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Tom saw the sudden panicked look on Luke’s face. He flared his nostrils and took in four additional scents and understood why. He was still trying to get the hang of his acute senses, but it seemed that they were kicking in quickly under pressure. It was them—the four panthers who pretty much snuffed out his life, his old one anyway, and in just minutes, they’d outnumbered him and Luke.

“Fuck!” Luke growled. “My cell phone is with our clothes.” He stood and Tom followed suit. Luke then placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Just stay behind me.”

“Like hell I will!” Tom said sharply. He was like them now. Maybe not an alpha like Luke and Lorenzo, but he’d be damned if he didn’t go down fighting this time.

There was no time for Luke to argue with him. The four panthers arrived—three black and one tan. All four men quickly transformed into their human selves. Lorenzo was about to take a step forward, and when his gaze landed on Tom, he froze, shock clearly written on his face. He flared out his nostrils and sniffed the air, no doubt coming to the conclusion Luke had said he would earlier, that he was the sheriff’s mate.

“What an interesting turn of events,” Lorenzo said. “I hadn’t realized that we left you alive, but it’s a mistake we don’t intend to repeat.”

Luke practically roared beside him. “You’re right, Lorenzo, because you’ll be dead shortly.”

“Now, now, Sheriff,” Lorenzo taunted. “I had given you a gift, after all, though it was unintentional. I gave you time with your mate.” He turned to Tom. “And you experienced what it felt like to be more than just a filthy human.”

“The only filth I see here is you,” Tom spat. “You tried to kill your own brother.”

Luke placed a hand against Tom’s chest, as if sensing that he was about to charge the vile Lorenzo. He kept it there as he turned to address the other alpha. “What are you doing here, Lorenzo? The challenge was for tomorrow … in front of witnesses. I thought you’d be pleased.”

“Yes, I received your little message, but since we happened upon your scent and found you now, why wait? As much as it would please me to kill you in front of witnesses, it will be just as pleasing to deliver your head, as well as your new mate’s head, to your pack. I think that will prove just as much a victory.”

Luke smiled, a devilish gleam in his eye that had the effect of wiping at least some of the smugness off Lorenzo’s face. “Is that how you defeated your other opponents, then? Ambushed them because you’re too much of a pussy to attempt a fair fight?”

Tom could see that Luke’s words definitely hit below the belt. His words had Lorenzo fuming. The accusation appeared to have had some merit. This revelation wasn’t as shocking to Tom as was his own lack of fear at the moment. He had never felt such a desire to rip someone to shreds before, and it was as daunting as it felt exhilarating. In fact, he wanted to sink his teeth into some panther shifter flesh in retribution almost as much as he wanted to annihilate the lot of them for threatening his mate.

Tom didn’t have to wait long. Lorenzo’s men closed in on them. “Let’s fight fair now, then, shall we?” Lorenzo circled Luke as the other three panthers stalked closer to Tom. “Your mate can watch you die, and after that, I want you to know that my men and I will take pleasure in killing him slowly.”

Luke charged Lorenzo and the two of them became locked in a fierce battle, both opponents seemingly equal in their skill. Before Tom had a chance to react, the remaining three panthers held him down on his knees. Luke, while distracted, took a major blow to his face.

“I’m all right,” Tom called out. He stopped struggling. Instead he sat there, letting the three men hold him down. They were mesmerized by the fight as well it seemed. More importantly, Tom hoped his silence would be proof enough for Luke to know that the three panthers were not hurting him at the moment, allowing Luke to focus.

The longer the fight progressed, the more equally matched it really seemed that the two alphas were. And then, Tom caught an almost imperceptible nod from Lorenzo, one that Luke clearly had not, and Tom roared from the pain of deep claws penetrating his back. The pain was nowhere near what he had felt the day prior, when he was still human, but it hurt nonetheless, and it served its intended purpose as another distraction. He watched in horror as Luke fell to his knees, sporting several of his own gashes across his neck and chest.

Luke looked over at Tom and smiled, but Tom yelled, “No! Get the fuck up!”

Luke didn’t. He took blow after blow, and Tom knew it would be all over soon. He saw that Lorenzo was growing tired as well, and when he let up for just a moment, Luke began to crawl over to Tom, making Lorenzo throw his head back and laugh. “How precious,” he said. “He wants to bid his mate goodbye.”

Tom pushed against his captors, scratching, and clawing in the process, and when Lorenzo laughed harder, the men briefly let go, allowing him to go to Luke. He pulled his mate up to his feet and when he looked into his eyes, something in them indicated that he wasn’t as beaten down as he was apparently feigning to be. In seconds, it wasn’t Lorenzo that Luke fell upon, but the man who had been the tan panther. He fastened his claws deeply into the man’s stomach before turning him in a choke hold with his free hand to face Lorenzo, whose eyes widened in fear.

“Uh, uh, uh,” Luke said to Lorenzo in an almost singsong like voice. “You or your men take another step, and I rip out your mate’s throat.”

Tom watched as Lorenzo swallowed hard. For the first time since crossing paths with the sociopathic panther, he saw real fear there.

“You haven’t claimed him for fear of others discovering your weakness,” Luke said. “But I know who he is to you. Actually, my entire pack knows now as well as the true successors of the alphas you killed. There will be nowhere for you to hide, Lorenzo.”

“Let him go,” Lorenzo bellowed.

Luke ignored him and continued to speak as if he hadn’t just heard Lorenzo’s outburst. “You understand the sacredness of mates, and yet you were so easily ready to kill mine knowing what he was to me. You killed so many in your quest for power, taking them away from their mates and other loved ones. And these three stooges”—he inclined his head toward his captive and then jutted his chin out toward where the other two were standing—“they eagerly go around on these killing sprees right alongside you, even taking pleasure in hurting others. You’d kill your own brother, probably sell your mother’s soul to the fucking devil if it meant getting what you want.”

Lorenzo stayed silent, though his eyes were blazing, and in a move quicker than anyone could have anticipated, Luke tore out his captive’s throat, leaving no doubt that he would not have a heart still beating to save. And then even quicker still, Lorenzo roared as Luke dropped the lifeless body to the ground. Before Lorenzo could react, Luke was on him. “You almost took my heart when you nearly killed my mate,” Luke roared in his face. “Only fitting that I take yours.” He meant it both literally and figuratively, it seemed, when Luke ripped out the other alpha’s still beating heart from his chest. Lorenzo fell to the ground, knees hitting the dirt first before the rest of him slumped over on his side.

Luke flung the heart near Lorenzo’s body and turned to the two remaining panthers. He spoke only to Tom as he looked at them. “I think it’s time I teach you how to hunt in your panther form.”

Tom could almost smell the fear coming off the two men. They quickly shifted and bolted in the direction they had come from. Tom, meanwhile, approached Luke and then kissed his shoulder when he reached him. “I thought I would actually lose you for a moment, and it scared the ever-loving shit out of me.”

Luke grabbed him by the nape of the neck and kissed him fiercely, and then he brought their foreheads together after the kiss had ended. “I’ll have to make sure you won’t lose me, then,” Luke said in a breathy whisper.

The two men shifted into their panther forms and chased after the men who Luke had proclaimed were already dead the moment they had laid their hands on his mate.