Page 56 of Warlander Beast Cat

“What’s happening?” Lucia demanded. “Something’s not right.”

“It’s Kru!” Cadence hated the tremble in her shriek.

The line went silent. “Lucia?”

“Do you have Landon?”

“What?” Cadence demanded. Out of all the responses Lucia could’ve had, that wasn’t one Cadence would’ve guessed.

“How far away are you?”

“Fifteen minutes!”

“Fuck. Okay, I’m heading there. Landon will have supplies. It’s blood!”

“What?”

“I see blood!” Lucia screamed. Click.

Tears of fury and fear burned her eyes. She connected a call to Gunner. No answer. It went to voicemail. “Hey, you know what to do after the beep. If I don’t give a fuck about you, I won’t call you back. Maybe hold your breath.”

“Hey Gunner,” she said, voice shaking with worry and rage. “If something happens to Kru, I’m going to kill you. Do you understand? I’m going to fucking kill you!” The last part came out as a shriek, and then she hung up.

He would hear the truth in her voice.

“Hold on, Kru,” she pleaded softly as she hit the accelerator on a straightaway.

Chapter Ten

It was bad.

Kru slammed his head back on the floor and gritted his teeth. It wasn’t right. “It isn’t right!” he gritted out, closing his eyes tightly against the pain.

His body was wrecked. Worst he’d ever faced, and for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why his animal had forced him to come back here. He groaned as another wave of pain racked his broken body.

He’d just found her. He’d just found Cadence. Sure, he’d known her for a while, but he’d just broken down his walls for her.

Fucking Gunner.

He coughed, and blood pooled on the floor near his mouth. It was bad.

Get here in time, he prayed.

His phone was a few feet out of reach, and he couldn’t text anymore. He couldn’t do anything but try to last.

Fuck, he wanted her to be here.

Kru slammed his fist onto the floor and yelled out in pain. If his animal was struggling this much to heal, it was bad. It was so bad.

He rolled to his back and squeezed his eyes closed at the agony, then rolled his head and stared at the spot where he’d taken Cadence’s body last night.

It wasn’t right.

Get here in time.

He squeezed his eyes closed again and gritted his teeth, curled in on himself as another wave of agony consumed him.

The door opened, but it wasn’t Cadence. He must’ve been dreaming. Or perhaps he was dead already. Saturated sunlight blinded him as a figure knelt beside him, setting down a large box.

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