Page 81 of Blood of Vengeance

I fought, I growled, I herded that vampire away from my house and my mate, and in the end, I won. The body fell to the concrete pool deck without fanfare, his neck crunching as I used my claws to rip off his head. I took one moment to glance around, to check my team’s sixes, to figure out where the next fight would come from, but all seemed almost calm. The chaos had settled because the vampires had begun to retreat, disappearing in the desert night. Cowards.

“Let’s get some help here,” Gator yelled, obviously also recognizing an ebb in the attack. My brothers began shifting human, Zed jumping into the pool to help Gator pull out Tex. More brothers moved to help, jumping out of the pink water right after him. They rolled Tex’s body onto the wet concrete, bringing his dismembered arm to sit right alongside them. My poor brother writhed naked on the ground, biting his lip but managing to scream out his pain anyway. I had a feeling there would be no fixing his injury, but I didn’t have time to deal with that. Right at that moment, the bond between Locklyn and me zinged to life. No, zinged was the wrong word.

It set my soul on fire in all the wrong ways, forcing me to shift human in a sudden and painful way.

“Fuck,” I cried, body curled almost in half from the shock of the shift. Looking up and staring at the house, unable to move for a second. Fighting off my own wolf as pain consumed me from within. My beast raged inside me, pushing against every bit of willpower my human possessed, demanding I shift back even though that wasn’t what I wanted in the moment. But what I wanted didn’t matter to him. As he took control, as he wrestled away my free will and my body began to morph without my permission, I screamed for the only person who might be able to help, the single word garbled and rough from the constriction on my vocal cords.

“Cutter!”

The man appeared at my side, face expressionless but eyes nearly glowing with a suppressed rage I assumed we were both feeling. Rage and knowing—Cutter had been in my position before.

“Cutter,” I growled, the word more vibration than anything else. My wolf wanting to howl instead of speak.

Without warning, Cutter threw a punch that connected with my cheek and nearly knocked me off my feet.

“Better?”

I shook off the pain of the hit and growled, rising to my full height. Or as full as I could, seeing as how my wolf had begun our shift and I was stuck halfway between human and beast. “What the fuck, old man?”

“Your wolf is an asshole—rein him in.” He looked toward the house, obviously distracted. “How’s your mate?”

His question refocused me, reminded me of the burn through the connection to my girl. Of the reason I had shifted and why my wolf had wanted to take back control. I took off without answering him, nearly ripping the back door off the hinges with my claw-tipped fingers. Fuck, I needed to get control of my beast, but I couldn’t focus on him right then.

“Lock!? Locklyn!”

No answer. The connection vibrated, the burn less but still there. Fur sprouted on my arms as I moved through the kitchen, but I fought against the shift. Sensing that I needed to find her in my human form. My wolf could kick some vampire ass once I knew our girl was okay. Until then, I needed two legs, not four.

“Where are they?” Cutter asked as soon as he came slinking into my kitchen, but I didn’t answer him. Couldn’t. My house reeked of vampires but also something else. Something familiar and yet completely out of place. I couldn’t take the time to figure out what, though, because the overwhelming smell of burned flesh had caught my nose, and my wolf refused to lose focus. I was both furious and terrified—what if we were too late? No, couldn’t be. That connection was alive, which meant Locklyn was as well. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt.

I raced through the rest of the kitchen and into the living room, pounding down the hall to the bedroom door. The closed bedroom door. I kicked the slab of wood open without a thought, snarling and growling with Cutter right by my side. Both of us ready to fight.

But the sight before me had me frozen in place, and the only thought that entered my mind came falling out of my mouth.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Locklyn

I stood in the house, listening to the horrific screeching coming from the backyard, and I wished for Flinch. Prayed he would make it to us in time. That he would both protect us and be protected from those things outside.

“Are you okay?” Zella stood near the bedroom door, looking far calmer than any person should, considering the situation.

“I’m okay. How are you?”

“So very not okay.” She spun as something crashed against the outside wall, her eyes going wide. “What are we going to do?”

I shook my head, feeling really stupid for not having an answer. “We wait for Flinch.”

“And if he doesn’t show up in time?”

I had no answer for that.

Because if the creatures out there somehow got inside…

We would be dead.

The screeching built, the rumble of growls soon added into the mix. The sound of wolves calmed me somewhat, made my fear more manageable. The louder the growling, the more I believed Flinch had arrived. And when I heard a slam and footsteps through the living room, I was absolutely certain he had come to rescue us.

I had never been so wrong.

---