in a sleek cap where not one strand dared move out of place. "Jefferson." She gave him a brisk handshake.

"Ms. Silverstein. Thanks for taking on my friend's case."

Surprisingly, she smiled, full of teeth like a shark. "Oh, I'm grateful for you bringing this one to my attention."

"Why?"

"I was doing research on the case to see what I was up against, and I found… nothing."

"Huh?"

"There is no case. There is no warrant. Well, there is, but it's a fake, sent out from North Platte, Nebraska, two years ago. The judge's signature is illegible, not her normal, and there's no paperwork behind it. There's not even a victim's body that I can locate."

Wilde flicked a look over at me. My mouth was probably hanging open. Okay, that's a different situation.

In a twisted way, it fit. Wolves didn't bring human laws into our fights. Bad enough for the Alpha to have humans catching Asher for him, but at least he hadn't set him up for human prison and all the trappings of courts and cameras. If Asher hadn't had a competent lawyer, would anyone have bothered to check beyond the warrant? Transferring him to another state didn't have anything to do with the details of the crime itself, just paperwork legitimizing his Alpha getting his hands on Asher.

Or maybe the Alpha thought he could bully an arresting sheriff or persuade him into ignoring any irregularities. Just give me the perp and we can skip all the paperwork. We can pretend he never left home and my department caught him ourselves. Hell, from the disgusted expression on Frazer's face over extraditions, that might even work.

Wilde said, "That means you can get him out soon?"

"Give me half an hour. The sheriff will want to replicate my findings, call Nebraska maybe. But then, yeah. Your guy has one hell of a case for false arrest, although sadly, not so much against Frazer as against North Platte." The lawyer cocked her head. "Any idea what the story is?"

"You'd have to ask Asher." Wilde shrugged. "I think the sheriff's wife ran away from him, and he blamed Asher somehow."

"That makes some sense." She gave Wilde a firm nod. "You go get yourself a coffee. I'll have your friend sprung before your drink gets cold. Maybe get him a cup, too. The sheriff's coffee sucks." She headed inside, her stride swift and confident.

Wilde strolled back our way, all fake nonchalance. I closed my eyes for a moment to send confidence and hope down Asher's bond and felt his misery develop a hint of curiosity. Gonna be fine , I thought with far more certainty than before. Hang in there. Not much changed, but perhaps he felt a bit lighter. Just you wait.

I blinked and looked at Wilde standing by my window. "Well, that changes things."

"Hell, yeah." He grinned, and suddenly I saw a much younger man in the bones of his face.

"Get in, rest your feet," I told him. Wilde had refused to go home all night. "When the door opens, go get— Asher." I'd almost said your man but I had no evidence there was anything except a new friendship between them. Finally feeling free to be queer had me seeing gayness in everything. Wilde was old, for God's sake. I must be a bit tipsy with relief.

"Sounds like a plan." Wilde got into the front and tipped the seat back, closing his eyes, but I wasn't fooled. I left my window open despite the chill of the mountain morning, so he could hear clearly.

Fifteen minutes later, a rush of relief and disbelief blasted me from Asher's bond. I chuckled and eased the contact half-closed. "Asher just got the news."

"How does he feel?" Rob asked.

"A hell of a lot better than two minutes ago."

Wilde sat up, but we waited another ten minutes before the door to the station opened. Frazer came out with Silverstein, who had a hold on Asher's arm. Asher stumbled, moving stiffly despite the new sneakers he was wearing. Or perhaps because of, flapping with no laces. "Go get him," I told Wilde.

The old wolf strode over toward the group, and Asher broke free to meet him. They didn't hug, but Wilde gripped Asher's forearm and said, "Your friends are in the car."

Asher stared into Wilde's eyes for a long moment before he looked our way, then broke past Wilde in a shambling run. I swung down and met him, and I did hug him. He smelled faintly of piss and dust and sweat and an odd miasma of stale food, but he laughed as I let go. "I'm out. I'm free."

"So you are," I agreed, then pitched my voice low. "Get in the back with your Second. Lace up those shoes." I handed him his laces, then headed for the sheriff and the lawyer.

Frazer looked like he'd bitten a lemon. "Please repeat to your friend, I'm sorry someone used the law against him like that. I was only doing my duty, though."

Friends. We want to be friends. "I'm sure he understands," I said. "You had a warrant."

