Page 61 of The Forbidden Wolf

I glanced toward the couple on the bench, thinking maybe they were parental figures who could keep their boys in line, but the older male had sat up straight and watched me with the same hungry gaze as the other two, as if his female weren’t even there. I looked openly at Sebastian then. My wolf could make mincemeat of the whole group, but I’d really rather they notice my superhero-sized companion. Even if he was sitting there like a useless bump on a log. He knew the risk of revealing himself.

The stocky male seized my moment of distraction and leaned between the pole and the wall to grab the sleeve of my dress. “Let’s see what’s under here, Blondie.”

Evan exploded from his seat. The bat whistled through the air and smashed the side of my friend’s face with a sickening wet crunch. The force of the impact spun his body all the way around so that when he crumpled like a rag doll, his torso landed in Jayla’s lap and the front of his skull cracked against the hard bench seat.

Time froze as if we’d entered the Matrix. No one moved except Jayla, her right hand oh-so-slowly reaching up to touch the bloody matter spackled on her dark skin while her left instinctively cupped the undamaged crown of Evan’s gruesomely dented head. She pulled her right hand from her face, eyes widening at the tuft of hair stuck to her fingers, and finally, she screamed.

Time snapped back.

The evil male laughed with the bat held high over his right shoulder like a player watching the ball soar out of the park. His shoulders twitched as if to bring it down on Jayla, but Sebastian lunged, and the bat smacked harmlessly into his palms. He ripped it from the male’s grasp and drove the skinny end into his mouth. Blood sprayed. Teeth pelted the floor like hail.

The tall male staggered backward, briefly caught himself on one of the overhead rails, and then twisted as he fell on his hands and knees, revealing the limp scalp of a wolf attached to his fur cape. Sebastian’s wolf growled through the fangs bulging in his human mouth, and he swiftly flipped the bat in his hands and brought it down with shattering force on the male’s skull. He collapsed, the back of his head a bloody, bony, brainy mess.

Sebastian threw the bat down, and it rolled under the bench where Jayla sat pinned beneath Evan’s weight, valiantly holding his body in her lap to keep his open wound off the dirty floor. My wolf senses kicked in, and the faint beating of Evan’s pulse filled me with an inexplicable primal urge to… fix him. Fangs crowded into my mouth, but the moment my butt left the bench, Charlie grabbed my arms and flung me to the floor.

“Charlie, wait!” I cried, my voice garbled by my changing jaw, but she didn’t listen.

She threw herself on top of me, flattening me. Air whooshed from my lungs, momentarily stunning my wolf. I twisted my neck to see the other two heavier males shove Sebastian up against the door. He roared, fangs flashing in the fluorescent light, and shoved them both into the opposite door. One almost had to admire their tenacity for bouncing off and charging him again, but hate plus alcohol could make almost anyone believe they were brave.

Also, knives.

Sebastian yelped as one glinting blade drove into his shoulder. The second caught him just below his ribs. Leaning on the doors, he lifted both legs and kicked the men back, but emboldened by their little wins, they rushed right back in. Sebastian slashed with his claws, slicing the older male open from lip to ear. Shrieking, the human stumbled over his dead companion and fell at the feet of his female, who was digging frantically in her purse.

“Charlie, get off!” I wheezed, trying to push onto all fours.

She bared down with all her weight. “Stay down!”

“Charlie!” I snarled, showing her my fangs.

Her eyes widened once, not in fear but pure childlike wonder. She even smiled a little. I barely even registered the single sharp pop. Charlie’s eyes widened again, her mouth forming a shocked ‘O.’ And then all the light went out of the world.

Chapter Twenty-Three

My wolf rose.

Charlie’s body slid off my broad, hairy back and landed face up on the floor, the little white bow in her hair glowing like the moon in a blood red sky. The puddle spread rapidly, staining my giant paws. My best friend… my real sister… her eyes stared, but she would never see the whole me. She was gone. Just like that.

Jayla screamed.

“Shoot it!” One of the males shrieked. “Shoot it, babe!”

Another pop. Pain lanced my hindquarters. A match tossed into the powder keg of my heart. I whirled in the tight space and plowed over Sebastian and the human males to get to the screaming middle-aged female. She backed up against the door leading to the next car, waving her pocket pistol with one hand while the other sought the door handle.

No mercy.

The gun popped and flashed, sending a bullet through the top of my right ear. I lunged, massive jaws closing around her flimsy forearm. The gun clattered to the floor, but I didn’t stop. Flesh tore, muscles split, bones cracked. She pounded on my nose as if I were some sort of common shark and not a monster descended from demigods.

I yanked my head up and back, leaving her with a gushing elbow stump.

Her skin turned bluish-white in a heartbeat, and she slid down the door. I spit her arm into her blood-soaked lap, pulled back my gore-streaked lips, and snarled, “I’ll see you in Hell.” She couldn’t hear me, of course, but it felt exactly as good as it always seemed like it would in the movies. I opened my jaws for the killing bite, completely unmoved by the fear in her glassy eyes. If she wanted to hate, I would teach her how.

A blade sliced into my flank, drawing out an embarrassingly pitiful yelp. I whipped my head around to find the younger male lifting his knife for a second blow. But before I could strike back, Sebastian’s arm snaked around his neck and snapped his spine with a quick twist. He threw the body on the floor beside the male who started all this.

The train lurched to a halt, and in my pretzeled position, I lost my footing and fell on both of the dead males, knocking Sebastian down onto the little bench across from where the couple had been sitting. The remaining male, the older one with the ripped face, had wound up on the floor between Charlie’s and Evan’s equally limp legs. As the pre-recorded voice reminded us to mind the gap, he scrambled to his feet and made a run for the second set of sliding doors at the far end of the benches.

He slipped in Charlie’s blood, windmilling like Harry and Marv in Kevin’s house of horrors before falling on his ass. I jumped up, crunching dead bones beneath my heavy feet, and pounced. The car shook with the force of my landing. I plunged my fangs into his throat with no remorse as Jayla’ screaming grew more guttural and—nope, not Jayla.

A vagrant male stood halfway inside the far door, his toothless mouth emitting that awful sound. He threw down his paper-wrapped bottle and ran back into the station before the glass had even finished shattering. The doors started to close, but Sebastian slammed one foot between them, forcing them open. Before I could stop him, he grabbed Evan by the back of the shirt and hauled him onto the floor.

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