Moments Ago....
The crack of the whip cut through the marketplace noise like a blade through silk, and Javrian's entire body went rigid.
His silver eye snapped toward the source of the sound, every predatory instinct in his body surging to full alert. The scent hit his nostrils a split second later—wolf blood. Pack blood.
One of his own was being hurt.
His muscles coiled like springs, killing intent beginning to leak from his frame in waves that made nearby shopkeepers unconsciously step away.
But then the wind shifted, carrying a more complete scent profile to his enhanced nose.
Javrian's step faltered.
That smell. He knew that smell.
His silver gaze locked onto the scene—a portly merchant with a whip raised over a cowering wolf woman, her unusual black-and-white hair matted with blood and dirt.
Sally.
The name hit him, and suddenly the rage that had been building in his chest transformed into something far more complex.
Something bitter and cold settled in his stomach like lead.
'She is still alive.'
The woman who had sold out their entire village. Who had given the Empire's forces the information they needed to slaughter defenseless children, mothers, and grandparents while the warriors waited uselessly at an empty trap.
The woman whose betrayal had cost him everything he'd sworn to protect.
Javrian's jaw clenched so hard he felt his teeth grinding, but his hand loosened, and he relaxed soon enough.
'She made her choice,' he thought, deliberately turning away from the scene. 'Let her live with the consequences.'
"Let's move, everyone," he said quietly, his voice carrying that familiar authority despite the strain underneath. "We have business elsewhere."
The words tasted like ash in his mouth.
Behind him, others also smelled and decided to leave.
Javrian forced himself to take another step away from the commotion, then another. Each step felt like swallowing glass, but he kept moving.
This was the right choice. The logical choice.
Sally had chosen the Empire over her own people. She had chosen silver over the lives of innocents. She had—
"What are you doing?"
The voice that cut through his thoughts was clear, authoritative, and completely unexpected.
Javrian spun around, his silver eye widening as he saw Luna striding purposefully toward the merchant's stall.
'What is she—'
"Luna," he breathed, understanding hitting him like a landslide.
Javrian's feet were moving before his brain caught up, carrying him closer to the scene as he watched Luna confront the merchant with that same fearless composure she'd shown when ordering Victor's death.
'Did she just...,' he thought, pride and surprise warring in his chest. 'Brave, beautiful, impossible fool.'
But before he could reach her, before he could pull her away from the danger she was walking into, everything went wrong.
Luna's boot connected with the merchant's groin in a perfect strike that sent the man crashing to the ground with pig-like squeals of agony.
And then the handcuffs appeared.
"You are under arrest for physically violating an honored citizen."
The words hit Javrian like a physical blow, but it was the sight of metal closing around Luna's wrists that shattered his control completely.
Killing intent exploded from him in waves so intense that nearby market stalls began to shake.
The very air seemed to thicken with menace as his predatory nature surged to the surface.
'They touched her. They DARED to touch my wife.'
His vision tinged red at the edges as he watched the so-called guards begin dragging Luna away.
Every instinct he possessed screamed at him to move, to kill, to tear apart anyone who dared lay hands on his mate.
But before he could take a single step, hands grabbed him from behind.
"Javrian, no!" Kael's voice was urgent, desperate. "Not here! Not now!"
More hands joined the first—Vera, Darius, even Lila appearing from wherever she'd been scouting.
They dragged him backward into the narrow alley between two merchant stalls, away from the crowd, away from Luna.
"Let me go," Javrian snarled, his voice no longer entirely human. "They have her. They took her!"
"We know!" Vera hissed, throwing her full weight against his arm. "But you can't just slaughter half the marketplace! This entire town will come down on us!"
"I don't care!" The words came out as a roar that echoed off the alley walls. "I'll kill every last one of them!"
They slammed him against the stone wall, all four pack members using their combined strength to hold him in place.
But Javrian was beyond reason now, beyond strategy.
All he could see was Luna's face as those handcuffs had clicked shut. All he could hear was her voice calling his name before being dragged away.
"She's gone because you stopped me!" he roared, rage making his vision blur. "She's in danger because—"
His words cut off as his control finally snapped completely.
What followed wasn't a fight—it was an explosion.
Javrian's elbow connected with Kael's ribs, sending the massive man flying into the opposite wall with a bone-crushing impact.
Vera tried to grab his left arm and found herself thrown overhead, crashing into a pile of empty crates with a thunderous crash.
Darius managed to dodge the first swing but caught the second across his jaw, spinning him like a top before he collapsed in a dazed heap.
Lila lasted the longest, her own combat training keeping her moving for almost ten seconds before Javrian's backhanded blow sent her skidding across the alley floor.
The entire confrontation lasted less than thirty seconds, leaving Javrian standing alone among his fallen packmates, breathing heavily as the red haze slowly began to clear from his vision.
He looked down at them—these people who had followed him through hell, who had bled beside him in countless battles—and felt nothing but cold fury.
"Don't," he said quietly, his voice carrying death in every syllable, "ever get between me and Luna again."
Then he turned and strode out of the alley, leaving them groaning among the wreckage.
But when he emerged into the marketplace, his silver eye scanning desperately for any sign of Luna or her captors, he found nothing.
The crowd had returned to its normal bustle. The merchant was gone. The guards were gone.
And Luna was gone.
"Javrian." Vera's voice came from behind him, strained with pain but steady. "Please don't act recklessly. This is a border city. We need to leave without attracting attention or we'll bring the entire Imperial garrison down on us."
He turned to find his pack members slowly emerging from the alley, battered and bruised but still loyal enough to follow him despite what he'd just done to them.
The sight of their injuries—injuries he had caused—should have made him feel guilt.
'Huh?' And came a realization.
Why did he just react like this now? Was it because he saw Sally, who scratched opened old wounds, triggering how he was helpless to protect his own?
Indeed, it made sense; maybe that wound mixed with how Luna too vanished, triggering deeper rage mixed with the old one.
"Haah... yes, I understand." He breathed, noting that even after years of events and experiences, he still seemed to have some hidden vulnerability somewhere deep... and also a warmth felt strangely in his heart.
He realized the reason that red-haired woman took that step a moment ago was because...
'You saw through my weakness that even I didn't know I had... huh?'
"Did Javrian just smile?" came a voice from Vera, who gave an overdramatic expression, looking at this cold beast who beat his own packmates smiling warmly.
"...." Javrian's smile vanished, calming himself with controlled rage, as he looked towards others slowly rising and said, "We need to find Luna... let's see where they took her."
But before they could leave the alley, a passing soldier talking in a group with his mates said while rubbing his nose, which was punched by the slave who was also arrested.
"I am going to get that yellow-eyed bitch tonight and send the red-haired one to the chief tomorrow... she will easily entertain him for a few hours, no maybe a day—!"