The Wolf God's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 79: Sit? Stay!

I made it just in time.

Adrenaline tore through me and sharpened everything, every movement, every sound. I ducked beneath Zaliver’s incoming claws, barely, and without thinking I drove my foot straight up into his groin.

His expression went from rage to something very different. I didn’t wait to see how long that lasted. I spun around and dropped to my knees in front of my father’s wolf form. He was snarling, breath hot and wild against my face, but I locked my arms around him and shoved with everything in me. Somehow I managed to push him a few feet back from Zaliver.

I got to my feet and stood between them, chest heaving, claws out, heart pounding so hard I could hear it. My gaze moved from one to the other. The fury running through me was my own but it was also something older and deeper, something that lived in the part of me that had been waking up piece by piece since the marking. My wolf was furious. So was I.

How dare Zaliver take this to the death? Over what, some misplaced idea of protection? I was exhausted by being caught in his storm, dragged around like something fragile he had to keep locked away.

And my father. I understood his fear, I did, but he hadn’t let me speak a single word. His first instinct had been to fight, to offer his life if necessary. I didn’t want that. Not like this.

Behind me, Zaliver was still on the ground, hands cupped over himself, face twisted between pain and disbelief. His eyes found mine, furious and betrayed at once. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t feel guilty. If anything, he’d had it coming.

And then my father was up again. Growling, charging, still bound by the death order Zaliver had spoken. His wolf barreled forward, and Zaliver just watched from the ground, not even bracing, like he already knew I was going to do something.

Maybe he did.

In that moment something clarified. Whether my father still had a choice didn’t matter. I had one. I was Zaliver’s mate, his equal, and I’d spent too long acting like that was a title that came with conditions instead of a position that had its own power.

The power inside me surged. I didn’t fight it.

"Sit. Stay."

I turned to my father and let the command come from somewhere low and certain, not a shout, not a plea. My eyes carried the authority behind it, and to my own stunned surprise, it landed.