Page 53 of Promise & Artem

He took a step toward her and one of the males grabbed him around the neck and pulled backward with all his weight, toppling Artem off his hooves. He bellowed in alarm, flailing as he landed hard on top of the male who didn’t get out of the way fast enough.

He rolled to his side and saw a solid black wolf sail through the air, teeth gleaming as her jaws were opened wide. She sank her teeth into Nero’s left shoulder and scraped her claws down his abdomen.

He screamed in pain and fell to the ground, but Promise didn’t let go, she growled and worked her claws and fangs deeper into him.

The sound of rushing feet brought his friends and family into the area. Artem jerked to his feet and bounded toward his mate and Nero.

The male who’d come for them and tried to take his mate again, was screaming and shaking, paralyzed by the venom of Promise’s apex nature.

Promise extracted her jaws from his shoulder and jumped aside as Artem grasped Nero’s head and twisted sharply, ending his life.

It was too good for him.

Too fast.

But it was over.

Promise lifted her muzzle in the air and howled, the sound echoing through the woods as the distant whine of sirens grew closer. Then she leaped into his arms and he turned to check on the males who’d come with Nero.

They were all either unconscious or unable to get away.

“Get your mate to safety, we’ve got this,” his dad said.

Artem looked at Nero’s body.

His dad came over and put his hand on his shoulder. “You can talk to the police after you’re out of your shifts. She’s a wolf and you’re a minotaur. You’re going to freak out the humans. Mom’s at the house, you can go there.”

With a nod, Artem jogged away, Promise in his arms.

First, Promise had been too keyed up to sleep.

Now she was too keyed up to shift back to human, even though she’d been in her shift for almost four hours.

She was pacing in Artem’s parents’ house while the police and fire department were dealing with the fire and injured people.

And the one dead guy.

She was absolutely not sorry for her part in his death.

He deserved a lot worse than he got.

Artem had shifted back an hour after they’d shown up at his parents’ house. He’d dressed in his dad’s clothes and sat on the couch while she slept fitfully and ended up just pacing and hoping she’d shift soon.

She had no idea when that would happen, though.

She’d never had this problem.

Artem dropped to his knees in front of her as she turned to keep pacing from one side of their family room to the other.

He cupped her head and kissed her nose. “You’re so beautiful. I love your fur, it’s the coolest color.”

She hummed at the praise.

He was pretty dang awesome in his shift too.

He ran his thumbs over her cheeks a few times and then said, “I’m going to tell you this when you’re human too, but I wanted to tell you that I love you. I fucking love you so much. I don’t care that it’s only been a few days, you’re the other half of my heart.” His eyes got bright and he cleared his throat. “The day you were taken, I was going to ask you to marry me on our date and tell you that I loved you then. Of course all the plans went to hell and then it’s been one long nightmare ever since. But it’s finally over. We can breathe easier now knowing that the threat to our future is dead and you and I are both safe. No more underground fighting league. No male who wants to use your healing powers for his own purposes. Just you and me, and the future. So when you get back to human, I’m going to tell you I love you again and ask you to be my wife, but I didn’t want to wait another second.”

Her heart swelled as the love she had been feeling for him overflowed.

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