One Alpha.

I told Bria that I tried hard to lead like him, with authority and respect, but I lied.

I stared down at Holden lying on my desk, his body covered in deep claw marks and his clothes soaked in blood. With drenched hands, I picked up his carcass and handed it to Adan who snatched him from me and scrunched up his nose.

"Get him out of my office before someone spots him here," I said.

"You owe me," he said, then glanced out the door crack and sprinted down the hallway.

After I slammed my office door, I ran a blood-covered hand through my hair and swept all the ruined exams and papers off my desk and into a trash bag, cleaning my school office as well as I could before someone saw.

I was no One Alpha. I was an alpha who would do anything to protect his mate.

Even kill.

Once everything was clean, I ran my hands through my hair and paced back and forth in my office, glancing out the window to see Adan disappear into the forest. My stomach was in knots, and I couldn't stop but think that after this, The Council was bound to come find us.

Ten minutes passed, and Adan emerged from the woods. I grabbed my things to bring home and locked up my office to meet him right outside the building. He nodded and grimaced.

"Did you hide his body?" I asked Adan.

"Yes."

"Where?"

Adan growled, "You don't want to know. Drop it. It's done."

After a couple moments, I sighed and ran a hand over my face. I closed the door behind me and walked down the pathway toward the woods with Adan. I didn't like the man, but I didn't want anyone else finding out what I had done.

It felt dirty. It felt filthy. It felt right.

It didn't matter who Holden might've been. All that mattered was that he tried endlessly to take my Bria away from me. He offered her to be with The Council after everything they had done to her. He had trapped her in the library. He had tried to get me fired.

Now, he was gone, and I could finally go home to Bria.

As much as I fucking loathed Adan, I sucked in a breath. "Thanks."

"Thanks?" Adan asked, surprise laced in his voice.

"For taking care of him," I said, balling my hands. "The Chancellor asked about my relationship with Bria today. Holden had tipped him off. If I didn't take care of him now, then I wouldn't have put him past him to spill the wolf secret to the world next."

"That's the shit that The Council does," Adan said.

We continued down the path toward my packhouse in silence.

I couldn't wait to get back to see Bria. I had to ignore her all day because all the professors and the Chancellor were watching me closely. Wilmar might've taken my story as truth, but I wasn't taking any chances.

If he even saw me look at Bria on the quad, he might fire me.

She had been contacting me all day, but I had to ignore her.

It hurt me too, so fucking badly. I wanted to scoop her up into my arms, bury my face into the crook of her neck, and kiss the mark I had left on her pretty throat. She was the only woman who could calm me with a touch, with a mere smell.

Walking closer to my property with Adan, I smelled the air to see if I could catch her scent, but my wolf suddenly went wild inside my body and forced me to stop in my tracks. I lifted my nose to the air again, inhaled deeper, and tensed.

A foul scent mixed with blood lingered heavily in the air, coasting in from the south, from my property, in waves, curling around all the trees and consuming me. Almost immediately, I shifted into my wolf, my claws digging into the dirt and my canines dripping with saliva.

The Council.

The Council was here.

The Council was trying to take my Bria.