Page 159 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

He moves to go. “Look, I need to warn the family. We’ll be going dark for a while.”

“So that’s it? You know what this demon showing up means, and you want to run with your tail between your legs? Nice. I suppose that’s what people like you do,” Jax tells him, still looking for a fight.

Cillian snarls at him. “Wolves are not known to run from anything, boy.”

Jax’s chuckle is dark. “Not wolves. People like you. People that are nothing but weak and pathetic. You’re a coward. A spineless piece of shit that should be wiped out. A fucking waste of space that taints the air we all breathe.”

Cillian is livid, his body vibrating as he seethes. He takes a step forward but stops. One look at the rest of us and he knows he doesn’t stand a chance.

“It isn’t my fight,” he grits out.

“It’s everyone’s fight,” Jax tells him.

“Not this time,” Cillian says.

“Good to know where your priorities lie, Uncle.”

“We’re not family, boy. Not since you were both born abominations. If it were up to me, I would’ve gotten rid of you the moment I found out what you were; slit your throats and be done with it. You are filth, the lot of you. And you all deserve to burn in hell.”

I move forward, seeing nothing but red. Grabbing him

by his throat, I slam him into the wall, slowly dragging him up it and holding him there as my grip tightens.

My hound pushes forward, demanding we teach him some respect. For daring to insult our family.

When I speak, I’m far more beast than man. “They call us monsters, but it’s people like you who should have that name. People who torture and break apart little kids.” My body expands, my other hound slipping forward with interest.

“Stop. Please,” Luka begs, his voice small, halting me and my beasts.

Jax had told me how Luka still feels like he owes Cillian for trying to help him. That, on some level, Luka still feels that there is something wrong with him. But the only thing wrong with him is what Cillian did.

Cillian tainted everything that’s good about him. What should have been celebrated was turned into something that should be shamed and hidden.

He got into Luka’s head long ago and brainwashed him into believing that being a shadow wolf was an abomination that should never exist.

Shadow wolves are extremely rare, so much so that Luka and Jax are the only ones I’ve come across. Being a shadow wolf makes them different but also fucking powerful. And no matter what we say or do, we haven’t been able to make him see that.

We are all different… unique from our kind, but the connection we share with our beasts don’t make us freaks, it makes us threats to watch out for.

“Please,” Luka says, breaking through the haze of rage.

The seed of doubt that Luka has, thinking he isn’t normal or should exist, will always be there, thanks to the bastard in front of me. For that alone, I want to snap his neck, but I will never put my own wants above that of my family.

Pulling both of my hounds back, I reluctantly drop him to the ground.

Cillian chokes and splutters. A large, red imprint of my hand burned into his throat. “I’ll… have your… alpha position… for this. You’re all abominations that should never have been allowed to run this city.”

Rion swiftly moves around me. Grabbing him by the collar, he leans into his face.

“If you ever dare speak of my family with such disrespect again, I will personally hunt down you and every one of your kin. You won’t see me coming, none of you will. But when I do, I’ll make sure to leave you until the very end, so I can take my time with you. I’ll make you beg for death while slowly destroying every last piece of you, leaving you unrecognizable.”

Rion shoves him toward the door. “Go. Now. Before we change our minds and gut you like the spineless prey you are.”

Cillian scurries backwards, stumbling on his way out. I hear the ping of the elevator as he gets in, then the door closes behind him. My hound inches forward, itching to go after him, to hunt him down and make him bleed.

“You’re just going to let him leave?” Axel looks at us like we’re crazy.

“For now,” I tell him, barely holding on and wanting to make him pay myself.

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