The tree-lined pavement looked eerie in a way Seb had never noticed before, and scenes from countless horror films flooded into his head.
Gareth pulled to a stop in the middle of the road outside Seb’s building. There were no spaces for him to park, so they sat with the engine idling, staring up at it.
Seb bit his lip, waiting for Gareth to say something, until the silence got too much and he couldn’t stand it any longer. “Well?”
“It smells like you, but different.”
Seb relaxed a tiny amount. “So that’s probably Kelly, right? She has a key to my place. She’s more than likely already inside.” He reached for the door handle.
“Wait.” Gareth’s lip curled up in a snarl, teeth lengthening as his gaze focused on the path up to Seb’s front door. “That’s not all I can smell. We need to wait for Alec.”
Seb’s heart pounded. He glanced up at his home, almost afraid to ask, but he had to know. Tightening his fingers on the door handle, he followed Gareth’s line of sight and whispered. “What else?”
“P-Pack shifters and maybe someone from another pack. I can’t be sure.”
It sounded like there was more, and Seb was so tired of shifters treating him like he couldn’t handle it. “And?” he spat, gripping Gareth’s shoulder and giving it a shake without really meaning to.
Gareth’s head turned sharply; his angry glare fixed on Seb for a terrifying second until his features softened. “And blood.”
Seb didn’t have to ask if it was human, he just knew from the expression on Gareth’s face. His heart clenched as though invisible fingers had wrapped around it and were steadily squeezing the life out of him. That was his sister, the only family he had left apart from Jared.
Visions of her lying broken and bloody flooded his mind, chasing all rational thought away. In possibly the stupidest move he’d ever made, Seb opened his door and tumbled onto the pavement, miraculously not tripping over as he started to run towards his flat.
“Seb!”
“Fuck!”
He ignored the angry shouts behind him and ran-slash-hobbled as fast as he could, the pain in his ankle a dull throb that barely registered through the haze of terror clouding his mind. “Kelly?”
No answer.
It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise when he only reached less than halfway up the path before Gareth caught him.
“What the fuck—”
One minute Gareth was yanking him around by his shoulder, the next Seb was flying through the air, arms pinwheeling as he fought to get his bearings. He hit the ground hard and the breath exploded out of his lungs on impact, but he’d landed on his side and managed to cradle his head in his hands. That did nothing to protect his arm or his wrist, though, and the sickeningcrackmade bile rise in the back of his throat.
For fuck’s sake! That’s only just healed!
Pain radiated throughout his body, but Seb pushed himself into a sitting position in time to see Gareth rip a huge chunk of flesh out of—Oh God, that’s someone’s ribs on display, or what’s left of them.
Unable to look away, Seb was sure a couple of bones were missing. The injured shifter slumped to the floor, howling and clutching his side, but he still made a swipe at Gareth, catching him in the thigh. Three of them were fighting Gareth, though, and while Gareth was distracted, one of the others zeroed in on Seb and grinned, blood dripping from its teeth. All four had half shifted, their extended jaws giving them a grotesque half-wolf, half-human appearance, with rows of sharp teeth on display as they snarled and snapped at each other.
Every part of Seb urged him to get up and run for the car, his flat, anywhere to get away from the advancing shifter, but now his ankle throbbed in earnest—God only knew what damage he’d done to it—and his arm felt as though it was on fire. He forced himself to stand, ignoring his body’s protests in the face of all those teeth and claws, and hobbled as fast as he could manage to the closest point of safety—Jared’s car. Which, in hindsight, probably wouldn’t afford him much safety, and if Jared was still in there…Fuck!
Seb tried to change direction, but in the end it made no difference. He made it two paces before his back erupted in trails of white-hot fire. Pain exploded in his shoulder blade, radiating out and down, and Seb crumpled in a screaming heap on the ground.
Is this it? Is this how I’m going to die?
He had so much more he wanted to do with his life, and he’d promised his sister he’d never leave her. They’d only been young at the time, but the thought of her all on her own made his chest ache.No.After all his worries that getting involved with a shifter would ruin his life, take away his free will, he hadn’t thought it would kill him.
An image of Tim smiling and laughing filled his mind, and Seb clung to it like a lifeline as blood pooled underneath his shoulder, trickling from his back, down the side of his neck to the ground.
That he was still breathing was a miracle at this point. Seb had braced for more, been expecting it ever since he’d hit the floor, but so far another attack hadn’t come. More snarling from the direction of the road, and Seb lifted his head enough to see two blurry shapes flying up the path.Alec.
He couldn’t see the shifter who had attacked him, but from the sounds of it, Alec and whomever he’d brought with him had already found him. Everything hurt, and Seb struggled to see Gareth, but his head swam and his vision began to blur at the edges.
It might have been his imagination, but as he felt his body succumbing to unconsciousness, Gareth’s soft voice sounded in his ear and strong arms lifted him from the ground as though he weighed nothing.
