Page 81 of The Piece You Stole

Silence reigns for the next full minute.

The passenger door of the Lexus swings open. With the Hummer parked up in front, I don’t see Rylan, but the squeak of a car door is followed moments later by footsteps, and then another sound.

A trunk lid squeaking open.

The faintest scent of blood, pain, stale vomit, and jasmine fills the air.

Saige.

I clench my jaw as I wait for my first sight of her.

And then I get my first glimpse of the dark-haired man in the tailored shirt and pants, with chilling blue eyes, I know exactly who I’m looking at. Rylan Treveiler in the flesh.

He’s cradling a white sheet-wrapped body.

I take in the slender, limp arm brushing against the ground. Next, I focus on the blood soaking through the sheet. It’s not a lot of blood, but it’s enough,morethan enough.

She’s breathing so faintly it’s as if he doesn’t even notice. Instead, he’s smiling as he rests his head close to hers, so close that there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s aware we have a gun trained right at him. Any shot Aden takes would cut right through Saige.

But that’s okay, Aden doesn’t have to put a bullet in his brain, I’ll just rip his fucking head off.

I tense to jump.

A hand manacles my ankle.

I wrench my gaze away from Rylan, and my eyes clash with Dariel’s wolf stare.

He doesn’t say a word, but that doesn’t mean I don’t read the order in his hard stare.Don’t move.

“I’m assuming all this drama is because of her.” Rylan’s icy voice cuts into the silence. “Because I have to tell you, you’ve just thrown your life away. She’s mine.”

His pale blue gaze rakes the area before they narrow as he stares hard toward the fire eating through his expensive forest. And then he cuts his eyes this way. His nostrils flare, and a smirk curves his lips.

That’s when I know we have him committed. He’s had a good sniff around, and now he knows there’s just three of us compared to his pack of… I do a quick tally…eighteen?

What the fuck happened to the other two?

As long as they don’t ambush us from behind, it doesn’t matter. And if they try it?

It’ll be the last mistake they make.

Now he knows there’s only three of us up this tree, there’s no way he’s going to climb back into that car until we’re dead.

Rylan makes a sharp gesture. Half the shifters peel away from the Lexus and flow toward us. Looks like he isn’t in the mood to get his hands dirty after all.

Beside me, I feel Aden stir as he takes a quiet breath and releases it almost soundlessly.

“Stay out of my way.” Dariel’s voice is a harsh whisper that drifts up toward me. From the dark head angling this way, Rylan catches it too. “Aden. Time.”

And then he’s gone.

Dariel doesn’t make a sound when he lands on four legs and not two.

He tears into a black wolf so hard, the others freeze, eyes wide. A quarter of a second later, Dariel rises from the body of the dead wolf, his white fur bathed in blood.

Seven booms explode the silence.

My ears scream and my wolf howls. How the fuck could I have forgotten the sound that beast of a rifle makes?

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