Spitting out the blood in my mouth, I inhale a deep breath, tilt my head back, and release a howl of fury.
Chapter 74
White Wolf
LIAM
Six Years Ago
The sound of heavy boots hitting the pavement echoes off the asphalt of the city’s slums. Ean and I take the lead, directing the group in and out of alleyways to find Jessica.
Anxiety flickers in my chest. I couldn’t get to her in time. I watched from a distance as they openly used their magic and took her away.
The group that took her wasn’t the Resistance. It was my old crew—if you could call them that—when I used to live here. I was just as much a loner then, worse than I am now, and I didn’t get involved with much of the crew’s dealings. We were a bunch of misfits who committed small crimes and took odd jobs for money.
Not everyone in the slums has magic. Just the small group Eugene, my guardian, slowly collected as he found them as homeless orphans, much like me.
As Eugene’s illness took over, it became harder to keep them in line, to keep them hidden from the non-magic shifters, including the Resistance. To keep order and Eugene’s wishes for them to remain hidden, I challenged the leader of the group to exert my dominance. Apparently, a lot changed in my absence. It gave them free will to do as they please.
And when the hell did they recruit crow and hawk shifters, especially with magic?
“Are you sure they took her to the old fighting ring?” Ean asks between huffs of breath.
“I’m positive,” I answer. The thought of Strap and Scar getting their hands on her increases the pressure in my chest. I push my legs harder, picking up speed. I don’t want to waste a single second. I have to get her out of there, away from them, even if that means I trade my life for hers to get her back.
A loud, wrathful howl comes from an old familiar building up ahead. It shakes the very foundation we’re running on.
“It’s Jessica! She’s pissed!” one of the Langhlan twins shouts from behind me.
“Quick! She wants to murder someone!” the other Langhlan twin adds.
I can feel the angry energy radiating from the building as we approach.
“Ean! Elijah!” I yell. “Break through the front entrance now!”
Ean runs ahead. Elijah pulls up from the rear. The air around them flickers; their skin turns a shiny, gunmetal gray, light from the full moon glittering off their skin. They ram their bodies into the double glass doors. Slivers of glass spray over the pavement. Shouts and screams greet us from the building entrance. Luke and Dimitri step to my side as we race to save Jessica.
We falter, and the recruits’ footfalls halt. We stand in absolute dismay. A large white wolf stands in the center of the fighting ring, with a leather strap dangling from its muzzle.
“I didn’t recognize you! I swear!” Strap lies on the ground, one arm outstretched before him. Blood spreads across his chest from several claw marks. Scar tries to sit up, bleeding from wounds on his torso and face.
The wolf growls, vibrating the building, as it takes a threatening step toward Strap. “I swear. I swear!” Strap shouts. “I would never hurt you if I had known!” Pieces of rope and a broken chair are scattered in the center of the ring. I am all too familiar with how they operate to obtain information from their enemies.
I should let her kill them, but I don’t think she’ll be able to live with herself once she realizes they were just protecting their home. A young girl with ripped jeans, a crop top, and shoulder-length brown hair drops to her knees in front of Strap and holds both hands out in front of her.
“Please don’t hurt him. He’s my brother. You look different! We didn’t recognize you!” she pleads. Amery is Strap’s little sister. She’s the only blood family he has left. His birth parents abandoned both of them. Eugene found them in some alleyway pilfering through a dumpster searching for food.
Jessica’s wolf snarls and spits the leather strap off to the side.
Strap’s sister doesn’t cower. “I owe you my life, and he knows that. We were just protecting our home. A bunch of men have been in our territory, just like the men who came and took me and the other women when you saved us.”
Jessica’s wolf’s head tilts. She turns and stalks forward in Scar’s direction. Another woman I recognize, Clary, wraps her arms around Scar, who clutches at a wound on his arm.
“He’s my mate. Please spare him! We were all just protecting our home!” she sobs.
Jessica snaps her jaw and moves in closer.
“Stop!” I shout and rush forward. “She’s telling you the truth. They’re just protecting their home.” I jump over the ropes and land behind her. Luke and Dimitri follow close behind.
