“Big words for someone not brandishing a weapon,” he replied with a laugh, tossing the knife up in the air before catching it with liquid grace.
I stepped forward. “You wanna fight? Let’s shift and settle this like the Alphas we are.”
“Hah! As if. I have the power here and we both know it.” His expression darkened, twisting into something coldly terrifying. “Fletcher is mine, Adam. He’s going to come with me now.”
I bared my fangs. “Fuck you.”
So he turned those shark-eyes on my mate. “Fletch, baby. What do you want?”
Fletcher surprised me by bristling up and saying, “You heard him—fuck you. Go away, Tank. You’re freaking me out. Please, just leave us alone. Find some new guy to bother.”
“No!” Tank snarled. “I want you!”
Without warning, he lunged at me, the knife still gripped in one hand, ready to strike. I snarled and grabbed his wrist, and the two of us grappled over the weapon. I kicked Tank in the shin, but the man was like a brick wall.
“I’m tired of playing games, Adam.” Tank’s smile was cruel as he slammed me bodily against someone’s car. The car alarm began shrieking.
In the background, I could hear Fletcher’s panicked cries, the muffled sounds of him calling for help, but my attention was locked on Tank and the deadly knife descending towards me.
I pushed Tank’s hand away with one arm, while trying to wrestle him off of me with the other, but it was useless. The bigger Alpha was stronger, somehow. His licorice scent practically drowned me as he leaned in close and whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of our boy. Hush now.”
“No!” I screamed, panic lighting me up like a firecracker. “Please, leave him?—”
My words were cut short with a blinding slice of pain, followed by a bubbling intake of air as I choked on my next breath. My hands flew to my throat as Tank’s knife came away drenched in blood.
“ADAM!” Fletcher’s voice was filled with anguish. “NO!”
I stumbled back, sinking to my knees on the pavement as blood gushed hot down my chest to soak my clothes. My breaths came in short, jerky, bubbling bursts.
No… Not like this…
My head dizzy, I tried in vain to stop the flow, but there was red everywhere.
I was dying.
Fletcher fell to his knees beside me, his face white and horrified. “Adam! No! Please—ah!” He screamed as Tank grabbed his upper arm and wrenched him away from me. “STOP! LEAVE ME ALONE!ADAM!”
“Say goodbye, pretty boy,” Tank taunted him, pulling him away from me as my vision went dark around the edges. All I could see was the pain in my mate’s tearful green eyes, the sorrow written on his beautiful face as I slumped onto the cool pavement below.
I couldn’t even protect my Omega. What kind of Alpha was I?
Accepting my defeat, I stared up at the starlit sky as the blood pumped out of my body with each beat of my heart. Sirens shrilled in the distance, along with Fletcher’s anguished screams.
I’m so sorry…
52
FLETCHER
I was yanked awayfrom Adam, whose face had gone ashen pale, his skin stained with the blood that gushed from the gash across his throat where Tank had slit it, like the monster he truly was.
Tank’s grip on my wrist was like a shackle, but I struggled and fought and kicked, screaming at him at the top of my lungs. “What did you do?! YOU KILLED HIM!” I shrieked. “YOU KILLED ADAM!” I burst into hysterical sobs, suddenly unable to breathe.
Tank slapped me across the face, grabbing me by the shirt collar and yanking me in. I could smell the bitter mint of his chewing gum on his breath, but it did little to cover up his licorice stink. “You made me! If you’d just playednice,this wouldn’t have happened,” he snapped. “This is YOUR fault, Fletcher. He’s dead because of YOU! You forced my hand!”
“No…” I uttered, breathless. “NO!”
Grief and fury blistering up inside of me, I screamed and lunged at Tank. I grabbed his hand, the one still gripping the weapon he’d used to kill Adam with, and swiped at him with my claws.
