Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
I’ve put some of the food Riley’s people sent over into the freezer so it wouldn’t spoil and stuck to mostly stuff we’d already gotten into.
I’m on the couch with my drawing app open on my phone, my S-Pen in hand as I draw a picture of half Riley’s face, half his wolf’s. No fire tonight as it’s balmy and hot outside, so instead I’ve got all the windows open and a table fan I found in the smaller bedroom blowing from the front windowsill aimed at us.
***
I startle awake on the couch when all the hair on my body feels like its standing on end. Scooby is growling, showing his teeth.
He’s staring at the door.
I get to my feet and his eyes cut to me and he barks. I immediately sit, feeling like he’s given me an order.
“What’s wrong?” I whisper.
He keeps snarling and snapping at the door. Something flies through the open window where the fan is propped. It lands with a hiss and fog fills the cabin before I get the chance to make out what the projectile looks like.
28
Riley
I’m pushing, hard, trying to get my fuckin’ place back because the scent in my wolf’s nose isn’t just danger, it’s related to the fucker whose throat I ripped apart. Family to him. Relative, not immediate, but still related and I know that’s him. He’s alpha and he’s got two men with him. Also shifters. Beta.
Three men are outside the door of this cabin where she sits, needing protecting. I smelled them ten minutes ago and I’ve been trying to get in since then, pushing hard.
And my wolf is pushing back against me, not letting me in. I’m enraged, locked in my own wolf’s mind. He wants at these guys. Wants to rip them apart. Wants to protect her and doesn’t trust me to do it. With all my might, I’ve sent alarms off hoping it alerts my pack through our connection. That dusty corner inside my mind blares like an alarm and all I can do is hope that it got to them, that I haven’t fucked myself beyond all recognition with my malfunction, cutting me off from them completely.
The door flies open, and I see two men flanking a bigger one, the alpha. The alpha is masked and wearing a face shield and armor. Riot gear. The other two guys have gas masks over their faces. The alpha has a weapon pointed at my wolf. A dart gun of some sort. The other two guys have regular guns. They’re all wearing gas masks and they immediately grow hazy through my wolf’s eyes.
“What the hell?” Erica shouts over the sound of my wolf growling. As he lunges for the door, the alpha pulls the trigger and a dart lodges in my wolf’s forehead. He still lands on top of the alpha who falls, landing hard on his back.
My view is fucked as my wolf’s vision immediately blurs. This fucker jabs him with something sharp in the side. I feel the pain of it as well as hear the yelp of my wolf while my mate screams, enraged, shouting, “You motherfucker!”
I push hard, push with all my might, because I need to protect her. With everything I am, I know it.
I NEED TO PROTECT MY MATE!
Finally, strength rushes through my senses and I feel myself fusing with him again. I’m shifting, melting into my own form slowly, too slowly.
The dart falls out of my skin and hits the floor as I’m on the alpha fucker, grappling for his throat while I’m still shifting. Too slowly. I’m only half-shifted. I push, pull, push, push, pull, PUSH and I’m through.
“Grab her!” the alpha fucker belts out to the guy to his side as I lift him clean off his feet by his throat. He shoots me a second time. This time in the throat.
“I’d say nothin’ personal, buddy,” he grinds out as I drop him, “Just need to confiscate your witch. But it is personal. You killed Jimmy and when I know that potion has worked its way through your system, I’m gonna kill you. Kill you and take your witch. She’s gonna be my witch.”
As I go down to my knees, there’s mayhem.
Mase’s and Linc’s scents hit me. And I feel elation for a beat that they’ll stop him, that they’ll protect her for me. Through the haze I see them rush in as barking, growling, teeth-bared wolves, but they get shot with darts. First Linc drops, then Mase.
I’m on my belly, cheek smushed to the floor, swimming toward unconsciousness.
My nose is filled with my mate’s scent. She smells good. She smells better than anything I’ve smelled in my life. She smells even better than she smelled before. Why does she smell so… no… I can’t close my eyes; I need to stop them. They’ve got her. No!