Behind him, Trinity whimpered in pain, and Matthias made his decision, accepting the full consequences in that split-second rationale. He let go of Rafe, and felt the small tug around his neck as the chain broke. Hatred, hot and heavy, churned in his gut as he raced over to Trinity, tackling the guardian who dared threaten his mate. His teeth were bared as all three fell to the ground, and he wrenched the guardian’s arm, freeing Trinity.
He raised his arm, intent on smashing his fist into the ground via this guardian’s face.
“No, Matthias,” Trinity cried, and she moved into his field of vision, her tear-streaked face catching his attention as nothing else could. Seeing her pain, the stricken expression on her face, grounded him. He couldn’t be the source of that pain, but his rage hummed through his veins.
“He was going to kill you,” he grated, turning his gaze to the guardian beneath him. The lycan wore a resigned look, as though waiting for the fist to fall.
“He was following orders,” she told him, clutching her hands in front of her.
“He was going to kill you,” he repeated. There was no excuse. Harming one of his own, and a female, at that. The guardian’s gaze flicked between him and Trinity, wary puzzlement edging into the resignation. He could relate. He didn’t know why the guardian was still breathing, either.
“Please don’t hurt him,” Trinity whispered. “His name is Roscoe. He’s Mia’s father, and he’s just found out what happened to his daughter.”
“That doesn’t mean he can take it out on you,” Matthias stated in a low voice.
“But he didn’t. He could have killed me, but he didn’t. He’s a good man, Matt.”
She’d called him Matt. He wondered if she realized her slip. She gazed up at him imploringly. She didn’t look at him like a Woodland Tracker Prime trying to defend a guardian against the Alpine Guardian Prime. No, it was personal, it was vulnerable, honest and...intimate. A part of him was still amazed she would defend these guys. Another part of him rejoiced at her growing familiarity with him.
Matthias threw the punch, knocking the guardian unconscious. Trinity gasped. He levered himself to his feet. “He’s not dead,” he muttered, although he really did want to kill the man. It was clear Trinity wanted him alive, and he wanted what Trinity wanted. At least this way the guardian learned a lesson, and he got a small measure of satisfaction. He reached out to Trinity, assessing her face. There was a dark bloom on her cheek, and bruising on her throat, her arms. She’d put up a hell of a fight.
He pulled her to him, hugging her tight, careful of any injuries. “He hurt you,” he murmured into her dark hair. She shook as she chuckled.
“I hurt him back. Trust me. Don’t worry—I’ll heal fast.”
He closed his eyes. He wasn’t ready to see the humor in it. Wasn’t sure if he ever would. She laid her head against his chest, and it was a moment before she reared back, eyeing his torso.
“Your chain—where is it?” she whispered harshly.
He met her gaze with a calm he didn’t feel, his lycan writhing inside, impatient and frustrated, at its inability to shift. “Rafe has it.”
* * *
Trinity walked among the trees. A lot of Woodland guardians lay unconscious on the ground. The rest had retreated with their alpha prime. Dion sagged against a tree, his lip bloody, along with his bruised knuckles. He’d had to fight his own men, and weariness and defeat lined his face.
“Don’t kill them, he says,” Zane muttered as he passed Dion. “Do you know how hard it is to resist the compulsion to choke the ever-loving crap out of someone when they’re trying to kill you?”
Dion rolled his head to look at the Alpine guardian, as though even that expended too much energy, and she realized he was still recovering from the cave-in.
“They don’t deserve to die for their loyalty,” Dion said, then winced, his fingers gently touching his lip.
“They do if they’re on the wrong side,” Zane argued. “What are we supposed to do, wait for them to wake up and then start all over again?”
Dion shook his head tiredly. “Hell, no. Tie them up,” he said, gesturing to his unconscious guardians. “When they come to, they’re going to be mega pissed. I need—” Dion closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to look at Matthias. “I need to talk to them. I need to explain a few things. When they come to, they’ll fight. I just need to hold them long enough to talk to them.”
Matthias stood slightly apart from the group, his gaze brooding as he eyed the guardian prime. Despite Dion’s original antipathy, he’d actually fought with the Alpines, and now Dion was trying to fight the men who had battled alongside him and who now perceived his alliance as a betrayal of his pack. Trinity hoped Matthias wouldn’t ignore that, couldn’t ignore the strain it would have put on the lycan, to fight his own, to essentially betray them far more overtly than his accusations to her. Matthias surveyed the fallen guardians, then finally nodded.
