Important moments always happen at half speed. Good or bad, every meaningful event slows down so much that I can often think about it in crystal-clear detail until I drive myself crazy.

"You are my friend," he repeats.

Alpha's gravelly voice trembles at the last word and my full body understands the truth in them. My breath comes in irregular breaths, hands tremble, and that trembling lower lip begins to sway as the strange, elusive scent of the wolf overpowers me.

Danica's masculine, masculine scent is like everything and nothing. Forest, ozone, spice, pine, they all change, as soon as I catch a scent.

Mat.

I can't be.

How can I mate-

He came nearer and moonlight shone from something on his side, taking my eyes from the tree branch marks on one side of his face and his darkened gaze down the cord muscle of his shoulder and arm, and he finally regained consciousness. rest on a brutal blade strapped to its side.

Sharpened to a needle-fine point, the double-edged, double-lethal blade features the most striking metalwork handle. Delicate gold and silver filigree adorns the hilt, twisting and turning before turning to each other and swirling downward.

As soon as I see the purpose of the knife, I understand. It seems strange that something so deadly, so terrible can be so cute at the same time. It was made to steal lives and magic, but it was also done with great art and care.

I cannot reconcile the duality. Beauty in such a vile object.

But it's not the knife I'm really having a hard time with. Not exactly.

No

The knife is just the tip of this mountain of shit. The rest? Is everything hiding under water?

How can this beast be my friend? How can my body scream for a killer's touch? Someone who enjoyed taking lives so much volunteered to become champion of the Kootenay pack. Someone filled with that much alpha magic will probably explode.

Someone that even Jon wouldn't accept.

I stare at the blade, refusing to look at the wolf attached to it, horrified but intrigued. Disgusted but damn perfumer. For him. Mouthwatering, fingers reluctant to reach for him.

So it's following.

This is what I wanted. A fluffy omega life with more knotty cock than I can shake a pussy.

And the magic was gone and found another way to destroy me again.

It's like that stupid joke where the guy asks a genie for a million dollars and the goblin grins and gives him a million stags.

My life is just that.

Everything I wanted has always been perverted or messed up.

Do you want a dick? Certainly. Here's one you can't handle. Here's another one that made the first one jealous. How about a third tied to a morally deficient psychopath?

He had to agree to kill the alphas. TRUE?

Danica took a sharp breath. "I learn from you."

The surprise in his voice draws my gaze to him.

"Don't bother denying it. I can smell the change in you as if you said it out loud."

"I wasn't thinking of denying it," I said, my chin up, my back straight, and my eyes dark with fear.

As I watch, the darkness dissipates and eerie slate gray eyes appear.

It was completely different from the dark stares I saw in the meeting house.

Everything about her attitude is different. The curve of his lips, his cold, annoying gaze, even his posture is more aggressive. "What makes you think you can talk to me like that?" The oppressive weight of the alpha voice tells me everything I need to know.

Wife or not, I will never let this wolf get hold of me.

Goosebumps on my neck and arms gave me goosebumps as my instincts overpowered my pride and realized this wolf was a threat. I backed away, lowering my gaze to the ground.

"I'm sorry, Alpha," I whined, with reverence that came only from terrible fear.

"It's better that way," he snarls and approaches.

I held my breath, hoping he wouldn't touch me, that Marih or Vala would wake up. I know that not even the three of us can match him, but I still look hopefully at them.

They embraced comfortably, unaware of the scene being played just a few feet away.

"Please," I whisper, as his large hand approaches just inches from my cheek.

His hand stops. "Please what?" The words leaked from his lips, and I did everything I could to suppress the shiver that was spinning down my spine.

"Please don't hurt me."

The big hand that I could only see around me retreated and relaxed beside the wolf. "I... I never."

Confusion in her voice and another sudden change in her scent made me stare at her, despite my common sense. Danica frowned. The expression draws scars on the side of his face, creating ripples and valleys in his skin. But the sadness in his eyes - at least for me - is more evident.

