Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 592

Chapter 592

NINA

Then the pups found Kael.

I saw it happening from across the clearing — three of them, the seven-to-nine-year age range, moving toward the enormous black wolf with the specific combination of bravado and terror that was the hallmark of small creatures who'd decided to do something their better judgment had objections to.

The bravado was doing most of the work.

The one in the front — a small grey wolf, compact and quick, with the specific energy of someone who'd been told they could do something and was going to prove it — planted their feet in front of Kael's wolf and puffed up to their full height, which was not impressive relative to Kael's wolf but was apparently irrelevant to the commitment level.

*We are wolves now,* the small wolf said, through the link, in the specific link-voice of a child who'd just discovered they had one and was using full volume because they hadn't learned about modulation yet. *AND WE ARE NOT SCARED OF YOU ANYMORE.*

The clearing got quieter around them.

*AND WE CAN TAKE YOU ON,* the small wolf continued.

Kael's wolf looked at the three pups.

Then he growled.

Not the combat growl. Not the warning growl. The Alpha growl — the specific register that lived below the hearing and above it simultaneously, the one that traveled through the link as well as the air and carried the weight of what Kael was, the full unmanaged force of it.

The three pups disappeared.

They didn't run — they were simply there and then not there, the specific velocity of small wolves who'd received information and were processing it at maximum possible speed in the direction of their parents.

The clearing laughed.

Jay's wolf was nearly on the ground.

*Oh,* he said, through the link. *Oh that was—*

*Don't,* I said, because I was trying to maintain composure and Jay laughing was making it significantly harder.

*He just—they just—* Jay couldn't finish.

*I know,* I said.

Kael's wolf sat in the middle of the clearing in the specific still way of a large animal who'd done a small thing and was waiting for the consequences to fully develop.

The consequences developed approximately thirty seconds later.

The three pups came back.

Slower this time. The bravado had taken a hit but had apparently not been fatally wounded. They moved in the careful approach of creatures who'd been scared and had decided that being scared wasn't an acceptable final outcome and were returning to their original position.

The front pup — the grey one, who was apparently the elected representative — stopped at what had been calculated as a slightly safer distance and growled.

The sound that came out was not a growl.

It was the specific sound of a small thing attempting a large sound and producing something that was objectively closer to a squeak with aspirations.

The pack made the sound of people who were trying very hard not to make a sound.

Kael's wolf looked at the front pup.

The front pup looked at Kael's wolf.

Then Kael's wolf lowered his head — all the way down, forelegs stretched forward, the specific posture of something much larger than you acknowledging something much smaller as a worthy opponent — and held it there.

The front pup stared.

Then he turned and ran back to the group of children, and through the link I could hear him: *I DEFEATED HIM. I DEFEATED THE BAD WOLF. HE BOWED. I WIN.*

The clearing erupted.

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