“Who was attacking you. Out of my way.”
“He wasn’t—oh, Jesus,stop, would you?”
But he kept coming, and Riley had no choice but to keep himself between the man and Jason.
“He’s ashifterand he wasn’t attacking me,” he spat.
“Don’t matter none, he’s still a dirty animal,” the voice said, and Riley recognized the deep tones. They belonged to Lennox from the bar. There’d be no mercy for Jason from him.
“Jason, get out of here,” he yelled. “Now.”
“Move,” Lennox said. His voice was low and menacing, but Riley could hear the wild exhilaration running through it at the prospect of killing a shifter. He felt sick.
“If you shoot him, it’ll be murder,” Riley pleaded.
“Back off, or you get to be collateral damage.”
Riley swallowed hard against the blast of alcohol fumes that Lennox was breathing out. He was almost certainly drunk, but there was no way Riley was moving an inch. He couldn’t even take his eyes off Lennox long enough to see if Jason had gotten out of there. He just had to hope and pray he had.
“Listen to me,” he said, forcing his voice to stay calm, though every instinct told him it was a waste of breath. “That’s Jason, one of Sheriff Urban’s pack—”
There was a crack of laughter. “Sheriff? He’s nothing but a dirty shifter.”
The gun came up.
Riley’s stomach turned to ice. Lennox wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Jason. But maybe—maybe he’d hesitate to kill a human.
The thought kept Riley rooted where he stood, his body a shield between Lennox and Jason.
Lennox stepped forward, and Riley closed his eyes, muscles locking as he waited for the bullet. He wasn’t a hero. He didn’t want to die. But letting Jason be murdered wasn’t an option.
A sound ripped through the darkness, a vicious, guttural snarl that turned Riley’s bones to liquid. Centuries of inherited memory surged through him—the wild beasts that hid in the dark. He snapped his eyes open.
Jason exploded from the shadows. A streak of fur, of teeth, of unrelenting fury. His jaws slammed shut on Lennox’s arm, and Riley swore he heard the crack of shattering bone.
“Jason!” Riley yelled, terrified for him, but his voice was lost as another gunshot echoed in the night.
Cursing and snarling followed. Riley could see the figures locked together, but couldn’t tell what the hell was going on. There was yet another shot and then the sound of something metallic falling to the hard pavement. Inching forward, he realized the asshole had dropped his gun. He snatched it up and aimed it at the struggling figures he could see.
As he watched, Jason backed off for an instant then launched again, the force of his leap sending Lennox staggering backward till he tripped on one of the loose bricks and fell.
“Jason, don’t,” he blurted, pointing the gun at where Lennox was struggling under Jason on the ground. “Stop, or they’ll say you attacked him.”
Jason looked up at Riley, and theassholeunderneath him smashed him in the head with a piece of brick.
Jason went down instantly, crumpling without a sound. Riley’s stomach turned over. It was like Jason’s body juststopped.Like he wasn’t there anymore.
Lennox was scrambling backward, holding his bloodied arm awkwardly to his chest, when Riley slammed to his knees and shoved the gun under his jaw so hard it made Lennox’s teeth clack together. “Don’t fuckingmove,” he snarled.
Lennox froze, his breath hitching.
“You heard the man.” A voice came from behind Riley.
Riley turned his head far enough to see the woman from the motel standing there. She was wearing a robe and slippers and was pointing a shotgun at both of them.
“Sheriff’s on his way,” she said. “Now, why don’t you, Mr. Clark, get off that piece of shit so I can shoot him if he so much as twitches?”
He got up slowly and carefully. Seeing that her hands on the gun were rock steady, he turned his attention to Jason, lying limp and silent. Oh, God. Riley dropped to his knees next to him, handssweeping over the softest fur he’d ever felt, searching for injuries. He found a warm, wet patch on his back leg, but Jason didn’t even flinch beneath his hands.
