“There is something special about you.” Caleb stepped close enough so I could smell his scent of alcohol and wolf. He ran one of his fingers down my cheek and then along the vein pulsing in my neck. “It’s like you inspire devotion in the most unlikely places. I was right to choose you. You’ll be an excellent alpha female when I make you my mate.”

“That will never happen,” I said as if stating scientific fact. I wouldn’t give Caleb the satisfaction of my sounding angry or scared. I’d be dead before he could touch me again anyway. “And you are no true alpha. But Daniel is.”

Or was: the realization dawned on me. Now it all made sense, the reason Caleb would go through all this trouble to find and destroy him before the challenging ceremony. It was the same reason Caleb had hated Daniel from the moment he was born. Daniel had been born with the essence of the true alpha. He was the person Gabriel had been talking about when he said he’d thought there had been another true alpha besides Sirhan—only he wasn’t so sure Daniel still had that potential now that he was cured … or, er, everything was confused. But Caleb wasn’t taking any chances. If Daniel was a true alpha, then he was the one person who could ruin Caleb’s opportunity to take over Sirhan’s pack.

“Daniel’s got more potential for being an alpha in his little finger than you’ll ever have. That’s why you hate him, isn’t it? Because he’s everything you’re not.”

Caleb shoved his face into mine, his nostrils flaring, his yellow eyes squinted. He spread out his fingers in front of my throat, like he wanted to strangle me with his bare hand. But then he grabbed my moonstone pendant and ripped it from my neck with such force it made my head jut forward and then snap back.

He threw the pendant against the concrete wall, and I watched it burst into black bits of shattered hope. I tried to scramble for one of the pieces, but I couldn’t break free from the arms that held me. I’d been counting on the moonstone buying me a few minutes of balance.

“It’s time to finish the game.” He snapped at the two guys holding me like they were trained mutts. “Throw her in the pit.”

I didn’t kick or scream or thrash this time when the two guys picked me up. Without my moonstone necklace, I couldn’t risk getting worked up at all.

My time was over.

I held perfectly still and let them carry me to the edge of the balcony. I looked at Daniel one last time. He was thrashing, with four guys holding him back. But he stopped for a moment, like he could feel my gaze on him. He looked up at me with tears flowing from his eyes.

“I’ll love you always,” I said to him as the two guys pitched me headfirst over the side of the balcony.

“No!” I heard Daniel shout.

I’d wanted to fall. Just let my head crack against the concrete floor twenty feet below. But my instincts kicked in, and my body twisted midair. I landed with a head-over-heels roll and bounced back up on my feet. My left ankle faltered a bit under me, but I pretended not to notice.

I stood alone on the warehouse floor.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” I shouted back at Caleb.

He leaned out over the balcony railing. “Oh, we’re just getting started, girl.”

The ground rumbled under my feet, sending a shooting pain through my tender ankle. A large garage-type door slowly opened on the far side of the warehouse. The rumbling groan of the door was accompanied by a chorus of growls.

“You see, Grace Divine, the wolf has quite the instinct for self-preservation. Threaten it enough, and you won’t be able to stop it from breaking through.”

The door continued to rise, revealing a line of six growling werewolves. Their eyes rolling and their teeth bared, they crouched, ready to pounce into action. They looked like the only thing holding them back was a signal from Caleb. He held his finger up, as if he had more to say before he sicced his Dogs of Death on me.

“Do your worst,” I shouted at Caleb. “But this I promise you: I’ll die before I’ll fall.”

“You’ll fall, girl,” Caleb snarled at me. “You’ll fall so hard and so far, I’ll be the only thing you’ll be able to see when you look up from the glorious hole you’ve made out of your life. And then you’ll belong to me.”

He made a swift movement with his hand. The pack of wolves burst through the door. I fought the urge to pass out or run, or even scream. They ran in two lines and then fanned out, forming a circle around me. No escape now. My body shook. Pain mounted under my skin, and my muscles threatened to explode. The demon in my head demanded I let it free.

I couldn’t let that happen.

I couldn’t lose control.

One of the wolves lunged at me. My leg shot out in a side kick, and I sent him flying. He whined with pain when he hit the ground with a crack. Not so hard, Grace, I told myself. I really didn’t know if self-defense counted as a “predatory act,” but I couldn’t risk killing one of these beasts. I couldn’t even want to kill them. They had human hearts behind their wolf ones.

A second wolf attacked. I kicked him away. He was barely affected by the blow and came charging again. I punched him across his snout. Blood burst from my knuckles as I busted one of his razor-sharp fangs. The other wolves must have smelled the blood, sending them into a frenzy.

Two wolves came at me at once now. I deflected one, but the other tore at my leg with his claws before I could kick him away. Blood flowed from the wound, soaking the fabric of my ripped tights.

I had no time even to think about healing the gashes, because a third wolf pounced on my back, almost doubling me over. He sank his teeth into my shoulder. Burning venom shot through my arm and back. I couldn’t take the weight of the wolf much longer, so I reared my head back and slammed it into the wolf’s head. He yelped and slid off, his claws shredding the back of my cloak as he fell.

Another wolf lunged and sank his teeth into my side, piercing my abdomen. I felt something burst inside my back. A kidney? I screamed with agony and used all my remaining strength to throw that wolf off me.

I grabbed at my side, slick with blood, just as another wolf rammed into my leg with his head. My injured ankle snapped. I howled and toppled onto the concrete floor.

The six wolves circled around me, snapping and growling. I waited for a deathblow, but none of them broke from their holding pattern. Caleb must have given them a signal to wait. He probably took pleasure in the sight of my lying there in a pool of my own blood.