Page 48 of Shadow Bound

It’s him.

“Noah?” I utter his name, but it still doesn’t feel real. But as I take in the man that had been my pack’s beta for almost my whole life, I feel my world turn on its axis. Noah was the police chief of my town, a stringent rule-follower by nature. His whole life had been dedicated to protecting people, but now he’s out here slaughtering innocent girls.

I knew he was in pain after his mate Addison died at the end of December last year, but I never would have assumed he was in so much pain he had turned into aserial killer.

What the fuck!

He’s always had a thick auburn beard, but it doesn’t look like it’s been maintained as well as it used to. His eyes that were always warm and kind, have a wild, borderline, insane look about them. He’s always been a big guy, worked out heavily, but it looks like he’s been bulking for the past ten months. He looks like he could rival Ryker, who is also pure, bulky muscle.

Isabeau’s head snaps in my direction, confusion crossing her hauntingly beautiful features. Noah uses her moment of distraction to his advantage and hops back to his feet with shocking agility. His large hand swipes out, knocking one of the blades out of her hand.

Her attention returns to him. Baring her fangs, she goes at him again. In quick succession, she slams her empty hand, now formed into a fist, into his sternum. As he gasps for air, her hand that still holds a blade slashes at his head. He hollers in pain, his hand clutching the left side of his face.

Isabeau’s face almost lights up with glee when blood begins to run down his cheek. This is the side of her that she warned me about—the part of her that enjoys the bloodshed. She lunges again, this time her leather boot-clad foot strikes his ribs.

My heart stops in my chest when Noah’s hand wraps around her ankle before her foot can connect. With an angry roar, he throws her body at the trees behind him. My wolf snarls and claws to be let free when the sound of her body connecting with the bark of the tree trunk echoes through the ravine. She doesn’t make a sound of pain nor does she take longer than half a second to regroup herself.

Having lost her other knife when she hit the tree, she scrambles on her hands and knees toward where it lies a few feet away from her. Noah stalks up behind her, grabbing hold of her leg he yanks her back toward him, dragging her on her stomach backward. Twisting in his hold onto her back, with her free leg she blasts his chest with the sole of her boot.

While he recovers from the hit, she runs for her knife. She just barely gets her slender fingers around the hilt before Noah is back on her. This time, he’s not messing around. His large hand wraps around her, pulling her back to his front. He pulls a silver blade from his pocket and holds it to her neck. Silver and vampires don’t mix. That is one thing horror movies got right. I don’t know how sensitive she is to the metal given her fae genetics, but I’m not about to risk it.

I’m not sure I’m even breathing anymore as she stills in his hold, fully aware of the danger of fighting him now.

My eyes flash into their wolf form and my claws dig into my palms as I clench my fists into balls at my side. I feel blood pool in my hands from my self-inflicted wounds, but I don’t feel the bite of pain. No, all I can focus on is Noah’s knife pressed to my girl.

My girl?

Yeah, my fucking girl.

“Noah, don’t you fucking hurt her,” I snarl my warning, my chest vibrating with anger.

Noah chuckles, the sound anything but humorous. “Oh Ransom, youfool. You had to go and fall for avampire.” He shakes his head in disappointment, his knife digging into her flesh. I can smell her blood from here, knowing he’s broken her creamy skin only fuels my anger. “Don’t you know that falling for someone is a mistake? It will only end in heartbreak. One of you will die before the other one—my money is on her—she has more enemies than you, after all. And once she’s gone, you’ll feel the pain thatI’vefelt for the past ten months. Let me save you from feeling that pain. Just like I’ve saved those girls from feeling this pain—they’ll never know what it feels like to lose their mate. I saved them.” He grips Beau tighter. “I’ll end her now for you before you do something foolish like bond with her.”

Unease and dread pool in my stomach. The man that was once so stoic and strong stands before me a complete stranger.A fucking whack job.

“Noah, what thehellare you doing? This isn’t you.”

His eyes shift to his wolf form, glowing bright amber. “This is exactly who I am now. The person you knew died when my mate took her last breath. This” —he waves his free hand over his body— “is all that’s left. I’m fueled by anger and vengeance. And I’m well on my way to getting it.”

“Vengeance on who exactly?” Isabeau questions with an annoyed huff. Her face is devoid of any emotions, that bored mask she wears firmly in place. Only she could have a knife on her throat and look completely unbothered. One wrong move, and he’ll slice open her jugular, but she looks like she’s been forced to watch an uninteresting school lecture.

Blood from the cut Isabeau gave him runs down his face and neck, giving him a true serial killer look about him. “I have a few people in mind.” His eyes cut to mine, an unreadable look in them. “You’ve figured out I’ve gotten some help with my crusade as of late. She’s a stone-cold bitch, but I don’t have to like her. I keep up my end of the deal and she’ll keep hers.”

“Nessa,” Beau hisses.

“I’ve heard all about the trouble you’ve caused, Isabeau.” He grins widely. “Nessa has big plans for you.” Noah runs a blooded finger down Beau’s face, leaving a streak across her porcelain skin. “You look so much like her you know.” He whispers into her ear, but I’m still able to pick it up. “That mama of yours—something is really wrong with her, but we have something in common.”

Mama?

If I wasn’t vibrating with anger, I’d be frozen in shock. Nessa is Isabeau’smother?

“You’re both psychotic killers?” Isabeau offers flippantly, not even acknowledging Noah’s comment on her origin.

“No.” Noah shakes his head. “We’ve both lost the one person in this world that was meant for us. We now have to walk the earth alone. She’s driven by revenge too—you know that, right? She wants revenge on the people that took her mate just like I want revenge on the people who stole mine from me.” Noah’s voice doesn’t even sound like it usually does, there is a tinge of mania in his tone.

“Noah,cancertook Addison,” I try to reason, not understanding who on earth he could possibly be blaming for her death. The cancer was terminal, she elected to refuse treatment because it would have only made her sicker in the long run and the chances of it actually saving her were less than one percent. “She chose to live out the rest of her days with you. No onetookher from you.”

An animalistic snarl rips through the air. “Shecould have saved her, but she refused to.”

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