"Which you didn't check properly." Silverstein seemed to be enjoying the situation. I guessed that she and the sheriff often butted heads over her clients. "I will ask Mr. Wright if he has any wish to sue."

"He won't," I hastened to assure Frazer, before his face stuck like that. "He just wants to put the arrest behind him."

Frazer said, "I've submitted a report to the Nebraska Crime Commission. When they'll act on it is another matter, unfortunately."

"Thank you for doing that." I held out my hand.

Frazer eyed it for a moment before closing his fingers on mine. His grip was hard but not quite a challenge. "My duty. When an officer of the law breaks it, he needs to be held accountable."

I returned the exact same pressure. "Will you let… Mr. Wilde know if someone shows up from Nebraska looking to take Asher into custody?" I figured Wilde would be the most palatable among us to Frazer for passing on info. "Asher lost his phone when he fell in the creek."

"Have him get another one and send me the number, but yes, all right, I'll let Wilde know." Frazer's frown returned. "Do you expect someone to come?"

"Not for certain, but if the guy was crazy enough to make up a fake warrant, who knows? Now he's located Asher, he might come after him in person."

"I'll slap the cuffs on him myself if he does and give you a heads-up." Frazer glared at me. "And if you see him, you call me, right? Don't take this guy on yourself. I have no room for vigilantes in my county."

"Absolutely," I promised with my metaphorical fingers firmly crossed. Not a chance in hell.

His expression didn't soften, but after a moment, he said, "Ms. Silverstein, Mr. Hammersmith, Mr. Wilde." He pivoted and headed back inside.

The lawyer chuckled. "I do like seeing that man flustered." She looked up at me, since I topped her despite the spiked heels. "Jefferson, I'll send you a bill, but the initial retainer will cover most of it. A pleasure meeting you, Mr. Hammersmith."

"Likewise." I shook her hand. "We'll hope not to need you again. At least, not in this capacity."

"Are you staying locally, then?"

"I'm beginning to think I might."

"Good. You make our sheriff less cocksure, and that's not a bad thing." She tap-clicked across the pavement to her SUV, got in, and pulled away.

Wilde climbed into the passenger seat of my pickup and tipped his head on the headrest, eyes half-closed. I swung into the driver's seat and turned to look over my shoulder. "Welcome back, Asher." He bowed his head, leaning into Rob's arm draped around him. "Now I think we all need—" I cut off my words as a car pulled into the sheriff's lot. No reason it had anything to do with us except that the man who got out moved easier than you'd expect from his bulk. Then he raised his head, fake casually, scenting the air, and I was certain. I tilted my head his way.

Asher was already staring. "Oh, shit!" His panic-spike hit me, and I had to throttle our bond down.

At Asher's yelp, the stranger whirled to look at us. I met his eyes through the windshield and grinned. "Hell, yeah, come to Papa." Slamming the truck into gear, I pulled out of the lot fast, like I was scared, though not with any squeal of tires that might draw the sheriff after us. "Come on, you bastard." Behind us, I saw the stranger jump back in his car and reverse out to follow me.

Asher cranked around in his seat to peer out the back. "He's after us!"

"Good." I gunned it a little, but not too much. We had a bunch of town to drive through before it was just us wolves.

"What do you mean, good?"

"Sit down and settle, Third," I told him, as a sharper turn threw him against his seatbelt. "Watch in the mirror. I want him to come after us. Time to bring this to a close, wolf to wolf. He's a menace to the packs, and he made your life a misery, but he can't do that to me."

"He can kill you."

I felt my chapped lip crack with how wide I grinned. "He can try."

Rob said, "Have faith in your Alpha, Third."

Asher made a faint sound. I felt even over our closed bond how his old Alpha's presence brought back that looming threat, the specter of pain and fear so huge it dwarfed everything else. "Listen up," I told Asher. "From what I saw, I'm bigger than him, likely faster than him, stronger than him, and younger than him. Right?"

After a few breaths, Asher cleared his throat. "I guess."

"He's also alone, at least in that car. I'm not. You're not."

"Oh." I felt that truth sink in enough to help.

That had to be enough reassurance for now. We were running out of buildings. "Where to, Wilde? I want a good place for a showdown with no human neighbors."

"I know the place. Fifteen miles straight first, so don't let him catch you."

That was a reasonable warning, as the car behind us sped up to reach my bumper. I gunned the truck and initially we pulled away, but his sedan matched my speed. He didn't gain, though. "Good thing he didn't drive his beefed-up patrol car," I said. "Asher, what's this bastard's name?"

