Page 47 of 3 Shifters to Break a Curse

He kicked the guy, over and over again. There was no way he was going to walk out of that parking lot once Ezra was done.

Ezra joined me and Rin at the door of the gas station. We stared at Jared as he slowly climbed to his feet. When he faced us again, he smiled a mouthful of blood.

“Let that be a lesson to you,” I said. “Leave now, and never come back.”

Jared acted like he wasn’t going to move. Then Rin shifted and chased the man down, forcing him into Toni’s car. The tires squealed as he zoomed out of the parking lot, and his headlights faded over the hill between the mountains seconds later.

“Good fucking riddance,” Ezra growled out.

I walked inside, headed around the counter, and then pulled my sister into a big hug. “Are you okay?”

Ezra and Rin stepped inside.

“I’m fine,” Cadence said. “She’s in the office.”

“You can come out now, Toni,” Ezra said. “He’s gone.”

The door slowly clicked open, and Toni stepped out. She sighed. “Thank you.”

“You have some serious explaining to do,” Rin snapped. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

Cadence pulled from me and faced Rin, “Hey. Stop.”

Rin settled his glare on her.

“You don’t know the first thing about living through what she has,” Cadence said. “And until you do, give her a break.”

I smiled at her. She knew how to handle Rin, and I loved that she was protective of Toni. I appreciated her even more.

“I owe you big time,” I said.

She smiled up at me. “Maybe someday I will cash in on that. Until then, you need to get her back home and keep her safe.”

“You’re right,” I said.

“Of course, I am,” she said and playfully slapped my arm.

I nodded to Toni. “Are you ready?”

She nodded and approached me. I turned around and headed toward the door. After some time, Toni decided to explain herself.

“I’m sorry for the trouble I have caused you. Especially after promising that I wouldn’t,” she said.

“But why?” Rin said. “After all you did to convince me to let you stay with us, you decided to leave the first chance you got.”

“Because I have intuition and I knew Jared was coming. I didn’t know when. But I knew he would show up, and I didn’t want you guys to get hurt because of me.”

Rin snorted. “Please. Have a tiny bit amount of faith in us. We handled ourselves just fine at the gas station.”

“I know,” Toni said. “I watched everything over the security cameras.”

“You seriously did all of that to protect us?” I asked.

She nodded. “I know it was dumb.”

“You can say that again,” Rin said.

I faced her. “I probably would do the same thing if the roles were reversed. So, I can’t blame you for what you did. However, never do that again.”

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