Page 9 of August

“Let me leave. I’ll just disappear.”

“That’s not good enough,” he said.

“Please. You already killed my whole family for him. Don’t kill me too.”

“We’re not going to kill you,” Diedrich said. “Your grandfather prefers to deliver the killing blow himself.”

For the briefest of moments, she wondered what would have happened if she’d run to that big male in the employee parking lot of the park and asked for help. Maybe he would have swept her up into his strong arms and taken her somewhere safe, and maybe he would have been able to keep her safe forever.

She wanted him to be safe, but damn it, right now she wanted to be safe too. And there was no safety in these woods, surrounded by males who thought nothing of her life and blindly obeyed an unhinged monster.

She was too scared to shift, too exhausted to run and outnumbered to boot.

This was the end of the road for her.

I hope you have a good life, sexy male.

Closing her eyes, she waited to be taken captive and led to her death.

August couldn’t stop his gorilla from coming out. He managed to get out of his jeans and boots before his huge form took over, shredding his shirt and making him dizzy for a moment with the swiftness of the shift.

He didn’t think he’d ever shifted so fast, but he knew his soulmate was in trouble.

They’d found the park SUV abandoned on the side of the road along with two other vehicles both smelling of jackals.

He lifted his head and inhaled deeply, finding her lush scent in the air.

With a soft hoot at Jupiter and the others, he loped away, swinging himself up into the trees and leaping from tree to tree.

He reached his soulmate in no time, coming to a stop in a tree overhead, and watching silently as she stood surrounded by a handful of males.

She begged to be let go, her voice wavering with fear.

They were going to take her to her grandfather who planned to kill her himself.

He couldn’t imagine how crazy the male was to plan something so horrific, but he’d already killed a handful of people in his quest to remain alpha, so what was one more? The problem was that “one more” person was August’s soulmate, and he wasn’t about to let her be taken from him.

The male speaking to her seemed to be in charge, so August narrowed his gaze at him and leaped.

The air whooshed around him as he fell silently toward the jackal. The male looked up at the last second and managed to avoid behind crushed under August’s full weight, but he did grab his arm and take him down, rolling him underneath himself.

August roared in his face, leaning heavily on his chest until there was a crack.

The male grunted and snarled, his fangs extending.

August made a fist and thumped the male on the head, rendering him unconscious. He moved off him and turned to Ginny, who stood, eyes squeezed tightly shut and body trembling, in the midst of August’s friends battling with the other jackals. August was the only one who had shifted, but that didn’t mean his friends were slouches in the fierceness department. The jackals were swiftly beaten into submission, running away and taking their unconscious friend with them.

August approached Ginny slowly, sitting in front of her.

He knew he was intimidating, but he hoped she realized he didn’t mean her any harm.

He hooted softly.

She jolted and let out a little whimper. Then she opened one eye just a fraction.

He raised his brows and hooted again. It would be awesome if he could talk in his shift, but that simply wasn’t possible.

“Ginny?” Lucius, one of the lions, said. “That’s August. You’re safe now.”

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