They Chose the Wrong Man

I had heard from Evelina that Alpha Alaric Thornhart had paid a steep price just to secure this arrangement. If he ever learned his daughter had ruined it with her own hands, the fallout ought to be worth watching.

That thought steadied me enough that I stopped wasting energy on the fools around me. I turned to leave, but Dorian refused to let it end there.

Emboldened by Seris's open protection, he grabbed my arm.

"Don't think about walking away, thief. You took the ceremonial wedding car I wanted and shoved me. I'm not done with you."

I turned back. "Then what exactly do you want?"

He mistook calm for weakness and lunged for my throat.

"I'll break the hand you used to touch that car," he snarled. "Then let's see how you still stand in Frostfang's procession."

I caught his wrist and drove a punch into his ribs, forcing him back.

His face twisted. "You—"

I shoved him away. "Satisfied?"

He staggered back and immediately hid behind Seris, outrage replacing arrogance.

"Lady Seris, you have to defend me."

Seris drew him behind her and looked at me with chilling indifference.

"Anyone who lays a hand on my people," she said, "won't live to see tomorrow."

At her signal, the Gamma warriors moved.

I kicked one of them down before the rest closed in, but I was outnumbered. They forced my arms behind my back and drove me to my knees. One pinned my shoulders while another locked my wrists in place.

Then Seris looked at Dorian and said, without hesitation, "Do whatever you want. I'm on your side."

That was all he needed.

Dorian strode over and drove his fist into my jaw. Before I could recover, another punch slammed into my cheekbone, followed by a hard kick to my stomach.

Pain burst through me. I bent forward, one arm tightening over my abdomen, then forced myself to look up.

"Remember this," I said through clenched teeth. "I won't let either of you walk away from this."

Dorian laughed.

"This is Frostfang's territory. And you? You're just some outsider from nowhere. What exactly do you think you can do to me? I'll show you what happens to anyone who crosses me."

His eyes shifted around the motor house and landed on a heavy steel tool used by the mechanics.

He picked it up, then seized my right wrist and slammed my hand flat against the edge of a display table.

I understood at once.

"You wanted that ceremonial wedding car so badly, didn't you?" he said softly. "Then let's see how you ride in Frostfang's procession with a ruined hand."

The crowd gasped.

For a werewolf warrior, crippling the hand that had reached for the wedding car was more than pain. It was humiliation. A message that he was unfit to stand beside Frostfang's heiress in public.

Dorian tightened his grip and raised the tool.

The first blow came down hard enough to smash my knuckles against the metal edge. White-hot pain shot up my arm.

My breath caught.

For the first time that day, real panic hit me.

"I was wrong," I said quickly. "Take the car. I shouldn't have fought you for it. Just stop."

Swallowing my pride was better than letting him destroy my hand.

But Dorian only smiled.

"Now you know how to beg? Too late."

He raised the tool again.

I struggled against the Gamma warriors, but they only forced me down harder. My knees ground against the floor. My shoulders felt close to tearing.

Seris stood to the side with her arms folded, watching everything with cold indifference.

I looked straight at her. "You have no idea who I am, Seris. You'll regret letting him do this to me."

She only shrugged.

"And who are you supposed to be?" she said. "Nothing more than a piece traded into a mating contract."

A vicious light flashed in Dorian's eyes.

"All the better," he said. "Once I'm done with this hand, let's see if you still dare imagine standing beside Frostfang's heiress."

"Stop—"

Just then, my phone started ringing.

I twisted toward the sound, but Dorian was quicker. He snatched it from my pocket and answered it.

Evelina's voice came through the line.

"Caelan, have you chosen the wedding car yet?"

Relief hit me so hard it hurt.

"Eva, save me!" I shouted. "They're attacking me! He's trying to break my hand!"

There was a beat of silence.

Then Evelina's voice turned cold enough to freeze blood.

"What? Who touched you?"

Dorian laughed into the phone. "Your brother's out of line. Don't thank me. I'm just teaching him some manners for you."

The next second, Evelina's rage came through the speaker so fiercely that even the warriors restraining me hesitated.

"I don't care who you think you are," she said. "Let my brother go. Right now. If I have to come there myself, every last one of you will pay for it."

Dorian laughed again. "Then come."

He cut the call, threw my phone to the floor, and punched me again.

Every breath hurt. Curled against the pain, I lost all sense of time.

Ten minutes later, engines roared outside.

A convoy of black armored vehicles sealed off the street. Nearly a hundred warriors stepped out in formation.

Then the rear door of the vehicle opened.

Evelina Duskbane stepped down.

The pressure of her bloodline rolled across the street like a storm, stronger than any Alpha aura I had ever felt. Everyone in the motor house froze.

Her gaze swept the entrance, cold and lethal.

"Now," she said, "where is the idiot who laid hands on my brother?"