The wolf’s howl was more than enough to let her know he was coming. Of course he was. Liam was absolutely not dead, and she had no idea how he’d managed to make Dempsey call in and say he was, but she didn’t care.

The sound of the howl made her want to shift and howl back. All the fear she’d been harbouring inside her ever since Red and Carl had taken her from the side of the road melted away, and she wanted to fight again.

That was a big one. She’d never wanted to jump into a battle so badly before. She’d always gone out of her way to avoid them, but then she’d attacked Renzo, and now she couldn’t stop pacing around the room she’d been shoved in.

Red had locked the door after leaving her, and she’d been right earlier on when she’d asked if there was someone posted outside the window to make sure she didn’t start any trouble. Patrick was beneath her window, and he, along with everyone else she could see from her view, were on high alert at the sound of that howl.

Her ears twitched as she heard it again. Renzo yelled and cursed at Red in the house, but her entire focus was on the swan song of that howl. Her heart pulled at the next long call. Goosebumps rose along her skin as every small hair on her body stood on end.

The inner wild side Jolie didn’t even know she had was on high alert. She wanted to open the window, to put as little between herself and that noise as possible.

She wanted, needed, to howl back. She didn’t know why, and even though she felt kind of silly for it, she had to do it.

Jolie went to the window. Of course it was locked. From the outside. She only noticed the padlock on the outside of the window after a bit of searching.

Patrick heard her struggling with the window. He turned back to look at her.

She ignored him. The only way she would be getting the window open would be if she smashed the glass.

Liam howled again, howled for her. She felt it now. She knew what he wanted. He was waiting for her to answer him. He’d been waiting all this time, and now that she knew it, she couldn’t contain herself. She had to answer his call. Had to let him know she was here, waiting for him.

As if her howl was a living, breathing thing that needed to be released from her body, Jolie clutched at her arms, as if to keep herself from flying apart with the heat swelling within her.

Raw instinct. Something she’d never before felt in her life as an omega.

She threw her head back and howled at the ceiling. The noise was amplified. She howled again, louder, her inner wolf coming out, both of them howling together, howling for their mate.

And it was as if a great pressure was being released from her body. As if Liam’s hands were on her skin in that moment, sliding along her shoulders, the warmth of his breath ghosting along her exposed throat, his voice in her ear, low, rumbling, pleased.

“I’m coming.”

Another ripple of pleasure and goosebumps washed over her like a wave.

She knew. She knew he was coming, knew he could hear her, even though she was confined in this stupid room. She howled louder.

Was this what Liam felt when he’d lived for so many years as a wild wolf? Without his mate? This intense pressure? This heat and longing that refused to be satisfied without him?

She’d thought she’d known what it felt like. Jolie wrongly assumed she had any sort of clue about it when she finally found him. That longing had only been a taste of what this was. This was real instinct. This was real longing, and Dempsey was out of his damned mind if he thought there was any universe where she would feel this way for him.

Renzo’s booming scream on the other side of the door knocked her out of her wolfy trance. She spun around, just as the door exploded inward as Renzo broke it down.

As if he didn’t have the ability to just unlock it.

He stomped forward, his eyes blazing red, his hand stroking out, fingers and claws gripping tightly to her throat. He yanked her forward, showing off his teeth as he hissed in her face. “Stop howling.”

Jolie glared at him. She swiped her claws at his face. He was faster, catching her wrist and gripping hard enough that she screamed the last of the air in her lungs.

A small snapping sent a huge shockwave up her arm. Renzo dropped her, and she couldn’t catch herself. She fell to her side, clutching at her arm.

Renzo breathed hard above her, his chest heaving, fists clenched as he shook his head. “Jesus Christ, fine! Enough.” He reached down, grabbing a fistful of Jolie’s hair, yanking her to her feet.

She groaned, her wobbling legs struggling to keep up, or else she was about to gain a fairly large bald spot on top of her head.

Renzo hardly seemed to notice how he hurt her as he dragged her out of the spare room. She could hardly keep up, or stay on her feet. “If you want to go live in the woods with a wild mutt then fine. Never knew what Dempsey saw in you anyway.”

He ranted continuously as he pulled her down the hall. Even when Jolie managed to get to her feet, she was forced to keep walking bent over.

