Page 140 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

Not worried about him anymore, I turned my attention to find Llama back on his feet. He’d been trying to sneak up on me while I’d been preoccupied with Hyena.

His eyes widened, and he shook his head and raised his hands. "Look, I don’t mean to cause any trouble."

But that wasn’t the truth, according to the horrible stench swirling around. Everyone here had a darkness within them that told me otherwise. And, unlike Julius, they didn’t seem to have any redeeming sensibilities. They’d be after me again in a heartbeat. Hell, to be fair, Julius probably would be, too.

"Don’t be a damn pussy." Leftie climbed to his feet, his face red with either pain or rage. Most likely a combination of the two.

My natural instinct was to focus on Leftie, but Llama had proven he had no problem trying to attack me while I was preoccupied. Since he was pretending to surrender, I couldn’t force myself to kill him, but I could knock his ass out.

Using the element of surprise, I kicked at his head, forcing his body to spin hard to the ground.

Leftie said with disgust, "That asshole deserved it."

Not wanting to hear any more of his lip, I lowered my head and bulldozed him, past Julius—who was still shooting at Rosemary—and five feet away into the trees where Griffin and Killian were located.

Leftie tried to get a grip around my neck, but his hands slipped on the fresh blood. I picked up my pace and slammed his body into a tree trunk, and his arms jerked with an accompanyingcrack. When I stepped back, his body crumpled at my feet. I realized that I must have broken his neck, and his heart wasn’t beating any longer.

I spun back around to locate Twitcher, only to see him racing down the gravel road. One of the men dressed in black growled and shot at him, and he cried out as he fell.

"You know there is no escape," Bass Guitar yelled at him. "Now you’re going to wish you’d died."

I imagined they planned on beating the shit out of him, and God knew what else. No wonder the first bear shifter to kidnap me had killed himself that day.

Rosemary landed beside me, her twilight eyes filled with worry. She touched my fur, and her power entered me, but after a few seconds, she sighed with relief.

My heart raced with fear from her being here since she’d been fighting Julius. However, I could feel the connection stillbetween me and Julius, and I turned to find him lying still on the ground. My body tensed, then sagged with relief when I realized he was breathing.

She must have understood because she wiped the blood from her hands onto her pants and sighed. "I was told to protect the silver wolves no matter what."

She’d told me that before—and I realized it applied to Julius, too. The weight that lifted from my shoulders once I understood that told me I already cared about this man more than I should. The connection between uswasfamilial.

I nodded and focused on my next few targets. Once we eliminated them, we could get the hell out of here.

Rosemary ran next to me, pointing to the man on the far right, and gestured at herself. Then, she motioned at the one on the left and at me. The message was clear. We’d get the two on the outside, and Bass Guitar, who was in the center, was already hurt and not able to react quickly; because of his injured shoulder, he wouldn’t be able to train his gun in opposite directions, so when he turned to shoot at Rosemary, I could take his ass down. They wouldn’t shoot at me first since they were supposed to keep me alive.

Moving as quietly as possible, I trotted toward the man on the left. Of course, that was the moment that the breeze changed directions and blew my scent his way. He tensed and pivoted toward me. His attention flicked to the bodies that lay scattered around, and then to the angel who was about to attack his cohort.

"How the hell do you all keep doing this?" he asked, his voice thick with anger. "We were told if we couldn’t take you alive, we should kill you on the spot." He pulled out his gun and aimed it right at me. I pushed my legs, trying to reach him before he could fire.

The mixture of my parents’ scents invaded my senses…almost as if I was trying to remember them one last time before I died. Panic sank deep inside me and seeped through the bond connecting me and Julius. But that didn’t make sense. He was passed out behind me.

Griffin’s cry filled my ears as gunfire went crazy, and I linked to him.I love you.

Rosemary flapped toward me, her hand reaching out for me.

The sound of a gunshot echoed loud, and a flash of silver slammed into me as Julius’s voice popped into my head,No! She can’t die.

I landed hard, my breath knocked out of me by either the force of the impact or the fact that we had some sort of bond that now allowed him to mind-link with me. Julius held me down, his face set with pure determination.

Gunshots rang from Bass Guitar and his two friends, back in the direction of Griffin and the others. So, when Griffin reached my side and shoved Julius off me, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to be imagining him in my final moments alive—but I didn’t care as the mirage pulled me into his arms, tears running down his face.

Grateful to be with my mate, I focused on what had just happened between Julius and me.But how?I linked to Julius, even though my mind was reeling from everything else. I wasn’t sure what I was addressing—him saving me or talking in my mind. Our eyes locked as some sort of battle sprang up between us like our wolves were fighting to dominate one another.

Was it that important to him to get paid and hand me over to whoever had hired him?

It didn’t matter.

He’d soon regret saving me from that bullet…because our fight had just begun.

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