Page 1 of Altered

Chapter One

Lucky

May 13th

When I opened the door of Thirteenth Street tonight, I had unintentionally opened the door of my past. The anger that had consumed me when I saw that rat-bastard with his jeans around his ankles, and Hope's legs forced open was like none I'd ever felt before.

At first, I thought I was in the middle of the same ongoing nightmare that had hounded me for thirteen years.

The one where I walked in on my girlfriend two seconds too late.

The one where I walked in on her bleeding out on the floor.

The one where I took a life for the first time, then cradled Hayley in my arms while I waited for the cops to come and take me away.

The one where I was too late.

Always too late.

But this wasn’t a nightmare.

This was real.

And the woman lying on the floor wasn’t Hayley.

It wasHope.

Everything that happened after that, once my brain made the connection and separated the past from the present, was on raw, primal instinct.

A red haze swept through my heart, throwing me into a rage-induced frenzy.

Blood thirsty, my heart demanded revenge on the man pressing himself between my woman's legs.

Unable to form a coherent thought, I allowed my body to take over as I ripped him away from her, my black heart demanding justice, demanding this bastard suffer for touchingher.

My fists moved of their own accord as I pummeled into him until all that was left of his face was a bloody mass of flesh.

Her choked sobs only fed the beast inside of me.

The blood on her naked body pushed me closer to the brink of insanity.

The sound of bone crunching and splitting beneath my hands gave me no release.

It wasn’tenough.

Not enough by half.

That was when I noticed the knife, laying on the floor at her feet, splattered inherblood.

Without a word, I got to my feet, claimed the knife, and angled it in my hand, poised tokill.

Kneeling beside him, I waited for some sign of life.

He needed to see me.

I needed the bastard to know it wasme.

When his eyelids fluttered open, assuring me that he was still conscious, I began to slit him, temple to jaw.

---