Carl and Dustin rushed to the steps of the deck just as Renzo exited the home he’d stolen from Liam.

Jolie could only just barely glance up at them from her current position. Concerned was too mild a word for what was on their faces. Dustin’s voice actually trembled. “Alpha! Liam’s coming! He has Dempsey.”

“What happened to the betas sent with him?”

Jolie’s heart skipped, but in the best way possible. She had an idea of what happened to the betas, but she wasn’t about to say it out loud to Renzo. Not when she was in such a vulnerable position, at any rate.

Dustin’s worried expression changed, as if he was just asked a question he had no idea how to answer. He and Carl looked at each other, and the sentiment was clearly the same for Carl.

“Well?” Renzo snapped. “Out with it! He couldn’t have killed them all!”

Omegas and betas who were doing their chores and going about their business took note of what was happening on the deck. They stopped to watch. Some spoke softly to each other, as if they couldn’t believe this was happening.

Or that it had taken so long for this to come to a head.

“Well, uh…” Carl stammered.

“They kind of…” Dustin actually rubbed at his wrist, the both of them completely tongue-tied.

Chatter started up suddenly, and people started to move. It took Jolie a second to notice with the way she was positioned, but when she did, the flow of people had picked up, and it seemed they were all heading in the same direction.

Towards the road coming onto pack property.

No one got too close. They seemed to form a half circle around as the group walked onto the property, and even when it looked as if they got as close as they were going to get, the people parted like the red sea.

It was a magnificent sight, even as she was looking at it bent over the way she was.

Liam looked like a dirty, sweaty, muscular warrior who had just come victorious from a battle. Five betas walked behind him like the flying V she sometimes saw birds do in the sky.

Every muscle in his arms, legs, and shoulders was tense, his hands clenched into fists. Even with the dry mud smeared on his body, she could not only see the ferocity on him, but she also felt it swirling around him like a dark aura, and that was despite the distance.

“Motherfucker,” Renzo cursed softly.

Dempsey was at the very back of Liam’s men, being dragged along, his hands tied behind him, though Jolie couldn’t see with what.

The only thing she kept her eyes on was Liam, and the closer he got, the easier it was to see the whites of his fangs as he stormed forward.

No one, not even the other betas in the pack, stepped in his way as he stomped naked up to the steps of the deck.

“That’s as far as you go,” Renzo snapped.

Liam stopped. At first, his obedience shocked her, but then she realized that it wasn’t obedience. Renzo had Liam’s mate in his grasp. That would be enough to make any decent alpha stop in his tracks.

“I want her back,” Liam said. “We can trade.”

He didn’t specify what, but it was clear he was talking about Dempsey. Now that they were standing so close, Jolie could see Dempsey was gagged with a belt. He was probably tied up with one as well. His eyes were swollen in the early stages of bruising. Blood dribbled from his nose, mouth, and made a red trail down his chin.

Liam had done a number on him.

Renzo didn’t answer right away; that was concerning.

Liam’s eyes flashed red. He growled shortly, but turned his attention to Jolie. “Did he hurt you?”

“Just my back from being in this position for so long,” she said, purposely groaning her words and elbowing Renzo in the leg for good measure.

Renzo didn’t give any indication that her petty strike had hurt him, but he did growl and yank her up to a more upright position. He pulled her by her hair in order to do it, but the pain trade off from her head was worth it considering how much better her back felt.

Still, she glared at Renzo. “Thanks.” She smiled for Liam. “I’m fine. Thanks for coming for me.”

“Wouldn’t have left you behind for a thing,” he growled, his heated glare still working hard at burning that hole through Renzo’s forehead.

Jolie’s heart swelled painfully hard before it started beating again. Liquid happiness was injected right into her vein with those words.

She’d only been separated from him for a couple of hours, but now that he was in front of her again, something inside her was set free and wild.

Maybe she’d been a little more worried than she’d let herself believe, because now that he was here, it felt as if she could only now really start to breathe. As if she was going to be all right.

“I said I want to trade.” Liam snapped his fingers. The betas in the very back, Josh and Franky, pulled Dempsey forward, then kicked his legs out behind him so he was on his knees next to Liam.

The entire pack watched with rapt attention. No one could seem to look away from the mess happening in front of them. It was as if the entire pack, the men, women and pups, were in a trance.

