“You held me down, and you carved that knife into my skin so slowly, I knew you were enjoying it,” she seethed, stepping closer. “I felt your pathetic little cock pressing against me, hard for the blood, for the violence.” She snorted with disgust. “It’s the only way youcanget hard, isn’t it, you piece of shit.” Her sneer was ugly. “You think I didn’t know why you played thesuitor?” she said, stepping closer again, Thalia and I mirroring her. “You listened outside my window when Diesel was in my room, in my bed.”
A slow mocking smile twisted his mouth. “You moan like the whore you are,” he said with disgust.
My skin crawled at the way he looked at her.
“So you three are the heroic little pack that are going to drag me back in chains?”
Adair snapped, “You don’t get chains.”
His chuckle was weak but cruel. “Planning to kill me yourselves?”
Thalia stepped forward, voice shaking with fury. “You killed Brand.”
Axel blinked once. No remorse. No flinch. Nothing. “Ikilled a lot of wolves,” he said simply. “Brand was hardly special.”
Thalia lunged forward, but I grabbed her arm. Axel watched us with mild interest, like we were entertainment.
“You’re sick,” Adair spat.
“No,” he corrected. “I’m efficient. The Pack Council wants packs and shifters broken. I did what needed doing.” He said it as if he were discussing the weather.
My wolf snarled so loudly it scraped my throat. “And you think you’ll walk away?” I asked.
“I think you’re sentimental idiots who won’t kill me,” he replied calmly. “Wolfe will want answers. Others will want a trial. You…” His eyes lazily drifted over me. “You’ll want justice,” he smirked.
“There is no justice for the likes of you,” I said coldly.
“So?” Axel said with a shrug. “Most of you are too stupid to understand the bigger goal.”
The bigger goal.Did he mean destroying the pack system? My stomach twisted. I stepped closer until I was within arm’s reach.
“Axel,” I said softly. “We’re not here to save you. We’re not here for sentimental reasons.”
I watched Adair take a step to the left; Thalia mirrored her to my right. Circling him.
He raised a brow. “No?”
“No.”
I assumed a fighting stance, and I saw him tense—finally—because even a sociopath understands what it means to lose control.
“You three won’t keep me down for long,” he warned. “And when Wolfe gets to me?—”
“He won’t,” I cut in.
He frowned. “What?—”
“I have no intention of keeping you alive,” I said. “We’re keeping them from you,for them.”
Confusion flickered. Then fury. “You stupid little?—”
I lunged forward, shifting in mid-air, the crack of bone and rush of power surging through me as my wolf took over. Thalia and Adair were seconds behind, their bodies transforming into their wolves.
Axel tried to shift—but he was too slow.
Too arrogant, never expectingusto attackhim.
The three of us hit him at the same time.
