Chapter 8

CONNOR KINCAID

X, X, Xandar Khan.

The number of times I have imagined ending his life are as uncountable as the number of preys I have eliminated in my entire life.

The only reason Xandar Khan was breathing was because Shane didn’t want a bloodshed years ago.

Killing Xandar equals bloodshed equals war in New Hawk and as much as we love war. War disrupts peace, war makes the other colonies doubt our power to keep things in check.

Today, however, we all know one thing’s for sure.

X is a dead man. At least he will be when all this is over.

Shane can barely keep it together and I have a feeling it’s because of what he found out today. What he found out before us.

Before X and his amateur betas kidnapped River.

Before River latched on to Xandar’s promises of destroying us.

Before she betrayed us.

“I’ll end you and feed your carcass to my dogs myself”

The silence is still, we all know what that means.

A jealous Neo has just said yes to the agni-kai. He took the news of X having River in his arms way worse than Shane did. Than I did.

Add in whatever Xandar has revealed about River wanting us dead and Neo is hungry for blood, hungry for her and eager to punish her like we all are.

Dramatic, too in his head for an Alpha, X doesn’t just smile like a sick retard, he jumps from the high pedestal he thinks is his throne all the way down to the ring in front of us.

I could end him in one go but the idiot issued an agni-kai.

A fair fight that will leave him dead.

I might be the violent one among my brothers but Neo is more of the unhinged type when he’s provoked.

Right now, as the arena filled with betas and omegas alike, all bundled in a circle across a large ring, I see the explosion in my brother’s eyes and take a step back.

Xandar takes off his coat, uncuffs the cuff links of his fancy shirt and starts unbuttoning said shirt all while trying to throw a few taunts here and there.

“What? You two aren’t man enough to fight me? You are gonna send Baby Kincaid to fight me?”

I’d laugh my ass off at Neo being called ‘Baby Kincaid’ if I wasn’t fixated on a certain woman peeking at us from the balcony up above.

Her eyes are big on her face but rather than being big and beautiful like the last time I stared into them.

Right now, they are big and terrified. Terrified for Neo. About to cry for Neo not to fight. She likes him and I have a feeling the little minx hates herself for getting fingered by Shane and caring for Neo all in one day.

“How did she feel like?” I ask Shane who’s pretending to look at the fight that’s about to start and not at River.

“Nothing”, he lies. I chuckle.

“Does she scream when she comes?” I prod further. I want to know everything about her, damn it.

A few weeks of staying away from her all in the name of keeping distance until we could control ourselves had me imagining her back in my arms.

This time with me not strangling her.

“Doesn’t matter, none of us are touching her once we get her out of this dump”

“Because she’s a virgin”, I finish what has been bothering him since I told him River was missing.

Her being a virgin is a complication. Her being a virgin means she’s been with no one and will be with no one but us.

The thought of no other man (apart from Xandar and Landon who’ll die soon enough) ever having touched her fuels this feral need and greed within us even more than when we first saw her.

“Because she wants us dead and touching her is assuring her, we don’t hate her”

Shane hates a lot of people and River is not one of them.

“And we hate her so much that Neo is going to kill X for her”, I finish sarcastically.

The animalistic groans coming from the ring in front of us signals the start of the agni-kai.

Xandar’s wolf comes to play. Smaller than an Alpha’s should be, grey like the dulling headache he is, with a white fur scar running across his left eye and with mismatched eyes, he’s what I’d like to call all bark and no bite.

Neo’s wolf will destroy him before he can even kill.

“He’s angrier than usual”, Shane comments watching Neo.

“X touched what wasn’t his”, I sneer back, all eyes on SILVA, Neo’s wolf.

Ash-white fur all over him, the eyes that are mostly blue when we are training the pack or running in the woods, Silva’s eyes have adopted a stormy blue color. Like fiery hell without the fuel, like vengeance with no hints of mercy.

X makes the first move.

His wolf runs head first into Silva’s trying to sink his teeth as fast as he can around Silva’s neck.

Silva counters the move by latching for X’s forelegs. He almost cripples X but the little wolf staggers back.

Back to its corner like a scared puppy.

That doesn’t deter Neo though. He stalks X, he buys his time, he growls as every outline of his canines come into sight warning X that this fight is over and we have our winner.

Xandar, the idiot, doesn’t back down.

Fear is written in those grey-white eyes I can almost bite into it.

His betas have ceased shouting for victory. They are waiting like we are for the most pitiful fight I have ever seen to end.

Xandar’s wolf tries one more time to turn the fight around. Silva catches him by the gut, sinking its teeth into X till he draws blood and tossing him like a ragdoll to the corner.

Screams, howls, the sound of a wounded puppy licking its wounds cut the air.

One minute Silva is about to finish the job and the next minute something bizarre happens.

From the crowd, so lethal and so precise, an arrow flies in mid-air straight to Silva’s neck.

White fur turns red, Silva falls to the ground like a ten-foot truck before Shane and I can register what just happened.

Then…what used to be fur turns into skin. What used to be wolf turns into man. Silva shifts back to Neo.

Neo lies on the ground…wounded.

XX

“Wolfsbane. They shot him with wolfsbane!” Shane’s rage thickens to guilt.

His hands are around an unconscious and naked Neo as chaos in the name of Xandar’s betas flock around us.

I’ve killed two betas with my bare hands since Neo fell unconscious and Xandar escaped.

Right now, I’m staring at twenty and more betas ready to shift into their wolves and try to kill us.

“I can handle them. Take Neo and leave, Shane”

I’ve handled worse. We have handled worse.

I could finish off every wolf in here before our pack arrives and still make it to dinner.

Shane’s still on the ground, Neo is barely breathing and as much as I want to assure myself this is easy like taking candy from a baby my wolf and I know this whole mission went wrong the minute Silva fell to the ground with blood on his fur.

“Shane? This is not the time to zone out. Take Neo and leave!” I’m screaming now. Harder than my pacing lungs.

“No”, Shane grits, “I’ll handle this”

“And Neo?” I ask.

“He’s injured not dead; he’ll survive but River is still here somewhere. She can’t survive alone for too long”

I know what he is asking of me and I should say no.

The Connor Kincaid that didn’t give a shit about anyone but his brothers should have said no.

But this Connor Kincaid is as worried as Shane and as bold as Neo for fighting for River.

“Don’t die, Shane. I mean it”

I turn around and look for what we came here to find in the first place.

Our mate.

Our River Brown.