Page 57 of My Girlfriend is a Werewolf

Bessie went from idling to moving. Grams’ head and shoulders peeked from the hatch in the top as she took aim with her rifle, rather than mowing them down with the mounted machine gun.

Pop. This time someone did yell as they fell from the bell tower. One sniper taken out, but that still left possibly one more and the patrolling guards, who took notice. They hid where they could and began shooting. No one came out of the church, though.

So Bessie went to them.

Crunch. The armored vehicle slammed into the wooden doors, and they tore open, along with part of the stonework. Grams had ducked back into Bessie, but that didn’t prevent her from firing with the mounted artillery.Tika-tika-tika. She shot at whoever she saw inside. Hopefully not innocents. Please not Athena. They had assumed them stashed in the basement, but what if they were wrong?

Too late now.

Hearing the bang of a gun followed by a grunt, he glanced at Ares. The man had a hand slapped to his shoulder. Blood seeped from under it.

“Fucker shot me.” With that, Ares took off running, and Derek cursed. He couldn’t leave the guy alone at the same time his grandparents were inside.

Within a bullet-proof truck. Shooting the bad guys.

Ares needed him more.

Derek sprinted around the truck. Of the man, there was no sign, unless the clothes on the ground, wreathed in a rising mist, counted.

The snarl preceded a high-pitched scream, and it took Derek only a second to pinpoint where and then gape. Despite the fog beginning to swirl, he saw the wolf that savaged a man on the ground.

A big fucking wolf.

Like, huge.

Fuck.

Me.

He’s.

A.

Werewolf.

Hearing Ares claim it and seeing it? Two different things. It also drove home how important it was to get Athena and her family out of here.

The wolf swung his head and yipped.

While Derek didn’t speak canine, it didn’t take much to guess what he said.

Get your ass inside and free them.

So much for them going together. Then again, if Ares kept the mercs busy outside, then that was less for Derek to deal with inside the church.

A gun fired, and a bullet dug into the ground by Ares. The wolf sprinted in the direction it came from, the mist swallowing his shape. Derek ran for the church, where weapons still fired.

He slipped in through the opening Bessie created, hugging the side, the settling dust helping to conceal his arrival. The lights strung from the vaulted ceiling showed more people inside than predicted. He counted five bodies and at least a dozen more shooting just on this floor. What did that leave in the basement? Didn’t matter. He still had to go.

Unlike his grandparents, Derek had a revolver, not a rifle, wanting the smaller maneuverability of the weapon especially in close range. While not a sharpshooter like his Grams, he could hit what he aimed at.

His hand was steadier than expected as he gripped the gun. He’d expected to be nervous. Even a bit afraid. After all, this wasn’t a fisticuff situation where both parties would walk away. These guys were shooting to kill. If he didn’t do the same, he’d die and then Athena, her family, and his family were fucked.

He inched around the outer edge of the room, the dust in the air making it hard to see much. The images they’d studied of the church, with its rotting pews and faded frescoes on the wall didn’t resemble the current space. The whole main floor had been cleared for desks and machines. Medical devices, he surmised, seeing some holding vials. The lights on them blinked, motors whirred, and something kept beeping.

There were computers too, the keyboards and their monitors abandoned, most likely when the shooting started.

He saw one woman face down on the floor, shivering in her white coat. Not a mercenary. Just someone working for Rogers. As he crept past, she turned her head and saw him. Her eyes widened.

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