"George. Vogel."

"And he was the local sheriff?"

"Yeah."

"Peachy." The biggest downside to wolves in law enforcement was they got casual about guns. By ancient custom, we wolves settled things without weapons, other than what our bodies provided. No guns, no knives, no swords, no freaking blunt objects, just hands and feet and fangs. But a guy who'd broken one custom might be willing to break more.

"He knows he's outnumbered," I said aloud so the others would know what I was thinking. "He's still chasing us. So either he's so crazed about getting Asher he's lost every bit of common sense, or he's confident he can take me and all of you in a fight, or he's got another plan. Maybe an automatic weapon kind of plan."

"Would he do that?" Wilde asked Asher.

"I don't know." Asher threw a quick look back again. "He broke my bond to him when he had me trapped in fur, I guess so he could tell the pack I was dead. I haven't known what he was thinking or feeling for… years, I guess. He was snake-mean, back then, but smart with it. He went armed a lot— he was the sheriff and yeah, I think he liked it." Asher shuddered. "But he never pulled a gun on another wolf that I know of. 'Course, he didn't have to."

"We'll call that a definite maybe." I stepped harder on the gas as the road climbed abruptly. "Rob, give the situation some thought."

"Does he like his own skin?" Rob asked Asher. "I mean, would he throw himself into a fight if the odds weren't great, or back off and try another day?"

"Back off, I think." Asher shook his head hard. "I don't know! It's hard to remember."

"Shush." Wilde seemed to meet Asher's gaze in the rearview. "I'm calling Phillip and Blake. They can get to the spot almost as quick as we can. It's always good to have backup the bastard doesn't know about." He pulled out his phone and gave the other two wolves a quick rundown and orders to meet us at the lookout rock, right now. "There. Reinforcements."

I hoped the sheriff didn't have speed traps set up, because we were hitting big-ticket speeds, and I didn't want any humans getting involved. We held to the main road for another ten minutes, passing a few slower cars, sometimes to a protesting blare of a horn, before Wilde said, "On the left, logging road. Look for a red blaze on a big pine, then fifty yards on." A minute later, he and Rob said, "Blaze," together and then Wilde added, "Here. Left."

The opening was small and easy to miss if you weren't expecting it. I whipped the truck across the oncoming lane and into the gap, pleased to see George have to peel to a stop and wait for an approaching van. Gunning my engine, I picked up some running room in a churn of gravel and dust.

This road got steep quickly, winding back and forth through the ever-scrubbier trees. Our tires bounced over ruts, and I heard downed branches hit the undercarriage as we drove over them. "Asher," I said to distract him as we jolted through a washout. "You'll be expected to fix every dent on this truck with your bare hands and teeth. Well, maybe with a tool or two."

"Yes, Alpha." He laughed nervously, like he wasn't sure I was joking.

"Two minutes now," Wilde said. "There's room to park a couple of cars."

I glanced in my mirror. We'd gained some ground. George's car didn't have the clearance my truck did, and he'd had to slow down. "Right. When we get there, everyone out. We run and we scatter. If he thinks we're scared, he's probably going to follow Asher, or maybe me. We need to make sure we're not all in one field of fire."

"I hate guns," Wilde said. "So crudely human."

"But effective," Rob noted.

I turned to Rob. "Any other thoughts, Second?"

"No, sir. It's a fluid situation. Try not to get your ass shot off. I'm not done enjoying it."

Wilde's laugh and Asher's " What ?" punctuated the last turn in the road.

Ahead, the grooved dirt ended in a small weed-carpeted clearing. I whipped in a turn so we were roughly headed back toward the road and said, "Everyone out." Grabbing the keys, because I don't make mistakes twice, I scrambled after them. Rob obeyed orders, cutting left into the brush. Wilde charged right. Asher clung to my heels, but I didn't correct him. It was a miracle he was still on his feet. Behind us, Alpha George's car ground to a halt and the engine cut out. The door slammed.

Wilde called, "A hundred yards ahead, space and boulders."

"Good man," I called back.

Sure enough, a shot rang out, ripping bark off a tree near my head. I swerved and sprinted. Fuck, I hated being right. Although it was a single shot, not half a magazine, so maybe he had a limited supply of ammo.

The clearing ahead was smaller, ringed by a tumble of boulders, brush, and crooked pines. I grabbed Asher's arm and shoved him behind a boulder. "Stay there."

