A wet voice rasped against my temple, “I called Sandy . . . She’s on her way.” Aidan’s speech was slurred, as though he were gurgling on mouthwash. “So you go on . . . and leave now,Watt.”
Something sharp prodded the skin on my neck. Without moving a muscle, I glanced down and caught sight of a glinting blade soaked in blood. I thought of my own knife and flexed my fingers, but then remembered I’d droppedit.
“Let Ness go, and we’ll leave,” August saidcalmly.
Aidan didn’t let me go. The blade even nicked myskin.
For a brief second, I wondered if Lucy had set us up, but the pain in her eyes . . . her apology . . .No,she’d really tried to put an end to this man’slife.
“Who do you . . . take me for?” Aidan’s voice was jagged and slow. “The village idiot? Ness will be staying with me . . . until my pack arrives . . . to make sure no other . . . Boulder attacksme.”
Something hot dripped down my neck, over mycollarbone.
I needed to get out of Aidan’s chokehold. I concentrated hard, trying to force magic into my extremities to sprout claws and fangs. As my neck thickened and lined with fur, the knife burrowed deeper into my flesh, and Iyelped.
“Don’t you shift,” Aidan warned, his tinny breath reeking ofdeath.
Howls sounded outside, and Aidan flicked his gaze to thedoorway.
If his pack washere. . .
I stared at August, my eyes misting withtears.
If the Creeks were here . . . theywould. . .
I shuddered, unable to bring myself to envision what they might do tous.
41
“This is your last chance,Michaels. Let her go or die.” My navel pulsed with August’s barely containedfury.
When claws clicked in the foyer, Aidan pulled me back, tightening his hold on my neck that was long and thin again, delicate . . .human.
Three furred beasts erupted into the kitchen, eyes aglow, thick bodies tensed, tailshorizontal.
Boulders.NotCreeks!
The black wolf’s lambent yellow eyes met mine, and relief careened up myspine.
Ourwolves had come. NotAidan’s.
I used the distraction to myadvantage.
Willing my nails to transform into claws, I shifted my hips to the side and swiped my paw between Aidan’s legs. When my sharp claws pierced the fabric of his pants and met skin, he let out a shrill shriek, and the knife popped away from my skin. I whirled, and remembering what Liam had taught me, shoved Aidan’s flailing limb under my armpit, clamping down on his elbow with both my palms to immobilizehim.
Aidan’s face had become a patchwork of whites and reds glossed over by sweat. He puffed out his cheeks and agitated his wrist. The blade scraped my shoulder before clattering onto thefloor.
Suddenly, his body was torn out of my grip and airlifted. Even though he was still in skin, August snarled as loudly as the wolves circling us. He flipped Aidan around, squashed him against his chest, then wound his arm around the Creek’s shoulder and cupped hischin.
Aidan’s eyes bulged behind his glasses that sat askew on the bridge of hisnose.
Our Alpha barked and then shouted into our minds:STOP!Don’t killhim!
August stared fixedly at Liam, and then at my neck, absorbed the cut that must’ve been deep because it was still dribbling blood. With a flick of his wrist, my mate snapped Aidan’sneck.
NO!Liam’s voice exploded inside myskull.
August unwrapped his bicep from around Aidan’s shoulders, and the limp body of the man who’d destroyed my family crumpled, his cheek smacking the floor like a dead fish, his glasses tinkling against the stone like a Christmasornament.