It even took Renzo a minute before he was able to think of something to say. “Did he really scare you so much that you all had to follow this wild animal?”

The betas behind Liam kept their backs straight. They showed no sign of weakness, no shifting from foot to foot, no glancing nervously at each other. They looked like a unit, like a team of betas who were loyal to their alpha, and would follow him through a raging fire if he commanded it.

And the pride that had been swelling within Jolie’s chest went to level nine thousand. She’s suspected it the second she realized what had happened, but this was all the confirmation she needed.

Liam hadn’t threatened them into helping him. They weren’t behind him because they were fearful of what he might do to Dempsey either. They stood behind him as a proud unit because they had clearly seen his strength in action; only unlike Red, they didn’t seem to need much more proof about his strength as a leader.

Jolie had no idea of the details involved with their decision to abandon Dempsey and look to Liam as their alpha, and she didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was the decision had been made at all.

A real alpha had come along, and now they were going to fall in line.

Renzo made a disgusted noise when none of the betas answered him.

“Pathetic, and weak, the lot of you,” he sneered.

Dempsey tried to speak through his gag, but it just came out as garbled gibberish with the belt in his mouth.

Jolie tensed when something prickled the back of her head. She knew it was Renzo’s claws, and the happy, joyous excitement that rushed through her when Liam marched through the pack as if he owned the place was replaced with the worry she never should have stopped feeling.

“You gonna let my boy talk, or do I have to get messy on your little girl here?”

Jolie swallowed. She was too nervous to even be all that insulted by the little girl remark.

Would he actually do it? Would he hurt an omega just to keep a challenging alpha at bay?

She didn’t know. She had absolutely no idea what to expect and that was the worst thing possible. Despite living under his rule for so many years, Renzo had been too closed off, too hard to read. He’d taken care of the pack well enough over the years, but there was no telling if he’d secretly been hiding something much darker beneath his strict veneer.

The claws at the back of her head certainly suggested he was willing to go down a darker path than simply killing an alpha during a supremacy fight.

Liam clearly realized what Renzo was doing. It must have been all over Jolie’s face.

“You would threaten an omega?”

“You’re threatening my position and the young man who’s practically my son. It evens out,” Renzo deadpanned.

“Then make the trade,” Liam growled. “My mate for this sack of shit. Then I will go and not come back.”

“Uh huh, and what will you be doing with those betas?”

Liam didn’t so much as glance behind him. “They can do what they want. I won’t stop them.”

Wait a minute? What? This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. He was supposed to fight for the pack now. Take over and kick Renzo, Dempsey, and anyone who still supported them out.

“Right, somehow I doubt they’ll be sticking around for what I’ll have in store for betraying the pack.”

“Then next time send a better representative of it,” Liam said, and he kicked Dempsey in the back, forcing him to fall forward on his chest, unable to catch himself. The man coughed helplessly in the dirt. “Your betas witnessed a powerful alpha dominating the little bitch they were following. I can hardly blame them for wanting to follow me in his place. Or yours.”

Renzo growled. “I think you’re forgetting what I have here.”

“And you just confirmed you think of Dempsey as a son. The son you never had. It’s a shame I never killed you instead of his father. I might try to rectify that now if you don’t make the trade.” Liam’s eyes were such a bright shade of red that they positively glowed.

Jolie didn’t have to look at Renzo to know his eyes were a mirror image.

“Gah!” Jolie let out a hard shriek as the world tilted on her. Out of control, she fell down the stairs after Renzo, pushed hard against the back of her head.

Liam stepped forward, catching her before she could land on her face the same way Dempsey had after he’d been shoved. Landing in his arms, no matter how preferred it was, still knocked the wind out of her.

Jolie groaned as Liam backed away, her toes barely touching the ground. He pretty much had to drag her away from Renzo, never taking his eyes off the alpha, putting distance between the two of them and Renzo’s cabin.

“Anyone tries to follow, and I won’t be as kind as I was to your adopted fuck up.”

“Just get off my property,” Renzo growled. “Five stupid betas still aren’t enough to go against me and every other beta still loyal to me. I’ve been running this pack smoothly for years. You have zero claim to it.”

Liam growled, but he didn’t reply. Jolie held out a small hope that he would, some tiny hint that he wanted to remove Renzo from his position, but he said nothing.

To Be Cont...

Char limits ;_;