More clattering from below had me glancing down to see another two men dressed head to toe in black, adding to the pursuit.
“Fuck!”
Taylor's expletive cut into my panicked silence, his voice urgent as he called out for me. “Yeah, still kickin’,” I answered. “I can see the club’s rooftop. Get a sniper up top to cover me.”
This calm amongst the storm was what I had become used to in life-threatening situations. Like when the club was shot up and I jumped the bar with a tire iron so the other bartenders could keep all the guns; my brain just goes blank, and I run on adrenaline and instinct to survive. An instinct born from constantly being in danger. It’s not like most people decide to toss their motorcycle in self-defense, but then again, I was a monster born of violence.
Just as I crested the edge of the building’s roof, a firm grasp wrapped around my calf and almost yanked me back down the fire escape. Snarling viciously, I clung to the rough brick ledge and delivered a brutal kick right into the visor of the man’s helmet with the heel of my boot, hard enough to crack it. “Hang on, Lore! Nick is heading up now!” Taylor’s voice was uncharacteristically frantic in my ear.
Scrambling over the roof’s short wall, I had just enough time to swing the shotgun into my hands and aim toward the ladder, waiting to blow some motherfucker’s face off. And just as I anticipated, thatdumbasscrawled right into my line of sight, unable to duck down before I pulled the trigger and filled his vision with buckshot. Screams in Italian came as his limp body fell back and collided with several poles on the way down, hopefully catching one of his friends in the process. “Shit!” One of them shouted in a deep voice. “Lorelai, you crazy bitch, you’re fucking deadputtana!”
The voice was eerily familiar, and he knew my old name. The mystery of who had the balls to chase me down in my own territory had solved itself when, like a nightmare crawling from the depths of hell, the face of Elio’s oldest son crept up over the roof's edge. Fucking Gabriele Messina, in the flesh. The last timeI saw him, he was bleeding out on the floor of a fancy restaurant with a butter knife jutting out of his neck, just before I dove off the balcony. Needless to say, I was triggered at seeing one of my former abusers. So triggered that I flipped the shotgun around and proceeded to swing the stock in a vicious arc to brain the asshole.
“Argh!” His head whipped to the side, and the stock broke against his hard-as-fuck skull. Was it the best idea to use my shotgun like a club? Probably not. But did it feel satisfying to have the recoil shoot up my arms when it connected with the side of his otherwise perfect face? Abso-fucking-lutely. Gabriele roared and grabbed the gun, jerking it from my hands and tossing it over his shoulder to the ground. I snarled, reaching to the small of my back for the knife sheathed there, and backed up halfway across the roof when he climbed over. Blood dripped from a deep gash in his temple, and the fire in his glare promised a slow death.
“How can you fuck up dying?” I assumed his sharp hearing still picked up the muffled words in my helmet. He let loose another enraged roar and barreled toward me, reaching out his arms like he was going to tackle me. Something shot just past my shoulder and caught him in his arm hard enough to knock him off-course, grabbing his arm and howling again.
That one shot was just the precursor to the chaos that ensued a heartbeat later.
“Lore, Lore!” Taylor’s voice broke through the white noise in my head. “Nick has you covered, get the fuck outta there! More guys are coming up!” Even as he spoke, another four men clambered up from the ladder to spread out and try to flank me.
“Hanson, get her!” Gabriele roared over the chaos of flying bullets.
One of his goons tried to blindside me from the right, outside what he thought was my line of sight behind the helmet, whenI headbutted him viciously. I used his momentum to drive my knife between the gaps of his ribcage, where it scraped against bone on its way through. He gasped, and a wet gurgle came from his mouth when I ripped the blade away.
With my free hand, I pulled at the latch beneath my chin and ripped off the helmet. Someone wrapped their arms around my torso, his rank breath hot against my neck. Grunting, I leaned to the left and swung the helmet as hard as I could. It landed against his forehead with a satisfyingthunkthat dropped him to the ground. I was starting to gain a collection of bodies around me.
The roar of more bikes came up from below in the alleyway. It was hard to tell from here if they were friend or foe.
Instinct took over, heightening my senses a heartbeat before the full transformation swept me up. Bones snapped and limbs contorted as I fell to my hands, clothes falling loose around my shrinking body that threatened to tangle me up. An animalistic snarl ripped from my snout, and I shredded my shirt to break free and dart away from the yells and gunshots on my heels. The smell of exhaust, gunpowder, body odor, and the underlying stink of desperation burned my nose, and my lips curled from the fangs they covered. My sights were set on the gaping space between two buildings, one much too far for a human to jump unless they were a stuntman. But I was a fox—almost triple the size of a normal one as an alpha—and therefore much more powerful and agile than I was in my human form. It wouldn't be much of a strain to make it across as long as I didn't get shot.
