Page 75 of Found

A wolf suddenly lunges at me. I whip out of the way, snarling as the tips of his claws lacerate my shoulder.

Franklin.

His eyes glitter with fury, and it’s easy to imagine why.

He blames me for all this.

As we circle each other, I tune out the rest of the fighting, the snarling, and the distractions.

I just focus on Franklin.

He’s the reason Chris nearly died.

He dragged Aerin all this way, scared her, killed Shane right in front of her and left her terrified she was next.

No one treats my mate like that and lives.

Franklin lunges at me and again. I twist out of the way and I spring at him.

I slam into him, driving him to the ground.

We’re in close quarters. Too close to use my claws. I bite, go for his throat as he tries to evade my killing bite.

We wrestle and I slam into something. A wolf snarls. Fire burns along my back—an attack from behind I didn’t see so couldn’t avoid. I ignore it to focus on Franklin.

When I see an opening, I take it, biting down and holding on, as Franklin makes a last desperate, frantic attempt to break my killing bite.

Two seconds.

Three.

He slows his fighting.

Four.

Five.

He slumps to the ground as blood continues to fill my mouth.

I don’t move.

A familiar growl on my left just behind me breaks my focus.

I release Franklin, get to my feet and wince as I suddenly feel the cuts and wounds that adrenaline made it easy to ignore.

Franklin is dead.

He’s not the only one.

Small pockets of fighting continue, but most wolves are dead or dying. All appear to be Raleighs, but given I don’t know who these newly arrived shifters are, I could be wrong.

With no reason to stay a wolf, I shift and spend the next several minutes looking for my dad to get some much needed answers.

He’s busy dragging wolf bodies into one of the half-finished buildings, and he doesn’t have so much as a scratch on him.

“What are you doing?”

He drops the brown wolf on the ground. “Getting rid of the evidence. What do you think?”

---