90: Claws to claws, brother.
**Killian pov**
As soon as Zion left, Jonathan stormed up to me, grabbed my upper arms and shook me like I was some kid he was mad at, not his Alpha. “What the fuck are you thinking?” He hissed.
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words left me as I watched tears well up in his eyes and fall the next moment. A lump the size of my fist grew in my throat immediately, just the look of raw pain on his face was enough to silence me for good.
As I tried to speak, no words still left me but Jonathan only looked at me with those big, teary eyes, full of desperation and need I had never seen before.
His nails dug in my skin, his hold on me becoming twice as hard as he spoke again, “I can’t let you do it. I just can’t. Let me.”
My breath hitched, but instead of the reaction I wanted to show - which was anger - I gently placed my hands on his and pulled them away from me. I didn’t let go at first, just carefully brought his hands to my lips and pressed a gentle kiss to his knuckles before I let go.
“I need to do this,” I whispered and took a step back.
Before I could take another step, Jonathan’s hand shot out, his fingers wrapped around the collar of my shirt and then, just as quickly, he pulled me towards him.
By the time I realized he had kissed me, he already broke the kiss, let go and started aggressively wiping the tears off his cheeks. “If you go, you fucking come back. Do you hear me, Alpha? You come back,” he hissed, voice low.
I gulped and nodded. As much as I wanted to calm him down, maybe even hold him just once, I knew it was a bad idea. The sounds were becoming louder, whoever or whatever headed our way was getting closer and I needed to buy some time for everyone to survive.
So, without offering Jonathan a sense of false hope, I spun on my heel and took off, leaping out of the cabin, letting my wolf take over before I took off.
As I ran towards the source of sound and the frantic shouts of my men, I didn’t look back - didn’t dare to.
I tried to promise myself that I would return and find Jonathan and then, maybe from there, we would talk about his confessions and that kiss, but I couldn’t focus on that right now. I needed to keep my mind blank and ensure if the monster was out - at least he wouldn’t get closer to Aife.
By the time I reached the barrier my men were trying to create, my heart was beating so fast, I feared it was trying to escape my body and my wolf had gotten suspiciously quiet. Lucan had never been one to shut up or back down from a battle, but right now, I swear I felt his fear.
“Claws to claws, brother,” Lucan whispered and shivers instantly ran down my spine.
The last time my wolf had used those words was when we nearly died during a vicious rogue attack.
Taking a deep breath, I kept my eyes focused on the trail that led up the mountain, right where more trees were falling, followed by an insane, erratic movement. I swallowed past the lump, reached out to my wolf and whispered, “claws to claws, brother.”
As soon as those words echoed in my mind, chaos broke out. Within a blink of an eye, the thing - the fucking monster - was there, standing in all his glory, as magnificent as it was terrifying.
For a good while, it really just stood there, watching us. I couldn’t describe how terrified I was just looking at it - the creature made half of flesh, half bone, drooling its own blood over the snow, panting and huffing while those wide eyes took in the formation myself and my men made.
It took a step closer and Lucan instantly lowered his body, ready to attack any given moment.
Then, the creature let out a low, powerful growl. It didn’t sound like a wolf or a man, not even in between - the sound was demonic, like it tore out from hell itself, not something that was supposed to be alive.
“Alpha Bane,” one of my men called out. “You are not welcome in the mountains. Return to your territory peacefully.”
Everyone could hear the tremor of fear in his voice, but just like every warrior in my pack, he didn’t back down - he stood there, back straight, ready to shift whenever needed and fight to death if need be.
The beast didn’t speak, of course he didn’t, but he also didn’t take a step closer. I doubted it was considering turning around and leaving as he was told to, but at least he wasn’t trying to skin us alive either. At least for now.
When the beast’s eyes scanned the formation and finally stopped on mine, my breath hitched and Lucan growled in warning. “It’s not him,” I muttered to Lucan, then opened the pack link to warn my men, “it’s not Bane, he’s not in there.”
Lucan growled again, disliking eye contact with the beast and then muttered to me, “out for blood, not diplomatic visit as you see. If he gets past us, I don’t think he’s just grabbing the girl and leaving with her.”
I nodded although nobody could see me. “I have a sinking suspicion you might be right. He doesn’t look like someone who’s out to get what belongs to him. If I have to guess, I’m guessing he’s planning to hurt her.”
Lucan growled, but this time at me. “Killian, you foolish human, look at those eyes and tell me how are those the fucking eyes of someone who’s planning to simply hurt someone? He isn’t planning to take hostages. If he gets close to her, or even worse, gets those bloody claws on her, he won’t just take her from the mountain to bring her back home. He has crazed eyes, the beast is planning to drag her lifeless body back to the territory.”
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