Instantly, I shifted into human form and tried to assimilate what had happened from a two-legged perspective.
Fuck! I’d let her lie helpless on the ground while a wild beast ripped apart her ex. My first instinct should have been to free her. To hold her. To get her to safety. Instead, I’d gone feral and ruthlessly murdered someone in front of her. Not just severely injured like my father and the stalker in New York. Killed.
I murdered her ex.
“Summer,” I croaked, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
She still looked afraid, even with me in human form. Of course, I was covered in her ex-husband’s blood. I’d just killed a man in front of her. And she’d never even seen my wolf before. Had she even understood it was me?
I rushed forward to lift the bed up, so she wasn’t pinned there. The second she was free, she rolled away. I lowered the bed and lifted her to her feet.
“Here.” Abbott had fished the keys to the handcuffs out of Marty’s pocket, and he tossed them to me.
It occurred to me that he didn’t seem fazed by the fact that I was a wolf. But then, his daughter, Riley, was mated to Cody, so maybe he knew about our kind.
I quickly unlocked Summer’s handcuffs and reached out to rub her raw wrists. I wanted to hold her, but she kept back, away from me. Her body trembled, and even over the stench of Marty’s blood, I could smell her fear.
My mate was afraid. Of me.
As she should be. I was fucking dangerous. Just as I always knew.
Fate, I’d just done it again! I’d lost control and taken things way too far. My wolf was a liability. I was a danger to my own beautiful mate.
Fuck, what if we had pups, and I hurt one of them? Or even just traumatized them by going berserk if I thought one of them was threatened?
I still remembered how traumatized my younger brothers had been when I nearly killed our dad.
Summer looked the way they had. Pale. Horrified.
She might get over it, now free of her ex, but I didn’t want to see her look at me like this again, which she would. Plus, I didn’t want my own pups looking at me in the same fearful way. I didn’t want to put my family in the position of knowing I was a danger. I was like a vicious guard dog who couldn’t be trusted not to go savage. That I would go savage at any time.
I took a step back to give her space. Stepped on broken glass but didn’t feel it. Didn’t feel how cold the room was now. “Summer, I’m sorry. Fuck. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She was in shock. She didn’t seem able to speak. She just kept staring at me with those beautiful wide blue eyes.
I stumbled back some more, toward the door, my hands raised. When I saw they were covered in blood, I dropped them to my sides. “I’m sorry. I’m too dangerous. I…I could’ve hurt you. If we had pups and I did this–” A tight band closed around my throat. “This isn’t going to work.” I turned the knob and opened the door.
“What?” Her voice sounded wispy. Confusion flickered over her expression.
“I’ll stay out of your life. You don’t deserve this kind of mess. I’m sorry.” I pushed Kyle and Levi out of the way, shifted, and ran out into the snow.
30
SUMMER
* * *
“Wait! Boone!” I called after the giant white and silver wolf.
The wolf that was twice the size of a normal animal and probably three times as ferocious. That was my mate.
I knew Boone was a shifter, but until he actually shifted in real life before me, it wasn’t completely real. Now it was.
He’d leapt and shattered the motel window. Glass was everywhere. Snow was blowing in.
He’d broken Marty’s neck at the same time he ripped out his throat. Marty was dead, sprawled on the ugly carpet.
I’d known when the animal crashed through the window, it had to be Boone, but I was still in shock from what I’d seen. From witnessing a violent death.
