AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I already have my right hand,” I said and felt Levi puff his chest out behind me. “But I agree, we need you with us and under the control of my pack. I want the scrolls Sal has, and you’re going to get them for me.”
“I can’t go after the scrolls… That’s a death sentence… A lone wolf—”
“Oh, you won’t be alone.” I leaned forward, glaring. “You’ll be working with one of my lieutenants…Gareth.”
Andy flinched. His face drained of all color. His shoulders sagged.
“Oh, you didn’t realize I already know about your little alliance with my uncle?”
“I needed help to get out of Vancouver! Gareth wanted to—”
“He wanted to capture me!” I roared. “To force his bite on me. Don’t tell me you’re that stupid, Andy. You knew what he wanted from me!”
Andy lowered his head and let out a sob. “I thought I could outsmart him.” He held his hands up and out, begging once again.
It was revolting.
“You’ve only ever looked out for yourself, Andy. You’ve only ever done what would benefit you.”
His shoulders shook. His eyes were damp. I wanted to rip his throat out.
“You weren’t trying to save me. You were trying to capture me, just like the rest of them.” I crouched low enough so I could snort in his ear, and my fang tips touched his jaw. “Just like the rest of them, you underestimated me.”
I stepped out of Levi’s way, pulling back from Andrew before I did something irreversible. Levi was huffing and puffing, his body pent-up, full of intention.
“You know what to do,” I said.
Levi didn’t give Andrew a chance to react. He was on him in a second, piercing into his throat, ravaging the skin right down to his esophagus. Andrew’s scream was cut short, blood poured from his mouth. Levi sank his fangs deeply into Andrew’s flesh to mark my stepbrother as his own minion, then he dragged Andrew from the room—a beast carrying his prize.
Kane looked ready to pounce or maybe to run. Either would have been unsurprising. I turned slowly to him, my chest heaving as I strained to maintain control. Blood was blood, and my beastly instincts craved more. “Are you ready to see this through now?”
“No.” Kane tore his eyes from the empty doorway then took another step away from me. “I’m not. This is happening too fast. We need time to strategize. If you take my bite, then all that’s left is Johnny, and we can’t ignite Sal’s plan before we’re ready for him.”
He’s holding back? After everything we’d learned? He still didn’t understand. “We can strategize after I’ve reached full power.”
“No. Charlie, you aren’t thinking this through. We need a plan.” Kane walked around his desk, putting it between us.
“I have a plan. Sal wants me, so that’s what he’ll get—me in my full glory.” I pounded my chest. “He won’t beat me like this.”
“You’re drunk on power, Charlie,” Kane growled, his hands splayed on his desk as he leaned forward to glare at me. “We don’t know what Sal has in his arsenal. That collar his witches created was no joke. You felt it. You know. I wouldn’t put it past him to have a lot of other devious plans in the works.”
My mind flickered to that day, the burn of the collar and how it took me out instantaneously. I lifted a gnarled furry hand to touch my throat. I could still feel the pain like an angry ghost against my skin. The memory tamped my bloodlust down like cold water on a fire.
“Are you really willing to take a chance without knowing? To sacrifice the men who will be linked to you if you take my bite?” Kane moved closer. “It could be their death sentence, along with yours.”
His words hit like punches. I shuddered and, as I did, my body shifted to human, unbidden and uncontrolled. I went from seven feet to five. It changed my perspective instantly.
He was right. Fuck. I couldn’t run into this without a solid plan. I couldn’t put the pack at risk because of my reckless decisions.
“Sal had the contract amended.” My mind, already steps ahead of me, lingered on that day, just before I was collared when I was in the elevator. Andrew’s words, “he would have put something in the contract for purchase, too,” took on new meaning.
Kane frowned. “The contract for you?” He had the sense to look ashamed.
That day should never have happened.
“I overheard his lawyers talking about the contract. That he needed an amendment added.” Conclusions were forming, their conversation making my shoulders bunch and a chill trail over my skin.
“There wasn’t anything new on the contract. I reread it before I signed.” Kane swore as his eyes darkened. “Unless it was added in witch text.”
