AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They didn’t hear me, both of them too lost in their territorial rage to even look my way. My skull felt like it would crack open as I realized the inevitable was about to happen.
I looked up at the stairs to see another shifter coming down the stairs, a young girl we’d also rescued from the canneries. I shook my head tersely at her, waving her back up the stairs. This tension was about to erupt, and neither of these men would be able to see or hear sense until they got it out of their systems. The last thing we needed was other traumatized shifters getting caught in the crossfire, especially children.
Travis got so close to Ashton that their noses were touching, and he spat out with bitter ferocity, “Fucking. Little. Pup.”
I took a couple of steps back from them just as they both shifted to the limit of their abilities. For Travis, that was a vaguely monstrous half-shift that had him looking more like a cheesy practical effect in an ’80s monster movie than a proper shifter. Ashton, on the other hand, was a lot closer to his full wolf form. His face extended into a muzzle, and his body became covered in hair. But he was still bipedal, and his legs retained much of their human shape.
They had it out, snarling and snapping at each other, smashing into walls and leaving huge gashes in them.
Great. More fucking shit to fix.
I kept my distance, keeping out of view so I didn’t get caught in a tussle with two furious shifters. There was a tear and a yelp from Ashton as Travis landed a well-timed bite to his shoulder. I watched impassively as blood spilled onto the dusty concrete floor.
Ashton looked at me then, and I could see the shame he felt, the embarrassment. He had no reason to be embarrassed, of course—Travis was a good fighter and had gotten a fair hit in. The only reason he was ashamed was his erroneous view of nonshifters and shifters who transitioned later in life.
This would be a good lesson for Ashton, if Travis could swing it. A nice serving of humble pie.
Travis started to get the upper hand, even at his smaller size. He clawed and snarled, using the leverage of his shorter stature to start to get Ashton wobbly on his feet. Ashton whimpered and scrambled, trying to get out of the attack.
Ashton grew even wilder, spittle and blood and fur flying through the air as he fiercely struggled to get the upper hand. Travis let out low warning growls, his jaws unyielding in Ashton’s shoulder.
Then, the front door swung open.
Everything seemed to freeze all at once. I looked at the door to see Marley entering the building with Noah at her side.
I was so fucking stupid. I should have texted her the moment I knew this was going to happen. I should have stepped outside and let the two men duke it out so I could be there to stop her from coming in. In the split second I realized the mistake I’d made, I looked back over to Ashton and Travis.
The sudden intrusion had thrown Travis off, too. He’d loosened his grip on Ashton, and the younger wolf broke free of the grapple he’d been locked into. I could see in Ashton’s eyes that he wasn’t all there—he had the glassy, feral rage of a wild animal. He careened right for my wife and my son with reckless abandon.
I watched as my son’s protective instincts took over. He stepped in front of Marley and shifted, growing no larger than a house dog.
“No!” I shouted before I shifted myself. Blood pumped into my legs, and I flew across the room at the same time as Ashton.
I wasn’t going to get there in time. My son and wife would be torn to shreds before my eyes, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it but mourn them. I’d been so foolish to let things get this bad. Travis was right. We should have gotten rid of Ashton. We should have—
Miraculously, despite my catastrophic worries, I managed to intercept Ashton just before he managed to close his jaws onto Marley’s arm.
Instead, he chomped down on my own throat, closing his teeth with crushing pressure on my windpipe and tearing into my flesh.
I heard a whimper. My own, I realized.
Marley was quiet as she dropped everything she was carrying and swept my son up into her arms before sprinting up the stairs, taking two at a time.
I whimpered again as Ashton growled and tore into me one more time. I should have nipped this right in the bud when I’d had the chance.
It was an agonizing minute before Ashton stopped panting and, after making a distressed sound of his own, released his jaws. I collapsed onto the ground, and Ashton shifted back into his human form.
“Oh, god. Shit. No. No, no, no, no,” he wept. “What happened? I was…you…where’s Travis?”
“Over here, dickbag,” Travis said as he ran over to my side. “You’re real fucking lucky, you know that? You went right for alpha’s mate. He could have fucking killed you for that.”
Travis knelt at my side and pressed a hand to one of the wounds on my neck. He pulled it away for a moment to get a better look at it, and I saw that his hand was covered in dark, sticky blood. I heard whimpering again as my head started to swim. This time, I couldn’t tell if it was me or my son—someone else?
There were more footsteps, soft ones. Marley?
I snarled in warning, trying to get her to go away.
“Don’t you snarl at me, young man,” I heard the woman say. Not Marley, but Sylvia. “Move over,” she ordered. “I need to check him.”
