I growled, scanning the motel doors. Most people parked in front of their room. I hoped this loser did that as well, especially since he was a fucking southern California asshole and couldn’t handle a little winter weather.
Before I could do anything, Fate had my back.
I saw a guy stepping into one of the motel rooms. Skinny. Slick blond hair. Douchebag vibes. Marty. LAPD asshole. I knew him from my research on the bastard and recognized him from the security films from Cody’s.
He was a dead man.
Dead.
I surged across the parking lot and threw myself at the door. It didn’t fall in, but I didn’t shift into human form. Fuck the door. I backed up and leapt at the window, smashing it in.
I tucked and rolled, coming up into a shitty little hotel room. Tan walls, weird orange light fixtures and matching carpet, now littered with broken glass.
Summer screamed from where she lay on the floor.
Marty twisted to look from where he was standing over her, fist cocked.
No, he fucking didn’t. He hit my mate?
He. Hit. My. Mate.
I went blind with rage. Snarled.
Marty’s eyes widened, stunned, then switched to fear.
I leaped across the room, my front paws knocking Marty away from Summer. He fell to the floor with a hard thud, and my teeth sank into the front of his throat. With a powerful snap of my head, I ended him.
I tasted his gore, his blood on my tongue. I whipped my head around to look at Summer, who kept screaming.
I snarled, rotating to see where other danger was. Who was making my mate scream?
“Boone!” That was Levi’s voice. I looked up. He stood in the doorway, the door broken behind him. The curtains billowed around the broken window, and snow blew in.
Levi was here. He wore his sheriff uniform, but I could see the color change in his eyes. His wolf was showing, but not as much as mine.
He wouldn’t hurt Summer.
I snarled again, my hackles raised, the taste of Marty’s blood fouling my mouth. I lunged at the fucker again, biting his side and ripping to make sure he was dead.
“Boone, shift back!” Levi used alpha command on me. His human deputy, Kyle Abbott stood beside him.
His order didn’t work because I was way more fucking alpha than he was, but it made me pay attention.
I turned my bloody maw in his direction, then looked back at my mate.
Her face was swollen and bruised, eyes wide with terror. Marty’d had her on the floor, handcuffed to the fucking bed frame. She was hyperventilating, her chest rising and falling with rapid panting.
Seeing her like that further enraged me, and I snarled at Marty’s body again. I would dismember him. I shouldn’t have killed him so quickly. I should have made him suffer.
“Boone, you’re scaring Summer.” Levi put alpha command in his voice again. His hands were out, gun tucked away.
Scaring…Summer?
I looked to her. Saw the fear.
Oh no. My sweet mate. I’d scared her?
It was the one thing I tried never to do. Oh, shit.
