Free A Hunger So Wild by Sylvia Day

sparring match. But you’ll regret carrying that baggage in front of the others. Trust me. I know.”
    “Do you?” he challenged. “Have you killed someone you promised to protect with your life?”
    Amazingly, her beautiful amber eyes softened with something like sympathy. “I’ve done some horrible things, things I’m not proud of and have a hard time living with. It’s part of the job of being a leader. I’m not saying you should suck it up and get over it, because you’re not going to get over it. That’s also part of the job—if you stop caring, you’re worthless. I’m just saying you can’t stand in front of your troops seething with guilt, because that implies culpability and this was an assisted suicide. Rachel had to know she couldn’t possibly win against you or me. She was ready to go, and this was how she chose to do it.”
    “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” His friendships were precious to him. As frustrated as he was with Rachel, she was still a friend and a pack member and he ached from her loss.
    Vash shrugged. “Nothing will. But you didn’t do anything wrong. It was a shitty thing to do, yeah, but it had to be done. For her sake, my sake, your sake, and the sake of this alliance that we both really fucking need. As I said, if you wanna knock it out, I’m here. Just don’t take it in there.”
    “There will be more,” he muttered, respecting her counsel and appreciating—however reluctantly—thatshe’d offered it. “The others didn’t know what they were getting into when they orchestrated this revolt, and many of them aren’t going to be happy with the decisions I’m making.”
    “Fuck ’em. Until they’ve been in command, they can’t know what it’s like.”
    He snorted.
She
knew what it was like, which created an unexpected affinity between them.
    She smacked him on the shoulder. “Ready, puppy?”
    Fuck. She was hot as hell but totally crazy. Irreverent and unpredictable, too. Yet when he’d researched her, he’d heard the stories of her hunts—she was like a lycan on the scent when she pursued, dogged and unwavering, dependable for those who hunted with her. And now it seemed there was a method to her madness.
    He growled. It’d been better when the only thing he admired about her was her tits. “Stick close to me.”
    “I’ve got your back.”
    “Fine. Make it easy for me to have yours.”
    She glanced at him as they entered the main cavern. Blood still stained the ground from his earlier fight and he was trudging in more, his wounded leg leaving a crimson trail in his wake.
    Throwing his head back, he howled, a purely inhuman sound. Within moments, the space began to fill. Vash appeared startled by the number of lycans who poured in. “Jeez. Who knew so many furries could fit in one cave?”
    Elijah waited until the room was so full that a mere five feet of clearance surrounded them. He relayed therecent events without inflection—starting with Vashti’s arrival and ending with his reason for taking the life of a packmate. His remorse and frustration roiled, twisting around his vitals, but he contained them, even as he expressed sincere regret that they’d lost one of their own.
    As some of the lycans in the room shifted into their lupine forms, Vash lifted her blade and set the flat of it against her shoulder. While her pose was casual, it conveyed her battle readiness. The beasts paced and she tracked them with her gaze.
    “I’m asking you to trust the orders I give and the actions I take,” he finished, “whether you understand and agree with them or not. If you can’t, I won’t stop you from leaving and I won’t think less of you. If you stay, some of you will be on the move tomorrow and working with vampires. In either case, try to get some rest tonight. Things will be stressful for all of us for the next while.”
    He started forward, heading for the cavern he was using as sleeping quarters. The female who’d announced Vash’s