Page 17 of Corbin
Corbin mentally sighed at the train wreck approaching. He stepped away from the water cooler to avoid damaging something Jaz had set up for them.
Looney bastard shook his warped head. Rust colored hair stuck out in short chunks as if he’d cut it himself with a dull axe. He mumbled angry words under his breath. Claws curled when he formed a fist.
Corbin took a quiet step back to slip away.
Badger’s gaze jerked to him. He pulled back his lips, showing off incisors now lengthening.
Damn. Corbin urged, “Stop it, Badger. Don’t be an idiot. Do youwantto die?”
Ares weighed in.Let me out. Crush stupid grin.Sick in the head. Put that one down. I need exercise. Fun, too.I fight them all.
Shut up, Ares, he sent back so he could think. Corbin had named his wolf Ares, aka the god of war, because Toxic Chatterbox was too kind.
Welcome to his screwed-up life stuck between two wackos.
Ares pounded his insides.Let me out. Let me out. Let me out!
Corbin warned his wolf,Keep talking, and I’ll let Badger’s wolf rip me apart before you can get out.
Ares clammed up.
That threat had been one of Corbin’s recent ways to stifle his wolf, but it wouldn’t work for long.
Ares growled and clawed at Corbin’s insides. Clenching his jaw, Corbin sent back,Stop it, asshole. Got a cracked rib that’s not healed. You could help with that.
Shift and heal,Ares smarted back.
No shifting or Adrian’s big red wolf will rip you into pieces.
Ares made a scoffing sound. Arrogant POS.
Corbin shut his wolf out to focus on one problem at a time. Why waste energy trying to explain that they were not the biggest predator here?
Ares had a deaf ego.
“Where ya going? Come out and play, pussy wolf,” Badger whispered in a creepy sing-song voice. He hunched forward as if in some strange attack mode.
Ares howled a murderous sound.
Corbin hissed at the pain in his ribs. Ares tried to break free again. Son of a bitch! Corbin twisted and clutched at his aching body.
Patience shredded, he yelled, “You want to fight a wolf, Badger? Then go rattle Adrian’s chain.”
Standing upright, Badger lifted his head. He stretched his neck to look past Corbin as if he hadn’t realized a shifter named Adrian was present.
Nodding, Badger headed in Adrian’s direction.
Corbin cursed his mouth for spewing a stupid suggestion. He could feel the restraints on his control snapping one at a time. Stinking sweat poured down his chest, cutting lines through dirt on his skin. He mentally dangled a shower in front of his nose as a carrot. For anyone who’d spent weeks at a time without one, the feel of hot water on his skin and scrubbing with a bar of soap in the pack bunkhouse ranked as a luxury.
An image of the water running red with his blood filled his head.
Nice vision, wolf.
Ares rumbled with discontent.
Badger growled and hunched his shoulders again, this time in a bodybuilder pose. Thick forearms curved toward his stomach, ending with hands enlarging to the size of cantaloupes clenched in white-knuckle-tight fists. Muscles bulged and rippled across his upper body. Jeans that had sagged on him weeks ago now clutched his bulky thighs.
Quiet fell over the training area.
