Page 55 of Depraved
I can guess why a psychotic alpha wants me.
But he left his rival alive, or at least didn’t kill him first, which would have been the smartest move, leaving only a beta and an omega. That can only mean Thomas has a plan for Black. A horrified shiver creeps down my spine, and my shoulders creep up near my ears.
I don’t want to know what that plan is.
Another bullet pings off the metal rack near me, diverting my thoughts from long-term schemes to the present deadly moment. Automatically, my eyes dart up to see the divot, which is angled downward. That’s when I realize that the shots are coming from above.
I lift my eyes.
Down at the far end of the warehouse is a window bigger than the rest with a fire-escape landing attached to it. This warehouse must have had a loft or second story at some point.
A shooter crouches on the fire escape, his dark silhouette marring the bright morning sunlight. I only see one man in a military stance, one knee down.
The shooter moves, standing and backing up, tilting his long AR-15 down the wall.
Black is directly beneath the window, his shield held overhead by a single claw.
Fuck.
As I watch with bated breath, Black uses his other claw to dig into the wall itself. And then he lifts his entire body and his shield, his feet drilling into the sheet metal and then his claw retreating, grabbing a spot further up. He climbs the side of the warehouse one-handed, shield still in place. He looks like fucking Beast from X-men.
Holy shit.
I didn’t know he could do that.
Awe cracks open something inside of me.
The shooter stands, tilting his gun down to get a better angle, and blast after blast rockets off Black’s shield.
Until one doesn’t.
One bullet makes it through and pierces his leg. He howls, and I watch his muscles tense for a moment before he forces himself upward faster, a red trail glazing his white fur.
My ears are ringing from all of the bullets, from the echoes in the room. But I can scent the moment the shooter’s confidence changes to fear.
A sickly sweet scent catches my attention just as Black gives a primal roar. It fills the entire warehouse, echoing off the metal, bouncing back and doubling.
My eyes widen as my alpha turns the sheet of metal he’s been using as a shield and launches it. He throws it like a boomerang or a chakram. It spins and smashes through the window, slamming into the shooter, who clearly didn’t expect Black to give up his only protection.
Black launches himself up through the window after his prey with an ape-like swing of his entire body.
The momentum flips as Black lifts the sheet metal he threw out the window from on top of the other shifter, who’s either too dazed or too injured to raise his weapon.
Black tosses the sheet over the railing and my alpha grabs the gun. It goes flying just as the metal lands with a wild twang.
Black’s claw closes over the other man’s neck and lifts until his feet dangle in the air. His hands scrabble at my alpha’s arms, but the monster he’s facing has no mercy.
Alpha Maddox growls into the shooter’s face. And then, with a sickening crack, the man’s head jerks sideways, and his limbs go limp.
That is so fucking brutal … And so hot.
16
BLACK
Rage pumpshard and fast in my veins, a primal need to kill more surging through me … and I have to resist the urge to sink my teeth into this dead shifter’s flesh and shake him.
Hunting. I need to hunt down anyone else who might be helping him. I need to protect Elena.
