Page 79 of Wolf Tamer

Julius stops abruptly on the spot Emily just stood, spinning around in hopes to find out where she might be. It’s almost as if she’s gone invisible, and just that has my stomach souring.

“What the—”

“Tasha, watch out!”

I whirl on my heel just in time to see Emily appearing out of thin air a foot away from me and the flash of a knife slashing down, aimed right for my heart.

A shadow cloaks us. There’s a flutter of incoming movement, and suddenly Julius squeezes himself between us just as Emily’s dagger buries into his chest instead.

ChapterTwenty-Five

Tasha

I’m screaming.

The horrified sound rips from my throat as the hilt of the dagger sticks straight out from Julius’s chest. Blood flows from the wound rapidly, staining his shirt dark red. The spot grows bigger by the second.

He stares down at the knife, both surprise and pain flitting across his face. He grunts, his skin paling, and drops to his knees. I fall beside him too.

“No!” Terror laces the word, my throat tight. As he collapses onto his side, I gently pull him into my lap. “No, no, no, no! Julius!”

His eyes roll to meet mine, his hand trembling as it reaches for me.

I don’t know what to do. I can’t let him die. I can’t.

“Fuck, Julius. Don’t you fucking die on me!”

And where is Reid? My pulse gallops frantically. He was supposed to be downstairs getting coffee for us. Not too far away. There’s no way he wouldn’t have heard the chaos upstairs and come running.

Something’s wrong.

I’m too distracted to hear anyone approaching from behind, but someone’s arm locks around my neck and yanks me back. As I fight and claw at my assailant, Julius’s frail form thuds onto the hard ground and his eyes drift closed. Blood begins to pool underneath his body, and my heart seizes.

Oh my god!

The moment the person behind me lets go of me, Mae sends a swift kick right to my gut. Pain explodes inside me, and acid burns up my esophagus as the need to vomit rises. Another sharp kick in the ribs, this one with her heel, and I crash into the floor.

Fury swirls within me. If I can manage to get back to my feet, knife or not, I’m going to kill her. Even if that means ripping her apart with my bare hands.

“Which brother is it you want, Tasha?” Mae taunts, her words piercing with her anger and disgust. She peers down at me with her lip curled. I can feel her hatred radiating off her from here. “I thought you were in love with the other one, the alpha. Now you’re crying for this one?”

“She does love me, and I’m not sharing.” The thunderous voice comes from our right, and every head whips that way to see Reid, as the powerhouse alpha he is, at the top of the stairs. Even though Reid’s shirt hangs off him in shred and blood paints his chest, hope flutters awake at the sight of him. “So back the fuck off.”

God dammit, I do love him.

I fuckingdo.

I spot Bullet, Darcy, Liam, and half a dozen other pack members in their wolf forms behind him, looking just as beat up and bloody. Looks like they’d had his own visitors downstairs. It explains why Reid hasn’t come up here earlier.

A howl tears through the air, and I whip around. More wolves spill out of the room, forming an impenetrable wall between me and Julius and the rest of the coven. Surrounding the witches.

“I’m going to give you one chance to leave with your lives,” Reid continues. “And one chance only.”

“We have just as much right to this land, to this magic, as you do,” Mae postures. “You think you can stop us?”

“I know that you and the rest of your cronies are sorely mistaken if you think you can come into my house, hurt my people, and not face my wrath. Emily—” He pauses and turns to her, expression turning icy. “You’ll die for everything you’ve done.”

“You’ll have to catch me first,” the young wolf snaps.

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