Page 2 of Wolf Tamer

A female’s voice captures my attention, and my head swivels just in time to see Emily, naked and back in her human form, swinging a cast-iron skillet at me. She brings the thing down in a heavy blow to my shoulder, and I cry out as pain explodes. I scramble back, limping with every step, unable to hold my weight up anymore.

Cheap fucking move.

Pan raised, she comes for me again, swinging it wildly. I do my best to dodge, but with my shattered shoulder, she’s able to land another blow to my ribs. The air is punched from my lungs, and I gasp and sputter my next breath.

“Why won’t you justdie?” Emily screams, her eyes wide with rage. She grips the skillet tightly, prepared to hit me again.

I can’t answer her as a wolf, and if I could, I’d tell her just what she could do with that pan. Like shove it where the sun don’t shine. She’s going to regret using it on me.

“Die, Holden!”

This time, when she whirls it on me, I duck and then headbutt her in the stomach. She falls onto her ass, and the moment I see my opening, I chomp on her wrist, snapping bone. Her shriek and the bang of the skillet hitting tile fills the air.

It’s too soon for me to celebrate my victory. Crane leaps onto my back, grabbing the scruff of my neck and swinging me away from Emily. My heartbeat falters.

I howl as I struggle to shake him off. I refuse to give up. Curling in, I throw my body into a roll. Pain slices through me as he tries to hold on, but I manage to get out of his grasp. Then, I jolt forward and soon we’re both on the floor, with me driving him to the tile again and slamming my head into his face so hard that he yelps.

Thrashing beneath me, fighting back for all he’s worth, Crane attempts to kick me while Emily cowers on the floor. I don’t need to look to know tears are streaming down her face. I hear it clearly enough in her sobs.

An agonized whimper rattles through Crane, even though I maintain my position on top of him.

Now it’s time to show them how I won the alpha title.

Crane snarls, knowing what’s coming, but I wrap my jaws around his neck and bury my teeth into the flesh and muscles. Wrenching, blood fills my mouth as his neck snaps.

He goes limp instantly, the whimpering and movement stopping.

Dead.

It’s done.

I hurl the wolf aside with a furious cry that forces Emily to lunge away to avoid the body. A strangled croak of fury and grief rips from her throat as she throws herself over him. Tears stream down her cheeks.

“You’re never going to win,” she shouts. “I hope you know that.”

Forcing my wolf aside, I let the power of the shift push through me. It isn’t long before I’m a man again, but when I try to stand, it’s a struggle to regain my balance through the pain. I refuse to show it, though, and so I pull back my shoulders and stare down at her with narrowed eyes.

Hopefully she’ll remember this moment. Remember watching the monster who leads this house dispatch any who choose to stand in his way. Family, friends—anyone.

My father would be proud. The thought pinches at me in a conflicting, fucked-up way.

She stares back at me with just as much hatred as before. But there’s fear too. “You’re never going to win—” Emily breaks off with a wheeze, taunting me the way she always taunted Tasha. “And your little whore will pay right along with you.”

Just hearing her utter Tasha’s name raises the beast inside me again, wanting to protect its mate at all costs.

I see her despite the way she tried to hide from me. A dangerous smile tugs at my lips, and although I’m struggling to breathe, I refuse to back down from her. I stand up straighter yet, approaching her while she continues to laugh.

“What do you know?” I press.

“I know your woman will be dead soon. I know you’ll never be fast enough to stop it.”

I watch Emily use the windowsill to rise. Her legs tremble, knees knocking together, her skin stretched tight over her bones.

“Just you wait,” she finishes. Her eyes clash with unyielding determination, the same kind I laud in myself. “You’re going to get what’s coming to you.”

And despite the wound I thought would slow her down, she bolts past me. I’m a hair too late to grab her as she rushes to the back door and darts outside.

My muscles bunch with the effort of trying to go after her, but I barely make it three steps before the pain takes me down. Collapsing on my side, I watch her until she’s nothing more than a blurry outline in the dark.

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