Monster was about to roar at her to not bother with words when Kansas pushed past him.
“Samual.” His tone was accusatory and disbelieving.
“Ah, Daniel Ramsey, or do you prefer Kansas these days?”
Monster took in his surroundings. There were guns pointing in every direction. Including one in Cliff, eh, Samual’s hand pointed at Kansas. Everyone had made their way into the room except the prospect. With this many gats and tempers, it wouldn’t end well.
After the quick assessment, he realized the likelihood that they’d all leave this room was slim to none.
“Call me whatever you want. Just tell me what your endgame is? You’ve already taken everything from me years ago.”
“Me? I took everything from you?” Samual shouted, spittle flying from his lips.
Carys flinched and made to turn around. Monster’s hand shot out, grabbing her throat in the way he’d only grabbed her for pleasure before.
“Don’t you fucking move a muscle. You’ll stay right here. I’ll be damned if I’ll give you a chance to hurt my club any more than you already have.”
“I—” Monster tightened his grip, and he hated himself for it, but he shoved it down.
“Don’t.” He drew her closer so he could fire around her if need be.
A snippet of a memory flashed through his mind, and his stomach threatened to empty itself. When he’d first seen her at the bar, he’d pictured himself holding her just like this in anger. He’d blown that vision off when he had it. Monster would never harm a woman, especially one he cared for, but there he stood, doing just that.
Ulf growled in his head. Not in anger, to protect.
Monster ignored Ulf’s attempt to soothe him. He needed to focus, or his brothers would pay the price.
Holding Carys with one hand, he trained his weapon on Samual’s forehead.
“Not me. You. You took everything from me.” Samual’s face was red with rage. “I had to eventually run from the pack because of you. When you left, I thought that was it, but you couldn’t just go away silently. Even years later, you were still there.”
He was monologuing. Good, Monster thought. If for no other reason than he could feel his brothers shifting slowly into more advantageous positions, and Samual didn’t seem to take note of it.
Even Monster shifted. Ulf wanted to place Carys behind them and out of the line of fire. Especially since Samual’s gun was shaking and seemed to be pointed at Carys’s back.
Not possible. He told Ulf.
Monster noticed Samual’s trigger finger was twitching. He did what he could to reassure Ulf.
But I’ll not let her be hurt.
Monster realized that while Ulf was his age, he seemed more like a young adult. Kinda like Monster had been at around twenty.
He assumed it was because he’d emerged before he was mature and then suppressed. Maybe he hadn’t matured as a wolf should’ve because of it.
A wave of guilt washed over him, not for the first time, for the part he played in repressing Ulf’s growth. At the time, he did what he had to do with no knowledge or thought to any lasting damage he may have done to his wolf half.
Monster pushed it aside as Samual went on. He’d just add it to the pile of guilt that was sizing up to be as tall as him to be dealt with later.
“No, you had to keep reaching out to Ben, planting seeds. He copied all the things we’d kept hidden, and when the test group of the pack found out what the control group were doing, well, they staged a revolution. We could’ve shut it down, but when I heard they aligned with the bloodsuckers, I knew I had to go.”
Samual shifted his aim from Carys to Kansas.
“You ruined my life,” his shout was deafening.
Monster didn’t know how Kansas managed to keep his mouth shut. How Samual had turned the tables to make himself the victim was unbelievable.
If it had been Monster in Kansas’s position, he would’ve called the man out on his bullshit. The man experimented on Kansas’s family and wiped them out, yet Kansas had ruined his life. Un-fucking-believable, the man was batshit crazy.
