Page 107 of Hart's Redemption

A blur of motion caught my attention. I looked up to see Josh sailing through the air to collide with a fleeing Conrad. His momentum was enough that while he brought Conrad down, he barrelled on, tucking into a roll.

I surged to my feet and raced after them. The pack parted before me, all eyes riveted on the spectacle playing out. By the time I got there, Conrad had found his feet.

I skidded to a halt in front of him. “Just admit defeat.”

“Never! This ismypack!”

“It hasn’t been your pack for a long time, and you know it.”

Conrad’s eyes darted around at the quiet faces. His shoulders slumped as only impassive looks greeted him.

I took a step forward. “They’re not yours anymore.”

Without warning, Conrad’s fist collided with my face. My nose cracked beneath the force, and pain blanketed everything.

“Son of a badger!” Blood ran past my lips in a river. Through the slowly evaporating haze, I saw a furious Josh reemerge.

Once again, he launched himself across the distance, this time with claws extended.

Conrad turned to bolt. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him back. He was mid-stumble when Josh crashed into him for the second time. Conrad hit the ground hard enough to shake it.

Josh pushed to his feet and advanced, mindless animal rage plastered on his face. He fisted a hand in the front of Conrad’s shirt and pulled him up with no effort.

“Josh, stop.”

His fingers tightened, and a growl that made the hairs on my arms stand up rolled out of him. “He deserves it. He’s the reason your father is dead. He wants to see you dead.”

I placed a hand on Josh’s arm and realized he was literally shaking with the effort of holding back. “I know. But this isn’t us. We’re better than this.”

“What if I don’t want to be better than this?”

“That’s not true. You’ve always been better than this. Today, you get to decide who you are. No one else.”

A shudder passed through Josh’s body, and he threw Conrad back to the ground. I looked down at the Klamath Pack’s formerAlpha and saw the terror in his eyes. “All I ever wanted was peace.”

He curled his lip back in a snarl, still unable to see past the hate he held for my father.

It was with a clear conscience that I wiped it off his face. He crumpled to the ground and didn’t get back up. With a sigh, I looked at Josh. The rage had cleared somewhat, and he looked more like himself, but the grim set of his mouth suggested he wasn’t happy about my decision to spare Conrad’s life.

I lifted a hand to gently touch the burn marks left by the silver chains. “Are you okay?”

He waved away the question and gestured to my nose. “Let me see.”

I did as he asked and turned. In one swift motion, there was another crack. “Moons of Jupiter, Josh! What the fuck?”

He simply shrugged and wiped the blood from my formerly broken nose on his vest. “You wouldn’t want it to heal crooked, would you?”

Just then, Remus exploded into the oddly quiet scene. “You were right. That fucker was growing wolfsbane. I’ve burned it all, but it looked like some was missing.”

“I knew I recognized that smell,” Josh muttered.

I turned to him. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve worked with wolfsbane nearly my whole life, but I’d never smelled it as a werewolf before. Only the familiarity registered,” he answered as if that somehow cleared it all up.

I shook my head, struggling to get all the pieces to fit. “Josh, I don’t understand. When did you come into contact with wolfsbane?”

He gestured over his shoulder, where Conrad’s labored breathing could still be heard. “This substandard excuse for a werewolf tried to give me water laced with it.”