Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

Gray

T he courtyard is heavy with the stench of blood and death.

We killed a dozen.

As many more got away.

Two shifters kneel in the middle of the kill zone in human form. My former pack members are badly beaten with their hands bound behind their backs.

The sense of betrayal is sharp and pervasive. I trusted these men with my life.

Worse, I trusted them with Ada's.

I tower over Saul and Don, still in beast form, Callum to my left, Drake and Arlo to my right.

I smash my fist into Saul's face, sending him reeling back against the cobbles.

Drake drags him back to his knees. Saul sways, blood dripping from his lips, his face swollen from the beating already administered.

"You sat at my table, supped beer beside my mate," I direct my words at Saul even as I land a blow to his son. "You are my blood! How far back does your treachery stretch?"

"I was your father's man," Saul snarls, words laced with bitterness. "I would have been yours. But you were gone too long."

His eyes slide to Don. There is a brief softening in his expression before hardness returns.

"The message I sent about returning went straight to Rufus," I say slowly. "His men have been following since the dock, probably waiting for your signal."

He offers no dispute.

The dock and city would have been too busy, with too many witnesses. Doubtless, they were waiting for the right time, perhaps to see what I might reveal first.

I strike out, leaving deep lacerations in Saul's chest. He shivers uncontrollably as he tries to shift to heal and fails.

He is close to his limit.

"You are too late and too slow," Saul sneers. "There comes a time when you must accept what is done."

"Pa," Don croaks. "Don't."

"We are both dead, son," Saul says, keeping his eyes on me now. "Your scattered pack cannot save your mates, nor can your alliance with the barbarian scum. Rufus will see to that now. He wanted Lizbeth for a mate when he learned of her return, thinking it would better bring the Ludstone pack members into line. But the omega and the royal shifter change things. Perhaps he will claim her now." His laugh is bitter. "You have half a dozen alphas cowering in human villages, and then there are the weak betas, obedient at the risk of their mates, and most without the balls to do anything either way. You have nothing, Gray. Hiding in the shadows was never for me or mine. I had to pick a side."

"You picked the wrong one!" I roar.

My claws slash left and then right.

Blood pulses out of the mortal wounds as their bodies pitch to the side.

Drake spits on them, his rage pounding into me through the pack bond and merging with mine. "He was always a prideful male, enamored with his position within the pack," he says. "And his prideful words betray him."

Indeed, they do.

As I stare down at the fallen men, I understand what it is to feel alone.

But I am not alone.

Nor am I an individual.

I am a pack, and the pack is me. So what if we are scattered? There is no path before me but to rise. Perhaps Saul thought his words would cow me. They do not. No, they give me hope that not all my former pack is as weak and vain as he.

I shift to human and, turning to Callum, put my hand on his shoulder, relieved when he accepts that simple touch. He is not yet a part of the pack bond, but I see all he feels on his cold, empty face. We each blame ourselves for our part in this, wallowing in our inadequacy.

"I do not claim to know Rufus well, but I know enough of him and his ways. He has built his empire on crumbling ground, using brutality and threats to keep his subjects in line, and that will be his downfall." I turn to each man: Callum, Drake, and Arlo. "He took our mates to weaken us, to control us, and make us reckless. His actions will only strengthen our resolve. We must be one entity with one purpose and one goal. And that is why we shall prevail. My heart can endure no other way."