One of Gabriele’s goons yelled. “Don’t let her jump!” Someone’s hand grabbed at my tail, barely missing it and ripping a fistful of fur out instead. A gun went off twice, and the telltalethudof a body falling to the ground reached my ears as they swiveled to find other threats. Another hand reached for my scruff, and I whipped my head around to bite viciously untilblood filled my mouth. More bikes rumbled from below as if chasing me from the ground. With my limited space to run and jump, I hit the edge with my stomach hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs as I slid down a little. A strained growl rumbled behind my bared teeth as my claws scrambled for purchase on the brick to pull myself up.
“Shit! She fucking bit me!”
A painedyipbarked from my mouth as something barreled into my left side, rolling us both across the rough roof. Instinctively, I twisted to try to clamp my teeth around whatever was trying to pin me down, and I got a mouthful of thick gray fur with little purchase to pull them off. Teeth closed around my front shoulder, and he began to shake his head viciously like he was trying to rip my fucking leg off. Apparently, they were taking “catch alive” very loosely now. This wolf wasn’t an alpha, so we were close enough in size for me to throw my weight and knock us both over onto his side. His teeth loosened their grip as he yelped.
“Fucking grab her!” Gabriele’s voice was garbled and distant, being the little bitch he is and not getting his own hands dirty. “I want that bitch conscious when I fuck her back into submission.”
My vision went red. Every heartbeat pumped lava through my veins. And the sound that came from between bared teeth was hardly considered bestial at this point. I was a demon straight out of hell, becoming all claws and fangs and savage snarls as I whipped around and bit the asshole right on his damn muzzle. The pain of my teeth hitting bone was minimal compared to the satisfaction of his eyeball popping when one of my fangs pierced it. He let go entirely then, howling and thrashing his head as I gave him a sharp shake. The wolf’s body slumped to the ground, lifeless, and I stepped over it with my eyes set on the next closest shifter still in his human form. Blood dripped from my muzzle, and the coppery taste only drove my primal’s rage tonew heights. Clanging metal from behind Gabriele alerted me to more people climbing up the fire escape to join this little rooftop party.
Gabriele snarled. “What the fuck are you waiting for?” he yelled at the goon eyeing me cautiously. A howl of pain punctuated the question as a spray of blood blew from his chest, and he fell to the ground, gasping and holding the new bullet hole near the center of his chest.
Nick finally got his clean shot, it seemed.
“Shit, G!” Just as the man turned to go help his boss, I lunged. Landing on his back, sending us both to the ground, my teeth locked around the back of his neck and clamping tightly until his skin shredded and bone shattered. He hardly had time to do more than wheeze in pain before I yanked my head hard to the side, breaking his neck with ease. More shouting and chaos ensued over by the ladder, but their familiar scents now weaving through the smell of gore announced the Riot members that Taylor sent after me.
About fucking time, I wanted to say. With the adrenaline draining from my body, my legs stumbled as I tried to step off the last corpse I’d dealt with. Every ache and bite mark throbbed, my breaths sawing in and out as I panted heavily. A gloved hand rested on my back as I leaned my side against leather-clad legs to hold myself up.
“She’s bleeding, T,” the Riot member crouched and ran his hand over my scruff to look for injuries. “Doesn’t look like anything major, but there’s a deep bite on her shoulder.”
Aw, shit. If Taylor was here…
The muffledoofand moan after a solid kick to a body told me Gabriele was clinging to life. “I’m taking care of you later, motherfucker. You’re gonna wish you’d never been born.” Taylor’s voice was almost unrecognizable, so low and buried in the continuous rolling growl that rumbled from his chest. Hewas one of three people alive who knew Gabriele’s role in my abuse under Elio’s ownership. I had no doubt he’d make good on his promise. His no-nonsense black tennis shoes came into my line of sight, and I lifted my head with what little energy I could muster. “Hey, sis,” he crouched to meet me on my level. “Can you shift back, or are you still recovering? I’m sure your primal is riding you pretty hard, huh?”
I chuffed in response. Alphas were always one step closer to their primals than the other shifter designations. It was a common misconception that it made us more volatile and prone to shifting, but the opposite was true. I had absolute control over whether my animal side came out. But with the pain and fallout of adrenaline racking my body, it was a bit more difficult to bring my humanity to the surface again. That was a weaker form, and I was going to feel ten times worse if I shifted now. Alas, I had shit to take care of that I couldn't do as a massive fox.
Taylor got it. He was a beta, so he didn’t have the lived experience, but he’d been with me long enough to understand the side effects of shifting. “Gotcha. We brought the SUVs if you need to ride in the back, and someone will… Or you can shift now while I’m talking, that works too.” He snapped his fingers at the closest bike rider and gestured for his jacket to cover my transitioning body. Someone else had picked up the rest of my clothes that were scattered across the roof in my change and handed them down to Taylor.