“Fine. You have your time. When I return, if there are still guardians true to the Woodland Alpha Prime, then they will have to face the consequences alongside Rafe.”
Zane frowned. “When you return?”
Matthias nodded. “I’m going after Rafe. Alone.”
“What are we supposed to do in the interim? Babysit these guys?”
“You wait, yes.” Matthias said quietly, his arms folded. Trinity eyed him. He was outwardly so calm, so poised, yet she could see the inner turmoil in his eyes. Her heart ached for him. She couldn’t imagine what he must be thinking, what he must be feeling, knowing his lycan was caged within him. He’d told her the constrained lycans wound up attacking from within in their effort to gain freedom, something that had ultimately lead to the death of his family. How long did Matthias have before the same happened to him?
“When they stir, let Dion talk to them. Then take them back to the Woodland den. Their elders are there, as well as their pups. These guardians should help them, and while they’re at it, they could possibly work on the main entrance to the den.”
“You’d let them go home? Rebuild?” Zane said, incredulous.
Matthias was silent for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. This whole mission is to find those responsible for Jared’s death, and to make them pay. These guys,” he said, lifting his chin toward the heap of unconscious Woodland guardians, “they’re just like you and me. From what I can gather, Rafe Woodland kept his little assassination project largely to himself, but these guys are now in a position where they have to defend him, purely because he’s their alpha prime and he demands it.” He eyed Zane squarely. “We would do the same for Jared, and now Samantha.” He glanced over at Dion. “Not all Woodland wolves are complete dicks.”
Zane’s gaze flicked between Trinity and Dion, then he sighed. “Fine. We babysit. We build. Got it.” He held up a finger toward Dion. “This doesn’t mean I like you, or trust you.”
Dion nodded wearily. “The feeling is mutual.”
Matthias smiled, albeit grimly. “Good.” He let his arms drop. “I’m off.”
“But wait, you can’t go up against Rafe alone,” Trinity protested. “He’s still got some guardians, he’s got the rest of the pack, wherever they are... You’ll need help.”
Matthias strolled over to her, his shoulders rolling in a smooth, rhythmic motion. He dipped his head forward to gaze into her eyes. “This is something I have to do.”
“At least wait for Nate to return,” she pleaded. “You’re outnumbered, you’re—” she glanced briefly over his shoulder to the men who watched their exchange with poorly disguised curiosity. She couldn’t expose his secret, his vulnerability. “You’re—limited,” she finished, wincing. “You can’t go up against him and expect to win.”
Matthias smoothed her hair back from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. “The cracks are beginning to show for Rafe,” he said. “He’s lost his elders, his pups, and now a considerable number of guardians. When word gets back to the rest that his guardian prime is no longer supporting him, it will raise questions. His pack is disintegrating around him.”
“And that will just make him angry, and when he’s angry, he’s mean,” she pointed out to him.
His lips curled in a half smile. “I think you underestimate me, Trin,” he told her quietly. “There are not enough guardians, not a mean enough alpha, who can kill my friend, who can hurt my mate and escape my vengeance. When I face him, no matter how many wolves he has around him, it will never be enough.”
“But why do it by yourself?” she protested softly.
“Because I don’t want more lycans hurt,” he told her simply. “This has gone on long enough. The elders, the pups—Jax...” Sadness entered his eyes at the mention of the young pup they’d left back at camp. Jax had cried as they’d left, and she’d felt as though she’d left a part of her heart behind with that little boy.
Matthias’s words were noble, but she didn’t believe them. Well, she did, because she’d learned that while Matthias could be dangerous, lethal and ruthless, he could also be gentle, merciful and caring. This whole thing had been to get Rafe, and she believed him when he said the whole pack didn’t have to pay for the sins of the alpha prime. She could also understand his reluctance to risk his own men. No leader willingly sacrificed those under his charge. Well, not unless that leader was Rafe. She eyed the fallen Woodland guardians. So, perhaps he had a point.
“I’m going with you,” she said.
He frowned. “No, you’re not.”
“Yes. You’ll need a tracker.”
He shook his head. “No, I won’t. Trust me, I have a gut feeling about this,” he said meaningfully.
She lifted her chin. “I’m not going to let you do this on your own.”
His eyebrows rose. “You’re not going to let me?” His head lifted, as though someone had shocked him with a slap. He blinked rapidly, then his eyebrows drew down in a deep V across his forehead. “Since when do I take instruction from you, Tracker?”