It is no longer gunpowder, not even blackened with fear, but a deep dark brown.

"Stay away from him, you overgrown tree trunk!"

The hard, gravelly tone in Ray's tone calmed my nerves, and the urge to slump on my back on the sofa as a relief filled me.

I fought.

Staying still is my best shot at getting out of this unscathed.

Remember when I said important things slow down? Yes, draw this.

Marih and Vala abruptly stood up, dazed with sleepy eyes, not understanding anything.

Behind Danica, Jon and Ray throw themselves on her back, snarling and snarling in midair. And for a moment, I was convinced they were going to jump in their fur and tear Danica apart.

Wolf road.

Teeth and claws, blood and bone.

Danica doesn't move. It doesn't turn. In fact, his gaze never leaves mine as he gets down on his knees and puts both hands behind his head.

My eyes bounce from him to Ray and only inches from the intruder, but Jon can't help but catch him.

"What are you doing?" Mari screams. "Tie it up and put your ass in the cold until we decide what to do with it."

*

If thoughts were bees, I'd buy a shitload of honey

Ray and Jon tie the wrists and ankles of the monstrous alpha killer, but I can't take my eyes off Danica's face and the pain in her piercing gaze.

His next words, although this does an extraordinary job of splitting some sympathy in two.

"It's a matter of stepping on my fur to break the chains," he says, his lips curling into a snarl.

Quick as a whip, Marih has an answer. "Yeah, and I bet the side that wants Willah to trust you enough to even consider mating with you will keep the scumbag who says that in check."

This is the last thing I heard from Danica before Ray and Jon drag her into the snow. And I mean drag. Even together they could not lift it.

"You heard about that mating, huh?" Marih and Vala ask as compensation.

"We both did it," Vala says.

"We both thought it best to play the sleeping opossum until you need us. Who knows how it will react to sudden movements from an alien omega and delta?"

"Well, well... Thanks, I guess."

Ray and Jon returned, each making their way towards me through the snow. Ray reaches for me, but I pull back until my thighs are pressed against the fabric of my sofa.

"Please don't touch me." I say nerves like frayed wires.

I lowered my gaze not to see the pain I had just inflicted on him.

Jon cleared his throat to speak, but I cut him off. "How?"

Ray steps forward when no one answers for a few hits. "How, Willh?"

"How did he escape from the meeting room? How did he get here without any of you noticing? You were supposed to keep me safe. Both of you." I look at them like daggers. The daggers sharpened to the horror of having that clumsy wolf beast in my house. "He's a monster," I whisper, as if afraid that my words alone might break Danica's chains and bring her back. "And you let him find me. You let him..."

I let my gaze pierce each and every one of my words. They were supposed to protect me.

"Willah.." Jon began, but I interrupted him again with my hand.

"Don't do that." The order comes out with more barking than it should. "I'm angry and I want to stay angry for a while, at least." I'm not angry. I am injured. But anger feels like the better choice right now.

"Yes. We totally deserve it," Jon said at last. "We've let you down, Willah. I can't apologize enough."

Ray adds his two cents. "It won't happen again."

My jaw is starting to shake because I know how serious he is with these words, Ray and Jon have no idea about that fake alpha killer.

Nothing.

The movement outside catches my attention and I immediately get goosebumps. Marih and Vala line up around me and Ray and Jon surround them.

The shack door opens slowly and my men let out warning grunts.

"It's easy. It's me." Alfa Haqani'ka stands upright in the doorframe, her face shadowed until she is fully inside the hut. "My champion says omega is his wife."

Ray grunted again. "His name is Willah, and he seems to have rejected it."

I take a sharp breath. Rejected.

Me?

A fate worse than death, worse than anything Ray and I went through.

"Is that true Willah?" asks Haqani'ka, though Ray and Jon can't see me over their shoulders.

Jon and Ray were only inches apart, and I looked at him between Marih and Vala