Enough, the wolf declares, kicking me under with blunt force.
First, the chain holding my right leg gives out. Then, the left. Fractures spread along my arms and legs like fault lines, giving way to a surge of adrenaline, the tearing of ligaments too vehement to register any pain. Hair and skin rip at the seams, rapidly repossessed by fur.
As I mount, Jabir curses, scrambling to load his pistol. He thrusts the magazine in and comes face to face with a nightmare.With a roar, I charge, heaving my entire bodyweight into the lock. The bars groan but hold steady.
Jabir’s eyes are two merciless voids as he raises the gun and cocks it. “Don’t make me do this.”
I barrel into the door, blocking out the pain. When that fails, I roar again, fury throbbing in my ears. I grip the silver chain in my mouth, desperately smashing it against the outer lock. My gums singe from the burn.
We both freeze at the same time. A window has been shattered upstairs.
Nostrils flare as we detect the threat. A lone male, hell-bent on taking the human for himself. If he gets to her, then it’s game over.
The barrel of the gun pans over to the cell lock. “Get back,” Jabir growls.
Vessa
A chorus of howling persists well into the night, breaking my train of thought as I draft a letter to Maurleen.
Don’t stray far from your room tonight.
I should’ve realized how near it was—the one day of the month when males are irrationally on edge and females are in a constant state of arousal. A full moon is the greatest chance that a mated lycan couple has to conceive a child.
Maurleen always tracks the lunar cycles. While I lived with her, she had a way of making sure to send me out with a lengthy list of errands whenever the moon reached its culminating phase. To keep me far away from the forest and the hungry creatures that hunted for a lover to tangle with.
My pen comes to a jolting halt as a monstrous howl shakes the house. A roar not so different from the one Axe made in the forest of Shanoah, just before he found me. Is he calling for me now?
I cross the room and peer through the window of my private balcony. The moon is high and glorious in the sky, casting its beams along the forest edge. Two males are pressed against the massive trunk of a balsam fir, the taller of the couple thrusting into his partner from behind. My hand clamps over my mouth, face heating as I jerk the blinds shut.
Holy shit. So, this is what I missed back at Glacier Meadow. If there was a television in this room, I would crank up the volume to tune out the escapades. My books . . . well, they aren’t exactly noise-canceling.
A second howl rumbles the floor beneath my feet. The tremor, while terrifying, causes my chest to tighten. Abandoning all sense, I grip the knob and step into the dim hallway. No one stirs on the second level as I descend. Downstairs, only the great room is illuminated, the only sign of life coming from a crackling fire. But waiting for me just as I turn the corner of the foyer is Nell.
Her arms are crossed over her chest. “You should be in bed.”
I feign a look of innocence. “What’s going on? Where’s Axe?”
“He’s . . . incapacitated.”
Carnal music echoes through the forest, a chorus of growls and yips. Grimacing, Nell promptly shepherds me back in the direction from which I came.
Down the main corridor, a loud shatter galvanizes us. The floors creak as heavy footsteps pound closer. Nell grabs my elbow and tugs me against her, breaking into a desperate stride.
Both of us nearly jump out of our skin when a loudpopsuddenly goes off downstairs. My eyes flick to the cellar door as we pass the kitchen.
This is a den of lycans. If an Alpha truly wanted to get to me, it would take more than a steel barricade to hold him back. It dawns on me then, why Axe wanted to know if I thought him a monster. It was never about the challenge with Colton. It was about tonight. When he would come for me.
Veering into the foyer, Nell gives me a gentle shove. “Go back to your room, Vessa.Now!”
“Going somewhere?” a guttural voice taunts. A naked male looms not ten paces behind us. Fully erect. Salt and pepper hair wild and tangled, his chest heaves like he’s drunk on all that moonlight. Silver eyes ogle me like I’m his next meal.
Heart pumping wildly, my feet propel me higher. He’s there in an instant, shoving Nell down the stairs. I gasp her name, pulse hammering inside the confines of my mind. The male snatches my throat with one hand, tearing at my sweater with the other, not a morsel of humanity to be found as he regards me with rabid hunger. As I beg to be released.
Around the corner, the basement door blows off its hinges with the force of a grenade. The lycan tightens his grip on my throat, eyes bulging as lengthy fangs descend. Light fixtures tremble as an ear-splitting roar erupts through the main level.
Axe, in his deadliest form.
Before I can brace myself, the male is torn away from me. I close my eyes as he raises his claws to lunge. But his snarl is cut short. Hovering above me is Nell, fuming. Ichor drips from her hand, claws clutching the mangled throat of our attacker. The gory sight of him at the foot of the stairs rakes a scream from my lungs. For a second, I glimpse my mother’s torn throat, blood sprayed over the dashboard. Bile rockets up my esophagus, and I heave it out on the stairwell.
