“I did,” Ryder added, ticking up a finger. “And I’m also not impressed.”
“I swear, I’m tying both of you to the bed when we get home,” Dante muttered, rubbing his jaw.
Ryder’s eyes lit up. “Promise?”
“I definitely feel like I’m too old for this conversation,” Addie murmured, her cheeks red.
I shook my head, smiling at my friends and glad they were comfortable joking around despite the gravity of the situation.
“Just be careful,” Larkin told me, worrying her lower lip.
“Remy’s got this,” Rhodes said firmly, his eyes meeting mine.
I looked back at him knowingly. I was pretty sure I did have this, but we’d already discussed what would happen if things somehow went wrong. He would grab the others and get them out before things got too bad. If I went down, I needed to know Skye was safe. Thankfully I knew that every person we had brought with us would make sure she was.
Skye tugged on my finger, leading me away from the group.
“Cassian’s a good fighter,” she mumbled, worry creeping into her eyes.
“You think he’s better than me?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my tone.
Her eyes narrowed. “I think he’ll play dirty, and so will the pack. Especially if it looks like he’s losing.”
“I figured as much,” I admitted. I gave into the temptation to touch her cheek, not giving a shit that I could feel Cassian’s eyes on us the whole time.
Let him look. Let him see what he would never have.
“I love you,” she told me gently, lifting up to her toes to kiss me.
“I can’t wait for you to kiss me like that when I kill him,” Cassian called over to us, setting off a round of snickers from the men behind him.
Everything in me wanted to walk over and smash his face in with my fists. I was physically shaking with the need to do something. Being in this hellhole was awful. Looking around at the dirty streets, the cracked buildings, and the occasional scared eyes looking out from dusty windows was infuriating as an Alpha.
But it was heartbreaking as Skye’s mate to know this was how she grew up.
Skye sank back down on her feet, her green eyes filled with fire. “Don’t hold back.”
“I never do,” I replied, feeling the adrenaline pumping through my veins as my wolf snarled and paced, begging to be released.
Skye moved back between her parents as I turned towards Cassian, who was still naked. His limp dick hung like a literal white flag between his legs.
Snorting, I pulled my shirt over my head and stripped out of my jeans. If he wanted a dick measuring contest he would lose in every way.
I surrendered to my wolf, feeling my bones crack and pop as they reformed. My skin itched for a second as the fur sprouted, covering my body. The snarl that tore from my chest at Cassian echoed on the nearly empty street.
Within seconds, his muddy brown wolf was in front of me. Size-wise we were pretty evenly matched. He may have been a little taller, but his muscles weren’t what I remembered. Whatever had happened after he went off that cliff, his body had paid a price.
It wouldn’t be an easy fight, but I also had the edge. Cassian was fighting for himself; I was fighting for my pack and my mate.
He didn’t stand a chance.
But that didn’t stop him from lunging first, his mouth gaping and teeth glinting in the sunlight as he went for my throat straight away.
It was easy enough to jump out of the way and put distance between us. My back foot brushed against something metal as I moved. I glanced back to see an open trap buried in the dirt.
Cassian had tried pushing me into it. The force of the trap closing would have snapped through the bones in my leg.
Skye was right; they were definitely playing dirty. I started to growl as Cassian moved again. He turned fast, already attacking again with a snarl. This time when he tried to bite me, I ducked low, clamping my jaws down hard on his back leg.
I released it when he howled, getting out of the way before he could use my own hold against me and bite me in return.
Blood dripped into the dirt, and I smiled inwardly. I’d drawn first blood.
The scent of blood in the air seemed to make Cassian slightly less focused and more unhinged. His attacks became less about power and coordination and more about bloodlust. He wanted to taste my blood.
Another advance gave me the chance to bite his shoulder, but I let myself linger too long and he managed to get a decent bite on my side.
I wrenched away, feeling my skin tear as blood seeped from the wound.
