Greggoire laughed in Ethan’s head. “You were always too soft, Prince.”
Ethan’s jaw opened and he recoiled. He stared at the tan wolf struggling to his feet. This didn’t make any sense. Greggoire wouldn’t have known how Loren used to torment him whenever he was alone by calling him Prince, because the twins rarely had anything to do with each other because of Loren's insane jealousy. The hair rose on his back. He bared his teeth and growled.
“I see you’ve figured it out.” The tan wolf stepped sideways. “You always were slow. What would grandfather say to you now, Prince?” Ethan lowered his head, shocked. “What kind of game are you and Greggoire playing with the pack, Loren?”
“Greggoire?” Loren snarled. “He was weak and in my way, so I got rid of him, just like I will get rid of you and everyone else that threatens the new movement.”
Not letting Loren back away from him, Ethan shifted his stance and blocked him from Dani’s view. “Where’s the boy? Is he still alive?” Loren stared him down. “You’ll never get the boy.”
The slightest twitch on Loren’s shoulder gave him away. Before the tan wolf could leap, Ethan lunged and caught Loren underneath the jaw.
Ethan landed hard, never losing his grip.
Growling, he scooted around trying to protect his vulnerable underbelly from Loren’s claws.
Shifting his mouth to the back of Loren’s neck, he used all his strength.
An artillery of crunches splintered the air as Loren’s spine disconnected at the neck. Ethan shook his head, ensuring the kill, then getting loose of the vile werewolf. He stepped backward, his heart racing.
He’d killed the alpha.
The headless wolf lay on the grass, no longer a threat. Ethan inhaled deeply as he stayed rooted to the spot to witness the dead werewolf slowly transform back into his human form. It was the way of his kind to shift in death to protect the existence of the werewolves should humans find a body.
Dani threw her arms around his neck. “You did it, Ethan. I knew you could.” She ran her hands over the wounds scoring his back, his sides, his legs.
Mr. Lehman stood above Loren’s body frowning. The others in the pack shuffled away from Ethan, confusion and pain showing on their faces.
“Tell the others I will be back. I’m going to shift and get dressed first.”
“Do you want me to come? You’re hurt.” He rubbed against her leg. “I will be fine. I’ve been through worse.” He walked through the crowd without gazing at one member of the pack.
Chapter Fourteen
The grave silence of the pack was exactly the opposite of how Dani felt inside. She wanted to shout at all the werewolves that her life mate was the new alpha, and they didn’t need to be afraid. Instead, she stood and stared at the remains of the man who’d killed her parents, stolen her brother and had planned to kill her mate.
Every promise she’d wished upon him was paid in full. She swallowed. Now she had to find her brother.
The pack murmured. Dani lifted her chin and turned to see Ethan. In the deep recesses of her soul, her wolf whined. “I love you.” Striding forward with his shoulders back, his hair swept away from his face, Ethan reentered the circle and stood beside the slain werewolf.
“As my father, his father before him, and all the other long line of Tolenes that have carried the Drover pack over many, many years, I ask you to listen to what I have to say.”
To show support, Dani joined Ethan at his side.
Ethan squatted beside Loren’s body and rolled the headless form over. “Do you all see the mark on his lower back?”
A green tattoo in the shape of an X lay over his right butt cheek. Dani chewed on the inside of her cheek. She had no idea what Ethan meant by showing everyone a marking obviously done by an amateur.
“Ethan? I believe I have something I could say that will help.” Mrs. Danielson went to Dani and caressed her cheek with a sad smile. “I am so, so, so very sorry.”
Moisture flooded her vision. “Mrs. Danielson, I—” The older woman shook her head and looked at the crowd. “I knew Loren’s secret. So did Lehman, Stan, Keith, Brad, John, Colby, his mate Jen, and my husband Butch. Every one of us kept quiet because we feared for our lives.
Butch tried to reach out for help.” She nodded at Dani. “He told your parents when he first suspected it. That’s why Loren killed them both.
We couldn’t tell anyone, or he would have killed us.” Questions filled the air. “Who’s Loren?”
“What’s the tattoo mean?”
“What about those that did his dirty work?” Ethan stood beside Dani and raised his hand in the air. “I’ll answer all the questions the best I can. Loren was Greggoire’s twin brother. About twenty-six years ago, Loren supposedly fell off a cliff. No one knows for sure how it happened, but it was deemed an accident. The body was taken care of by the immediate family.” He pointed to the decapitated werewolf on the ground. “This is Loren, not Greggoire. Loren admitted to me during the fight that he’d killed his twin. I can just imagine that he did it to take over a new life. Loren was never well liked, always going for more power, more control.” Dani jolted. He rubbed her arm. “We were cousins, so I knew that my grandfather had marked both twins at birth. Loren had an X, Greggoire had an O. Checkers had been my grandfather’s favorite game, and he wanted to have a way of telling the two brothers apart.”