Whirling, I called, "George, you shoot me and my pack will hunt you down and eat your liver alive."

"What pack?" That was at least better than a shot, although he came into view with his gun held ready. Handgun. Even better.

I cocked my head. Far below but approaching, I could hear the sound of Blake's truck. "That pack. They have your car blocked in. You can't run. Don't be an idiot about this." I held back the oops, too late , that wanted to come out. Adrenaline buoyed me up. I'd wanted to beat someone up for a long, long time. Mostly myself, but this was going to be good.

"You stole my wolf." He put his back to a tree, keeping his aim on me.

"You threw him away."

"He killed my wife."

"Bullshit."

From behind the rock, Asher said faintly, "She's not dead. She escaped."

George snapped off a shot that chipped a flake from the boulder, ricocheting into the trees. I hoped Wilde and Rob were hunkered down. That sharp crack would motivate Phillip and Blake to move faster, but I didn't want them in the middle, either.

"Here's how this will go down," George said, his aim now steady on my chest. "I have enough rounds here to take out all of you three times over. You send my wolf to me, let us leave, and you'll live to walk away. Or you all die. Your choice."

"Don't be stupid," I told him. "You shoot me in front of my pack, and my Second will hunt you down and make sure your death is horrific. He's ex-Special Forces." A lie, although Rob had plenty of skills without the military background. "You won't even see him coming."

"All I want is my wolf."

" My wolf now. No. Go home and you might survive to torture your own pack a little longer." Taunting a man holding a gun on me was probably a bad idea, but it made my wolf purr with anticipation.

"So we have a standoff." He popped off another shot at Asher's boulder but returned his aim to me before I could move. Raising his voice he said, "Asher, get your ass out here before I put a hole in this guy!"

I felt Asher's panicked jolt across the bond. George wasn't his Alpha anymore but resisting that command was still hard, especially with his fear for me rising at George's threat. I sent reassurance and stay put as best as I could down that bond and was pleased when Asher didn't move.

"You're an Alpha, I'm an Alpha," I told George, like he wasn't a waste of space in a human suit. "There's another way to settle this. Wolf to wolf."

"And if I win, your pack will take me down. No thanks."

"They won't. My word on it." I'd make damned sure they didn't have to.

He sneered. "When you're dead, they won't care about your word."

I caught a flicker of movement behind him. Scent was blowing from me to him, which would help whoever was behind him. Help Rob, as I saw a hint of the blue of his shirt. I had to trust he knew what he was doing. I raised my voice. "Maybe your pack's so undisciplined you can't hold them unless you're right there. Mine isn't."

"Fuck you." George's face reddened and he snarled at me.

Yes. Focus on me. I spoke even louder, sliding sideways so he'd watch my motions. "What do you think they're doing while you're gone, huh? You think they've called in some stronger Alpha to take your place? Or is your Second stepping up, gaining power to finally get rid of you?" I laughed. "You think you'll have a pack to go back to?"

"I'm gonna drag all your wolves back with me—" George yelped as Rob made his move from around the tree at George's back, sweeping the bastard Alpha's gun hand upward while landing a sharp blow. I dove and rolled. A shot rang out, but George's grip on the gun weakened enough for Rob to wrench the weapon away from him. Rob leaped sideways, neat as a cat, evading George's flailing kick.

George whirled and ran. Rob called, "Should I shoot him, Alpha?"

"Fuck, no." I gave chase as George disappeared into the trees. "All we need, his body with a bullet in it." Rob could've passed me, but he ran at my shoulder. By the sound of George's progress, he was circling back to his car. He might have more guns there, but from what I'd heard, I thought Blake and Phillip's truck had beaten him to the parking area. He could probably take either Blake or Phillip, but hopefully not both.

I heard George slow, then change directions, sprinting away from the cars. Yep, my guys got there first. I picked up my pace. Asher ran just behind Rob, and I could make out Wilde a few yards farther in the rear. "Hey, Alpha," Phillip called, angling toward us. "What do you need?"

"You and Blake make sure the bastard doesn't outflank you and head for his car." I waved him off, and he changed directions, paralleling us with Blake at his heels.

"Like hunting deer," Rob said and let out a high-pitched yip.

I snorted but didn't reply. I'd have told him he was a nutcase except I could feel how much it settled Asher to think of his old Alpha as prey.

Wilde whistled. "Asher, this way."

"Alpha?"

I waved Asher off. "Go on. He knows this ground."

