Embodying the arctic, she smiles without a single blip of warmth to be found. “Is that why you set your sights on Sabrina? To lure me back here? I hate to tell you, butsanepeople simply send an invitation. They don’t go back on their word and sell someone off, kill their husband, chase them across the country, stalk their daughter, then abduct them.”
A genuine look of confusion overtakes his face. “I gave you the greatest gift of all; time with her. And youwastedit. You threw away everything for the sake of some human, turned your backs on all of us.”
“I losteverythingbecause of you!” she screams. “Noah was the only one that actually loved me. He didn’t need me for anything, hewantedme, chose me.” Furious tears leak out of the corner of her eyes. “And he died because you couldn’t let your obsession with Aurelia go, couldn’t let her be happy if it wasn’t with you.” Swiping at her face, she stands her ground, head held high. “You don’t want to saveanyone,Ash. You just want us all to be as miserable as you are so you aren’t alone.”
He chuckles, the sound dark and taunting. “On the contrary. Ask Sabrina; I’ve gone above and beyond to make her happy.”
It draws Annika’s attention my way, and she may as well still be looking at Ash based on her expression. “Trust me, I know. Everyone else is simply a stepping stone that brought you closer to having her; we’re all a means to an end to you. Disposable, replaceable, and never enough.” With a cruel grin, she meets his eye unflinchingly. “If you want to use me against her, it’s my pleasure to inform you that you’re a day late and a dollar short. The only person that’s going to walk away from this happy is her, and you have yourself to thank for that. You gambled and lost, Wilder.”
Sebastian inches closer, approaching Annika like she’s a wild animal he’s afraid of spooking. “We would have gone with you, taken you both away from here. Were we really so bad that it was so easy to replace us?”
She cants her head, finally regarding them seriously for the first time. “How can you love someone that’s able to be bought off? You knew what kind of person he was, yet were willing to fall back into line and be good little soldiers in exchange for releasing your wolves and the chance to get your dicks wet?” Gesturing at me, she manages a dry, humorless laugh. “She got her claws into you too, didn’t she?”
Shaking her head in disappointment, she meets my eye. “There has never been a single thing in my life that wasn’t about you in some way. It didn’t matter what I did or where I went, it was ultimately always about you. I really expected more.”
In the blink of an eye, she throws her head back into Adrian’s nose, stealing his gun from his waist and pressing it against her temple. “You want to kill me, Wilder, I’ll save you the trouble. But I’ve already spent my life being used by you; I’m not going to be drained as some sacrifice to fuel your agenda, too. If the only win I get is in death, then so fucking be it.”
Merrick barks, “Annika!” She swiftly glances his way, but keeps the gun steady. “Do you remember the last time we were in a similar position as this? When you wouldn’t let us siphon from you for months, and everything built up to where you couldn’t see another way out then, either?”
A flicker of recognition flashes through her eyes, but she says nothing. Adrian nearly takes a step forward, but Leo shoots him a furious glare, silently pinning him in place.
“It must have been hell,” Merrick continues tentatively. “Sabrina’s wolf too weak to do more than take the edge off all of these years. And then you’ve been on your own for how long? Let us help you, please.”
When she wavers, Sebastian adds, “Remember, it’s Ash that you’re really angry at; not life, not Sabrina, and not us. All of this is because of him, so if you’re going to shoot anybody, shoot that bastard.”
Shrugging a shoulder, Ash splays his arms wide, making himself a broader target. “Won’t kill me, but might make you feel better. Come on, Annika, hurt me. You know you want to.”
With agonizing slowness, she lowers the gun from her temple, pointing it at his chest instead. Despite the angry tears that slip silently down her cheeks, she keeps her arm steady, a myriad of emotions flashing across her face as she stares down the man that ruined her life.
“I really, really do.” Without tearing her gaze from his face, she jerks her arm to the side, aiming at me and firing.
