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More shots were fired. More burning like beestings. I marveled at my new defenses…my new strength. I felt like nothing could stop me. Nothing would keep me from completing my mission.
The men surrounding me, werewolves who should have given me a fight, were nothing to me now.
I swiped my claws and gnarled into muscle, sinew and bone. I ripped out hearts and tore more limbs free. I disemboweled. I destroyed. I gutted and killed.
I was a monster.
“Johnny!” A familiar voice roared into my head, pulling me from the insane lust for blood. “They’re dead.”
The blood haze lifted. I was sucking in gore as I breathed through my mouth, spraying blood in a mist when I exhaled. There were dead bodies everywhere. Blood and body parts were strewn over the lot.
Our enemy was no longer a threat.
My men stood before me. Charlie’s men did the same, with them Andrew, cowering like he should be.
They were all scared. I could smell their fear.
I want to tell them they were safe from my wrath, but I couldn’t get my words to form. My throat was clogged. My head hurt with drilling pain that flashed down my spine and made me stumble.
“Whoa! Johnny, it’s done. Easy, dude. You can calm down now.” Devon approached with his hands out, moving slowly, caging a wild animal. “You with me, man?”
I hunched over and realized I was back in my human form, covered in blood, my clothing layered over top of the evidence of my massacre.
“What happened—?” Another lash of pain ripped down my body, and I crumpled to my knees.
“You freaked out, man,” Keith said, with more than a little awe in his voice. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You were a beast…unstoppable.”
No one came to my side. Everyone held back enough to let me know I’d obliterated their trust. I’d beasted out, just like Charlie. I’d lost control.
“I made a mess.” I tried for a joke that fell flat as the pain gripped my gut and sent me keeling over. I hit the concrete, my head bouncing off the hard surface. Curled up in a ball, shaking with spasms, I couldn’t control what happened next, but I knew where I needed to go. “Get me to Levi. There’s something wrong with me. He’ll know what to do.”
I hope.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Charlie
My body, exhausted from everything that had happened, soaked into the cushions of the butter-soft leather lounge chair on the jet. My eyelids were weighted, impossible to keep open. Second-by-second, my muscles released enough to push me into darkness and relieve me from the immediate stress of getting Ruby to you.
The veils of shadows caressed my skin, soothing in a way I’d never appreciated until now.
This was a safe place for me to regroup, to unwind.
I didn’t want to be alone.
It was my desire for your comfort, your strength and reassurance, that called you into my mind. My need for both you and Johnny, now my bonded mates, was palpable.
When you slid out of the shadows, you were a wolf with cunning, hungry eyes. Your fangs gleamed and your lips curled. I ran my fingers through your silky fur, trailing down your spine to your tail. Something primal zinged through my body, a knowing that you were mine, that I had claimed you.
You turned to rub along the backs of my legs before giving my wrist a long lick. I shivered as I laid my hand on your head and stared at your upturned face, wondering why you hadn’t turned into your human form.
Shift for me.
I needed to talk.
I needed your guidance.
Johnny appeared behind you, his usual wry wolfie expression replaced by narrowed eyes and bared fangs. He growled a warning. That primal part of me, my beast side, came online, perking up at the sound. My gut instinct alerted to danger and goosebumps rose.
