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anyone from trying. He stood in the ruined doorway of her old apartment, chest heaving, eyes narrowed in hate.
And he was naked.
Maddox must have sent him. If Colt had shifted shapes, switching back to two-legs would’ve incinerated any clothes he was wearing. He didn’t seem to be bothered all that much by it, though, as his gaze fell on Evangeline in her diamond prison.
The ring of diamonds? Yeah. That pissed him off.
“A cage,” he rumbled, more to himself than to her. His voice was deeper than she remembered, and there was a dangerous fury in his tone that had her shrinking back. “That bitch put you in a diamond cage.”
A roar tore out of his throat. Arctic white fur sprouted along his tanned arms as he ran into the room. “Cilla! Where are you?” He stopped with his back to the windows, giving all of downtown Grayson a hell of a view as he called for the witch again. “Cilla, face me!”
Cilla appeared in a wisp of pale purple smoke. “You rang?”
The purr in her voice sent chills up and down Evangeline’s spine.
Cilla had no reason to keep Maddox’s brother alive. Evangeline was bait for Maddox; as soon as Cilla got what she wanted or she realized that she wouldn’t, Evangeline knew the witch would be gunning for her. And it wasn’t like she could escape. The diamond ring made sure of that.
But Colt didn’t have to get involved. The witch was looking for a victim and here he was, signed, sealed, and delivered to her completely naked.
She had to warn him.
“Colton,” she shouted. “Colt! Don’t do this! Get out while you can. She’s crazy!”
Colt didn’t seem to think that Cilla was that big of a threat. At Evangeline’s shout, he turned toward the diamond circle again, total surprise replacing the abject fury twisting his pretty, pretty features. His icy blue eyes softened just enough to make him look like the younger man she once knew. “You remember me?”
“Yes! You’re Maddox’s brother—”
“His little brother,” sneered Cilla. Her purple eyes dipped low, a coy smile curving her lips. “Or should I say big brother. Oh, Colton, I had no idea what you’ve been hiding.”
He spun back to face Cilla. His face went hard. “Don’t you fucking look at me,” he warned.
Her eyebrow quirked. Not out of anger, strangely enough, but out of curiosity. “How quaint. All you animals never seemed to care about nudity before. What changed?”
Colt didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.
Cilla peered closely, her purple eyes turning dark as she—despite Colt’s warning—looked him over. A shock of laughter slipped out of her. It was clear and sweet and too nice to belong to such a nasty woman.
“Oh, that’s rich. After all the years you told Maddox that you’d be happy without a mate tying you down, Fate tagged you anyway. And she’s like me. Oh, Colt, honey, Fate must hate you even more than she hates me. Honestly, you should thank me for what I’m about to do. I’m certainly doing you a favor in the long run.”
Before he could react, Cilla conjured a ball of deep purple magic between her palms. It was about the size of a softball, compact and deadly. The witch jerked her arms back, then shoved it right at Colt.
A quarter of the diamonds ringing Evangeline exploded with a deafening pop. Through the echo of the loud noise, she still heard it when the magic struck Colt right in his chest. He swallowed a howl of pain, but he wasn’t able to catch it. The orb hit him dead center, lifting him off of his feet and throwing him backward out of the window.
His body burst through the glass, leaving jagged shards to mark the spot where Colt hit it. An instant later, a thud seemed to rattle the whole building.
Cilla poked her head out of the window, stared down below, turned and shrugged. With a devilish smile, she peered over at Evangeline.
“He should’ve been a cat shifter. Maybe then he would have landed on his feet.”
32
The wolf wanted to take over. Maddox nearly gave in to the urge.
Only the fact that his top speed as a wolf hit fifty miles per hour while his truck could go a hundred if he pushed it kept him from handing the reins over to his beast. He didn’t care if he broke a thousand laws in his pursuit of his mate. He had the fucking bonding license in the manila envelope serving as his passenger. With that, nothing and no one could stop him.
He’d barely been a couple of minutes into his drive when Colt called him. He was standing right outside of Evangeline’s apartment building in Grayson, his ass hanging out as he paced along the edge of the wards. He didn’t even stop to throw his jeans on, quickly making the call to tell Maddox there was a light on in Evangeline’s window.
Someone was in there, he explained. Maddox immediately did an illegal U-turn, abandoning the road to Woodbridge. He needed to get to Grayson.
