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I moved so fast, he didn’t see me coming. I grabbed him, slammed him against the bar, and ripped his throat out. His expression of shock stayed frozen on his face when his lifeless body fell to the ground, gushing blood onto the floor.
“Fuck,” Lennox said and jumped.
For a moment, we were stuck in a dance. He tried to decide if he was going to shift and fight or run for his life. I felt his magic, trying to decide, and saw the thought process. Either he was going to die in a fight against the alpha, or he was going to be hunted forever. The odds were pretty bad for him.
He chose the latter.
For a bear shifter, he moved faster than he should have, and he reached the door before anyone could stop him.
I shifted and launched forward, tackling him to the ground.
“Alpha, please, let me go,” he begged.
Was that what Kinley had begged for when she’d been chased down?
I grabbed Lennox by the neck, locked my jaw, and shook. His spine broke, his throat turned into mush, and there was no way he could fight me or survive the attack.
When I finally let go of him, shaking his body like a ragdoll long after he was dead, I backed up. I shifted into human form. Blood dripped from my chin onto my chest, and the metallic aftertaste of the kill sat at the back of my throat.
I looked at my shifters again, but none of them made eye contact now. Their heads were all bowed.
The news would travel. They would know what happened when they fucked up in my town. I didn’t need to say anything.
I left the bar, my body pumped with adrenaline, my muscles bulging, and the taste of blood still in my mouth.
It was done.
14
KINLEY
Ilay on my bed reading one of the first-edition books Braxton had on my bookshelves. I was engrossed in the story—a love story about a hero and heroine who were meant to be together from the start, and it was just a matter of time before they figured it out and ended up together.
I loved stories with happy endings. I loved stories where both characters finally found themselves and found each other, and there was nothing ugly in the world that could stop them from being what they were meant to be.
The real world wasn’t like that. There was so much darkness and uncertainty and pain.
Even here, things weren’t as I’d thought they would be. It wasn’t asbadas I’d thought it would be, having said that.
I’d thought being owned by someone would have been horrible, stuck in a cage without any choices, without a say over what would happen to me.
That wasn’t the case. I was treated as a guest, and not as a possession. Not really. Sometimes, I still wasn’t sure what was going on with Braxton or where we stood. There were times when I thought we were in a good spot, that something was happening between us. I felt such a strong pull toward him, and I couldn’t resist him.
But then there were times when it felt like he shut down on me completely, and the affection that came from him was non-existent.
Whatever the case was, this wasn’t the worst home away from home. It could have been so much worse. I lived in the lap of luxury, and despite the few hiccups—attacks and monsters and nightmares that came true—I could almost say that I was happy.
Almost.
My door opened, and I looked up. Magic filled the room, and I smiled. But when my visitor stepped in, I realized it wasn’t Braxton at the same time I tasted the magic and felt that it was different.
I frowned when a man with long hair and a shaggy beard walked in.
Cal.
It couldn’t be anyone else.
He leaned against my wall and folded his arms over his chest, giving me a sly grin.