Fuck. That hurt more than I liked.
I could practically feel Skye’s worry, the cloying, overpowering scent of her fear filled my nostrils as I shook my head and regrouped a few feet away from Cassian.
His blue eyes were cold, practically dead as he glared at me, my blood dripping from his jaws, but he was favoring his left side now. His gait as he ran at me was awkward and just this side of clumsy.
I stayed still, letting him attack me head on until the last second. I dropped and shifted my weight to the side even as my side screamed in protest. But the move paid off.
He tripped, trying to chase me to the ground as I ducked, and exposed his throat.
I didn’t hesitate to turn my head and clamp my teeth on the underside of his throat. Wrenching my head to the side, I dragged him down with me into the dirt and rolled him under my body.
With a whine, his legs kicked, struggling to find any kind of traction, but all he found was empty air until I released him and stepped back.
I could have ripped his throat out. Maybe I should have, but I wasn’t done playing with him yet. He didn’t get to check out of this fight so fast.
Skye had spent years being tortured and bullied by him. If I could pay him back a fraction of that pain in the next few minutes by dragging this fight out, then I happily would.
Cassian got to his feet, slower. His eyes blinked into focus, but he didn’t attack me again. He knew what I was doing. He knew he had lost.
The only question was how long I would let him suffer.
I pushed off, using the muscles of my back legs to attack him again, this time rounding on his right side. I bit his shoulder, tearing the muscle to the bone.
He retaliated by biting my shoulder, but there was little force behind the movement. His throat had lost a lot of its muscle and power when I sank my fangs into it before. At best he scratched me with his teeth before I twisted away.
I didn’t give him time to recover before I bit his back leg from behind, giving him zero chance to get to me.
My teeth snapped through the tendon into the bone with a sickening scrape that vibrated from my jaws through my skull like a victory gong. His legs gave out with a high-pitched scream, unable to support his weight with the ligaments shredded. He dropped into the dusty road on a cloud of blood and dirt.
Licking my lips, I stepped away from him, watching as he tried to get up but couldn’t.
Part of me wanted to finish him off for good. To be done with it. But another part of me wrestled with the idea of killing someone who was completely vulnerable. Yes, he had done unspeakable things, but I wasn’t sure I should be his executioner.
I had done that to Preston, and while I didn’t really regret killing him, something about taking his life when he was helpless sat wrong with me.
I hesitated long enough for Cassian’s body to change back, his wolf retreating and leaving him naked and bleeding in front of me, curled on his side. Both arms were bloody and his feet twisted at awkward angles from where I had torn the tendons apart. His throat was a steady stream of blood and he coughed more blood into the dirt with a wheeze.
I watched him, still debating on what to do. My wolf craved his death, but the human in me knew this fight was over and he had lost. He absolutely deserved death, but this way felt wrong. The challenge was over and he was helpless.
But he had also come back from
the brink of death before, and look where that had gotten us.
My lips pulled back, exposing my teeth as I went in for the kill.
“No!”
My head wrenched around when Skye screamed, but it wasn’t me she was yelling at. She was looking over my shoulder, her face twisted in horror.
I glanced back in time to see ten of the Long Mesa wolves had shifted and were about to attack me.
Every muscle in my body tensed, bracing for the inevitable impact.
45
Skye
“No!”
The word clawed out of my throat, fueled by a desperation I had never felt before. Terror spiked through my chest like a gladiator swung a mace into it.
I had been too busy watching Remy, relief coursing through me as I realized Cassian was done. He would never hurt me or anyone else ever again.
I had missed Marc shifting, several other men joining him. Now they were all poised to attack Remy.
We would never get to him in time. As strong as Remy was, he was injured and couldn’t take on ten wolves. They would rip him to pieces before we even shifted and made it halfway to him since everyone had stepped back to give the Alphas room to battle.
