Page 85 of Wolf

No.

No.

“What do you mean, it was attacked?” Polo roared, stepping forward to grab Jax’s arm off me and drag himtowardhim.

“I mean it was fucking attacked! Those Black Jack bastards double-crossed us!” Jax yelled, breaking Polo’s hold on him as he shovedhimaway.

“You were supposed to be bloody looking after it!” Polo lunged forward, but before he could connect, Lamb stepped between them, Jasper grabbing a holdofPolo.

“I did fucking look after it!” Jax bellowed, and Lamb stepped forward to hold him back. “We protected them as best as we could, but they outnumbered us! It was a fuckingbloodbath.”

I heard Polo continue to snap back at Jax, but I wasn’t listening. My boots were moving, propelling me forward through the air as dense as water as I headed toward theopendoor.

I could see the bullet holes next to the hinges on the door, the black stains from explosives, and the splatters of blood along the side and floor before I even made itinside.

“Anna!” I yelled, my voice a sonic boom as I burst through the broken clubdoors.

I found my rampage stuttered as I was forced to face the clubroom. Everything wasn’t anywhere near broken; the entire room had been fucking obliterated. Holes filled the walls from floor to ceiling so much so I could hardly believe they were still standing. The pool table had a hundred pockets too many. Couches torn into like a rabid pack of dogs had mistaken it for prey. The wooden floors were in pieces as entire planks of floorboards had been ripped up and splintered into a thousand tiny pieces. The bar couldn’t even be called a bar anymore; every single bottle of alcohol was broken, spilling across the shelves, floor, andwalls.

“Wolf.” Jax’s voice caught me off guard, and I turned, spinning toward where my brother stood, red dripping through a hole in his shirt, now noticing the deep wound as his form cut through the afternoon, light sinking in through thedoorway.

He moved toward me, slightly out of breath as he fought the anemia from his wound exaggerated by his quick sprint after me, but he didn’t make it as a hand clamped down on his good shoulder and spun himaround.

“Mallory?” Hunter’s hoarse voice cut faster than mine as his chest panted in heavy, panicked breaths, eyes wide and dilated as they hung on Jax’s everymovement.

“She’s fine, brother,” Jax said, gripping his best friend tightly on the arm as he reassured him. “Few bruises, but she’s good. She’s with Charon’s doctor guy. The first room in the backwithAnna.”

WithAnna.

His slight comment made me almost buckle with relief as the warm heat burst through the apathetic cold that I hadn’t realized had completely taken me over since the second IsawJax.

“Jax.” Ripper stepped ahead of me, grabbing Jax by the shoulder opposite his wound so he could examine the hole. “You allright,man?”

“It’s fine. It was through and through,” he said, pushing Hunter aside, not breaking eye contact with me for asecond.

I couldn’t help the churning feeling in my stomach. The longer his dark eyes searched my face, the longer his mouth opened and shut for words, the longer his body stood rigid as he looked at me. “Listen,aboutAnna—”

“Jax!” Anna’s voice cracked like a whip acrosstheroom.

I spun, turning to see a figure of red as Anna was dripping head to toe in blood, staining her skin, clothes, and hair a thick, ruby red. I was brought back to the night she was stabbed, and my heart nearly stopped beating in my chest as the sheer volume of blood covering her told me it couldn’t possibly beallhers.

Her blue eyes cutting starkly through the smudge color on her skin made me immediatelyonedge.

Her red boots clicked slowly, one by one across the floor. Pools of blood on the floor and a few stains were the only things left to suggest any bodies once lay there. She didn’t bother to move her hair as the strands weighted in the dry blood fell in front of her face and eyes as she stared at each one of the brothers behind me, one by one, counting thenumbers.

I saw the moment she knew the numbers didn’t add up, because whatever little spark in her eyes that was left shut down, and I saw the steel walls I had just managed to knock down go slammingbackup.

My heart dropped, punctuated by each of Kay’s words as they replayed inmyhead.

It makes it difficult for her to open her heart, and she’s opened it up to you. Don’t abuse that, Wolf, because you won’t get a secondchance.

You won’t get a secondchance.

It was like watching my nightmare come true, a flood of fear and panic taking over my chest as I realized the horrible, horrible mistake Ihadmade.

“Anna—what are you doing?” I breathed, my voice sounding hollow in comparison to her nextwords.

“Hunter told me everything.” Her voice was quietbutfirm.

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