AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyes searched his for a long moment before she nodded.
He listened to her footfalls as he went back to gazing at Brandon.
A few feet away, Etan sighed. “I guess Saint and I don’t get to draw straws to see which one of us gets to tear your head off for what you did to her, do we?”
Niko didn’t reply.
He knew there was no forgiving or excusing his actions from years ago.
“Are you in there, Niko?” Etan asked, voice soft this time and lacking the sardonic humor of his previous question.
Niko knew what Etan really meant—was he still caught in the grip of the killing rage?
Caught? No. But the rage hadn’t drained away and the physical effects of that powerful anger had him on the edge.
“I’m maintaining, Etan.” It wouldn’t take much to make him decide to not maintain—one wrong move from Brandon and the weak wolf would be nothing more than strips of meat and bone and bloody memories. Killing him would satisfy Niko’s beasts—for now.
But this wasn’t the time or place.
He forced himself to focus, to think. “Shale?”
“He’s being taken care of. Brigid was still in the hospital, got to his room right before security and the Pretern specialty team. He’s safe. But I texted Boone, just in case.”
A breath shuddered out of him, one less burden to carry as he struggled with the gut-deep rage. “Thank you.”
Etan only grunted in response.
“Did you drive?”
“I did.” Etan drew the word out slowly, his reluctance to answer clear in his voice.
“Get your car.” He glanced away from Brandon, finally, and bared his teeth in a sharp-edged smile as he met Etan’s gaze. “We need to transport this sorry fucker back to Appalachia lands and if I put him in the car with Zee and me, he’ll never make it alive.”
A bright, savage grin on his face, Etan replied, “But you expect me to behave?”
“You will.”
Heaving out a sigh, Etan muttered, “Yeah, I will. But I won’t like it.”
Niko ignored him and focused his eyes on Brandon.
“Prime, I—” The words ended in a pained yelp, followed by an indrawn breath that sounded more like a sob as Niko struck out, claws sliding free as he slapped Brandon.
He tore four bloody furrows down Brandon’s face, barely missing an eye and laying the cheek open to the bone.
As the scent of his blood rose in the air, Niko said, “Be silent. Unless you want me to start flaying the skin from your back... here and now.”
