* * *
There was something wrong.
Rhys pushed the thought to the back of his head as he tore into another lion trying to rip out his throat. But as he whipped around to find only a handful of lions pacing just out of swiping range, the idea returned.
Seven prides, the fucker claimed. Unless they were all as small as the Crowley pride, the numbers didn’t add up. Even then, he expected more than what they faced. But with the distraction in town, the Ashfords not answering, Dash and Colette momentarily off the board… They didn’t exactly need the consortium’s full force to bring them down.
With a roar, he threw himself at his targets, slicing his claws through the air. He twisted in their very center, snapping his jaws and missing by the barest inch when the fucker jerked away. He didn’t let that stop him. If anything it just pissed him off more.
The fuckers wanted to end him and destroy his chance of reuniting with his mate? Not if he had any say.
Another lion fell, but yet another took his place. Rhys snarled, the sound sawing in and out of him, then swept right back into the fight. He didn’t care how many he had to put down or how long it took. Each one put him closer to seeing Sage again.
Then more appeared. Many more. Wherever the reserves had been hiding, and for whatever reason, they decided that moment was the moment to turn the tide against them.
The Crowleys were forced back. Step after step, one bite or claw at a time, they lost all room to move.
Pure dread shot through his veins as the fighting around him died down to nothing. He snarled and lunged for the closest lions, but the beasts simply turned against him and boxed him in with the others.
Over their heads, he spotted a group walking for them on two feet instead of four.
At his side, Trent snarled when he recognized who led the new arrivals.
No!
Rhys’s heart froze when he saw the woman Jasper dragged behind him.
“Shift. Now,” Jasper ordered over the last rumblings of the battle. “Or your mates lose their heads.”
* * *
Sage struggled to yank herself away from Jasper, but he had an iron grip on her arm. “Don’t,” she whispered to the pride. “Don’t stop fighting.”
She watched in horror as they did just that.
Kyla was the first to falter, with Lindley a close second. Trent and Rhys were the last, but they, too, stumbled to stops as the procession made its way to the very middle of the action.
This was pure Jasper. He couldn’t just take the win. He had to break every last ounce of a person’s will before he snatched his victory. He’d done the same with her, letting her fight back just enough to feel like she had control before slamming her back into reality and marking her as helpless with his claws.
“I said shift!” he roared.
The order was met with howls and roars of resistance that silenced the moment she and Hailey were pushed to the ground in front of him.
Trent rushed forward, throwing a testy swipe at Jasper’s honor guard, then backed off with a savage growl. His shape shimmered and cracked apart, until he held himself up by fists planted in the ground.
“I’ll fucking kill you if you hurt her,” he swore.
“Fight you for it,” Rhys challenged his alpha, throwing all the weighty rage of his glare toward Jasper.
“Now, now,” Lindley ground out. “No need to argue. Look around at how many of these fuckers showed up to get themselves gutted. There’s enough to go around.”
“Quiet,” Roland snapped, throwing a hard punch into her brother’s cheek. The blow did absolutely nothing to make the loathing in Lindley’s eyes disappear.
Jasper clucked his tongue. “Leave them their words, Roland,” he called out. “They’re harmless. The last thrashing struggle of a beaten enemy.”
Her father stared Lindley down for a second longer before stepping back to his place at Jasper’s side.
Jasper huffed a small laugh, then let off a sigh of satisfaction. “I’ve imagined this day for years. Ever since that whore seduced my brother into allowing worms and other vermin into our pride.” Trent struggled against the hands holding him back, but Jasper only acknowledged him with a sly glint in his eyes. “Ever since the enclaves inexplicably decided the same. Locked in that tiny cell by those mistakenly under the impression they were better than me, I knew I had to do everything in my power to rid the world of those who thought themselves worthy of our blood.”
He paused, sweeping a withering glance over the pride he had kneeling in the dirt, then raised a triumphant look over his consortium. “Today marks the return of the true Crowley line to all its former glory.”
“The true Crowley line?” Hailey didn’t let a flicker of fear enter her eyes as she scoffed. She knelt in the dirt, bruises from the accident darkening her face, and glared absolute murder at Jasper. “I’m carrying the true line. You’re just an unfortunate blip in history. A mistake. The shameful relative no one will ever mention again.”
Jasper sneered. “I’ll rip that cub from your body before the night is over.”
Her smile sent chills up Sage’s arms. “You can try.”
In that moment, when the world seemed ready to burn and crumble around them, everything changed.
She felt it in the air first. A quickening to the breeze, a pebble rolling in the dirt.
Then the ground seemed to vibrate underfoot.
Roars and howls erupted in the night as some unseen force slammed into the backs of those on the very outer edges of the fucked up gathering.
Backup had arrived.
Almost as one, the Crowley pride—her Crowley pride—jumped to their feet. They threw punches, jammed knees into stomachs and groins, anything they could do to throw off their immediate captors and add confusion to