The air’s knocked from my lungs on impact, ears ringing as my head smacks into the ground, yet the expected explosion of pain never comes. Pushing myself upright, I find Bo’s motionless body lying where I was just standing and scramble over.
“No, no, no.” Shoving his bloodied shirt up, I press the wadded-up fabric against the bullet hole in his chest, but it barely slows the bleeding.
Flinching at the next gunshot, I watch from the corner of my eye as Annika’s body falls, Adrian staring down at her for a long moment as a furious Ash gets into a screaming match with the Slaughters that I can’t focus enough on to make out the words. Closing my eyes, I shut out all of the distractions, putting everything I have into my pleading request as I beg my inner demon to work her magic and save him.
The familiar rush of energy floods out of me so forcefully, the ground trembles beneath us. And all the while, I repeat a mental mantra, coaxing his inner wolf to use the energy to heal himself.
“Scoot over.” Damian’s demand has me moving instantly, letting him take over since he has far more experience at this sort of thing. Wrapping a hand around Damian’s wrist, I send all of the energy into him instead, barely able to breathe, let alone get a word out.
When fingers dig into my upper arm and yank me away, my body heats instinctively, but Ash doesn’t so much as flinch. “You’re supposed to betakingenergy, not wasting it.”
Pivoting in his grasp, I smack him across the face, leaving a bloody palm print on his cheek. “I’m notwastinganything, you fucking psychopath.” Another tremble rocks the earth, the snarling of wolves in the background white noise that’s far too easy to tune out as my rage gives me single-minded focus. “You keep claiming that you want me to be happy? That all of us are some family in your deluded reality? Then if you can’t pretend to care, at least do us all a favor and leave us the hell alone while we heal him.”
The air takes on a static quality, the faint electric buzzing drowning out the wolves coming out of the woodwork to clash in a mess of teeth and claws, my fathers’ pack recognizing the men they resent as the lesser of two evils in the face of Ash’s pack. The next quake under my feet is followed by the ungodly loud sound of screaming as Leo rips a man’s arm off with his bare hands, the low, ominous rumbling of my mates at my back doing nothing but make Ash’s cruel smile spread.
"If I'd realized this was all it would take, I'd have shot one of them days ago," he declares.
When Hunter shifts, launching himself at the man, the familiar dark haze coats Ash's skin a moment before contact. It sends Hunter crashing into the ground on his side, but he doesn’t give Ash the satisfaction of seeing his pain. He bites back every sound, not even a growl escaping his chest as he rises to his feet, silent, seething hatred shining in his burning gaze. He gives no warning before he surges forward, his teeth clamping around Ash’s forearm. The acidic scent of burning flesh is heavy in the air, but he doesn’t let up until Ash grunts and is forced to release my arm.
Not one to throw away Hunter’s sacrifice, I stumble back, barely avoiding tripping over a wolf that darts behind me. Damian’s still at Bo’s side, the others shifted and forming a loose circle around them to keep the rest of the chaos at bay. When I catch a glimpse of Bo’s chest sucking down a rattling breath and hear his mumbled curses, I nearly fall on my ass, barely staying upright.
“Don’t stop now, darling,” Ash taunts, forcing me to look back to where he’s kneeling on Hunter’s neck, a gun pressed to his head while Hunter vibrates with barely restrained fury. “We’re too close.” Cocking back the hammer, he presses the muzzle of the gun harder against Hunter’s temple. “A bullet to the chest is one thing, but the brain? I don’t think even you’re able to pull off that miracle, Aurelia.”
A crack of thunder proceeds another shake of the earth. “Point made, okay?” Glancing behind me, only Slade’s left to protect Damian now as he works on healing Boden, the rest of my mates swept up in the onslaught of wolves coming at them from all sides. Wetting my lips, I exhale a long, slow breath and face Ash. “No need to shoot him.”
I flinch at the sound of a gunshot he fires into the ground inches away before pressing the muzzle back to his head. “Time will tell, won’t it? But my patience has officially run out.”
