Page 2 of Catch a Tiger

“Just in case,” she whispered, grabbing his hair and pulling his head up so it was level with hers. “Can’t have him putting you back together now, can I?”

Still nothing.

He was really gone, just like everything else.

“Your blade and wings are mine now.” She tilted her head as she stared into those burnt cavities, curious why they’d been so green…like the eyes that haunted the dreams she forgot but never forgot her. “You didn’t deserve them anyway, did you?”

Tossing the head away from her, she swooped down and yanked her blade made of stars out of his chest, one in each hand now.

Minutes passed before the sounds of winter pushed through the blood pumping so loudly in her head that she couldn’t hear anything else.

Then there was nothing but insulated silence that always made her remember why she stayed here in this cursed place. The melody of the universe was unlike anything she could ever describe, but it was soothing and sweet andviciousand chaotic—all at once.

It reminded her of the music she heard sometimes, off in the distance, when humans visited her evergreen sea to writhe in giant masses to a melody like they were one step away from death at all times.

They were like fire and blood – visceral.

Vanishing both the blades, she pressed her foot to his back and grabbed the base of the wings protruding out of his shoulders beforeripping.

The sound was like pulling her foot out of mud. So oddly satisfying to hear that suction finally release.

Blood poured from her hands as the feathers cut into them, but she didn’t let go, watching as it seeped into the soil to curse this place all the way down to the depths of hell.

“Finders keepers,” she whispered, giving the head a wink.

She was heading for her den before she remembered—she’d always been bad at remembering things.

“Oh, he gave me the name of a warrior.” Glancing back over her shoulder at the ravaged body and blood-red snow, shewondered. Was this enough to get his attention? Probably not. “He named me Tauriel. Interesting choice, isn’t it?”

Angel of the forest.

Then she was walking through the endless wilderness, full of the saddest trees to ever exist, wailing as she passed like they wanted to echo her own pain back to her over and over andoverso she couldn’t forget.

She was used to it by now and she hummed along with the melody of their lamenting as those wings dragged along the ground behind her, slicing through the snow and soil like the weapons they were.

A ghost was what she was – one hell bound and bent on blood.

But not even hell would claim her.

So, she would tend her gardens of death until someone finally did.

Until then, she was nothing but a wraith of chaos and pain.

Chapter 2

Samuel

He needed to find his mate or he was going to lose everything, and Samuel hadn’t come this far tolose.

“I can handle it, I promise,” Rune crooned, his hands wrapped around the hell-forged bars of his prison. “Let me out, Sammy.”

He stared at his third and wished he could believe him.

“Sammy, let me out of this fucking cage!” Rune snarled, slamming his whole body into the hell-forged iron to no avail. All it accomplished was the shattering of bones. “Please, Alpha. Let me out.”

Ancient instincts pulsed through him, but Samuel ignored them and tried not to focus too hard on the crippling pain in his heart as he watched the man he loved fall to pieces in front of him.

The last fucking thing on this planet he wanted was a mate, but it might be the only thing to save Rune from this madness.

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