"Get help!" I said to Mira. I didn't want her in danger when she was pregnant, and she'd never been much of a fighter anyway.
She hesitated, unwilling to leave me behind, but then ran away toward the hotel. Just as three more wolves piled on me and tore at my skin. I threw up a shied but it was too late, and there were too many of them. Only Harper and Stella's quick movements managed to get the wolves off me, their Ophiuchus poison knocking some of them unconscious. Larkin took down a few more with her magic, and I managed to topple another one, even in my weakened state.
A yelp sounded from our side, and I swung my head around just in time to see Harper dodging in front of Stella, who staggered back in her wolf form. Blood welled up in her shoulder, and Harper made quick work of the shifter who had bitten her.
When it was all done, we had five wolves dead, and five more knocked out. Stella and I were both injured and could barely move, but Larkin and Harper were all right, and I prayed Mira had gotten away too.
Kaden burst into the clearing seconds later with a roar and took in the sight of us. His eyes bulged at Stella's injuries, and then nearly burst out of his head when he saw my own. I tried to stand, to go toward him, but my thigh was too badly injured and I crumpled to the ground.
"We're okay," I said, my voice weak.
"What happened here?" Kaden demanded as he picked me up in his arms.
"An attack by the Leos," Harper said, as she tended to Stella's shoulder.
"We've captured five of them, but the rest we couldn't take alive," Stella said.
Dane and some of the other Ophiuchus rushed into the clearing then too but stopped once they saw the fighting was over. Kaden inspected my injuries, and I whimpered a little at his touch.
"They did this to you?" Kaden asked, and I'd never heard his voice sound so terrifying.
"I'll be okay," I said softly. "The important thing is that we have prisoners we can interrogate now."
Kaden set me down in the grass and ran his tongue over me, making me shiver, healing me just enough so that I wouldn't lose any more blood. The many bite and claw marks on my body began slowly closing up, and I sighed in relief.
Then Kaden stood and stalked over to the unconscious Leos. With a menacing growl, Kaden's hands turned to claws, and he slashed at their throats, killing them instantly and nearly severing their heads at the same time. Blood sprayed from his attack, splashing against my cheeks and my neck. His eyes flashed with darkness as he turned away from their bodies.
"Kaden!" I struggled to sit up, horrified by what he'd done. Killing in combat was one thing. Killing unconscious prisoners, prisoners we could have used for information, was another thing completely.
"No prisoners," Kaden snarled. "Not after what they did to you."
The others were all staring openly at Kaden, and I realized I wasn't the only one who was utterly shocked by Kaden's actions. Stella kept her eyes averted, as if by not seeing what was going on, she could stop believing it. Harper's face was grim, but I didn't think she would disapprove somehow. Larkin just looked terrified.
Kaden picked me up, ignoring all my protests that I was fine, and carried me back to the hotel. I was too horrified by what I saw in his eyes to say anything—too worried he was actually turning into the monster he'd threatened to become.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kaden took me up to the penthouse and made quick work of healing and cleaning me, and I felt too numb to do anything but let him do it. I couldn't believe Kaden had killed all of those shifters, no matter how many times my brain offered up the image of his claws tearing through their necks like paper. I still had the blood clinging to my neck and wondered if any shower would be long and hot enough to get rid of the shock of what he'd done.
The look on his face had been almost monstrous, and I kept glancing at him to see if it was still there. Kaden's face had returned to his normal scowl, but I couldn't help but see him as something different. He wasn't the Kaden I thought I knew, that much had been made clear. Something had changed in him.
“What is it?” Kaden asked as he stood over me on the couch.
I opened and closed my mouth a few times before finally spitting out, “You just murdered those shifters in cold blood."
Kaden's eyes narrowed. “I did what I had to do."
“Do you really believe that?” I asked.
"You could have died!" he roared, making me flinch back.
"But I didn't!" I drew in a deep breath. "We'd gotten the situation under control, and captured the shifters so we could interrogate them, and then you killed them all."
Kaden stalked back and forth, an angry wolf caged inside a hotel, eager to be unleashed. "They came into Libra territory and attacked my alpha female and my sister. They had to die."
“You're better than this,” I said, imploring him to see reason, if only for a moment.
"I'm not," Kaden said, his voice cold. "And I'm done sitting around waiting for the other alphas to help us. This attack proves we're not safe here, and the longer we wait, the more we'll be in danger. We need to strike now against the Leos and anyone who stands with them. Tonight was a message, and I intend to beat the meaning of it into their thick skulls until every single one of them is dead or fleeing with their tails between their legs. They deserve to suffer just as much as we have.”
"Kaden, listen to yourself." He sounded like his old self, like the one I'd first met before I'd convinced him not all the Zodiac Wolves were bad. Something had shifted inside of him, and something dark had taken hold. Was it because he'd almost died? Or had Tanner's death hit him that hard? "Let's call another meeting with the alphas. Once we tell them what happened today—"
“No. After what the Leos have done to you and to others in my pack, I'm done with diplomacy. I thought you would be too.” He stood straight and squared his shoulders. “If I have to be the villain, so be it."
His hard words made me reel back. It felt like I was trying to hold onto sand, with Kaden himself slipping right through my fingers. There was nothing to gain purchase on with this slippery, cold surface of vengeful armor Kaden had donned. There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop him. He was beyond reasoning with.
“You're not a villain," I said. "Or a monster. You can't become what the other alphas all think you are."
"I'll become whatever I need to be. I'm not going to argue with you about this. What's done is done, and we can only go forward from here.” He gave me a hard look. “And you can either join me or get out of the way."
I slowly rose to my feet and faced him without backing down. "As your alpha female, I can't let you do this."
"There's no way you can stop me," he growled.
He was right of course—he was the alpha, and my position among the Ophiuchus was still tenuous at best. But I was just as obstinate as he was. "You're wrong. It's my duty to tell you when you're out of line. If you won't listen to me, fine. But I won't stand by your side for it."
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say more, to try to convince me not to do this, but then he stubbornly closed it. When he didn't say anything else, I turned around and left the penthouse, slamming the door behind me. Then I closed my eyes hard, trying to pull my emotions under control once more.