The slope increased as we tore after George. We were back to the rolling scree, some areas mossy or weedy but others loose rock and dirt. Twenty feet ahead, George sprinted for all he was worth, but I still had a gear left and Rob probably had two. "Let's get him." I kicked my pace up a notch, hearing Phillip and Blake closer again to our right.

We broke out of the trees onto a rounded rocky summit. On the left, a cliff dropped vertically perhaps sixty feet to the first ledge and then in steep steps a hundred feet more. Ahead, open ground dipped rapidly down into a small valley before climbing again. Wilde and Asher came into view there and slowed to a stop, cutting off George's advance. Phillip and Blake appeared to my right, also slowing.

George glanced around wildly, his back to the gorge, halted on the high ground. "Now what? You gonna shoot me, big, bad Alpha?" He put some sneer in his voice, but I heard the fear behind it. I wondered how long it had been since this bastard had actually been afraid. Far too long.

I held my hand out to stop Rob behind me and took two steps toward George. "You want me to? You're the one brought the gun to a pack fight."

"Wasn't supposed to be a fight," he snarled.

"No, just a slaughter, right? Or were you going to take Asher back and torture him some more?" Asher's pulse of fear over the bond made me regret saying that, but George had a pack behind him somewhere, and I didn't want to be surprised. "Was your Second on board with that?"

Alphas all have a poker face. Showing emotion can be a weakness. But the way George's expression went dead flat made me hope the answer was no.

"Tell me about your old Second, Asher," I asked. "Rule-follower or rule-breaker? Mind of his own or toady?"

"Silence, Fourteenth," George snapped before Asher replied, with what was probably meant to be an Alpha command.

Luckily, Asher wasn't his to command anymore. Mine. "Tell me, Third." I put zero force behind that. Didn't need it.

"Third?" George let his shock show through.

I grinned widely. "You'd no idea what you discarded, did you?" Asher had been smart to lie low. "Your loss, my gain. Third?"

"A rule-follower, Alpha." I was proud of how Asher spoke up. "Older man, and not one to rock the boat. He followed G-George because that's how packs work." His voice shook on using his old Alpha's name out loud to his face, but he'd said it.

"Good man," I told him. "So, George, what would your Second think about bringing human cops into this pack mess? Did you tell him where you were going?"

"My pack backs me up like they should."

"Your pack's probably hoping someone does them a favor and offs you."

"Right." Asher's comment was soft but audible.

I looked around, cupped a hand to my ear. "Where is your pack, Georgie? I don't see them, don't hear them."

"They're nearby. On their way here."

"You think they're hurrying because they feel your fear, your terror, your rising panic? Or will they cross their fingers and move slow?"

"Fuck you. And you ." He stared down the slope at Asher. "Where is she? Where did you hide her?"

"You think I'll tell you now?"

"I'll break every bone in your body!"

"You already tried." Asher's tone had weakened.

I whistled through two fingers. "Hey, Georgie-boy. You're forgetting something. Asher's my wolf, and you have to go through me to get to him." I raised my chin, spread my arms wide, let the bastard see my size.

"No problem." His bravado didn't ring true. "You said if I beat you, your pack will let me go."

I glanced at Blake, Phillip, then Wilde. Gestured to Wilde with my chin. "Let the elder hold the gun, Second." When Rob had jogged over and handed Wilde the weapon, I said, "My word on it as Alpha. No member of my pack will touch you if you win."

Rob growled at me, but Wilde inclined his head. I'd phrased that deliberately— he wasn't my pack. Yet , my wolf said hopefully. If I somehow failed, I trusted Wilde to make sure this crazy dirtbag of an Alpha never threatened Asher again.

Blake said, "Why don't we just shoot him? He shot at you."

"Because some pack customs are bullshit." I gave him a swift look. "But others keep us from disaster. Besides." I turned to grin at my Third. "Asher really wants to see me beat the hell out of Georgie." Over the bond, Asher's emotions hiccupped but didn't change much. Maybe it was me who wanted to see that.

"In skin, then," George said. "I Challenge you."

Technically, as Challenged, it was my right to choose. But… "Skin works for me. Gives us more options what to do with your body afterward."

Wilde laughed. Rob didn't. I waved my men back and took my place on a patch of weathered granite where the ground was smooth underfoot. "Come at me then, Georgie-Porgie, and may the best wolf win."

