His Mate, His Enemy novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Stonebridge

The beta came at moonrise, and he brought forty wolves.

Dane met them on Stonebridge with sixty of his own, and the old stone span filled with fur and teeth.

I stayed on the Ironwood bank where Molly had set up the sorting tables, because that was my job.

For an hour I did nothing but stitch.

A cousin of Molly's came in with his ear hanging, and I closed it with eight stitches while he swore at me.

A Blackwater boy of nineteen came in with a bitten forearm and asked me not to tell the beta he'd run.

"Sit down," I said. "Hold this."

Out on the bridge, the noise rose and rose.

Then Molly said, "Corinna," and pointed.

The beta's wolves had broken through on the south side.

They were pouring down the bank toward the farmhouse and the tables, and between them and us stood a single grey wolf.

I knew him from the length of his back and the old pale scar down the right shoulder.

Lorcan had no ring and no seat.

He stood at the end of the footpath with his head low and his feet planted and let the first three wolves come at him.

He threw the first into the water.

He took the second by the neck and the third by the leg, and he did not let go of either until they stopped.

Blood ran down his flank.

He didn't move off the path.

My chest went hot, and my wolf lifted her head without my calling her.

I stripped off my coat on the grass.

I let Sable come.

The shift tore through me, and then I was on four legs, black and low and fast, going down the bank beside him.

I hit a brown wolf in the ribs and rolled him off the path.

Lorcan's grey head swung toward me, and I felt him through the thread, his terror and his fierce, helpless joy.

He wanted me behind him.

I took the left side anyway.

We fought together for most of the night.

When the beta's line finally gave, it gave all at once.

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