Chapter 2
Sabrina
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Staring straight atthe monster that’s only a few feet away now, bloody handprints trailing behind him as he stalks closer with his teeth bared, I swallow. “...Reid?”
Hunter loosens his grip around my waist, gritting his teeth as he grabs onto the handrail to pull himself upright. “Get ready.”
My heart plummets into my stomach. “I’m not shooting Reid.”
“Sabrina!” he snaps. The lycan prowling closer stills, muscles tensing as he releases a warning growl. “Thatthingisn’t Reid; not anymore. You didn’t survive everything else tonight only to give up now. You’re going to get your ass up, grab that fucking gun, and keep the damn promise that you made to your mates. You’re going to walk out of this place in one piece; no matter what it takes.”
My mouth feels full of ash, eyes burning from more than the smoke rapidly thickening around us. “I can’t.”
“You can, because you have people that need you to.” He releases another grunt as his other half hammers at him from within, desperately trying to mend his legs, only to break the bones again so he can finally shift. “Ineed you to, okay? So get up, and get ready to run.”
Body trembling and lightheaded, I slowly rise to my feet. Hunter’s ragged shirt is thoroughly soaked and clinging to my body at this point, barely covering my ass as the storm rages on relentlessly around us. Blood-stained water drips down my bare legs, following the path of my scars, and each red drop that joins the growing puddle beneath me makes my ears ring, but I breathe through it. Scanning the ground behind Reid through the gap between his arms and legs, I search for the gun, but once I meet the unseeing eyes of Jonathan’s severed head, black spots flare in my peripherals.
He was his friend, and he beheaded him like it was nothing. Hunter’s right... this isn’t Reid.
Ears ringing, I can’t make out Hunter’s next words as I’m rooted to the spot, unable to look away from that damned, vacant stare. He sounds muted; distant. A chill settles into my bones despite the inferno ravaging the house beside us, all of the fire that fueled me earlier completely and utterly snuffed out. My wolf’s gone silent, thoroughly exhausted and burned out.
I’m alone, always alone.
Jonathan betrayed us, the entire friendship a lie so that he could keep tabs on me and Reid. Reid pulled away from me, and Slade lost his purpose, pack, and home in one fell swoop because of me. And now I’m going to get Hunter killed since no matter how hard I try, I can’t help but destroy everything that I touch.
“Now!” Hunter whips a chunk of rubble at the monster in front of us, who immediately lunges at him with a snarl.
Ducking my head, I use the opening to dart past, sliding to my knees on the wet cement and skinning them open. Snatching up the gun, I turn, desperately attempting to flip the switch in my brain that lets me dissociate so that I don’t have to feel anything, but it’s broken.I’mbroken, and I’m only now realizing how badly.
I’ve spent all of these years piecing myself together so that I could masquerade as a semi-functional human, when in reality, I’m not even a wolf. Not really. A wolf can’t incinerate a person, or switch personalities as easily as flipping channels on a TV. I’m a monster, far more so than the one in front of me.
Hunter’s pinned down beneath him, and the only thing keeping him from getting his face bitten off is the forearm he has wedged against Reid’s throat. Lifting the gun with trembling hands, I aim at Reid’s exposed back and take a deep breath. With his back to me, it’s the perfect opening, and if I stay in his blind spot-
His blind spot. He knows one threat slipped behind him, and he’sstillchoosing to leave himself vulnerable. A predator running solely on instinct wouldn’t make that mistake.
Rather than fire, I drop the gun, sprint forward, and take the most literal leap of faith I’ve ever made in my life. Wrapping my arms around Reid’s throat above and below where Hunter’s arm is pressing into his trachea, I lock my ankles over his stomach so that he can’t shake me off. Hunter’s right; I swore to do whatever was necessary to make it out of here in one piece, and if I lose Reid, I’ll be breaking my promise. If we walk away tonight with a single person less than we came with, a piece of me will die here with them.
Shoving all of the horrors threatening to crush me aside long enough to focus, I take a slow, deep inhale.
“What in the actual fuck are you doing!?” Hunter pants before crying out when Reid’s claws swipe down his chest. “Son of a bitch!” Gritting his teeth as he grabs Reid’s wrist, Hunter manages to restrain one hand, only for the other to tear down his side and paint the ground with his blood.
But even though he’s still snapping his teeth at Hunter and trying to tear him apart, Reid never once flinched or took a swipe at me when I landed on his back. He still hasn’t, even though I’m weakening him, and there’s no way he doesn’t feel what I’m doing. This drug just takes a person’s wolf and gives it roid-rage, makes it feral and mutated enough to partially shift. It allows their baser half to take over its host for a short time, but it’s stilltheirwolf doing it. That's why none of Alodia’s men that injected themselves turned on each other, only focused on attacking us.
Reid knows me, and so does his other half. Even if his wolf is so far gone that it’s running on the most primal instincts, a part of him recognizes me as pack, as a female wolf. He has no interest in hurting me, only in protecting me. First from Jonathan, and now from Hunter, who Reid hates even on the best of days, so it’s not much of a surprise that his other half is capitalizing on an opportunity to try to kill him.
“You psychotic fucking woman, I swear, you get off on trying to get yourself killed!” One of Hunter’s legs has healed enough to regain some use out of it, and he’s using his foot to push into Reid’s stomach, helping to keep him at bay. “You couldn’t have at least tossed me the gun if you couldn’t shoot him so I could?”
“Nobody is shooting Reid, and nobody’s dying. So instead of bitching, maybe make yourself useful! You’ve already got your hands all over him, so siphon and use some of that energy to heal yourself before you bleed out, you stubborn idiot.”
