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“It’s too bad it had to be this way, brother,” Robert went on patronizingly. “You would have made an excellent berserker if you weren’t such a bleeding heart, so weak.”
Jace ground his teeth together. Weak? No. He was a lot of things: a stubborn, hardheaded chain-smoking asshole who sometimes drowned himself in alcohol. But he wasnotweak. If he had his way, he would rip out Robert’s throat with his…
Jace’s eyes widened. With his teeth. He would rip Robert’s throat out with his teeth.
Robert’s fingers dug into the flesh of Jace’s hand, and Jace felt the knife begin to slip from his grasp. He ignored that and focused on Robert’s disgusting face. He thought of all the women he’d hurt, all the women hewouldhurt if no one could stop him. He thought of his dickhead of a father, who’d created the monster before him. His inner beast stirred, and he pushed all his energy into his chest, straining beneath Robert’s grip.
He wasn’t like his father. Like Robert. He never would be, and he was going to prove it.
In one massive push, Jace lunged forward, his body contorting and shifting as fur sprouted from beneath his skin.
Robert recoiled, the knife in his hand falling. He raised his arm, but not quickly enough.
Jace’s muzzle collided with Robert’s neck, and he sank his canines into the meaty flesh of Robert’s throat as he ripped through the bastard’s jugular.
Blood spurted from the wound, and Robert’s body convulsed several times, thick red spittle pouring from his mouth.
Within seconds Jace’s fur folded in on itself and he lost his shift, but it didn’t matter. He glanced down at his body as the claws retracted back into his hands. His shirt hung off him in shreds. He’d only managed to shift the upper half of his body, but he’d done what he’d needed to.
His gaze shot to Robert, and he realized the fucker still wasn’t dead. He stared at the bloodied mangled mess that he was ashamed to call his brother. Already the skin of Robert’s neck was beginning to knit together.
Grabbing the knife, Jace loomed over the killer and let out a low growl. “Say hi to Dad for me.” He stabbed the blade straight into Robert’s heart, and scarlet arterial blood spurted from Robert’s chest.
In one last attempt to save his own life, Robert reached for Jace, going straight for his neck, but Jace simply twisted the knife. Robert’s eyes widened, and he gurgled on his own blood. The other man’s body continued to twitch for several moments until finally he fell limp. Jace’s breath caught.
Dead. Robert was finally dead.
He let go of the knife and leaned back. The intricate blue designs pulsated on his skin, then quickly faded. Energy trickled out of him as if he were a drained battery. Black dots swam in front of his eyes.
“Jace? Jace!” Frankie cried.
It was the last thing he heard, the sound of his mate’s voice.
But strangely, Jace was at peace with that.
So long as she loved him.
And as he faded from consciousness, for once, he had the strange thought that he just might deserve her.
EPILOGUE
It’d been three days. Three days since Jace had been awake, and still he hadn’t come to see her. Upon waking, fully healed, he’d kissed her, told her he loved her and that he always would, but then he’d told her he needed some space.
To take care of a few things,he said.
Before he’d promised to come back to her.
Frankie had agreed, of course somewhat unwillingly, but she hadn’t been able to voice her protests. Not when he’d both shown and told her exactly how much he loved her. Not when she knew he’d return to her once he was ready. They had the rest of their long lives ahead of them after all, and into the otherworld beyond. He was a part of her now, and she a part of him.
They always would be.
Frankie closed the door to the old studio, saying her goodbyes to the young woman who’d come to tour the inside. She was human, young, fresh out of dance school, but full of a wonder and determination, exactly like Frankie had wanted her to be. The perfect buyer.
The door to the studio open and closed again, and Frankie glanced up, only to find her mate now standing there. She smiled, and the ache in her chest eased instantly. She’d missed the sight of him, the heat of him over the past few days, and all she felt now was relief. The tension in her shoulders released. Relief that they’d made it through everything that’d been thrown at them, that they’d reached the other side of the conflict that’d caused them to meet.
No doubt they’d face other, different challenges in the future, but for now, she wouldn’t even consider anything but feeling happy that he was back here with her.
“I thought you wanted to keep this place?” he said, hitching a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the human girl who’d she’d been speaking with a few moments before. “Something for yourself. To remind yourself you’re more than a packmaster,” he continued.
