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No warning, no wind-up. Just one leap and she’s airborne. Her wolf explodes from her skin, and she hits Ramsey center-mass. Full weight, full speed, claws out. He doesn’t have time to do anything but take the hit.
They both go down.
Ramsey’s wolf tears out of him, and they become a snarling mass of fur and claws and teeth. Something fires in my chest; not the compliance, not the wanting-to-agree, something that was there before any of this and has been sitting underneath it the whole time. An ember under ash. Grey’s power, or the memory of it, burning just hot enough to remember what free will is supposed to feel like.
I can feel the urge to intervene—to come to Ramsey’s aid—but I can’t make myself lift a finger against Mia.
Davina spins. Her hands are raised. Her lips are moving quickly.
Mia has Ramsey pinned. One giant paw across his throat, her full weight on it. Ramsey’s wolf gets its front paw under her and shoves, but it’s not enough to throw Mia from him. She lowers her head and snaps her teeth dangerously close to his throat.
Ramsey’s gaze cuts once toward the tree line.
Waiting.
For his pack. His backup. The wolves he must have stationed out there to ambush Grey and Lexi if our own people failed to bring them down.
No one comes.
Even from here, I understand what that means. Ramsey didn’t build loyalty. He built ambition. And ambition runs the second victory starts looking expensive.
Mia seems to understand it too.
Her wolf lowers her head, blood on her teeth, and something about her goes colder. More certain.
Ramsey’s pack isn’t coming.
Davina raises the hex blade. The metal drinks in the morning light, and the magic gathering around her hand twists toward it like smoke pulled into a chimney.
She slashes the blade through the air.
The hex that fires from it is darker than the others. Sharper.
It hits Mia in the left shoulder.
Mia’s cinnamon wolf flies sideways off Ramsey and hits the flagstone with a grunt. She’s already pushing up when Ramsey gets to his feet. But she’s not quick enough. I sense the damage the magic has done to her from here.
Ramsey clearly does too as his steps slow. He shifts back to his human form as he crosses the flagstone. His breathing comes heavily, and the easy manner he had earlier is gone. Something in me tenses even though I’m still rooted to this spot, torn between them for reasons I can’t name or argue against.
He crouches beside her, and his voice when he speaks is quiet. “How does it feel to know you failed your pack in the end?”
She looks up at him. Her eyes are clear and narrowed at Ramsey, but I hear that voice in my head again, and this time I know it’s her.
Come back to me, Prepotente. Now, dammit!
She snarls, her teeth snapping at Ramsey. He pulls back, flinching in surprise, then his eyes narrow. He reaches for her, shifting back to his wolf as he bends his head to her throat.
His canines shine in the sun, and I know that in a moment, her blood will do the same.
The thought of it breaks something.
Not me.
The leash.
Mia’s voice is still inside me, fierce and furious through the bond, and beneath it, that ember of Grey’s power flares once, hot enough to burn away the lie of Ramsey’s command.
My thoughts snap back into place.
