She snarled at me, warning me to back off, but she was still alive, so I’d take the bite to the hand if it meant keeping her that way.
She was covered in blood, her fur coated in it as if she had jumped in a pool of red. She was whining and snarling and snapping and crying out in pain when she moved too much. The sounds she was making were painful.
I hit my knees beside her, her breathing labored, her eyes wild.
She snarled, snapping at me, but I ignored the warning, carefully using one hand to pin her head down and running the other over her ribs. “That’s a good girl,” I told her, feeling her breathing slow, her snarls turning to a soft whine, and then nothing at all other than hard breathing.
I slid my hand over her stomach, feeling for it, for the wound. It took me a minute or two, but eventually I found it. The bullet had hit her right below the ribs, tearing through her stomach, it felt like.
“Fuck,” I muttered, carefully leaning over her, feeling for an exit wound. When I found one, hope touched me. “Beckett,” I ordered.
He joined me on his knees. “Here,” I told him, gesturing to the bullet wound. “Press down. Evelyn, call whoever you need to call, get them here right now. We can save her if we’re quick, so be fucking quick.”
I gently pet Lucy’s head, hoping beyond hope that she lived. “You’ve done good, girl. Real good. Keep fighting.” She had to live. She didn’t have a choice. Olivia was coming home, and she was coming home to her family whole.
I shoved myself to a stand and joined Malachi. “Did Evelyncatch you up?” I asked, my eyes finding that male again. It had to have been Olivia. She must have shot him before they got her.
“I’m assuming they killed her mother when she didn’t respond to the threat and then took the kid to get her attention,” Malachi said, taking in the scene.
That had to be it. Baily had been fine this morning, I had called. I checked on her. I made sure she was safe even after finding out about Olivia’s mom. She had been safe.
“Our cleaners are on their way, and I found this,” Malachi went on, holding out her gun, “discarded on the street when I drove up. Evelyn said it was hers. She even left gouge marks in his right arm. I assume he tried choking her, and there was a discarded needle. More than one person.”
That’s my girl. She killed one. She did that for us. She was leaving evidence for us. They had Baily, she was going no matter what, but this carnage was to give us some sort of trail to work from. “How many bullets?”
“None. She emptied the clip into him. He didn’t stand a chance.”
I nodded, taking the gun from him and shoving it into the back of my pants.
“I think it’s time you come clean, Everett,” he told me as I continued to take in the street, searching for anything that could give me a clue. Cameras, witnesses,anything.
Other than blood splatter on the grass and black tire tracks on the street, there was nothing. It was like this wholefuckingstreet was set up just for this goddamn night.
“Everett,” Malachi spoke evenly.
My lips curled, my hands flexing at my sides. “I claimed her,” I finally said, finding his eyes. “She’s my Claim.Mine. And I don’t care what you have to say, if you or Beckett or fuckingAzraelmake any sort of fucking snide comment about it like you do about Jack and Greyson, I’llfuckingkill you,” I snarled,watching his eyes darken. “I don’t care what you are to me, I won’t put up with it.”
Malachi watched me carefully, unflinching, unwavering, completely used to our anger. “The rules are in place for a reason, Everett. I do wish you would have told me sooner though. I would have done for her what I did for Emily. I actually like her, she’s got a good heart, one that fits your chest well.”
I laughed, too angry to care about the sentiment. “You would have put an Initiate on her street to watch her? The Initiates you’ve been choosing, Malachi, are fucking traitors. All of them. We’ve been killing them left and right all year, I wouldn’t have allowed you to put one outside of her house.”
His eyes dried. “Don’t mistake my kindness right now for softness, Everett. You and your brothers and sisters are supposed to be vetting themthoroughly. It is not I you need to blame for the traitors in our society.”
“Fuck you,” I spat. “We all knew the Delepski’s were coming after her.”
“And you took your time making the choice that I was kind enough to offer you,” Malachi replied icily. “I should have known right then and there that something had happened between the two of you, but clearly, giving you boys any lenience has been a grave mistake.”
My eyes widened. “What the fuck,” I breathed out. How dare he. Howdarehe blame this on us. Onourchoices. Did he even understand that we could destroy him if we so chose? It wouldn’t be hard. Hetrainedus. It would take no effort at all to destroy him and put one of us on top of that pyramid. We didn’t need his permission to comply with rules we created. We followed him out of respect, out of loyalty, nothing more.
“In any case,” he went on as a couple vehicles drove up, “Olivia Rose is your Claim, she is a part of The Family now, which means we treat this as we would if it were for anyone else inour family. We will find her, and the Delepski’s will pay for what they’ve done,” he explained as the cleaners slid out of one car, a man with a gurney walking away from the other.
“We will save her,” Malachi assured me as I tracked that vet to our dog. “I swear on my life, we will do whatever it takes to save her.”
“Careful,” I said, walking towards them as the vet knelt down at Lucy’s head. “She’s my family.”
The vet nodded and slid a needle into her neck. “We’ll do everything we can.”
Lucy’s big blue eyes found mine, terrified and unsure. “You’re a good dog,” I told her as they lifted her onto the gurney. “You did so good, but you have to keep fighting, Lus. We’re bringing her back. She is coming home.”