Lulu shoved me back as I stepped forward in a futile attempt to get to Remy. She lifted her arms, and the wolves about to attack froze for a second before falling to the ground. They screamed in pain, the animalistic sounds deafening, as they writhed around. The remaining men from Long Mesa stumbled back with wide, fearful eyes.
“What did you do?” I whispered, stunned.
Sweat beaded on her upper lip as her arms fell. Her gaze cut to me, her gray irises swallowed by the inky black of her pupils. “I stopped them.” Her chest heaved and she blinked, her eyes clearing as she stumbled back a step.
Dimitri was there immediately, grabbing her arms and holding her up as her knees buckled.
I wasn’t sure what the hell had just happened, but Marc and the others were still screeching in pain.
“What the fuck?” Rhodes stepped up beside me, his jaw gaping open.
Remy shifted back in the confusion, pulling on his jeans. I took off at a run, hurling myself into his waiting arms. He grunted and rocked back.
“Shit, I’m sorry!” I tried pulling away, remembering his injured side.
“It’s fine,” he assured me, not letting go. His hand fisted around my hair, tugging my head back so he could kiss me.
“Your side,” I gasped into his mouth.
“It’s already healing. Shut up and let me kiss you,” he simply grumbled, his lips coaxing my mouth open so his tongue could slide against mine.
He let me go after a minute or ten of nibbling and licking and kissing. I let out a plaintive whimper as he stepped away just as things were getting good.
But the audience surrounding us quickly brought me back to where we were.
“What the hell happened to them?” Remy asked, frowning at the men on the ground.
“Lulu,” I replied honestly, looking over to see she was back on her feet and looking better. Dimitri was still hovering behind her like he was waiting for her to collapse again.
“Is that … magic?” He seemed to taste the word on his tongue as he spoke it.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Damn,” he murmured appreciatively, still looking at the men. They had stopped screaming, but they were still on the ground.
Speaking of on the ground …
I looked over at where Cassian lay. He was gasping, barely able to get air in through the bubbles of blood frothing around his lips.
“I think I crushed his windpipe,” Remy said quietly.
I walked the few feet to Cassian and crouched beside his head.
His blue eyes focused on me after a second. I could see the fear reflected there, twisted and swirled with the agony he was in as he died in front of me. I wondered how many times he had seen that same desperate look in my eyes as he pinned me down.
“You look like you’re in a lot of pain,” I murmured, reaching down to brush a lock of sweaty blond hair from his eyes. My jaw hardened. “Good.”
I stood up slowly, fluidly, and stepped over his body to head back to my friends.
Remy watched me with worried eyes as I approached. “You okay, babe?”
I nodded and looked at Lulu. “Is what you did to them permanent?”
She glanced over. “I crushed their ribs. Sort of … ground them to dust. They won’t be able to get back up unless I reform the bones.”
“Don’t,” I told her in a cold voice.
Lulu nodded.
“Right,” Nikolai said sharply. “Can we commence with the beheading of every person in this shithole before heading back home?”
“We’re not killing everyone, Nik,” Mom said with a frown.
He turned to her, his eyes glittering with rage and retribution. “I don’t see why the fuck not.”
“They’re not all bad,” Mom told him, laying a hand on his arm. The simple act seemed to calm him, some of the fury leaching from his expression. “Some of them are just scared. Trapped.”
“But not all of them,” I replied bitterly. “Some of them need to be punished.”
“Okay, but how?” Larkin asked, meeting my gaze. “Do we kill them all? Put them in jail?”
“We don’t have a jail big enough to put them all,” Rhodes murmured. “Blackwater doesn’t have issues that have required the need for housing inmates indefinitely. Usually issues like this would be handled by the Council.”
“Which no longer exists,” Dante sighed.
Alexei folded his arms over his chest. “So, we kill them all. Problem solved.”
“It’s not the worst idea,” Dimitri agreed, pressing his lips together. “At least then we won’t have to watch our backs, waiting for them to stab us the first chance they get.”