I hoped I'd riled him up enough to rush me, but he wasn't that reckless. He circled, feinting, watching my reactions. I turned with him, attention on his center of mass. "By the way, you try to run away and Wilde will shoot you. Bullet holes be damned."

"I don't run." George bared his teeth.

"And it shows. A little pudgy around the midsection there, Georgie." I was lying. He was as fit as any wolf. But his color darkened.

He circled me again. Launched a kick that I sidestepped. I don't think he'd meant it to connect, just to see how I reacted.

"I'm getting tired of dancing." I moved sideways two more steps, then launched at him. He spun away, but I'd landed a solid fist to his ribs.

"That… all you got?" The little gasp when his ribs caught made the bravado a fail.

"Appetizer. We're not close to the main event yet." I lunged and spun, aiming a kick at his knee. Barely grazed him and got a thump on the shoulder that did me no harm before he leaped out of reach.

We fell into a rhythm of feint and retreat. He didn't want to close with me, since I had two inches and probably thirty pounds on him, with a longer reach. He might've thought he could wear me down, but I'd spent the last year trying to outrun my feelings on the dirt paths around home and was in the best shape I'd ever been. As I dodged and lunged, leaped and chased him, my breathing came smooth and easy.

George feinted left, then dodged right. I spun to follow and my foot slipped on a patch of gravel, throwing off my balance. George snapped out a kick that jolted my shin and swung a blow at my gut. I turned enough to deflect the force along my ribs and delivered an elbow strike that caught him just an inch below his throat. George coughed as he leaped back.

"Weak and slow," I taunted him. "A wonder your pack hasn't put you down yet."

His leg sweep connected with my ankle, but I saw it telegraphed and barely staggered. Changing tactics, he grappled with me, taking us both to the dirt. Big mistake. Rob had spent years teaching me ground-fighting techniques.

Wolves fought to win, tooth and claw, no rules. He went for my eyes, then bit my shoulder. I kneed him viciously in the gut, headbutted his nose to knock him back, then hammer-punched him in the face. My fist connected with a blow that jolted us both. George broke free and rolled to his feet. Blood dripped from his left eyebrow and lined his lips as he coughed.

For Asher, I thought with vicious satisfaction.

George leaped away, heading for the far edge of the clearing, then whirled to the side as Wilde leveled the gun at him, his intention clear.

"Fight, coward," Wilde snapped.

I was right behind George, and his sidestep brought him in range of my fists. I landed a punch to his jaw and another to his midsection. He doubled over and turned the motion into a kick that grazed my thigh, making me stumble. Dodging back toward the edge of the cliff, he slipped on the loose rocks and went to one knee. I kicked out and connected with his shoulder, knocking him backward. Kicked again, took his arm out from under him, and brought him to the ground a foot from the brink.

George stared up at me as I closed in, planning how to finish him. Then he scrambled backward and right off the edge.

"Fuck!" I lunged over to look down the cliff where the bastard had disappeared.

He'd found a spot where the face was a little less sheer and a few small shrubs clung to cracks in the rock. Ten feet below, he hung from one of the bushes, his legs dangling.

My men charged up behind me, staring over the rocky lip.

George's arms strained and he didn't look up, focused on another shrub a foot lower. He made the grab, shifted his weight. The next handhold was a bigger stretch. He dug a booted toe into a crack.

"Shall we drop a rock on him?" Wilde asked conversationally.

Rob said, "We could take bets on how far he'll get." When I glared, he mimed zipping his lips but didn't look repentant.

George's escape couldn't succeed. The shrubs and cracks he jammed fingers and feet into would run out well above the rocky ledge. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion as he moved another foot left and down. One more— the shrub he hung from pulled free of its roots with a dry snap. For an instant, he clung to the surface, fingers of his other hand digging into a tiny crack. Then he fell.

A puff of dust rose from the ledge sixty feet below as he hit with a thump. He made no other sound.

"You think he's dead?" Phillip asked after a moment's silence.

"Good bet," Rob said. "Although I read about this girl that survived three hundred feet once."

We stared down at the unmoving body.

"We have to get him, either way," I said. "I don't want him to be found dead within a hundred miles of Asher. Out in the open like that, some hiker's going to spot him."

"I have climbing rope in my truck," Blake volunteered. "I'll run and get it." He whirled away, and I heard his steps recede down the slope.

"Oh, shit." Asher wavered off to my left and sank to his knees.

