I needed her to believe it, to stop stressing about shifting. Plus, I think I needed to see her just to know everything was alright.
Nik gave me an annoyed look. “Are you kidding? We’re packed. You want to leave me here, alone?”
I didn’t blame him for being irritated, but I also couldn’t fight the feeling nesting in my gut. “If I don’t go to her right now, I’m going to be sick,” I warned him, to which he scrunched his face and rolled his eyes. I had an anxious stomach. He knew that by now.
“Just…just go then, but come right back, okay?” Nik shook his head, walking away from me.
I didn’t need to be told twice. Within a minute, I had my keys in my pocket, my jacket on, and I was out the door.
This night…there was something off about it. Something that made my skin crawl. I didn’t know if it was Holly’s look, or if it was because the moon was nearly full—humans always had superstitions about that. As it was, I didn’t know a lot of things, but I knew one thing for sure.
I hadn’t felt this terrible since the night those hunters came for our parents.
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Holly
“Holly.” It came out pained, whispered through agony, spoken from a man who sounded broken, hopeless. A man, a shifter who was sorry. Jonas, broken and bleeding on the floor, had called out my name, and it made me want to cry.
Now was the time he decided to use my real name and not mate? Of course. With a guy like him, it had to be life or death.
I knew the human; I’d seen him in the bar a few times. He was the one always sitting in the corner, sipping whiskey, smoking and reading the paper. He was wholly unassuming, but of course, a whole lot less unassuming when he held a gun that was as long as an arm and a little black box that could shock Jonas.
Jonas, who was already in enough pain. Jonas, whose blood now coated the wood floor beneath him.
I had to do something, but I couldn’t shift, and fighting this human was pointless. He was a hunter, and he wasn’t afraid to use his gun or that box. I had to think up another way to—but how?
“Holly,” the human muttered my name, giving me a smile that sent my skin crawling. “What a pretty name. Reminds me of Christmas.” He slid the black box into his coat pocket, now standing directly behind me. He still held onto the gun, and I shivered when he ran the barrel along my bare stomach.
His free hand ran along my side, and I hated the way his touch made me feel. Dirty, like I was some object.
“I don’t know what you are,” he went on, tapping the end of the barrel against my chest, “and I don’t care. Genesis will have a field day with you if you’re a shifter who can’t shift. Now if you’re a human…I can imagine they’d want to know what makes you so irresistible to these shifters.”
Neither option sounded good to me, mostly because I was a living thing, not a lab-rat. Not something to be stuck in a cage and experimented on.
“If you don’t help him,” I referenced Jonas, who was starting to look paler and paler as the minutes wore on, “he’s going to die.”
The human behind me shrugged, and the hand touching my side moved to my neck, sweeping my hair off my shoulder, gathering it in one place. “I figured I’d lose one, but I knew the moment I had you, the other two would come crawling.” His fingers traced my spine, stopping at the hooks on my bra. “You’re the key, Holly.”
My stomach clenched when he unhooked my bra, and I wanted to be sick when I felt his fingers move the straps on my shoulders, helping the fabric off my body. I went to hold myself, to cover myself, but he stopped me by resting the shotgun’s end against my head. He now stood behind me, and I could feel a growing hardness between his legs.
He was a sick fuck, that’s for sure.
“I can certainly see what has them so riled up for you,” he muttered against my hair. “Your body is perfect, ain’t it?” If looks could kill, the man behind me would be dead from Jonas’s stare.
When the man went to caress a breast, the shotgun still touching my temple, I closed my eyes. I wanted to block this out, but no matter what I did or what I thought of, I couldn’t shake the feeling of his greasy hand on me, the feeling of the cold, hard gun on my skin. This could be the end, I knew.
If I didn’t fight now, there would be no more fighting. He probably had other collars, and once we were dragged to whoever or whatever Genesis was, there would be no hope. If they were studying shifters for years, they had other ways to control us.
It was, literally, now or never.
Come on, girl. Help me out, here. I know you’re not used to being out, but I need you.
