AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER TWO
Hidden in the trees, I stared at the thin, pale, naked male as he jerked a scope from his rifle and chucked it into the open trunk of a car.
“I don’t need to use this stupid thing,” he grumbled. “It’s not like I’m aiming for their heart. I just need to hit them.”
Silent, motionless, I stood sniffing the cold air, listening for the crunch of snow underfoot. Two distinct, unfamiliar scents sat heavy in the surrounding area. Every wolf instinct I had told me the male standing next to the car was alone. For now.
Even in this anemic human form—pasty, gray skin, short black hair, ice-blue eyes—his odor was male wolf. Underneath the stench of his unwashed body, he smelled wrong...unhealthy. Weak.
Rogue.
It was the only explanation.
After the Lake Crescent attack a couple of weeks ago, Rule Arwan’s rogue sons had vanished. They had recruited former members of their now-disbanded San Francisco pack to help avenge their father and pack Alpha after the Tribunal had rightfully condemned him to death.
All but two of the rogues had died during the attack.
Show no mercy. Kill on sight.
My muscles twitched with the rush of adrenaline pumping through my veins. I focused on the male in front of me. The fucking cowardly rogue. In a blink, darkness fell over me, and my wolf soul took over. My goals—to taste his blood, crush his bones, beat him senseless. Make him feel pain like he’d never felt before.
Make him fear me.
Kill him.
In the next second, I was on him. Slashing. Biting. Tearing.
He scrambled and swung the rifle at my head.
I didn’t feel the impact. All I felt was a blinding, bloody rage that pushed me to kill the coward flailing in my grasp and damn the consequences.
I clamped the rifle in my jaws. The male held on and gritted his teeth while he yanked on the butt end.
“Let go!”
On his next yank, I shoved him hard, burying his body in the snow. Then bit down on the rifle until the barrel bent at an awkward angle.
“No!”
Glaring down at him, I snorted and tossed the damaged rifle away.
A deep, driving hunger for vengeance had already buried every ounce of compassion, mercy, or kindness I possessed. The frail thread of humanity screaming in the back of my mind slipped away, leaving nothing but my wolf.
And she was angry.
The night disappeared along with the forest, the snow, and the earth beneath my claws. Nothing existed but pain. Mine and the rogue’s.
“Please!”
The male lay in a ball at my paws. Deep crimson splotches and spots painted the once-pristine snow around his shredded body. I felt his blood, thick and sticky on my lips and tongue. The warmth of it spread down my chin, neck, and chest and chilled me to the bone.
“Please...please...”
His strangled plea touched something inside me. I stared down at the injured male. My stomach twisted not only from the taste, but from the sight of what I’d done.
