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The heavy weight pinning me down shifted. Cole’s wolf snarled and leaped toward my attacker. Time slowed down as the big man pulled a gun from his waistband and fired. Cole yelped in mid-air. He fell to the ground, crashing against an outcrop of rock when he landed. Scarlet blood splattered over the pristine snow, and I screamed again.
The voice in my head fell silent. Cole’s huge black wolf lay motionless. The rational part of my brain said he was just unconscious, but my heart told me he was dead.
“NOOOO!”
“Shut the fuck up before you bring the rest of the fucking freaks up here,” the man hissed. I tried to pull away from his firm grip, but it was hopeless. The last thing I saw before pain exploded inside my skull and the world went dark was Cole lying in a pool of blood.
Tanner
Lily’s boyfriend AJ was a skinny runt. I was no expert on teenage girls, but something told me the fact her father disapproved was a big part of the attraction. He stunk of weed with underlying notes of stale sweat.
The kid backed up when he saw me walk into the deserted auto repair shop where he worked for his uncle. I’d waited until the two other guys that worked there left, leaving AJ to lock up.
Personally, I wouldn’t have made him responsible for anything. He looked flaky as fuck. I’d expected some nervousness - most humans had a natural wariness of us, even if they didn’t know exactly what we were - but this kid practically pissed his pants when I walked in.
“I don’t know nothing,” he stammered, his eyes flicking from side to side, pupils blown wide, which suggested he was on something. Weed, possibly, but he didn’t seem chill enough, so I had a hunch he’d graduated to the stronger stuff.
“Yeah, Rufus told me.” I took a step closer, trying not to heave at the stench. “Problem is, I don’t believe you know nothing. So how about you think a little harder to see if anything pops into your head, eh?”
I pulled out the hunting knife I always carried and used the tip to clean my nails. I had no intention of torturing this kid, but he didn’t know that. Urine trickled down and pooled on the floor around his scuffed sneakers. Gross.
“Did you know what Lily was?”
From the lack of confusion on his face, I guessed Lily had told him.
“She…she explained, yeah.”
“And did you tell anyone else?”
The kid hyperventilated, his eyes flicking from me to the knife. Any minute now and he’d be shitting himself, just to make my day even better.
“I…I…I may have told my uncle,” he blubbered, tears rolling down his gaunt cheeks.
“Why?”
I took another step closer and AJ’s eyes rolled back in his head before he dropped to the floor like a stone.
For fuck’s sake. I’d not even touched him! If only all my targets were this easy to intimidate.
I slapped him around the face a couple of times before grabbing a cup of soda from a nearby bench and tipping it over his head. He came around, spluttering and coughing.
“I don’t know why!” he cried. “I heard them talking about shifters and I wanted to…I dunno…impress him! He asked me about Lily and I said she was my girl. That’s it!”
Something didn’t add up. “Who was he talking to and what were they talking about exactly?”
My booted foot pressed down on AJ’s concave chest. He sniffled and wiped his runny nose with a grimy hand. God, he really was a horrible little human. If I found Lily, I’d be tearing her a new one for hanging out with such a pathetic specimen.
“I dunno, some cop he hangs out with. I’ve seen him around a bit. They drink together. I just caught the end of the conversation. The cop said they were looking for shifters. I told them my girl was a shifter and maybe she could help introduce them to some of her friends. I thought I was being helpful!”
“If you thought that, why didn’t you tell Rufus this when he came to see you?”
“I forgot.” Lying little shit.
I rolled my eyes. “Really. It’s amazing how much your memory’s already improved with some additional motivation.”
“She dumped me anyway,” he sniffed. “Said I was too clingy.”
He was pathetic. Was I ever that pathetic? I doubted it.
