Page 80 of Blood of Vengeance

He’d been hunting me.

“Lock, close it!” Zella shoved me to the side to slam the door as Gator shifted, leaving her frozen in the doorway just as I had been. This time because of Gator’s explosion into wolf form. There was no stripping off of his clothes or pause in his human form. He went from a man standing on the pool deck to a huge, snarling wolf with pieces of fabric falling all around him like some sort of textile confetti in a split second.

Zella screamed and stumbled backward as I rushed forward, the sight of the wolf clearing my head enough for me to act. I finally slammed the door and engaged the lock before grabbing her arm and pulling her so we were face-to-face.

“Wolves, remember?” I gave her a slight shake, both of us breathing hard and clinging to each other. “Are you okay with what you just saw?”

“Yeah, I think so. I just…” She shook her head gently and let out a breath. “That was more. It was so much more than I had expected. He was a man and then not. And the fabric. His clothes, like…exploded.”

Out of all the things to have your brain lock on to in a moment of pure panic, that might have been the best because it was the most harmless.

“Yeah, they do that. They usually strip if it’s a planned shift to their wolf. I think the presence of an enemy had Gator in a rush.” I sighed, my brain spinning with everything that had happened in the last two minutes. Nearly laughing at the heaviness of knowing we were under attack and there would soon be lots of wolves fighting for us. What sort of life had I fallen into? “Did you see the guy across the pool?”

“Mr. Tall, Dark, and Looks Like a Literal Corpse? Yeah. Noticed him.”

“I think he might be the one who killed my dad. That laugh I heard in the pool—it was the same as in the dreams that brought me out here. Even if he’s not the one, the wolves are likely going to fight him. Showing up like this—it’s a sign of an attack. They won’t let that slide.” I waited, wanting her to say something. When I got nothing, I finally cocked my head. “You good?”

“Good is not the word I would use.” She spun and strode through the kitchen, calling over her shoulder without even pausing, “Come on. If we’re under attack, we should be wearing more than just these wet bikinis. Otherwise, we’ll be nothing but typical horror movie side characters.”

I wanted to say something back, but she was right—running around in bikinis while paranormal creatures battled outside your door would definitely put us in horror movie side character territory. We couldn’t go down like that.

“Yeah, okay. I’m coming.”

But as I left my post near the back door, as I crept through the kitchen as if not to awaken someone in the room, growls and snarls and some weird screaming noises enveloped the house. The sounds ugly and chill-inducing. Terrifying.

“Locklyn, hurry up!”

I couldn’t argue with her. If the noisemakers were coming inside, we needed to be prepared. And in that moment, prepared meant at the very least wearing pants.

Twenty-Six

Flinch

We raced across the desert, house in sight, listening to what sounded like the vampires singing an off-pitch battle hymn. The screeching wails of a vampire attack were the stuff of nightmares, and the sound coming from my own house—the place where my fated mate likely stood—sent ice straight into my soul. My wolf hated the way the noise vibrated inside his ears, but he ran faster anyway, knowing his mate was also listening to it. Knowing she had to be scared. Knowing we were the only hope she had of survival.

And taking comfort in the low buzz of our connection to her coming to life the closer we got to the house.

I hit the pavement in my backyard before any of my brothers, pounding the two steps to the pool edge before pushing off with my hind legs and leaping. The two vamps on the opposite side of the pool looked up in time to see me flying at them, both hissing as they moved forward as if to stop me. There would be no stopping me.

Cutter and I landed almost at the exact same moment, both of us immediately lunging for the vampires. Mine grabbed me by the pelt and hissed in my ear, the creature close enough to bite but not strong enough to bend my body to his will. I took advantage of his nearness—twisting around and crushing his skull in one quick chomp. A putrid liquid filled my mouth and ran down my throat, but I didn’t let up. Not until he stopped fighting. Until he lay even more dead than he had been before. I’d dealt with vampires in the past—there weren’t a lot of ways to kill them, being that they were walking around dead already, but beheading seemed to do the trick. So did setting them on fire, but we were in a time crunch and flames would draw attention. Biting the nasty fuckers would have to do, even if it meant filling my gullet with their vile rot.

Once my vamp lay still and no longer in one piece, I swiped his head across the patio like a soccer ball and looked for more prey. Cutter and Gator had their own vamps they were tangling with, both seemingly winning, so I left them to it and edged toward the house. I took out two more vamps as I fought my way toward the door, pinning another motherfucker to the concrete for Rush to chomp out of existence. I didn’t hurry—not really, at least. I kept a solid forward motion toward the door. My backyard looked like a bowling alley for all the heads rolling, and I was all for helping my brothers take out as many vamps as I could so long as I kept feeling the connection to Locklyn. That buzz meant she was alive and likely okay inside the house. I had trust in our connection.

I was almost to the door, fighting off the last three vamps between me and where my mate had to be, when a high-pitched yelp from behind me caught my attention. I turned just enough to watch as three vamps ripped the front leg off Tex’s wolf before they tossed him into the pool. My growls increased, my absolute rage at these fuckers targeting us exploding within me. They were learning—it was no longer a one-on-one battle. They were attacking in twos and threes, which meant our advantage had lessened. Fuck that.

Before I could even attempt to head for the pool to help Tex, five brothers jumped into the fray. Zed led the way, attracting the attention of the handful of vamps who had all been about to go into the water after our injured brother. That move meant Tex had a moment to get away, which he did as best he could. Cutter and Diesel also pounced, breaking up the last group of vamps to give Gator time to shift and get his human ass into the pool to help Tex.

“C’mon, buddy,” Gator called, tugging his best friend across the water. “It’s going to hurt like a bitch, but I need you to shift so I can deal with this.”

Tex answered with a low mewling noise, something that spoke to the beast inside me. I took two steps toward the pool, fascinated, staring as fur was replaced by skin and my brother began to squeal from the horrible pain of shifting while injured so badly. I was about ready to shift and go help Gator get Tex out of the water, but a thump on my back and the pulling of one of my legs refocused my attention on my own fight and sent a newfound jolt of adrenaline through my system.

The burning sear of claws ripping through my flesh also helped me refocus on staying alive and fighting my way past these fuckers.

I reared back and managed to rip the head off the vamp trying to claw through my midsection as my anger fueled me. As rage pulsed through my body at these bastards thinking they could come in and destroy our club. They had taken Chiggy from us and had tried their damnedest to take Tex, too. They needed to be destroyed so they never got their claws on another brother.

The next vampire dumb enough to try to take me out went down faster than the ones before, my claws slicing through the rotting flesh of his neck with ease. Two down, I turned toward the third that I had almost lost track of. He had joined in a party trying to overtake Zed, piling four vamps on one wolf. Thankfully, Cutter and Diesel hopped into that fray, and the three took out the vampires without another injury, all fighting as a unit. My brothers had learned right along with the vampires—no one was fighting alone. It was pretty much two wolves to three vampires, and the wolves were winning every fight.

Knowing my brothers would be able to take care of the remaining vamps, I turned back toward the house, catching sight of a huge motherfucker about to crawl through my laundry room window. Going for my mate. I snarled and leaped, knocking him to the ground with my paw. This one fought harder than the rest, his size giving him quite an advantage over his emaciated brethren. I had no idea if this was the bastard who had killed Chiggy—there would be no way to tell unless one of them stopped fucking screeching and used their words—but I fought him as if he was. I battled the creeper hard, taking swipes along the way but never backing down. Another vamp joined in, practically straddling my hind end, but Rush leaped from wherever the fuck he had been and knocked the bastard to the ground before disappearing into the fray around us.

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