Page 1 of The Kill

1

MANDY

From my hiding spot, I see Blake approach from one side and Tyson, his long-lost half-brother, sauntering casually into the clearing from the other.

The second Tyson steps into a shard of light splitting through the canopy of leaves overhead, I know.

It’s him.

“Couldn’t face meeting me alone?” Tyson taunts his brother.

His tone is condescending, but, to me, his voice sounds like liquid. I’ve heard it in my dreams for sixteen years. Trying not to reveal myself, I wait, needing to hear what he has to say.

He looks terrible.

Still devastatingly handsome, with strong features and an intense aura I can feel from here, but the red glow to his eyes gives away the darker side he now possesses. Part vampire, part wolf; he’s a dangerous combination wrapped-up in a mysterious package.

I’ve often wondered what happened to him, whether he died, as I had suspected, at the hands of my former pack. Something bad clearly happened to him; but still, that uncanny need to be close to him makes me restless.

I want to run to him.

He asked for me. Does that mean he’s thought about me, too? Has he felt the same strange longing? Or is he just calling in a debt I’ve owed him for sixteen years?

Raiden is here, the powerful witch’s presence giving me some comfort that if he means me harm, she’ll see it. A vision would be useful right about now, if she could provide a clue about exactly what he wants.

Ignoring the sheen of sweat already glistening on his ripped body, I focus on his words.

“Where’s Mandy?”

I crouch lower in the slow-moving water. It’s a perfect, if cold, way to hide my scent while I eavesdrop on the meeting I should have been invited to attend.

“At home. Where she belongs. I will not hand over a member of my pack to you. You know that. No real alpha would.”

Blake would never have forced me to come, but he doesn’t know that I trusted this man once before, and, perhaps naively, have no qualms about doing it again. Especially if it prevents conflict for the Steel Pack, who so generously took us in.

“She does not need protecting from me,” he snarls. “I will not hurt her or the boy.”

Tyson’s voice is sharp with anger, genuinely insulted that Blake would suggest he’s out to harm me. Looking as though he might leap across the stream between them, Tyson’s jaw clenches and the veins in his neck bulge.

“Then what do you want with her?”

Blake’s wondering the very same thing as me, except Blake suspects it’s something negative. I’m certain it’s not.

Tyson blinks, refusing to give Blake the answers he wants. When a small smile appears on his handsome face, I feel sick. I’ve seen that look once before. It means trouble.

“I gave you a chance to end this peacefully. You keep your pack, and I get what I want. Maybe it’s better this way, because when I kill you, I’ll get it all. Including your beautiful mate,” he goads and I put my face in my hands, knowing what’s going to happen next, even before he adds the icing on the lets-make-the-alpha-feral cake: “Don’t worry, little brother. If she’s with pup, I’ll raise it as my own.”

Fear strangles me as the two alphas clash, Tyson’s words getting the desired reaction from the normally calm Alpha Blake Steel. My chest is tight as I watch the two of them battling to get the upper hand.

Tyson uses his speed to get around Blake, about to attack, when Raiden fires a bolt of lightning toward him. A horrified gasp tumbles from my mouth before I can stop it, drowned out by the sound of growling and snarling.

Relieved he’s not hurt, I frown when I see a leather strap tumble from his paw onto the forest floor.

“No cheating,” Raiden warns, amazingly brave in the face of Tyson’s hostile glare.

The fighting resumes, growing more and more brutal.

I can’t seem to tear my eyes away, even though it physically pains me to see my alpha and Tyson inflicting damage on the other. Unsure what to do, the scent of Tyson’s blood carries to me on a breeze, and everything finally clicks into place.

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