Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“Me!” my cell companion shrieks. “I’ve been fucking Gray.”
The wolf looks at her, then looks at me.
“I’m his mate,” I say quietly. “Not her.”
“The whore’s the one who saw too much,” someone yells out. “Not the rich blonde.”
The sound the woman makes when she realizes they’re going to kill her is heartbreaking. She sounds like a lamb who knows she is about to be slaughtered. The man remaining behind starts to smell like pee. I can guess what he’s done. I don’t blame him. There’s something terrible about seeing someone else die and knowing that others intend for you to be next.
I won’t let it happen. Not to me. And not to them. Maybe Gray’s coming to rescue me, and maybe he isn’t, but nobody is coming to rescue these people. That’s how it is most of the time. Nobody comes. Nobody rescues.
“Leave her alone.”
I pull the gun.
I didn’t want to play this card this quickly. I wanted to keep it secret longer, until I was sure I needed to protect myself. But I can’t keep watching people die. One person was enough. I don’t ever want to see that again. I don’t want to smell blood again.
The wolf stops and looks at me. His eyes are dark, just like his hair is also dark underneath the beanie. He has a round, but brutal face. Rare combo. He’s angry at finding himself at my mercy.
“I may not have enough bullets to kill everyone here,” I say. “But I definitely have enough to shoot you, and turning into a werewolf won’t stop the lead in your brain.”
“We’ve got a problem!”
He shouts to the others who had already wandered off again. I guess I didn’t tell him not to call for backup. I think about shooting him for doing that, but I’m going to save my bullets.
Three more wolves show back up. That’s four total.
“I have four bullets for each of you, boys,” I say, glad for simple, brutal math. “And, if you don’t let us go, I will not only unload into you directly. I will…”
One of them goes for a gun from the repository of weaponry displayed on the warehouse walls. Could have seen that coming, I guess.
The moment has come. I am about to discover if I have what it takes to hurt someone badly, whether I’m the sort of person who pulls the trigger, or someone who freezes in place.
Bam!
I shoot him.
It’s easier than I thought, and louder, but the ringing in my ears drowns out the screams that are starting to get a little tiring. I understand being stressed out by the prospect of being murdered, but I’m saving the other lady in the cage. It would be nice if she could save her shrieks for when she’s actually in danger.
“What’s your name?” I ask over my shoulder.
“Molly,” the woman gasps.
“Shut up, Molly.” I turn my attention back to the wolves. “We’re leaving now,” I say. “And you’re not going to follow. Because if you do, I will shoot you. I will shoot you right in the face. I’ll be able to do that because I won’t be driving. Molly will be driving. Won’t you, Molly?”
“Uh…” she makes an incoherent sound.
“Shut up, Molly,” I say.
I look down. That’s a mistake. There’s a dead man on the floor, lying in the blood of the other dead man. Justice, but not poetic. There’s very little of poetry in the world. It’s awful. It’s bleak. And I’ve killed someone. And there’s no undoing that. I can feel something changing inside me, a slow, dark, sludgy slip of something. I think I might have ruined my soul.
The other shifters are looking at me. The leader especially is judging me deeply, maybe even harshly. But he’s also interested. He has a little gravitas to him, of the kind that makes him think nothing bad is going to happen to him. He’s not worried. He’s not scared of what’s coming for him, for the death that I represent. He thinks he’s exempt from it somehow.
I always wondered what it felt like to bring death. Not a lot of the time, just a little of the time. Just in the way good people do when bad things happen, or medium people do when they’re mildly inconvenienced. Now I know.
It’s like having the light sucked out of you all at once. Something’s taken, and it’s not ever coming back.
The wolf man looking at me knows what I’ve lost.
“I can see why Gray chose you,” he says. “You’re a beast.”
The way he says it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand erect again. He’s not just calling me a name. He’s acknowledging something inside me. Something he sees, and something I suddenly feel.
“We’re leaving now,” I say again. My voice is sure and steady, and there’s not even a quiver of fear in it because the good thing has been sucked out of me.