“We’re not killing dozens of people today,” Remy said finally.
Nikolai arched a brow. “You plan to let them off with what? A warning? Perhaps community service? They can build a playground or some other utterly useless reminder of what they’ve done to the people you claim to love.”
“I don’t plan to let them off at all,” Remy ground out. His eyes flashed dangerously as he glared at Nikolai.
“Then explain how you plan to punish those who have committed the most heinous of acts!” Nikolai’s chest heaved as he stared at Remy.
I glanced down at the men on the ground. “They haven’t shifted back.”
“What?” Remy frowned at me.
I took a step forward. “The guys on the ground. They never went back to their human form.”
“Probably because they can’t. Humans need their ribs to protect vital organs. Their bodies probably have no idea what to do,” Lulu answered slowly.
“You can make people change,” I said suddenly, sharply.
“I can,” she agreed cautiously.
“Can you make a shifter not be able to shift?” I demanded.
Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Holy shit. That’s pretty fucking brilliant.”
“Can you?” I pressed, latching onto the idea.
“What are you two talking about?” Dimitri asked, looking back and forth between us.
Lulu smiled. “We can take away their ability to shift. Their own body will be their prison. If we keep them as wolves—”
“—they’re no longer a threat,” Remy mused. “She’s right. It’s brilliant.”
“Can you do that?” Dimitri questioned, staring hard at Lulu.
“Yeah. It’s not unlike the moon spell. It's actually easier. This time I’m just … locking a door, so to speak. I’ll sever the bond between the human and the wolf. The human aspect will eventually fade away. I can make them just an animal.”
Dimitri’s teeth ground together. “Yeah, and we both know what kind of drain that puts on you, Lu.”
“He’s right,” Nikolai agreed, looking concerned for the first time.
My heart san
k. “We can’t do it if it’s a risk to you, Lulu.”
Her shoulders squared. “It’s my risk, and I can do it.”
Dimitri swore. “Lu—”
“But I might need help,” she said, turning to Remy. “You’re their Alpha now. You won the pack.”
“What do you need?” Remy spread his arms. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Command them to change,” Lulu told him. “If they’re already wolves, it will make things easier.”
“Everyone?” Remy asked.
“No,” Mom jumped in. “Not everyone. Not everyone deserves to spend the rest of their life as an animal.”
“Probably won’t be a long life,” Ryder added, waving a dismissive hand. “Farmers and hunters will likely shoot most of them. There’s a reason natural wolves aren’t around much in this area. They’ve been killed off by cattle ranchers.”
Remy looked at me and then Mom. “Can you two figure out who should be saved?”
My eyes met Mom’s. Could we? Could we objectively pick and choose who deserved a second chance?
“Yeah,” Mom answered for us. I didn’t miss the way she leaned her shoulder against Nikolai. “We can.”
Remy turned to the men we’d brought with us. “Go door to door. Bring everyone out here.”
“And if they don’t answer the door?” One man spoke up from the back. I recognized him from Blackwater. He had kind eyes and a nice smile.
“Rhodes, you and Ryder shift. If you smell people, you can alert them that people are hiding.” Remy gave the order to his beta. Ryder was known for his tracking abilities as a wolf, and Rhodes was almost on the same level.
Rhodes nodded, kissed Larkin and waited for Ryder to kiss Dante and Tate before joining him. They led most of the men away.
“What about these guys?” Remy asked, jerking his head to the men still around the fountain. Men who I knew liked to visit the omega house frequently.
I hissed out a breath. “They don’t get a second chance.”
“Lulu,” Mom asked softly, “can you do me a favor?”
“Of course,” Lulu replied instantly.
Mom stared at the fountain. “Destroy that thing.”
A second later, the marble and cement fountain crumbled into a shapeless heap, a small cloud of dust puffing into the air and being carried away by the wind.
Legacy (Blackwater Pack Book 3) Page 38