VALEK 

 I’d recognize that fucking growl from any wolf.

Reid Maddox just claimed Alexandra Russo right in front of me. 

Like I’m not finally standing inches from the woman I’d been dying to touch, to protect, to ruin in ways only I should be allowed.

And now? 

Now I’m supposed to just watch while he sinks his teeth into what I’ve been starving for?

I move before I even think. One second I’m still, the next I’ve closed the gap and my hand is wrapped around her arm, dragging her toward me.

“Lex,” I grit my teeth. 

She gasps, stumbling between us, wide-eyed and breathless, her skin is pale and she’s shaking like she’s seconds from collapsing.

She doesn’t look like she wants to be with him.

Hell, she doesn’t look like she wants to be with either of us.

But that doesn’t stop me.

Reid’s hold on her tightens immediately. 

Like he’s daring me.

For a second, I’m tired of trying to play nice. 

My wolf roars inside of me. He’s tearing through me violently, howling in my chest like he’ll rip through skin and bone just to get to her. Just to mark what’s been his since five long years ago. Before she ever packed her bags and vanished out of town, leaving me burning in my own skin.

“You’re going to want to let go of her, Maddox,” I say quietly, trying to level the anger in my voice. 

He smirks.

Fucking smirks.

“She smells like mine,” he says, low, tightlipped. “I’m not letting go of shit.”

I tighten my grip on her. “She’s not yours.”

“I scented her.” He leans in, lips brushing her temple. “So unless your nose is broken, pretty boy, you’re going to want to back the fuck off before you embarrass yourself in front of your… fans.”

The sound I make isn’t human.

My hand flies to his collar, yanking him closer. She stumbles back between us, but he doesn’t let go of her arm, a broken sound escapes her throat. 

She’s not fighting, not even choosing, she’s just frozen, stuck between two wolves ready to rip each other apart.

Good.

She needs to see what she started. 

Reid laughs arrogantly, “You always did like things cold and quiet, huh, Valek? But you can’t fuck your way into a bond that isn’t yours.”

My wolf claws at my insides. 

My skin is burning from the inside out. 

My chest is heaving. I tell myself to calm down, there are humans all around, we aren’t in the pack territory, I grit my teeth.. 

“She is mine.” I growl, spit flying, “She’s been mine since long before you ever knew her name.”

“Oh, yeah?” He cocks his head mockingly, “Where were you when she was bleeding alone on the ice, huh? When she ran?”

“You don’t get to talk about her like you know her.”

“I do know her. And she knows me. She let me smell her, Valek. She didn’t stop me.”

I shout, “You didn’t give her a chance to!”

Reid is unfazed, “You left her.”

“You’re going to die if you don’t let go of her now!”

We're too close. My hand’s still twisted in his collar, his teeth bared, his claws halfway shifted. Reid doesn’t care that we’re in public, he doesn’t care that he is hurting her by digging his claws through her coat. 

Lex whimpers again.

And that’s the only thing that stops me from tearing his fucking throat out.

“Let go of her,” I whisper, voice shaking with restraint. “Before I break your fucking spine.”

His eyes flick to Lex, then back to me. “Make me.”

And for a moment, I actually might.

Right here. 

Right now.

In front of the cameras.

In front of the fans dead quiet all around while the airport voice overhead drones on in the distance. Boarding gates, last calls, terminal announcements…

Everything around us is noise.

But all I hear is her breath hitching.

And all I feel is my wolf, breaking inside me, screaming her name. “Alexandra is ours! OURS! OURS! TAKE WHAT IS OURS!” 

I can barely stop shaking, the taste of blood spilling to my tongue through a cut in my cheek. 

I’ve spent years pretending she was just a memory. That her scent didn’t haunt everything I touched. That I didn’t regret the last mistake that had torn us apart. 

I should’ve fought harder to find her.

I should’ve torn the fucking world apart.

Instead, I sat through pack meetings pretending to care about peace with the Paxon clan. 

Nodded along while they made alliances out of pity. My father died with a smile on his face, proud that we’d chosen diplomacy over rivalry. 

I gave him that. 

I let that fucking smirk on Reid’s face slide for months. Held back my fists and my anger for the sake of keeping what little balance we had left.

And Reid Maddox has used that against me. 

Over. 

And over. 

And over again. 

He calls me weak when he strikes, and I don’t retaliate. 

The weak Alpha of the Ragriz pack, weak captain of the Ragriz hockey team. 

Like I can’t have his flesh ripped into shreds within seconds. 

I fear that Reid plans to rip Lex’s arm clean out of its socket with the way he clutches and tugs. 

“Let her go,” I repeat, gritting my teeth. 

He smirks, doesn’t move. “She’s not yours anymore. If she ever was.”

“LET. HER. GO.”

Reid leans closer, “We’re not enemies anymore. Remember? Our fathers saw to that. You really want to break a peace treaty over one girl?”

“She’s not one girl.” 

Reid shrugs like he doesn’t care. “Then let her choose,” smug as hell, “If she wants to go home with you to Ragriz,” he says, glancing at me like he’s already won, “so be it. I’ll see her at practices, and matches. And you get to own her full time.”

Then he leans in and looks at me dead on.

“Or… she can come with me. You know. Just in case she wants something a little less cold.”

I see red. “To hell with this.”

I let go of Reid’s collar and clench my fists. 

I don’t care about treaties. I don’t care about legacies. I care about the girl standing between us who hasn’t said a fucking word.

Then she speaks.

Barely a whisper. 

But it cuts through everything.

“I’m going with Reid.”

Everything stops.

Even my wolf.

Even my breath.