Chapter 34 · Through the King

The pike was moving before my scream even cleared my throat.

Three feet of solid silver. Garrett drove it low and level, aiming straight for the soft hollow under Maya's ribs. I was eleven feet away. My field rig was empty, my hands dead useless.

Then Julian slammed between them.

No shout. No warning. Just that massive wall of black wool taking the impact full on. The pike punched through the meat of his shoulder and blew out the back in a spray of bright arterial red.

He didn't drop.

Julian shoved Maya behind him with one bloody arm like she weighed nothing at all.

"Move," he rasped. It wasn't his Alpha command. Just a man with a raw hole torn through his chest.

I snatched Maya's collar and yanked. She fought me tooth and nail—seven years old, a furious wolf growl buzzing in her throat, her little fists grabbing at the air where he bled.

"Momma, he's bleeding! He's bleeding!"

"I see it!"

"Then fix it!"

"Behind the dais chairs! Now!