Talking to my inner beast, a part of myself, made me feel a little mad, but at this point, I was more than happy to grasp at straws. If she could make her appearance, if I could shift right now, we might just make it through this.
My heart sped up, my blood pumping fast in my veins. Though I was cold from not wearing a shirt, I was growing warmer. I needed my inner leopard, I needed to show this sick fuck just who he was messing with. I might be a shifter who had trouble shifting, but when the chips were out and my team was one strike from losing the game, my beast would crawl to the surface and make a homerun.
“Why don’t you let me test you out?” the human behind me asked, lowering the gun. “You’ve been with too many shifters, hun. You need to be reminded—” His words were lost on me, mostly because I could feel the anger, the righteous indignation propelling my inner leopard to the surface.
Plus, the fucker lowered the gun.
I felt the change happening, and I spun on him, my hands claws and my teeth sharp. My chest let out a growl as I dug my sharp nails into his chest and took him down. His fingers pulled the trigger, but it wasn’t aimed at me. The shotgun’s shell exploded into the far wall, but it was too late. I already had the man pinned to the couch, and even though I wasn’t fully shifted yet, my sharp teeth were at his throat.
I bit down as my face shifted and morphed, as thick fur grew along my body. Warm blood sprayed in my throat, and I ignored the disgusting metallic twang of it, biting down harder now that I was a leopard, my teeth like razors.
The man shouted, trying to claw me off him, but with my nails digging into his skin through his clothes, he couldn’t. He struggled to re-aim the shotgun, and I responded by releasing his bleeding throat—only to clamp down on the hand that held the gun, tearing at his skin, causing him to cry out and drop the gun to the floor.
I was slow in releasing his hand, bringing my metallic stare back to his face. He was trying to staunch the flow of blood from his neck, blood oozing from his mouth, and I bared my teeth, letting out a deep-chested snarl, a hiss that made his eyes widen in fear.
Yes, I was one of them. I was a beast, a shifter, a non-human. I was no better than an animal to him, and I would treat him exactly how a wild animal would when threatened on their territory.
I swatted the hand holding his neck away and dug in, my fangs tearing deeper, grabbing hold of veins and muscles alike. His blood splattered on my fur and fell down my throat, but I didn’t let the metallic taste stop me from biting down as hard as I could. In one hard motion, I yanked my head back, tearing his throat apart, a good chunk of it hanging in my mouth.
I must’ve exposed a vital vein, for blood splattered me everywhere, coming out like a fountain of gore, dark and wet. The man sputtered for only a few seconds before his pupils dilated and his body relaxed. When I hopped off him, still holding onto a part of his neck in my mouth, I smelled piss and shit. Dying wasn’t pretty.
Carrying the human’s throat, I padded my way to Jonas’s side. His eyes were open, and he looked horrible. Far too pale. I dropped the man’s throat in front of him, giving him a sound that was in the middle of a purr and a chirp.
He reached for me, running a hand along my bloodied face. The movement caused him pain, and he winced. Still, a soft smile grew on his face, and he whispered, “You did good. I’m sorry I…” And then he said no more, his eyes rolling
into the back of his head, eyelids closing. The hand petting me dropped to the floor, and I let out a whine.
I bent my head down, nudging him. He didn’t nudge back. The only one nudging was me.
My ears bent back and I heard a car pulling up. I moved to the door, trying to shift back, but I couldn’t. It seemed like I was stuck as a leopard for a little while. Now that she was out, she refused to go away.
It didn’t matter, though. Whoever had driven up knew something was wrong, and before he came to the door, I knew who it was: Aster. My mate entered the house, freezing the moment he saw me sitting before him, my snowy fur covered in blood. He then spotted the human corpse on the couch, the gun on the floor, and finally, lastly, Jonas’s still form.
“Shit,” Aster breathed out, moving to Jonas’s side. He felt for a pulse, holding his breath before sighing. “Still alive, but barely. Are you okay, Holly? What happened?”
