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Charlie.
Fear spiked down my spine, painful and fast, ripping at my nerve endings. The threads binding me to my mate flared alive like they hadn’t been before, setting my whole body on fire with adrenaline.
Charlie’s fear ignited my instincts, and for the first time in my werewolf life, I knew that I was going to lose control over my wolf.
“Give me everything you’ve got,” I roared.
Things were going to get bloody.
Chapter Twenty
Charlie
I managed to stay calm.
Calm enough to sweet talk Ruby to agree to an all-expenses trip with me to Vancouver. Calm while she called her boss and demanded the vacation time she was owed. Calm enough to help her pack and smile the whole time she gushed about hanging with my hunky friends. I was even calm as she harassed me over my ridiculous freak out because of her scratch.
“Jared’s version of a parting gift,” she’d laughed. “It didn’t even bleed…much,” she’d teased.
I stayed calm right up until the fever kicked in and Ruby’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. She almost hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.
Almost, but I caught her, saving her head from bashing into the corner of her dresser.
“Kane, I need you!” His thundering steps roared up the stairs, followed closely behind by Lex.
Both men looked as frantic as I felt. I laid Ruby down on her bed, helpless as her body started to shake. I’d hoped we’d get her to the plane at least, but the way werewolf bites worked was unpredictable…until they weren’t. Now that the symptoms had started, we knew what lay ahead for Ruby—pain, suffering and death.
“Roll her on her side,” Kane ordered, moving into the cramped space to help me get Ruby over.
Her body seized, arms and legs rigid. I climbed onto the bed with her, shifting in behind so I could brace her, cradling her body like I could stop the transformation. “She’s burning up.” Heat wafted off her like she was a furnace. Sweat already soaked her hair.
Her head lashed back, almost taking me out with the violence of it, then she was shaking again, every limb, every muscle, spasming like an earthquake. She cried out, keening like a wounded animal.
“I’m here, Ruby. It’s going to be okay,” I lied, desperate to reassure her. I held tight, trying not to smother her but needing Ruby to feel me there. “I’m going to get you help.”
As if my words were enough to stop her seizure, the shaking tapered off and Ruby’s body deflated into limp noodles. She moaned. Her eyes fluttered but her breathing grew steady.
“If we’re going to move her, now is the time.” Kane’s voice was gruff. When I looked up at him sharply, he added, “We can’t help her here. We need Levi. He’ll know what to do.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Johnny
I was rabid…furious. There was blood everywhere, and I couldn’t tell if it was mine or theirs. I didn’t care, either.
I was a beast, and I wanted blood.
I’d locked Charlie out. I didn’t want her sensing the change in me. Everything was instinctive—the drive to kill, to complete my mission and achieve my alpha’s goals. My mate didn’t need the burden of the bloodbath or my fury.
I wasn’t a wolf, not in this moment. I had arms and legs, and I was towering over the men surrounding me. I was a werebeast full of power.
Like Charlie, my mate.
Wade shot me twice. I felt the silver sear into my flesh, splitting open organs, wounds that should have killed me but didn’t. I didn’t know what Charlie’s mark had done to me, but I was feral and, seemingly, invincible.
I ripped his arm from his body, taking the weapon with it, making it useless against me.
He wailed, screamed, clenched his gaping wound, his face full of terror. I didn’t make him suffer. His head detached easily, and I used it as a weapon, aiming at his next in command, a wolf growling and nipping at my shins. Just a nuisance. I took him out with Wade’s thick skull, hitting so hard that the wolf flew away, soaring into the trees until I couldn’t see where he landed. By the sound of the crunch, I knew he wouldn’t be coming back, though.