I whirled to him. "What? Did you get hit?" A couple of bullets had gone wild. I threw open his bond but couldn't feel pain in the maelstrom of confusion there.

"No. Sorry, Alpha." He bowed his head to his legs, breathing hard. "I just… shit."

I knelt beside Asher and wrapped my arm around his shoulders, focusing on our bond. "Tell me." I might've expected relief or excitement or satisfaction, but only got regret and shock and a bleak confusion. I rocked him against me. "Makes sense you don't know how to feel. He was your Alpha once." Alpha, leader, torturer, pursuer. My Third had a lot of history tied up with the dead wolf.

"Yeah. I should be laughing, right?" Asher raised his pale face to look at me and his cheeks were wet. "Why am I crying?"

Wilde said on his other side, "Sometimes our bodies don't know what to do with a heavy blow. I was with an unbonded pack wife once when she found out her husband had died overseas. She laughed. It was just shock."

"I guess."

"You're not sorry he's gone?" I probed. "If we get down there and he's still alive, you don't want me to save him?"

"Hell, no." Some of the color came back in Asher's cheeks. "He used to laugh when she cried, liked it when she screamed. He can rot in hell."

I hugged him and let go. "There you are. You'll get yourself sorted out." I gave Wilde a nod as he seated himself beside Asher. The old wolf would take care of him.

Rob said, "Are we gonna draw straws who goes down after him?"

"No." You can't do this for me. Rob had enough blood on his hands on my behalf already. "It was my fight. If he's still alive, it's my job to end it." I hoped George was dead, though. Killing in the heat of a fight was one thing, killing an unconscious man… Alpha fights could only end in death, and I'd do the job, for Asher and the safety of all my wolves, but damn, you poisonous son of a bitch, be dead already .

Rob no doubt read my unease after years of working together, but he grinned, wide and amused, like it was simply another day. "I'm a better climber. You're just a sucker for punishment."

"Yeah, a masochist, that's me." I checked out Phillip, who stood at the brink, looking down toward George's body. I wasn't sure how much death he and Blake had seen. Alpha Michael's death at Kane's hands, of course, but they'd been living away from the harsh realities of pack for decades. Would this fight scare them off?

But when Phillip felt my eyes on him, he met my gaze, then gave a head-bow that seemed more like respect than fear.

Rob added, "You do realize, Alpha, you're the heaviest to pull back up."

"There's five of you. I think you'll manage."

Blake returned about twenty minutes later with ropes and climbing gear and a tarp. "I figured we could wrap him in that to carry, in case there's… bits."

"Good thought." I accepted a helmet because getting whacked in the noggin if someone dislodged a rock would be a really embarrassing way to go.

"You do know how to climb?" Phillip asked me.

"I'm an amateur, but I've done a bit. You're just belaying me down and hauling me back up. I don't expect problems."

The descent wasn't my favorite thing, dangling over a hundred-and-fifty-foot drop, aiming for one narrow ledge. I made it, though, and the guys gave me enough slack to scuttle over to George's body. I moved cautiously as I touched him, just in case, but I couldn't hear a heartbeat, and when I rolled his head, his neck crunched and his eyes stared sightlessly at the blue Wyoming sky.

"He's gone," I called to Asher. "It's over. All but the minor details."

This time, across his bond, I felt a wash of pure relief, heady and potent. My wolf preened. We take care of our pack.

"Right," I told Rob. "Gonna rope the body into the tarp and you can haul it. Then we need to figure out what to do with him."

"My job, Alpha," Rob called down. "I'm refining a plan. Trust me."

I do.

I gazed out for a moment across the wide valley, lined by thin pine woods and bare rocky outcroppings in shades of green and gray and gold. The first fall colors brightened the mountainsides here and there. The warming sunshine promised a glorious day. Here on the ledge, with the fresh breeze cooling my face, I had a dead man at my feet, and I ached in a dozen places where George had landed blows. My hands throbbed. I tasted blood from a split in my lip. The pack bonds in my head from Asher and Rob echoed a jumble of emotions— shock, relief, confusion, pride, satisfaction. Love. I opened wider to Rob, drinking that in, feeling the echo of another Alpha fight I'd won, nineteen years before.

Life is so strange.

Rob called, "You in there, Alpha? The clock's running."

I grumbled, "Hold your damned horses, Second. No respect, that's what I get." When I peered up, the man I loved looked down at me, silhouetted against the clear blue sky. And despite everything, I hadn't been that happy in years.