All I could do was nod my head—because I was relatively okay—and let out a chirp, because how the hell was I supposed to explain to him what happened while shifted like this?
“Let me call Nik,” Aster spoke, reaching for his phone. “How do we get this thing off him?”
I moved to the human body, poking my nose in its pocket. Oh so carefully I lifted my lips, grabbing the edge of the black box and bringing it to Aster’s lap, as if it was a cub. I dropped it on his legs, sitting my backside down as I stared at him.
Aster studied it. “I don’t think this is…” Nikolas must’ve answered, for he said, “You need to come home. I mean, to Jonas’s place. Now.” A pause, for Nikolas surely was arguing with him. “Call Ronda and tell her your cousin’s in trouble! She’ll come in. I know—just, I’ll explain when you get here.” And then he hung up, staring at me.
If I could’ve shrugged, I would’ve. All I could do was glance to Jonas.
Aster set the black box down, moving to study the collar. “Hold on, there’s a mechanism here.” By the time he figured out how to get the collar off him, I was sitting beside him, in my human form, naked and covered in blood. “You,” he pointedly told me, “should go wash that off. I’ll take care of Jonas.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, tasting blood. That was probably a good idea.
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Nikolas
I figured Ronda would be pissed to get a call from me on her night off, but when she came into the busy bar, she didn’t look too upset. She wore boots and pajamas beneath her jacket, and I couldn’t help but stare at her. Had I woken her up?
I did what I had to do. Aster’s tone was frantic, and he refused to explain why exactly I was needed at Jonas’s house. Did something bad happen? Did Holly shift? Was she stuck as a leopard now? None of my questions were good, and judging from how Aster sounded, it was bad. To call Ronda in and make me leave when the bar was full of customers, it had to be bad.
“I’m sorry,” I told Ronda as she rounded the bar’s counter. Her greying hair was pulled into a messy bun, and she looked exhausted.
“Don’t be,” she said. “If your cousin is in trouble, you gotta go. If I had any family, I’d be the same way.” Ronda sent me a smile, nudging me along. “Now get the hell out of here, Nik, and go take care of that girl.”
I nodded, saying nothing as I grabbed my stuff and left. During the drive, I couldn’t stop wondering just what chaotic scene I’d walk into. It sure didn’t sound like a happy one, and to be at Jonas’s house…
I barely had the car in park and turned off by the time I jumped out. I smelled metal in the air when I reached the front door, and I barged in, expecting the worst. If something happened to Holly, I…well, I didn’t know what I’d do, because I’d never felt for someone the way I did about her. She was my mate, but she was more than that. To use Aster’s words, she was everything to me.
Jonas’s house was destroyed. A bunch of holes sat in the wall near the fireplace, which said nothing about the body on the couch. A regular at the bar, I recognized him. A few things sat on the coffee table: a shotgun, a collar, and a little black box with a few buttons on it. A piece of torn flesh sat on the wooden floor. I hurriedly closed the door behind me, paranoid that someone else would see in.
They wouldn’t; Jonas’s house was far off the road, and no neighbors in sight.
I moved to the adjacent hall and found Aster and Jonas in the bedroom. The shower was running, and I assumed Holly was in it. Jonas was shirtless, passed out by the look of him. Aster had a first aid kit nearby, and he was busy working on the wounds on Jonas’s stomach. It looked like he got shot, from that shotgun, undoubtedly. And I bet it hurt too much, so much, it interfered with his ability to shift.
“What the fuck happened?” I asked, half in the bedroom, half out. I was seconds from rushing into that bathroom and sweeping Holly into my arms.
“Hunter,” Aster muttered, glancing at me. “Fucking Bob was a fucking hunter, just waiting to make his move.” My little brother, who normally never got upset, took his time in adding, “We need to be more careful from now on.”
The cold truth was we might need to move, but I didn’t say that. Instead, I turned on my heel and went to the bathroom, barging in. Holly was still in the shower, and I could tell by the silhouette she was in her human form. I pulled the curtain aside, viewing her naked body.
She was clean, but I still spotted a bit of blood in her light hair.
