Double Trouble, Triple Heat

Chapter 17

Dominic’s POV

The pack gathers within the hour.

I stand in the clearing as wolves fill the space around us, dozens of eyes reflecting the dying sun. The air smells like pine and tension and the copper tang of violence waiting to happen.

Marcus stands across from me, rolling his shoulders, cracking his neck. Playing at casual confidence. But I've known him for twenty years, and I see what he's hiding beneath the bravado.

He's afraid.

Good. He should be.

Through the bond, I feel Sera—her terror, her heart pounding so hard I can almost hear it across the clearing. Caspian stands beside her, rigid with protective tension. I catch his whispered words to her, meant for comfort but landing like stones in my chest.

"If he loses, we all lose."

He's right. If Marcus kills me tonight, Sera and the baby become vulnerable. The tri-bond breaks. Caspian loses his position, his home, everything we've built together. Marcus will tear apart everything I love.

I won't lose. I can't.

Eldric steps forward, ancient and solemn. "The challenge has been called and accepted. Alpha against challenger. No weapons. No interference." His milky eyes sweep the crowd. "The fight ends in submission or death."

The pack murmurs. Some look eager—Marcus's supporters, hungry for change. Others look worried. Most just look resigned. This is the way. It's always been the way.

I strip off my shirt, feel the evening air cool against my skin. Across from me, Marcus does the same. His body is scarred from a dozen fights, a map of violence and survival.

Mine is too.

"Any last words?" Marcus calls, playing to the crowd.

I don't answer. I just shift.

The transformation rips through me—bones cracking, muscles reshaping, humanity falling away. When I open my eyes, the world is sharper. Brighter. I see Marcus completing his own shift, his brown wolf rising from where the man had been.

We circle each other.

He's big. Nearly as big as me, which is rare. His scarred muzzle pulls back in a snarl, revealing teeth meant for killing.

He strikes first.

The clash is brutal—teeth and claws and primal fury. He's fast, faster than I expected, and his first swipe opens a gash across my shoulder. Blood spatters the grass. The pack gasps.

Through the bond, I feel Sera's scream like a knife in my chest.

Marcus presses his advantage, driving me back. He's strong, fueled by decades of resentment, decades of believing he should be alpha. He fights like a wolf with nothing to lose.

But I have everything to lose.

His teeth find my flank. Pain explodes through me—white-hot, blinding. I twist away, leaving fur and blood behind, and catch his ear with my claws. He yelps, backs off, and we circle again.

Blood mats my fur. I'm slower now, the wounds taking their toll. Marcus sees it, presses harder. He's aiming for my throat—one good bite and it's over.

But I'm not fighting for pride. Not fighting for position.

I'm fighting for her.

Sera stands at the edge of the clearing, hand pressed to her belly, Caspian's arm around her shoulders. Even from here, even through the haze of pain and adrenaline, I can see her face. Terrified. Hopeful. Loving me with everything she has.

I'm fighting for him.

Caspian, my brother in everything but blood. The wolf who's stood beside me through every battle, every loss, every dark night when I wanted to give up. Silver eyes bright with fear, watching me bleed for our family.

I'm fighting for them.

The child growing inside Sera. My child. Our child. A future that depends on me surviving the next few minutes.

Something shifts inside me.

Not desperation—clarity. The wounds stop mattering. The exhaustion fades. There's only this: protect what's mine.

I move faster. Hit harder.

Marcus wasn't expecting it. He blocks too slow, and my teeth find his shoulder. I clamp down, taste blood, hear him howl. He thrashes, breaks free, but he's limping now.

We're both bleeding. Both hurting. But I have something he doesn't.

I have something worth dying for.

The final clash happens in a blur of fur and fangs. He lunges for my throat—I duck under, catch his foreleg, twist. He goes down hard. Before he can rise, I'm on him, jaws closing around his throat.

One bite and it's over.

His pulse hammers against my teeth. I can feel his terror now, the bravado stripped away. He makes a small sound—half whimper, half growl.

"Do it," he rasps through the bond, wolf-to-wolf. "Prove you're the monster they say you are."

The old way demands death. My father would have finished it. Every alpha before me would have finished it.

But I think about what Sera said that first night at the pack meeting. The way she stood before dozens of hostile wolves and refused to break.

Mercy has its own strength.

I release Marcus.

He collapses, gasping. I shift back to human, naked and bleeding and exhausted, standing over my defeated enemy.

"Exile." My voice carries across the silent clearing. "Leave Blackwood territory and never return. If you do, I'll finish what I started."

Marcus shifts back, human now, broken and bleeding on the ground. For a moment, I think he'll argue. Instead, he snarls submission—the word torn from him like it hurts.

"This isn't over," he hisses, low enough that only I hear.

"Yes. It is."

He limps away, supporters falling in behind him. As he reaches the tree line, he catches Sera's eye. The hatred there is personal now—directed at her as much as me. A promise of retribution.

I file it away. A problem for another day.

The pack erupts—some cheering, some uncertain, all of them processing what they just witnessed. An alpha who chose mercy. A tradition broken.

I don't care. I have what I need.

I stagger toward Sera, and my legs give out before I reach her.

She catches me. Her small hands are surprisingly strong, her scent surrounding me—vanilla and safety and home. Caspian appears at my other side, taking my weight.

"I've got you," she whispers. "We've got you."

They half-carry me inside, to the bedroom we shared last night, and lay me on the bed. Sera's hands shake as she cleans the wounds—gashes across my ribs, bite marks on my shoulder and flank. It's bad. I know it's bad.

"You stupid, noble idiot," Caspian mutters, pressing cloth to a wound that won't stop bleeding. His voice breaks. "I thought he had you. I thought—"

"I know." I reach for him, grip the back of his neck. "I know."

Then Sera does something impossible.

Warmth floods through the bond—not emotional warmth, but actual heat pouring from her palms into my torn flesh. Golden light blazes between her fingers, so bright Caspian stumbles backward with a curse.

"What the—"

The light intensifies and I watch my own flesh heal in seconds. Wounds that should have taken days to close simply... vanish. The gash across my ribs smooths into unmarked skin. The bite on my shoulder fades to nothing. Even the exhaustion lifts, replaced by strength I shouldn't have.

When Sera pulls back, her eyes are blazing gold—not flickering, not hinting. Fully, brilliantly gold, like molten metal poured into human sockets.

For a moment, none of us speak.

"That's new," I finally rasp.

"Prime power," she breathes, looking at her own hands in wonder. "I didn't know I could—"

I pull her down and kiss her—fierce, desperate, tasting blood and relief and home. She makes a sound against my mouth, half sob, half laugh.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," she says.

"I can't promise that."

"Try."

Caspian presses his forehead to mine, and I feel his tears against my skin. "You stupid, noble idiot," he says again.

"You already said that."

"It bears repeating."

I reach for them both—my mate, my brother, my everything. The three of us tangled together on the bed, bloody and exhausted and alive.

My family.

The door crashes open.

Eldric stands in the entrance, ancient face grave. "Forgive the interruption. But you need to hear this."

I sit up, Sera and Caspian flanking me. "What is it?"

"The hunters have breached outer territory. A full assault force, not a scouting party." He pauses, and something in his expression makes my blood run cold. "Their leader is a man named Joseph Webb. He's brought reinforcements—including the most decorated hunter in the northeast."

"Who?" I demand.

Eldric's milky eyes find Sera.

"Robert Mitchell."

She goes white.

Her father. The man who hunted my kind for thirty years, who killed wolves by the dozen, who drove Sera's mother from her pack and into hiding.

He's coming for us all.