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“That’s gonna hurt.” I grimaced. Wolf muttered a few low words beneath his breath. Romani, if I remembered correctly. The chain glowed bright red, the power surging off it stifling in the small space. He’d gotten the chain off an old Romani peddler when he was in New Orleans tracking down a rabid shifter. The spell was attached to it, and when uttered, it turned the chain into a powerful conduit that could be used to trap any kind of magical being. The chain would wrap around its target and slowly drain them. For normal shifters, it could be dangerous if not used right. Draining a shifter’s essence too much could kill them.
“Shift!” Wolf commanded the…well…wolf. It growled in response. “Shift! Now!” Still the shifted wolf resisted. That was rare. Wolf was an alpha, the son of a powerful alpha and omega, whose commands weren’t easily ignored. Even for me.
The shifted wolf snarled, its shoulder shifting back and its head lowering as it prepared to lunge. Wolf didn’t give it a chance. The chain snapped out, catching the shifter around the front paw. It calculated Wolf’s move and leaped back at the last second. The shifter howled in pain, the sound stabbing me straight through the heart. The sudden urge to rush my best friend and brother shot through me. I barely held back the sudden protective instinct.
“Shift!” he commanded again. Nothing.
Good girl.
Shit, where the fuck had that come from?
“Wolf, watch out,” I called, but it was too late. The shifter had grabbed at the chain with its teeth and yanked, sending Wolf off balance. His grip on the chain loosened, and the shifter managed to slip its paw free.
Fuck.
It didn’t hesitate to dive between the three of us, making a break for the door. It shouldered past Gunner, knocking the big man off his feet before shooting out the door.
“Don’t shoot.” Wolf was hot on my tail as we ran from the café. “Don’t—”
The shifter whimpered, crying out as a bullet from one of our men tore through it. Another searing pain jolted in my chest.Shit.
“Don’t shoot!” Wolf commanded, his tone dark and full of venom. One hand rubbed at his chest. Did he feel it, too? The pain and agony? The confusion? Those weren’t my feelings. The men didn’t hesitate to lower their weapons, but the damage was already done.
The shifter struggled to stand, its chest heaving, uttering low, painful whimpers.
“Switzerland,” Wolf directed the young brother. “Go with Gunner and grab Granny. Get her to Doc. Bruiser and Shazam, grab the body inside and take it directly to Cassie at the morgue. I want to know everything about that fucker.”
“And the wolf?” I questioned. It certainly wasn’t going to be a picnic to cart it back to the compound.
“Grab the sheriff and see if we can use his truck,” Wolf started. “It won’t fit in Granny’s.” He paused when the shifter began to twitch, its body shuddering almost violently. It let out a keening wail as its limbs began to crack, fur fading back into skin until the beast was gone and replaced by none other than…
“River girl.”
CHAPTER TEN
Monster. Abomination. The words rang through my head as my beast tore its mouth away from Curtis’s throat. The shifter held his hand to the bleeding wound, eyes wide and fearful as he stared up at me. It was too late; he would bleed out in a matter of moments. My beast relished in his fear. He had hurt us, just like the others. He had laughed at our pain. I licked my lips—no, not me—the beast. The beast licked its lips and curled them back as if it were smiling.
We would avenge our packmates. Those we called friends.
“She shifted,” the beast heard our father hiss. “No wolves should be able to naturally shift. You said it was impossible.” Their footsteps were loud, annoyingly so. Boots thudded down on crisp leaves and twigs. Did they know nothing about stealth? A wolf shouldn’t alert its prey that it was stalking them.
Fools.
“It should be impossible,” another voice hissed. My beast cocked its head to the side. We didn’t recognize this voice. “Freya wasn’t given the serum.”
“I saw it with my own eyes, Harold,” our father snapped. “She shifted right as Damien was about to slit her throat, then she took off.”
The one named Harold growled. “You let her get away?”
“We didn’t let her do anything,” father snarled. “She took off before we could even register what was happening.”
“The ritual can’t be complete if she isn’t brought back and sacrificed,” Harold warned. “All of them must be bled for it to work.”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“Be aware that if you don’t get her back before the next full moon, he’ll come to collect your souls.”
Our father snorted. “Please,” he dismissed Harold’s warning. “Do you honestly believe that?”
