Page 77 of Seduced By the Werewolves

I scream as blood sprays.

“Oops.” Leon tosses the dismembered arm away. “Don’t know my own strength.”

There’s another gunshot, but Jace has already bridged the gap to the man who fired, and the shot misses him. Jace grabs his victim by the waist and hurls him into the last man standing, the two of them colliding with a loud thump!

Beatrice’s face has gone from smug to utterly slack. Her eyes travel across the chaos, each of the brothers holding down one or more of her men. Then her gaze reaches me.

“Not quite the mouse I thought you were,” she says, a ghost of a smile tweaking her lips. “But you’re a reasonable woman, Ms. Dockett. Maybe we can find a middle ground.” It’s the first time I’ve heard uneasiness in her voice.

Eli stands tall, ready to pounce on her. I hold up a hand to him. She might have killed Mr. Bosley, but I don’t want any blood on my own hands.

“What sort of middle ground?” I ask.

“You don’t tell anyone about me,” Beatrice says, talking too fast. “You pretend you have no idea what happened to Orland. And you let us go.”

I arch my eyebrow. “That sounds like mostly favors to you,” I say, taking a step toward her. I come to Leon’s side, gesturing to his injured shoulder. “When you’ve already drawn blood.”

She shudders. “Right. Sorry about that.” She looks around at the four werewolves, then at her men groaning on the ground, one of them clutching his stump of an arm. “But you got what you wanted, didn’t you? It looks like everything worked out in your favor. Now just let me go, and I won’t come back here. I’ll tell my boss to leave you alone.”

I’m really tired of other people telling me what to do, then walking all over me and expecting me to simply tolerate it.

“Why should we let you leave?” I ask her, fury bubbling up inside me. “You came here and tried to kill us. And now you want mercy?”

Quinn snarls, all the hair on his body standing up on end. The wheels are turning in Beatrice’s mind as she realizes just how dire her situation is.

“Okay,” she says finally. “Okay. I’ll pay you, all right? Everything I owed Mr. Bosley, we’ll give it to you.” She gauges my reaction, but I keep my face carefully schooled. “And we could give you protection. I could get you a better job.”

But I don’t want any favors from this woman. I just want to be left alone, to live my life in peace.

“No.” I’m tired of this. “We’ll let you go. You won’t tell a single soul what you saw. You’ll give the payment to Mr. Bosley’s wife, you’ll scrub my name off everything, and I’ll send you the hospital bill.” I narrow my eyes at her. “And you won’t suck any other innocent people into your fucking schemes.”

Beatrice nods with relief. “Thank you.” She straightens her back. “It’s nice to see you stand up for yourself. I hope that continues.”

Carefully, Eli, Jace, and Quinn release their captives, but Leon looks ready to end the man he has pinned down.

“Let me kill one of them, Tiff,” he growls. “Just one. So they really don’t come back.”

The moon must be driving him to rage. I scratch behind his ear, and he leans into my hand.

“No.” I tug on his fur. “Leave him. She understands, and won’t ever show up here again.” I glance at Beatrice for confirmation.

“Yes, of course,” she agrees.

With a growl of disapproval, Leon relaxes his grip around the man’s throat and backs away. The one who lost his arm moans as the others help him to his feet. All of them stumble away into the woods, Beatrice giving me one last nod.

“I’m glad you found what you were looking for,” she says, glancing at each of my werewolves, then back at me. “Who knew.”

She follows her henchmen off into the darkness.

When she’s gone, I rush to examine Leon’s wound, all my adrenaline at last catching up to me.

“This isn’t good,” I mutter, pressing my hand to the bullet hole to staunch the bleeding. “We should take you to the hospital right now.”

He just turns and smiles at me. “Don’t worry, love. It’s a full moon. I’ll be fine.”

“Fine?! You were shot!”

Jace chuckles as he shrinks back down to his human form. “Really,” he says, pushing my hair back from my face and kissing me on the temple. “We’re more resilient than you think.”

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