Page 31 of Taste of His Skin

I hope I’m wrong. In case I’m not, I decide I won’t give him the chance to go for my heart again. Shifting in a flurry of torn material, my clothes toast, I dash off in the direction of the gunshot.

Claws crossed he’s not so good at finding the heart on a wolf.

I’m not that worried about Aleks yet. Well, no. Iam, but if Christian only shot him once, that’s nothing. I’ve seen Aleks take multiple silver bullets and keep moving, and as quick as he is, he won’t let Christian get him in the heart like I did.

It’s tricky, running through the unfamiliar trees at a fast enough clip to reach him without my thundering paws giving my location away. I trade a little speed for stealthy, and am rewarded when I come upon Aleks facing off against a shifter with a gun.

Only… that’s not Christian.

What?

He’s young delta shifter. Barely twenty. In the darkness, his hair looks black, but it’s probably a rich brown. The hand gripping the gun is shaky. Even from this distance, I can hear the thudding of his heart, smell the sweat pouring off of him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pisses himself, he’s so scared.

Then again, he’s staring up at a vampire whose eyes are the color of blood, his fangs long enough to reach his bottom lip.

A long ago rhyme from my childhood suddenly pops in my brain.

When a vamp’s eyes go red, run or you’re dead…

I’m not afraid of Aleks because I know he’ll never hurt me. This poor kid? He doesn’t have a prayer.

I sniff. The sweat is overwhelming, the scent of terror clinging to him just as bad, but the most notable sulfurous stink belongs to the gunpowder.

Aleks shakes his head. I’m not sure what the conversation was before I arrived, but I must have walked into the middle of it because all Aleks says is, “I didn’t want you to bother my mate and you shot the gun anyway—and, worse, youmissed,” before he takes a step closer to the kid.

To my shock, the delta turns the gun on himself. No hesitation. No fear. A little piss, to be honest, but I guess he decided it was better to shoot himself in the temple than deal with a vampire stalking toward him.

The gun fires. Blood flies. The kid drops down dead, the gun landing at his side.

“Pity,” Aleks mutters under his breath, crouching down to check that the shifter is dead. When he sees that he is, he straightens. “What a waste.”

Seriously. I… I can’t believe that just happened. I’m still gaping in surprise at the huddled body crumpled on the forest floor when, out of the corner of my eye, the shadows behind Aleks move.

Wait. That’s not a shadow.

ThatisChristian.

The gaunt Beta from California, with the dark grey eyes, deep black hair, skeletal building, and an affinity for always wearing a black suit that helped in blend in with the shadows.

He’s also holding a gun, but there’s no shake there. He knows exactly how to use it.

I can attest to that.

A trap, I think. They laid a trap. I don’t know which one of us it’s for—most likely me, since it finally hits me that the beneath the suicidal delta’s fear is the same shifter scent that followed after me when I first left Muncie—but it doesn’t matter. With Aleks looking a little disappointed that the young delta killed himself, and Christian somehow cloaking his scent, the former Beta of the Western Pack is stalking my mate, hunting him, and Aleks… Aleks is letting him.

He’s a vampire. A trained killer. I asked him once how he does it so easily, not because I was judging him, but because I’m a she-wolf and the most I’ve hunted is a deer. He had to explain to me in gentle terms that, long before Fang Cities, vampires thought of humans as their deer. He had to hunt to feed, and though he never drained a human before, supes live dangerous lives.

I’m proof of that, even if I’ve never killed another person myself.

He has skills that he learned only after being turned. He also has his vampire abilities. One of them is knowing when prey is near by their panicked heartbeat.

Then again, this is Christian. He doesn’t panic. Like a rattlesnake, he’s calm, cool, and collected—and then he strikes.

Which is why I’m not so surprised when Aleks straightens up, listening for a moment before he chuckles.

“Elizabeth?” His back to me, Aleks sounds vaguely amused. “I hear your heartbeat. I tried not to let our young visitor disturb you, but he obviously had other plans. You might as well come out now.”

To my horror, Christian steps forward right as Aleks turns. “What? Was I gone too long— ah, you’re not my beloved.”

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