But after a few moments, she realized nothing special was going to happen. Jodi, Rodney, and Fred were still dead, and she still missed them like crazy. Worse, the guilt she felt over the part she’d played in their deaths was just as gut-wrenching as ever.
Had this all been for nothing?
Then Trevor was at her side, pulling her close and making sure she was okay. He murmured words in her ear she couldn’t hear over the music, but that was okay. She liked him saying them anyway.
She leaned there against him, drawing on his warmth and support. This was what making Wade pay had been all about, moving on and finding a new reason to wake up in the morning. Now, instead of starting every day hoping to find Wade and kill him, she could think about making a life with Trevor. And that wasn’t too bad of a life to look forward to.
But then the sounds of distant gunfire pulled her back to reality, and she looked up at him. “Boo?”
“She’s okay,” he said loudly. “But they’re still fighting in the gym. We need to go.”
Nodding, Alina turned and walked away from Wade’s body without looking back.
Chapter 19
Tanner watched as Declan went down under two hybrid attackers. A split second later, one of Thorn’s men swung an empty rifle at Danica, knocking her unconscious.
Up until now, Tanner had been too busy in hand-to-hand combat to pay attention to details, but he knew that more of his friends had already fallen. He wasn’t sure whether they were alive or dead. All he could say for sure was that they’d fought like hell. The Special Forces soldiers showing up in time to help wasn’t going to happen. They were all going to die long before then.
Something in Tanner snapped at that realization. Maybe it was the last little shred of his control, or maybe the silly notion of keeping his inner animal chained up didn’t matter when nearly everyone he cared about was dying around him. Either way, the barrier he’d been holding in place between himself and the beast collapsed, and the raging thing inside came charging out.
Roaring loud enough to shake the rafters of the gym, he charged at the largest concentration of hybrids left standing, vowing to kill them all before the end.
He tore into them with his claws, sank his fangs into shoulders and necks, and smashed bones to dust with his fists. He’d lost his weapon somewhere along the way, but he didn’t care. Using an M4 would have been beyond him at this point anyway.
Blood went everywhere, both his and that of those he killed. He didn’t care about that, either. Some part of him recognized that killing was something he’d always done well. He was better at it now than before he’d been turned into a hybrid, but even in those days long past, this was what he’d always excelled at.
When he heard an increase in gunfire from behind him, he spun and faced it, rushing toward it before he knew where it was coming from.
He tried to pull up when he realized it was Derek, Diaz, and the other SF soldiers, but stopping wasn’t an option. Lowering his head, he picked up speed, heading straight for Diaz.
The beast inside him was shocked when the soldier’s eyes flared yellow and he leaped aside at the last second with a snarl and a flash of fangs.
Shit. Diaz was a shifter.
No matter how much Tanner fought the urge, the beast inside simply wanted to kill. If it was Diaz, that was okay, too. If anything, the beast reveled at the thought of fighting someone truly capable of fighting back.
Suddenly, a heavy body hit him, tackling him to the floor. He tried to twist out of Clayne’s grip, but the wolf shifter pinned Tanner’s arms to his side, and he couldn’t free himself. Another body landed on him—Diaz—then another, and another, and another. They crushed him to the floor, and no matter how much he raged, they refused to let the beast move. The animal was trapped, just like Tanner, and the beast didn’t like it any more than he did.
Tanner realized then that the shooting had stopped. He supposed that meant everything was over. For everyone but him. His fight would never be over.
* * *
Trevor slid to a halt on the sidewalk as an enormous roar echoed from inside the gym. He threw a look of concern Alina’s way. He’d never heard anything so primal and enraged. If that was one of Thorn’s hybrids, he didn’t want to think about how badly it was going in there.
“We need to hurry,” he told Alina, but she was already running ahead of him toward the gym.
Trevor was so eager to get there, he didn’t realize the danger he and Alina were in until it was too late. By the time he smelled Frasier, the asshole had stepped out from behind the building they were running past and grabbed Alina, yanking her to his chest. He put his gun to her head with a smug smile.
“Now, how did I know we were going to find you here?” Frasier snorted. “I told Mr. Thorn we should have blown you up along with your boss. Of all the fucking shifters, my gut always said you were going to be the biggest pain in the ass. But he wouldn’t listen.”
Heart thumping in his chest and fangs extending, Trevor pointed his weapon at Frasier’s head, ready to take the shot the moment he got the right angle, but the man was too experienced to make it easy on him. The piece of shit was careful to keep himself hidden behind Alina. For the first time ever, Trevor had to question why his partner had to be so frigging tall.
The only thing Trevor couldn’t understand was why Frasier hadn’t already shot them both—unless he simply wanted to crow a little first.
Alina didn’t look as nervous as she probably should have been. Instead, she calmly stood there with an expectant look in her eyes, waiting for Trevor to do something to end this once and for all.
