Beside him, Cinjin is frowning. “You barely ever flip the psycho switch, though.”
Swallowing, Kaige tilts his head in acknowledgment. “Years of practice keeping him on the sidelines, but when he taps in, he goes all in. Zero or one hundred; I don’t have a middle ground.”
I turn to Damian, only to find him already watching me. “And you?”
Tongue darting out to wet his lips, his voice comes out gravely with the admission. “Obsession. I don’t consider my wolf a curse, but the things that I feel strongly about are amplified by him. Rage, revenge, love. Anything intense becomes all-consuming, and I can’t let something go once I have my mind set on it.”
There’s so much left unsaid with his declaration, but I’m in no shape to delve into it right now. Thankfully, or maybe not, I’m saved from responding as Hunter snaps at something Reid muttered under his breath while we were distracted.
As he storms over like he’s going to punch him in the face, I groan. “Will you get off your high horse and let me help you shift already?”
“I can handle it,” he barks back.
Reid shoots his foot out at the perfect moment, tripping him and growling, “Watch your tone when speaking to her.”
Hunter catches himself before bashing his face, wasting no time in pushing himself upright and fisting the front of Reid’s shirt. “Says the unclaimed wolf talking aboutmymate.”
Rubbing circles over my throbbing temples, I give them my back as I seek out Slade. “How in the actual hell did any of your mothers survive raising boys?”
Chuckling, he wraps a hand around my ankle, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “Took a hands-off approach and left us to kill each other until we worked past whatever current issue was pissing us off.”
I huff an exasperated breath. “Sounds about right. Only problem is that Hunter’s about two minutes from shifting, and Reid isn’t.”
Carefully weighing his response, Bo pipes up, “Then that’s on Reid for being stupid. And I don’t know about you, beautiful, but while my baby brother is an idiot where it comes to you, that’s where it ends.”
Not particularly buying it, I press my lips into a thin line, but don't argue. When it comes down to it, I know none of us are going to sit back and let Hunter tear Reid apart, but wearehorrible enough to be curious how this version of him will handle the situation.
Sputtering after the quick throat punch Reid landed, Hunter’s fist goes flying towards Reid’s jaw, but he pauses a hair's breadth away and holds his position for several tense moments. Cursing, he abruptly shoves his shoulder, knocking him off of the makeshift bench before turning on his heel. “Only reason you get a pass is because she’s already upset, and I’m not going to give her a reason to fuss over you. Stay in your lane, pup.” He makes it all of five steps before he stumbles with a grunt, hissing in pain as he falls to his knees.
“Damn it, Hunter, will you suck it up and let me help you, already?” Though he remains steadfast in his determination to do it without my help, his words make me pause.
“You took three fucking days to heal, Sabrina, and just woke up, what, eight hours ago? And you were only that bad in the first place because you had to drag my useless ass out of the house, then save meagainwhen this-” he hitches a thumb over his shoulder “-psychopath tried to rip my head off. So no, I don’t want you wasting any energy on me to make it less painful. I deserve every bit of it,” he finishes right before grunting as the sound of bones fracturing fills the campsite.
“Stubborn idiot,” I murmur, so quietly that I doubt anyone picked it up now that he set off a chain reaction and Slade, Damian, and Cinjin are following his lead. Sliding off of Bo’s lap, I give him my blessing to join the others, and settle into Slade’s empty seat on the log.
While my shift was painless, the guys’ first ones were brutal. And where before my other half was taking point, letting me observe everything through a detached sort of awareness, I don’t have that same buffer this time. I get to watch the entire horrifying transformation in slow motion. Every breaking bone, the tearing of skin like it’s nothing more than wrapping paper on a morbid present.
We’re nothing more than vessels, a living cage to the monsters contained beneath our skin.
My breaths start coming in quick, short bursts as I look down at my hands.
He just... disintegrated. I didn’t even need to shift to kill him. I nearly killed Slade, Damian, and Cinjin by draining them dry. If I don’t keep a firm handle on my temper, I could kill any of them without thinking. I can’t afford to be a mess. Either I get my shit together, or the people I care about are going to wind up dead.
“Sabrina.” Reid’s face comes into focus, and only after he sees me blink a few times does he palm my cheek. “You’re overthinking again. Want to fill me in on what’s going through your head that makes you look like you’re about to burst into tears? Because full disclosure, I think you’ll wind up suffocating under a pile of panicked hellhounds if you start crying right now.”
An ear-splitting howl as Hunter finishes shifting saves me from having to respond. He’s slightly larger than Slade, with a touch of silver mottling along his collar, but beyond that, carries the same hellhound attributes as the rest of them. Onyx fur blurred in a smoky haze, and a jaw that could crush a human skull with hardly any effort. Holding his emerald gaze, I watch the others in my peripheral vision as they begin picking fights with each other before bolting off into the forest. When they’re gone, Hunter merely lies down beside the fire, resting his head on his front legs to settle in.
Sorting through the chaos in my brain to find the heart of the matter, I give Reid the horrible truth. “I can’t feel her anymore, and I don’t know if I’m relieved, or terrified that it means she’smeand I can’t tell the difference anymore.”
