Mate Me in Moonlight

Chapter 88

POV: Adeline

The breach came at the worst possible moment.

We were stretched thin—half our fighters resting after the previous night's skirmish, the other half distributed across the perimeter in our standard defensive formation. When Ironclaw hit, they hit the one point we couldn't reinforce in time.

The packhouse.

The alarm reached me on the southern perimeter—three rapid blasts followed by two long ones. The code for main compound compromised. My blood turned to ice.

I ran.

The scene that greeted me was chaos. An Ironclaw strike force—maybe thirty wolves, their fur slicked with war paint—had broken through the western approach and was surging toward the packhouse itself. Toward the healing quarters. Toward the pup dens.

Our defenders were fighting, but there weren't enough. The strike force had hit during the shift change, catching us with half our usual numbers.

They were going to break through.

Luca stood at the packhouse steps—the last line of defense before the doors. His massive wolf form had planted itself squarely in the path of the oncoming force, teeth bared, stance unyielding.

He was facing them alone.

"Luca!" I shouted, shifting mid-stride, my smaller wolf racing toward him. "Fall back! Wait for reinforcements!"

He didn't fall back.

Instead, he turned his head just enough for his eyes to meet mine across the chaos of battle. In that look, I saw everything—the suspicion that had marked our early encounters, the grudging respect that had grown over weeks of fighting beside each other, and now something else.

Resolution.

"Get everyone out," he growled, his Beta voice carrying through the clash of wolves. "Get them to the secondary shelter. I'll hold them."

"You can't hold thirty wolves alone!"

"I can hold them long enough."

Then he charged.

I had seen Luca fight before—in the waves of assault, in the night attack, in the dozen smaller skirmishes since the siege began. He was efficient, powerful, precise.

This was different.

This was a wolf who had decided not to survive.

He hit the Ironclaw line like a boulder dropped into water, his massive form scattering the front ranks through sheer force. His jaws found throats, his claws found bellies, and for one impossible moment, he drove them back.

The packhouse doors opened behind me. Elara emerged, supporting wounded wolves, young wolves carrying pups, the vulnerable wolves we had sworn to protect.

"Move!" I shouted at them. "Secondary shelter, now! Go!"

They went. Running, limping, carrying each other—all flowing toward the hidden den we had prepared for exactly this situation. I stayed at the threshold, ushering them through, counting heads, making sure no one was left behind.

All while Luca held the line.

I watched him fall the first time—an Ironclaw wolf twice his size slamming into his flank, driving him to the ground. But he rose. Tore out his attacker's throat and kept fighting.

He fell again. Rose again.

The strike force was smaller now—his desperate stand was costing them. But there were still too many, and he was slowing, wounds accumulating, blood darkening his gray fur.

"Reinforcements incoming!" someone shouted behind me.

Willow Ridge wolves poured into the clearing—the rest of our fighters, finally arriving. They hit the remaining Ironclaw wolves from behind, trapping them between our fresh forces and Luca's unbreakable stand.

The battle shifted. Then ended.

The last Ironclaw wolf fell as I reached Luca's side.

He was still standing. Barely. Surrounded by the bodies of the wolves he had killed—I counted fifteen, maybe more—his entire body trembling with the effort of remaining upright.

"Luca." I shifted back to human, dropping to my knees beside him as he finally allowed himself to collapse. "You absolute idiot."

He shifted too, his human form revealing the extent of the damage. Deep gashes across his chest and shoulders. A wound in his side that was bleeding far too freely. Bite marks on his arms and legs that spoke of wolves who had tried—and failed—to bring him down.

"Learned it from you," he rasped.

"Learned what? Getting yourself killed?"

"Standing your ground." His eyes found mine, and despite everything, he smiled. "When everyone else would run."

I pressed my hands against the worst of his wounds, trying to slow the bleeding. "You should have waited for reinforcements."

"Wasn't time. They would have breached the packhouse. The wounded. The pups." He coughed, blood flecking his lips. "I hesitated once. Years ago. Someone died because of it. Someone I loved."

"Luca—"

"I swore I would never hesitate again. So when I saw them coming, and I knew there wasn't time, I didn't." He closed his eyes. "No hesitation. Not anymore."

Elara arrived with her healing supplies, immediately going to work. I stepped back to give her room but kept one hand on Luca's shoulder.

"He'll live," Elara announced after a few minutes that felt like hours. "He shouldn't, with these injuries, but he will."

"Too stubborn to die," I murmured.

"Learned that from you too," Luca muttered, conscious despite Elara's attempts to sedate him for the healing.

I looked at the field of fallen Ironclaw wolves—the ones who had tried to breach our last defense and met Luca instead. Fifteen confirmed, maybe more. A single wolf against an assault force, buying time with his body, his blood, his refusal to break.

"You saved them," I said. "The healing quarters, the pups—they're safe because of you."

"Just doing my job. Beta protects the pack."

"Beta protects the pack," I agreed. "But you went beyond that. You nearly died for them."

"Would have been worth it." His eyes were growing heavy as Elara's healing pulled him toward sleep. "They're my family. You don't hesitate for family."

I stayed with him until he fell unconscious, his hand still gripping mine with surprising strength even in sleep.

When I finally stood, Aiden was there, watching me with something indefinable in his expression.

"He held them alone," Aiden said quietly. "Long enough for us to arrive. Long enough to matter."

"He's an idiot."

"He's pack." Aiden's hand found my shoulder. "And apparently, so are you."

I looked at Luca—the wolf who had distrusted me from the moment I arrived, who had questioned my presence, my motives, my right to be here. The wolf who had just nearly died to protect the same pack he had once tried to protect from me.

"Family," I murmured.

Aiden nodded.

"Family."