“I want itnow.”
So did I.
I could picture it clearly. Hudson pinned beneath my claws, his ribs cracking one by one under my weight. The sound he’d make when I tore into his throat. The way his eyes would go wide when he realized what was killing him wasn’t human.
I wanted to hear him scream the way she must have for the things he did to her. I crave to break every bone in his hands so he could never touch another woman again. And I will surely make it last for hours.
My wolf snarled beneath my skin, demanding blood.
I shoved it down.
“You’ll have it when the time is right. Not before.”
The words came out measured. I’d learned to leash the part of me that wanted to solve every problem with violence.
Percy exhaled through his nose, a controlled breath that said he was swallowing a dozen arguments, and nodded.
He was many things. Reckless, loud, incapable of taking anything seriously for more than thirty consecutive seconds. But when it mattered, he listened. When it truly mattered, the chaos disappeared, and what remained underneath was a soldier who would follow me into any war I chose.
Solomon appeared from the shadows without a sound. His pale eyes tracked to Mira’s window and held there. For one unguarded second, hunger crossed his blank expression. Then grief, right behind it, before the mask slid back into place.
“The fire, as we know, was arson,” he said with no preamble. Solomon didn’t waste words on pleasantries. “I found accelerant throughout the stockroom and the door locked from outside. The doctor already mentioned, but her tea was laced with a compound I’ve never seen before.”
“You’re sure?”
“I double checked the site.” He pulled out a phone and showed me the screen. A photo of a modified door bolt, the kind you couldn’t buy at a hardware store. “This wasn’t impulsive. He’s been preparing.”
“How long?”
“His car was spotted near her shop three times in the past week. His face is on the hardware store’s camera buying kerosene four days ago.” Solomon’s jaw tightened. “He watched her routines, learned her schedule. Waited until she’d be alone and vulnerable. Surveillance shows his vehicle parked two blocks from the hospital an hour ago.”
The bastard is not running or hiding but instead, he was still here, methodically patient.
The realization made my blood run cold, then hot. He’d stalked her and studied her. Planned every detail of her death while she went about her life, thinking she was safe.
My claws pushed against my fingertips. I curled my hands into fists to keep them from extending.
“This man has done this before,” Solomon continued, his scarred knuckles pressing white against his crossed arms. “Or he’s studied how.”
“He’s going to be dead.” Percival’s voice turned into the version that most people never saw because the grin and the dimples were so effective at hiding it. “That’s the only plan that matters.”
“Not yet.”
I forced the words through my teeth. Every cell in my body screamed against them.
Because I wanted Hudson dead.
The truth is, I wanted to be the one who did it. I wanted to let my wolf have him, piece by piece, starting with the hands that had touched her and ending with the throat that had spoken her name.
I desire to watch the life drain from his eyes while he understood exactly what he’d done and exactly who he’d done it to. I wanted him to know, in those final moments, that she wasours.
The fantasy was so vivid I could taste blood on my tongue.
“She needs stability,” I said. “Not more violence.”
“She needs him to stop breathing.”
“Percival.”