Her blue eyes turned to me, and I felt a sharp pain in my chest. Whatever happened, I’d nearly lost her tonight. That I was certain of.
I didn’t care about getting wet, didn’t care about the blood still in her hair. I leaned over the edge of the tub, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her against my chest. “What happened?” I whispered, relaxing only when she moved her arms to hug me back.
“He was a hunter,” she spoke the words Aster had, practically shaking my arms. “He worked for something called Genesis. He was going to take us all there.” She sniffed, and when she tilted her head up, I found that she was near tears. Or already in tears. It was hard to tell due to the shower’s water.
Genesis? I’d never heard of them before, but I knew that wasn’t good. We’d definitely have to go through his things, not to mention do something with his body. We had to find out whether Genesis hired him or if it was more of a bounty hunter thing. Did their hunters go off on their own and only return to Genesis when they had shifters? We’d have to do more digging to know whether we’d be safe here in the long run.
Although, after this, after what happened to my parents, I guess the harsh truth was that being a shifter in this world meant you were never safe.
“How is Jonas?” she asked.
I leaned past her to turn the water off, getting my jacket wet, but I didn’t care. I reached for a towel, wrapping it around her thin frame before helping her out of the tub. I didn’t know how Jonas was, but maybe Aster could answer. I held her hand as I brought her to the bedroom, where Aster was now in the process of bandaging the wounds. He’d cleaned them, sterilized them, but beyond that, there was little he could do.
Going to a hospital was out of the question, unfortunately.
Holly left my side, crawling onto the empty space of the bed. Her wet hair draped around her face as she studied him, fresh tears in her eyes. “Do you think he’ll make it?” Her voice cracked, wavering, genuine emotion for the shifter who’d been closed off from the world for years.
“I think so,” Aster said. “It’ll take a lot more than this to bring Jonas down.”
Holly let out a smile, though it was pained. “Good,” she whispered. There was a long pause, and we all stared at Jonas’s still body. She was the one who broke it by saying, “I finally shifted.” She blinked, a tear cascading down her cheek. “I shifted, and I killed him.” More tears now. “I killed someone.” She buried her face in her hands, and Aster and I exchanged looks.
I couldn’t say what that felt like, killing someone. Even if it was in self-defense, it was bound to leave a lasting mark.
Neither Aster nor I knew what to say, and her whimpers and cries filled the room. It was enough noise to stir the third male in the room, and Jonas’s green eyes peeked open. He moved a hand to her knee, causing her crying to abruptly stop.
“Stop crying,” Jonas whispered, “you’re going to give me a headache.” And then, because this day could apparently get even stranger, his lips curled into a smile.
While my brother and I were speechless, Holly wasn’t. She avoided his stomach as she laid herself along his upper chest, burying her face against his neck, still crying, but also laughing.
“I’m going to be fine,” Jonas spoke, glancing at me and then Aster. “I’m sorry I couldn’t—”
Holly shook her head against him, shushing him. “It’s okay,” she said, lifting her face above his. Her wet hair fell around Jonas’s face, and she ran a hand along his stubbly jaw. “It’s okay.” She gave him a gentle kiss on his mouth, a tender show of emotion I never knew Jonas was capable of.
Huh. Maybe Holly had changed him when we weren’t looking, or maybe Aster and I never tried hard enough to get to know the real Jonas.
Holly’s smile turned to us as she said, “He called me Holly, you know.” Below her, Jonas let out a groan.
“Wow, your real name and not mate,” Aster mused, grinning. “I’m shocked.” When Jonas glared at him, he went on, “No, really. I am. Totally shocked. Who knew the big brute was a loveable fool after all?”
“I’ll show you how much of a brute I am.” Jonas struggled to sit up, but Holly pushed him back down. “When I’m healed, I’ll show you.”
I watched Aster’s mouth open, and then promptly shut. My little brother knew Jonas was a man of his word, and egging him on while he was immobile would only make it worse later on.
Promised to the Pride: A Shifter Romance Page 19