A growl broke from Gage’s beast. He swiped out with his claws, and blood spilled on Davis’s white coat.

“First blood,” Billy said, excitement thick in his voice. “Alpha always gets—”

The wolf had sprung at her from the shadows. She’d tried to run, and his claws had raked down her back. She’d slammed into the floor, and he’d been on top of her. His mouth had gone for her throat.

The white wolf leapt up and sank his teeth into Gage’s throat.

Then the door had opened. She’d told Jonah to wait outside. When they’d first arrived back at the house, something had been wrong. She’d known it. Because she’d heard her mother cry out for help. And she’d smelled the blood when she’d stepped onto the back porch.

Jonah had said that he’d wait outside for her. Jonah had promised. She’d made him promise.

Gage shook off the other beast. More blood flowed. The shifters in the room were shouting. Lifting their clawed fingers up as they cheered.

Cheering for death?

He’d broken his promise. Jonah had come in. Had she screamed? She couldn’t remember. Would never remember, but she thought . . . she thought she had. She’d screamed and he’d come to help her.

Gage slammed his body into Davis’s. They both hit the floor. Didn’t get up.

The wolf had attacked her brother. Biting and clawing and Jonah had screamed. She’d been crying. Begging the wolf to stop.

“Stop,” Kayla whispered.

The black wolf’s head jerked toward her. In that wild stare, was there any of Gage actually left? Only the beast.

But when he turned to look at her, Davis used that moment to attack. His claws sank into Gage’s shoulder.

Gage howled and the memories blurred in her mind. “You can’t distract him,” Billy growled to her as his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her back. She didn’t even remember stepping forward. “He needs to kill the bastard.”

Killing . . . that’s all she’d known since that long ago night.

She’d managed to get to the drawers near the kitchen sink. She’d crawled her way there. Kayla had yanked open the drawer and grabbed one of the knives inside. “Get away from him!” Her yell had distracted the wolf. He’d let go of Jonah.

Gage knocked the other beast away. Attacked again. Again. More blood. More howls. Gage was definitely stronger, but Davis was a dirtier fighter. And Davis wasn’t giving up, no matter how much blood soaked his white coat.

The wolf came at her. She screamed and thrust the knife out. The silver handle glinted in the light before it sank into the beast’s thick fur. The wolf stared at her, eyes burning bright, then leapt away.

With that knife still in him, he’d run through the open door. Gage had his teeth at Davis’s throat now. No more cheering calls came from thewolves. Only silence filled the room.

Like the kind of silence she’d known when the wolf left her alone in the house that reeked of death.

Her mother hadn’t been moving. Her brother—he’d been so broken. Eyes shut, barely breathing. All because of a wolf.

“Stay with me, Jonah! Stay!” Her hands had grabbed him. Shook him. “It’s gonna be all right . . .”

Her father was due home soon. He’d get there. He’d take care of them all. Everything would be all right.

Gage wasn’t ripping the guy’s throat out. Why not?

Her breath burned in her lungs. She didn’t want to watch this anymore. She’d never wanted to watch.

Couldn’t she have more than blood and death? Just once?

She turned away and pulled from Billy’s arms.

She’d managed to drag and stumble her way into the living room. She’d grabbed the phone so that she could dial nine-one-one, then, there, in the corner, she’d seen—

Her father had already made it home.

“What the hell is the alpha doing?” Billy asked, voice whisper soft. “He can’t let him live, the pack won’t let—”

Kayla glanced back. Gage was shifting. Muscles and bones reshaping. The fur seemed to melt from his flesh. Golden, strong flesh.

Davis was on the floor. Bleeding. Chest heaving. But not fighting, not anymore.

The shifters—at least a dozen, maybe two—were muttering. Glancing around uneasily. But they weren’t attacking. For the moment, no one was.

“You wanted to join Lyle,” Gage snarled and his voice was still closer to that of a beast’s than a man’s. “Then you fucking will. I’ll deliver you to him and the hunters.” His hands clenched. Hands now, not the paws of a beast. “From this moment on, you’re out of this pack. Banished. If any one of us ever sees you again, you’re dead.”

Gage wasn’t killing Davis? He wasn’t going to rip the other shifter open right then?

“You’re Lyle’s bitch, so he can cut you up himself. And I’m sure he will.” Gage turned away from the wolf. “You’re not worth my claws.”

Billy whistled. “That is cold.”

Gage’s eyes were on her now. He was stalking toward her. Naked. Powerful. He . . . hadn’t killed. Wolves killed. It was what they did.

She knew all about the pack trials. Two wolves. They fought until death. Only . . .

Neither wolf was dead.

“I’m more than you think,” Gage gritted out, and she barely could hear the words. Barely—because her attention wasn’t on him then.

It was on the beast behind him. The wolf that was now up, not looking nearly so injured. Up—and launching at Gage’s back.