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His two buddies snickered as one dropped his hand to his belt and began to unbuckle it.
“I love you, Mischa, but I don’t think I have four minutes.”
She tried to shut the link down but couldn’t. She heard Mischa call to her just as she called forward her dire wolf.
“We’re on our own,” said Simone.
“We are all we need,” said the wolf as she charged forward.
CHAPTER17
MISCHA
Mischa’s voice faded away to the fringes of her mind, drowned out by the rush of primitive and feral energy that surrounded her. No one had prepared her for the surge of power that rushed through her body as she felt a kind of swirling mist envelop her. But this was no gentle mist that fell from the sky to dampen the ground and her body. This was something else entirely—it was a chaotic vortex of rumbling thunder, kinetic lightning flashes and shards of color. If she hadn’t been scared to death, she would like to have remained within its maelstrom to study and explore its heady power.
Exploration and awe would have to wait. Simone knew she needed to save herself, or at least stay alive until Mischa could get here to help her finish the job.
The mist dissipated, falling away like a tornado that had lost its power and collapsed. When she emerged, she knew she wasn’t human any longer. Her dire wolf growled—her teeth showing and hackles raised. The men who had thought to make her their victim were frozen in place, their eyes enormous and terrified.
It was odd being in her altered form—she knew she wasn’t there and yet, there she was. She could feel everything her she-wolf did, could hear her thinking, and she wondered if it had been that way for the dire wolf who had been forced to hide in the dim recesses of her mind. She wondered if she’d been able to see her dire-wolf even though she wasn’t one because destiny had decreed a long time ago that she was Mischa’s mate. Had the fates known she was meant for Mischa, and so allowed her she-wolf to be with her from the beginning?
Simone vowed to them both if they lived through this, she would let her altered self share her life and come out to play—so to speak—on a regular and frequent basis.
Simone shared every sensory input with her dire wolf—the acrid smell of unwashed sweat and urine; the pounding hearts and rapid breathing of those who thought they would make sport of her; the taste of their terror in the air; the way their arrogance in their superiority faded quickly away. The tables had most definitely turned. Her would be assailants knew it, and so did she.
“Wha… What the fuck?” said the man whose hand had gone to his belt buckle and was now still. He began to pee on himself.
She leaped forward, knocking all three men to the floor. She’d known in the abstract that dire wolves were much larger than their modern-day descendants, but not how much larger. One man reached for his gun, Simone whirled, her jaws opened wide as she sank her teeth into either side of his skull, giving it a vicious jerk and separating his head from his body, tossing it aside and turning on the second man.
Simone leaped between her remaining victims and the door, the decision an instinctive one. She wanted to ensure they didn’t escape her fury.
“Stay away from me,” said the man she recognized from his meeting with Mischa.
Simone glanced toward the man whose hand still rested on his belt buckle. She noticed that both he and the man who was her next target had lost their erections. She turned back to the second man, baring her teeth in a silent snarl. She gathered herself, feeling her powerful haunches readying to leap. Surging forward, she made short work of him—the death scream he might have uttered made mute as she ripped his throat out, almost to the bone. The kill was much bloodier this time. The man’s life source spewed forth from his destroyed jugular vein. It sprayed in a crimson slash across the walls, her fur, and even the face of her remaining attacker.
Slowly, she turned on the last of those who had thought to rape and murder her. Had they not known who they were dealing with? If she was capable of this level of violence, to what depths would her mate have sunk? She had no doubt Mischa was capable of a far colder vengeance delivered with absolute precision and destruction.
“Please… please…” the man said, holding his hands in front of himself and backing away as she slowly advanced.
* * *
MISCHA
He could feel the moment her dire wolf took control, shutting down the link as her feral and predatory nature took over.
“Damn it!” Mischa snarled, flooring the gas pedal on the SUV. “Valentin, get on the phone and get a clean-up crew. My guess is we’re about to walk into a bloodbath.”
“What’s happening?”
“I believe Simone’s dire wolf has taken control.”
“This is my fault. I knew the Russians were pissed, but I thought they were fine,” said Valentin. “They took the guns…”
“This is no one’s fault save those who thought to harm Simone. Not being shifters, they have no concept of the level of violence they have unleashed. I doubt those at the top know about this little stunt, but they will. We will send them a message they won’t soon forget.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Because they’re stupid. My guess is the guys they sent to pick up the merchandise were just low-level errand boys. They were expecting women and thought they’d have themselves a good ole time before the merchandise ever reached the final buyer.”
