Page 66 of Ruthless Moon

There’s a scuffle. Then the telltale clatter of metal on stone marking the fall of the firearm from Darcy’s hand. My muscles, rigid with tension, give a minute slackening, while Gen remains motionless in my hold.

“They’ve got him,” Aiden whispers at my side.

My arms tighten around Gen and my wolf rumbles deep in my chest before I can stop myself.Fuck. He won’t miss that.I turn my head slowly, meeting Aiden’s gaze.

He stares at me and then at the way Gen is curled into my body.

“Are they going to kill him?” I ask, praying the realization and hurt I see in his eyes isn’t true. He can’t say anything. He wouldn’t dare reveal our secret to Oliver. He wouldn’t put us in that danger, but I know he feels betrayed.

“Oliver is going to kill all of them and you need to do nothing. That’s an order.” His voice darkens, anger and pain lacing each syllable. He’s holding back, but the words still hit like a punch.

My body locks up, reacting to the weight of his demand. Gen wilts against me, letting out a small, breathless gasp.

“These people. They don’t—” My protest dies under Aiden’s icy stare. He gives his head a sharp shake.No.The brush of his alpha magick strikes my mind. It’s a stern reprimand, a leash snapping my wolf into line.

“I will not lose anyone in our pack to Oliver’s whim.”

I turn my head enough to see Oliver strip out of his clothes and transform into a giant white wolf. Several men hold Darcy, on his knees, his arms bent cruelly behind him.

Gasps from the caterers fill the room.

Oliver’s family and pack don’t move. Every wolf in the room is still, each anticipating the inevitable carnage.

With a violent lunge, Oliver descends upon Darcy, his animal form a blur of savage grace and lethal power. A guttural snarl fills the room, a terrifying crescendo of impending death.

My stomach twists, acid bile clawing up my throat as the gruesome cruelty unfolds.

I hang on to Gen.

Bury my nose in her hair to block out the bitter metallic smell of Darcy’s blood. I think of Gen’s laugh to distract myself from the terrified screams of a dying man.

Then, silence. But it’s a treacherous quiet.

The humans huddled in the room fail to comprehend the imminent danger. To Oliver, they are simply loose ends.

A muffled sob slips through the room, punctuating the silence.

Aiden and I move simultaneously, backing into a corner, hugging and shielding the women from the coming horror. Many others have moved from the table as well, quietly joining us.

My gaze swivels back to Oliver. He shifts back into his human form, nonchalantly wipes his bloody mouth with a napkin, then pulls on his slacks. The corners of his mouth twitch upward into a sinister smile. He’s in his element, a predator poised and eager.

He waves his hand over the quivering human figures in black and white. “Kill them all.” His order is curt, ruthless, and without emotion.

A dark chill races up my spine.

Chaos reigns again. Screams, raw and gut-wrenching, fill the room, until they are brutally snuffed out one by one. We should be helping. Protecting them. Doing something. He’s killing innocents.

Aiden meets my gaze and gives me a slight nod. A repeat of the previous order—stand down.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but I obey and follow him to stand to the side of the room and watch in disgusted silence along with everyone else who had been sitting at the table. No one moves against Oliver and his men.

Aiden reaches for Gen and I hesitate to obey, my wolf unwilling to give up control of our mate.

Aiden growls low and I reluctantly release her, watching him tuck her against his chest before Oliver or Dave starts paying attention to what I so fucking stupidly revealed to my alpha—my cousin, a man I consider as a brother.

The absence of her warmth sends ripples of unease through my wolf, setting my nerves alight in a wildfire of heightened tension. There’s no way to soothe the raw wound left in her wake.

We stand there, submerged in the ebb and flow of a ticking clock. The minutes crawl into an hour, every passing second a grain of sand, burying us deeper in this purgatory of silence.

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