The butt of the shotgun cracks against the middle of his face as I take a page out of Leon’s book, swinging for the fences and this motherfucker’s nose.
“Bitch,” he shouts as he drops his gun, staggers back and cups his face. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“Yeah, you fucking should have.” I swing at him again, missing the side of his head as he catches the barrel.
“I won’t hesitate this time,” he snarls as he jerks the gun forward, yanking me toward him as he swipes at me, the Bowie knife centimeters from piercing my side.
I use the gun to shove him, letting go and throwing him off balance for a moment before I have to dodge and weave the nexttwo jabs before Hayk tears open my left thigh after faking me out.
But it doesn’t have the result he was expecting.
Instead of making me cower and give up, it pisses me off and I lunge at this bastard like a linebacker and tackle him to the ground.
We tussle a bit, rolling back and forth until I manage to knee him in the balls and lay him out before I straddle his chest.
I punch his broken nose before I dig my knees into his biceps, my leg on fire as blood oozes from the wound. Hayk tries to throw me off of him but I dig in harder, years and years of anger and pain, rage and fear, years of hate come pouring out of me, and I reach for the first weapon I can find.
“This is for Jay,” I grunt as I lift the brick high and bring it down hard on his head. “For all three of them.” I hit him again, a satisfying crunch ringing out as blood splatters against my chest. “This is for Bee, you son of a bitch!” His blood coats the front of my shirt and I lift the brick again. “This is for Tatiana, and my pack. This is for my sweet alpha, Rune!” Hayk stops moving as the thick red liquid splashes against my neck and face, and I hit him over and over until the gray painted brick sinks into his skull and I’m yanking pieces of bone and teeth out through the hole. “This is for me, you bastard, and the years you spent trying to destroy me.”
I start to cry as my weapon gets stuck in his head, his face completely caved in and unrecognizable.
“It’s over, kitten.”
“No!” I try to get away from Dimitri as his hands cover mine, gently pulling them from what’s left of Hayk. “No. No, I have to be sure. He, he, he…”
Fear slices through me as my head spins to my right and I launch myself forward, breaking free and dragging myself as fast as I can to the motionless body laying a few feet away.
“No,” I sob as I grab the front of Rune’s shirt, my palms sliding over his chest before I take his face in my hands and press a kiss to his lips. “No. No, you can’t… You weren’t supposed to…” I pull his head into my lap, cradling him to my chest as I fall apart completely. “Please. Please, sweetheart. Don’t go. Stay with me. Stay with us.”
“Liv, my love.” I look up to see Styx crouching in front of me, a sad smile on his face as he reaches out and cups my cheek. “We don’t have much time.”
I blink a few times as I hold Rune tighter, as I hold him as close as possible, and when I look past my beta to see the same heartbreak I’m feeling reflected back at me, I let out a scream that I have never heard myself make before.
“We aren’t leaving him behind,” Styx says as he gets to his feet. “But we have to go.”
My eyes move from Niko, my omega standing there crying right along with Rus and Cy, to Dimitri and the way he has Tati high on his hip as she hugs his neck, then Leon as he holds Bee’s motionless body in his arms and sways as if he’s rocking her to sleep.
“Rune. My sweet, beautiful man,” I whisper as I look down at his face, tracing the tattoos on his cheeks and jaw as I watch my tears mix with his blood. I dip my chin and press my lips to his, and my eyes sting when I feel how cold they are. “I love you.”
And I will love him right along with the rest of our pack until I take my very last breath and leave this world for good.
CHAPTER 35
LIV
THE WARMTH - INCUBUS
Six months later
“Can we have balloons?”
I smile as I flip the pancake over, then grimace when I see how black and crispy that side is. “We can haveallthe balloons.” I use the spatula to add the breakfast-turned-hockey puck to the pile on the plate next to me, shaking my head as I turn off the stovetop and go for the cereal cabinet. “You can have anything you want, Tati. A girl only has one fifth birthday party and it’s going to be a blast.”
“Can we have face paintin’?”
I nod with a grin. “I don’t see why not.”
“What about a pony?”
