"Get the Beta off him!" Colin roared, dragging Nate backward while three other warriors restrained Gabriel.
Blood painted the concrete. Gabriel's reopened wounds spread the crimson across his chest. Nate's face was unrecognizable—one eye swollen shut, nose clearly broken.
"You’re a fucking traitor!" Gabriel lunged against the warriors holding him.
"You're destroying her!" Nate spat blood, struggling against Colin's grip.
"Stand down, Beta!" Colin commanded.
"Nate, enough!" Derek added his strength to the restraint.
"Don't tell me to stand down when he—"
"KNEEL."
Gabriel's Alpha voice shattered the air. Every wolf in the room dropped—except me. The command hadn't been meant for me or other wolves, only for his Beta.
And Nate fought it. His body trembled, muscles straining against the compulsion, but our nature won anyway. His knees hit concrete with a crack that made me flinch.
"Face to the floor." Gabriel's voice carried death.
Nate's forehead pressed against bloodstained cement. His fists clenched, entire body shaking with rage and humiliation.
“We have a war to finish.” Gabriel wiped blood from his mouth and his gaze cut to Nate. “Stay on your knees and remember what you are: my Beta. You submit to your Alpha—whatever’s happened. Duty first, yours as much as mine. We protect the pack.”
He flicked his hand. “Now get up, Beta. Your betrayal can wait. Right now, I need you to be functional.”
"Gabriel—" Colin started.
"I said get up." Gabriel's tone brooked no argument. "We settle this after we survive. If we survive."
Nate pushed to his feet slowly, one eye still swollen shut. The two men faced each other—Alpha and Beta, brothers torn apart, both bleeding from wounds they'd given each other.
"Can you fight?" Gabriel asked coldly.
"Always." Nate's voice came rough.
"Then you take the eastern line. I'll hold the south." Gabriel's jaw clenched. "We'll deal with us later."
He turned to me, and the fury in his eyes made me step back.
"You want to fight?" His tone scraped like broken glass. "Then fight. Since apparently everyone knows better than me about what my mate needs."
The accusation landed like a slap. He was angry at me too—for training behind his back, for keeping secrets, for whatever he imagined existed between Nate and me.
"Gabriel—"
"What? More lies to tell me? More training sessions to confess?"
I crossed to him, ignoring the warriors' nervous shifting. "You're my Alpha. My mate. I'll do whatever you command."
"Don't." He jerked away from my reaching hand.
"Please." I caught his arm, skin to skin contact flooding the bond between us. "You're protecting me. You value my life as much as your own. I know that. I've always known that."
The rage in his eyes flickered. His breathing slowed as my touch worked through the bond, soothing the savage edge of his fury.
"Of course I do." His voice dropped to normal volume. "You're everything."
"Then I'll go. For you."
He cupped my face, thumb tracing my cheekbone.
"Take your mother. Derek will escort you." Gabriel's eyes shifted over my shoulder. "Derek, get them to the city. Use the Beta's car."
"Yes, Alpha."
Gabriel pulled me against him, kissing me with desperate possession. The kiss tasted of blood and goodbye.
"See you soon," I whispered against his mouth.
"Count on it."
I turned to leave, keeping my eyes deliberately away from Nate—guilt burning that Gabriel had beaten him because of me. Worse was the guilt toward Gabriel, who thought I’d betrayed him—and almost had.
"Luna, we need to move."
Derek’s grip tightened and he pulled me into a run, weaving us through smoke and shouting, past burning eaves and broken branches. The route to the shelter blurred by—until my mother stood ready, a small bag clutched to her chest.
"Katherine! Thank Goddess—"
"No time." Derek herded us toward the trees. "They're regrouping for another assault."
We ran. Through smoke, through shadows, through territory that no longer felt safe. Nate's car waited where we'd abandoned it, keys still in the ignition.
"Get in the back with your mother," Derek commanded, sliding behind the wheel.
The engine roared to life. We tore through the forest road, leaving burning buildings and dying wolves behind.
‘Gabriel?’ I reached through the bond. ‘Can you hear me?’
Silence.
‘Nate?’ I tried the pack link, desperate. ‘Are you—’
Nothing. Empty air where voices should be.
"Why can't I reach them?" I grabbed Derek's shoulder. "The links are dead."
"Could be they're blocking you." His knuckles whitened on the wheel. "Could be worse."
‘They're not dead,’ Elsie snarled, but fear threaded through her certainty. ‘We would know. We would feel it.’
My mother's hand found mine, squeezing tight. "They'll be fine."
But as the city lights appeared on the horizon, as safety drew closer and pack lands fell further behind, I knew nothing would be fine again.
I'd left my mate in battle. Left Nate kneeling in his own blood. Left my pack to burn.
And the silence through the bonds suggested I might have left them forever.