Page 10 of Banishing Regrets

“Please,” Lynx got to her knees and begged him. “I don’t know what I did wrong. Please. I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll take the entire pack tonight, one-by-one, if that pleases you. It’s what I’m here for. I want to see you make the world a better place.”

Nuka laughed—it filled the hallway with its demonic sound. “Yet, you faked your orgasm.”

Lynx’s eyes went wide.

“I didn’t…” she began to protest, but he silenced her with a hard whack of his hand across her face. Her lip was bleeding when she next looked up at him, and he ran his finger over the cut before bringing the blood to his mouth, to lick off. “You were so special, Lynx. A woman I could have had at my side forever. Whores come and go, but you’ve always been with me. Not anymore, though.”

He pulled Lynx to her feet, and wrapping his hands around her neck, he squeezed.

“Please,” the feline gasped. “Please, Nuka, I’m sorry.”

“Too late for that. No one gets a second chance now. We’re too close to achieving our dream.” Nuka squeezed his fingers tighter around Lynx’s throat, the tender flesh bruising as she gasped for air. He looked directly into her eyes, the fading signs of life dwindling with each second that passed.

“Please,” she mouthed again, but it was too late.

A moment later, the snap came as her neck broke, and her life force died. He threw her to the floor. Her head lay at an awkward angle to the rest of her body.

“Let this be a lesson. No one disrespects me. Try it, and you’ll end up like her.” He stared at the eyes of his followers, all focused on him. No one blinked. “You,” he pointed to one of the guards. “Get rid of the body. Take it to the humans. Let’s give them something to play with.”

Nuka let out a bellowing laugh.

His point was made.

It was time to take the fight to his brother now.

Six

Kas had been sittingin his chair in the lounge for a few hours now, just staring out of the window. Reports were coming in from all corners of the world about battles between humans and shifters. Well, to be more accurate, attacks on shifters as none of the supernaturals, from what he’d heard, were fighting back.

The shifter council was working overtime to try to protect everyone, but they were failing badly because of the level of panic among the humans. It wasn’t just shifters who were being hurt, though. It saddened Kas to know that wild animals, even those that weren’t shifters, were was being hunted. Animals in zoos were being subjected to numerous tests to ensure they weren’t supernatural. It demonstrated the full depth of the humans’ misunderstanding and fear of them.

It made him furious but despairing at the same time.

Kas looked toward the door when it opened and Jane walked in. She paused and smiled at him before she bowed her head. “I’m sorry to disturb you. I’ll go elsewhere and leave you in peace.”

“No, stay,” he invited her in. “It’s all right. I’ve just been trying to take everything in for the last few hours. The world has descended into complete chaos in a blink of an eye.”

“It is scary. Brayden told me to come in here and watch the news. Apparently the humans have found something.” Jane walked over to the television in the corner of the room and turned it on at the wall. Kas was a stickler for not wasting electricity.

Kas’ stomach lurched at the sight on the screen.

Jane turned away horrified. “Oh my God,” she gasped.

Kas couldn’t take his eyes off the image as an autopsy was performed on the body of a young woman. He recognized her instantly. The humans had made no endeavor to cover her face. The cat shifter, who had lived with his brother, was being given none of the respect she deserved in death.

“How could they do that?” Jane stumbled over to him, her eyes filling with fresh tears.

She didn’t know who the shifter was, and Kas wasn’t about to tell her. She didn’t need to know that this was probably part of his brother’s plan. The headlines, which flashed across the live news broadcast, announced that the body was that of a shifter. Kas screwed his hands up in a ball, his knuckles turning white. The anger bubbled inside him as the human doctor dug into Lynx’s body and pulled out her organs. All of them were shown to the camera like this was normal. He suspected billions of humans were tuned in to watch this atrocity.

Vials of blood were tested by other scientists in the room. Samples were pulled in and out of microscopes and various other machines as the scientists explored the genetic makeup of the dead shifter.

How could his brother have subjected her to this?

Kas had always hoped there was still some compassion and humanity in Nuka, but these images proved his brother had none.

One of the doctors stepped forward, blood on his lab-coat, as a reporter thrust a microphone in front of him. Kas shut his eyes as he listened to the interview. He felt Jane reach out and wrap her fingers around his hand, and he gently squeezed her hand for reassurance. He opened his eyes to find her looking at him.

“I’m here for you.” She nodded at him.

---