Chapter 7: It Was Never Supposed To Be Me

The girl in Landon’s arms was dying. She had taken the worst of the blast and had only a few minutes before her heart stopped. He knew the signs. And Derek was right there. Landon could feel him the way you feel a wall at your back.

Then the wall disappeared.

He whipped around just in time to see it.

Alpha Starborne drove a sword through Derek’s side and pulled it free before Derek’s body understood what had happened.

"DEREK!" Landon roared.

Derek fell to one knee. Pressed his hand to the hole. Looked at his palm. Then up at Starborne who was standing over him smiling.

The sound Landon made wasn’t a word. It came from somewhere below language, below thought, from the place in his chest where only his brother lived.

He sprinted back towards Derek. More Starborne wolves launched in front of him blocking his path. Every second he would spend fighting through them was a second Derek spent bleeding. Fifteen feet. His brother was fifteen feet away, bleeding on sacred sand, and fifteen feet might as well have been fifteen miles.

He screamed Derek’s name again. It didn’t help. Screaming never helps. He screamed it anyway.

WHUMP.

Beta Tavian shifted into a wolf on the way down and landed on four paws. With zero hesitation he went for throats, tearing through the wolves threatening his Alpha. He moved so fast that they didn’t register the threat until the wolves in the center were already down.

Starborne decided this was the time to abandon ship. He jumped back up into the stands, which was a height only possible for an Alpha, leaving his men behind. That was the kind of man Starborne was. Landon would remember that for the rest of his life. The silver in his blood guaranteed he couldn’t chase the bastard. But it didn’t matter. The priority was Derek.

The second he got to Derek’s side, he fell to his knees.

"Brother," Derek said with too much blood in his mouth. "Wrong direction. Get her out of here."

"NO." Landon forced Derek’s arm over his neck. His body was screaming at him from six different locations. With 7709 still in one arm, and supporting Derek’s weight with the other, Landon stood.

Derek’s knees buckled immediately.

"I’ll come find you," he said, voice calm.

"Shut up." Landon tried again, but Derek’s legs weren’t working.

"Landon." Derek’s bloody hand closed around Landon’s wrist. The grip of a man holding onto the last thing he loved with fingers that were forgetting how. "Look at me."

Landon looked. He wished he hadn’t.

"You can’t carry us both," Derek rasped. "Let me do my job and be your big brother. Take the girl and run."

"I’m not leaving you," Landon said, already on attempt number three.

"If you try to drag me out of here, all three of us die in the sand."

"Then we die in the sand."

"No." Derek’s voice cracked for the first time in years. "Thunderfang needs their Alpha."

Landon shook his head. "It was never supposed to be me."

"Yes, it was." Derek gave Landon’s wrist a gentle squeeze with the energy he had left.

Tavian shifted back to human form mid-stride.

"Nobody is dying on this goddamn sand."

He pulled Derek up, ducked under his other arm and took his full weight. Then they moved: Landon carrying 7709. Tavian carrying Derek. Derek carrying nothing but opinions.

"Worst rescue I’ve ever been a part of," Derek commented. "And I’m including the time Landon fell in a river."

"Shut up, Derek. The more you talk the faster you bleed out," Tavian said.

The arena around them had turned silent. The Wavecrest Alpha was dead, his body in an upper section. But all they could do was keep moving.

For three seconds, the path was clear. No wolves. No fire. Just sand and a tunnel and the fragile, dangerous feeling that they might actually walk out of this.

Derek didn’t trust it. His body was bracing for something but his brain didn’t know what.

BOOM.

A section of the arena wall blew inward, stone and dust spraying across the sand. The concussion knocked Tavian sideways. Derek went down. Landon dropped to a knee over 7709, shielding her from the debris.

Derek’s ears were ringing. His vision swam. When it cleared, there were fresh wolves pouring through a hole that shouldn’t have existed. And one figure who strutted behind them in human form.

Kai Starborne. The one who’d been sitting front row next to his mother, clapping for big sis. He wasn’t clapping now.

As soon as he spotted them, he moved at Alpha speed and none of them were ready. He drove a spear through Tavian’s back first, punching out of his chest, then ripped it out brutally.

Tavian looked down at the hole in his chest like it was a stain on a shirt he liked. His grip on Derek loosened. His legs buckled. They both went down.

Kai looked down, bloody spear still in hand, and spat in Derek’s face.

"This is for my sister. Now you get to watch your Beta drown in his own chest. Then your brother. Enjoy the show."

He pivoted and jammed the spear at Landon next, who had already set the girl down in the sand and clocked in.

Landon caught it two-handed, without flinching. "You stabbed my Beta and spit in my brother’s face. That’s the last thing you do with that mouth."

Kai smirked, still having fun. "My father is a real Alpha. You don’t even have Alpha strength. Pathetic."

He yanked the spear away and began to circle Landon.

"Wolves circle when they’re nervous, Kai." Landon spread his arms. "I’ll make it easy. Put the spear through me."