Chapter 145

Olivia POV

“Is that what we’ve been reduced to?” Elder Thornton’s raspy voice rose above the muttering of the crowd. “Accusations of black magic?”

Olivia ignored him and walked up to within three feet of Emma. My wife’s hair and skin glowed with health and fertility in the sunlight, and her simple white robes effortlessly proclaimed her status as Pack Luna. In much more ornate white robes of her own, Emma seemed scrawny and ragged by comparison, and I wondered how I could ever have found her beautiful even while under her magic influence.

“You studied more than music with the humans in Albsraca,” Olivia said, and her calm voice dominated the stone square as all eyes were fixated upon her. “The Apothecary, the Alphas of Both Lunaris and Moonshadow, and I know of your voodoo practices.”

Olivia held up a sparkling hair ornament, and Emma betrayed herself with a hiss. “Iris and Claudia found your books and potions. We know what you’ve been doing here since your return.”

Olivia turned to address the assembly. “I want to ask all here who give credence to these accusations to think about the first time you saw Emma since she came back to the Pack. Did you think she was lovely? Not beautiful, not pretty. Specifically ‘lovely.’ Was that the word that came to mind?”

Several wolves frowned. Others snorted.

“Did you find yourself suddenly thinking she was so intelligent, so trustworthy? Did you find yourself believing whatever she said? Did you do things against your nature before she wanted you to? Do you still not know why?”

“So what?” Ines demanded. “She is lovely, and being jealous of that doesn’t—” She broke off indignantly when Olivia laughed.

However, the sound spurred Emma to action. She raised her hands and looked to the sky. “Goddess, I call on you to reveal the truth here and support your true champion.”

The word struck the crowd, and I realized with it the witch had changed tactics.

“Champion?” I asked. “Are you going to challenge me, Emma of Ravencrest?”

“No,” Hermes said, stepping now in front of his daughter. “I am.”

“No, Hermes,” Olivia urged.

“Stand down, please,” Claudia called.

But I could see the eyes that Hermes turned toward me now were wildly fervent. I was looking into the gaze of a zealot, or, more likely, another of Emma’s victims.

“You’d subject your own father to your foul practices?” Olivia asked Emma, obviously seeing what I could in the Ravencrest Alpha.

“I speak for myself!” Hermes thundered, striding toward me. “I challenge you, Alpha Elroy! I challenge you for the rule of Lunaris Pack!”

“Stop this!” Olivia said, but she was talking to Emma again. “Don’t sacrifice your father to your ambition!”

“Sacrifice?!” Emma looked genuinely shocked. “Do you understand nothing, you Luna wanna-be?” The witch stepped back then and raised her arms high. A silver light enveloped her, hovered for a moment, then raced over to and into Hermes, who was rocked almost off his feet by the force of it.

“Emma!” Olivia shouted, though I barely heard her over the shocked exclamations all around us. Some people quickly backed away from the courtyard. Most fell to their knees and instinctively called up their wolves.

Hermes threw his head back and howled even as he transformed into his fur. When I had seen him before, he was just as massive a wolf as one would expect a Pack Alpha to be, but now he seemed twice the size. His eyes locked with mine as I quickly brought my wolf forth, and in an instant he was charging toward me.

I felt the force of him slam into me even more than the impact of his body, which knocked me off my paws. Instinct had me twisting before he got me on my back, thank the Goddess, or it would have all been over and Olivia and my child—

I couldn’t finish the thought for the rage that filled me. How dare Emma use her father as a weapon against me? How dare she use her magic against me to alienate me from my wife and child?

How dare she! my wolf roared.

Hermes reared up as I got back on my paws, and I focused my rage into the single goal of defeating him.

Even in my fury, I did not want to kill him, not when he was just Emma’s puppet.

The wolves around us were snarling, ready to break out into combat of their own against each other if the alpha they weren’t supporting lost. And above the snips and growls I could hear Emma chanting now some language I didn’t know: harsh and guttural and foul.

“Je vu invock espreets de atoils key defies la deessy je vu invock poor noos combler de vote forceh a de vote rageh jinvoque la seel poor key noos vengeh arjord wee.”

Hermes came at me again, almost blinding me with that white-silver light that somehow seemed made of shadows. This time, he led with a swipe of his claws at my muzzle. I dodged it only barely, the wind of it flattening my fur, before I trotted back to gain some ground.

He’s got an old wound on his left hind leg, Olivia told me through the mindlink, and I sent back a feeling of gratitude as I shot the quickest of glances at Emma. She was hovering in the air now, several feet off the ground, her arms still raised to the sky. Olivia and the other she-wolves of my family were holding up their own arms as though warding off the silver light that had again enveloped Emma.

Olivia was glowing with her own silver light, which seemed made now of moonlight, and the thought of it strengthened me even more than my rage.

Hermes leapt at me again, and this time I dodged to my right to drag my claws against his left hind leg. I heard him howl in pain even as he twisted back to snap at me with his fangs, only to draw back with a clump of my fur.

Choke on it, Hermes, my wolf snarled as I danced back and then lunged to his left in a feint he reacted to before pulling back with a flinch, and I was on him, my jaws clamped around his neck. He rolled us over to rake at my stomach with his hind legs, but the one on the left was weak, and I leaned into it. It hurt, but it did not pierce any organs. I ignored it.

I clamped down harder around his neck, and then harder still, until I was ready to crush his hyoid bone, and he went limp. I put a paw on his chest and pulled back to meet his gaze. He was surrendering, and the light around his body went out.

“No!” Emma shouted, falling down to the earth with a crouch and then rushing toward us.

“Elroy!” Olivia and my mother shouted, but Emma wasn’t coming for me but for her father. I saw the sunlight glint on the edge of a blade, and then a knife was buried to the hilt through Hermes’s sternum. His heart stopped almost instantly.