Now Trinity felt like she was the one to be slapped in the face. The change in his manner was disconcerting, and she stared up at him in confusion.
“I am Guardian Prime of Alpine Pack,” he told her fiercely, his voice rising ever so slightly. Zane stopped trying to hide his curiosity and stared at them openly, as did the rest of the Alpine guardians. Dion straightened.
“I do not need to justify myself to a lowly little tracker from an enemy pack. I will do as I see fit, when I see fit. This thing between you and me?” He gestured between them. “This doesn’t give you license to issue orders to me. You are a tracker. You can’t go up against a guardian, or an alpha. You are of no use for me in this—you are a liability.”
“But, Matthias, you can’t face him by yourself,” she argued, trying to ignore the hurt that bloomed at his words. She had to make him see sense. He couldn’t shift. Rafe wasn’t so restricted. In human form lycans possessed more strength than the average human, but even a lycan in human form couldn’t beat one in full wolf form.
“You have so little faith, Tracker,” he said harshly. “Don’t make the mistake of miscalculating me as you did your father.” He glared down at her, so fierce, so proud. So remote.
She stepped back, recoiling at the blow of his words. He knew her weak spot, and he had struck, unflinchingly, causing a deep pain reminiscent of the agony she’d endured when Rafe had told her the news of her father.
Her mouth opened, but words failed her, so breathtaking was the hurt. For a moment, his gaze softened, and she thought she saw a glimmer of regret, but he blinked. She realized it must have been her imagination, a desire that he couldn’t have meant what he said, that this glorious warrior who stirred her heart and embodied honor and integrity could be so mean.
He nodded, satisfied he’d terminated any further argument. “Now, if we’ve finished all this hand-holding, I have something more pressing to deal with.”
He turned and loped out of the clearing. She stared after him, stunned at what had just transpired. Zane approached her cautiously, frowning after his guardian prime, but it was Dion’s hand on her shoulder that pulled her out of her shock. She turned to look at her pack mate, his gaze full of compassion. His reaction, his reaching out to comfort her, should have been a surprise. But she realized she couldn’t feel anything beyond the overwhelming world of hurt Matthias had just delivered to her feet.
* * *
Matthias jogged through the forest, away from his men. Away from Trinity... The muscles in his jaw tightened. He’d done what had to be done. His gut roiled. It was for the best, but damn, it sucked.
He paused, sniffed the air, then shifted direction ever so slightly to follow Rafe’s scent. He would track the alpha prime down. He hadn’t lied in that regard. He’d lied about everything else, but not this. The ring—it called to his beast, and the wolf within was determined to locate it. Even now, he could feel his muscles rippling as his beast struggled to shirk the coil of his human skin, the claws digging underneath the skin of his fingertips, unable to penetrate, unable to gain freedom. His beast was angry—angry at the constraint, but also angry with the way he’d dealt with his she-wolf.
He gritted his teeth. He couldn’t shift. The witch had told him: if he and the ring were to ever part ways, he would be forever trapped in the form in which he’d last had contact with the talisman. If he’d been in wolf-form, he wouldn’t have been able to communicate quite so effectively with Trinity to prevent her coming with him.
What he’d done was cruel. He dragged in a deep breath. He’d hit her where it hurt, using her own guilt about her father’s suicide as a weapon against her. That, in itself, was unconscionable. Knowing she was his mate, and still using that weapon—well, that was dishonest, barbaric, underhanded, unethical and any other contemptuous word he could think of. But it had been necessary.
He paused at a tree to catch his breath. He was at a considerable disadvantage in a fight against another lycan. He could no longer lead the guardians of Alpine Pack. They deserved a strong leader, one who could fight with them, fight for them—not a half wolf, half man unable to commit fully to either sense of self.
And Trinity... She deserved a fully capable lycan to look after her, to keep her safe. He loved her. He couldn’t deny it. If faced again with a decision to save the woman he loved or the ring that completed him, he would pick his mate, every time. That didn’t mean, though, that a broken mate was worthy of her.
He could not protect her from Rafe if he attacked. He couldn’t protect her from any threat, and that was a driving need for a male mate—to protect his she-wolf, his family.
He could do neither.
His hand clenched into a fist against the rough bark of the tree. There was one saving grace—the mating bond hadn’t been completed. He would go after Rafe Woodland with every ounce of strength he could muster—and if he failed, then Trinity would be released from his imprint, and free to love another. He would free her from her “death sentence,” and that was his priority.
He was prepared to die, so that she could live.