Page 14 of Jagged Souls

Shit.

“Welcome to your new life, Shadow whore,” Antonio purrs as I hear the pull of a zip. “Now be a good girl and put on a good show for me.”

Ignoring him, I focus on the blood bond. I draw strength from Varius’ presence inside of me, even if it is just more pain.

Because I can use pain.

I can wield it like a weapon.

After all. I am a Black.

My hands fist.

And I am a fucking Shadow.

JAGGED souls

(SOFT EDITION)

One

HIM

“Where is my fucking wife!?” I lunge for Maddox, not caring that he’s my brother. All I want is to see him bleed beneath my knuckles as he tells mewhere she is.

My nostrils are flaring. My heartbeat is running wild. I breathe in deep, focusing on one particular scent that is fucking everywhere. My wife’s blood is sprayed liberally across the floor and walls of our family home. But I can’t smell her raspberry-and-cream body wash.

I can’t hear her cracked voice calling for me. Can’t hear her mourning our baby, who now lies dead in the palm of my left hand. I can’t hear her screaming. Can’t hear her rage or pain. Or her vows to kill the fucker responsible. To killmefor having left her alone with only one bodyguard and my mother.

I can’t sense her heartbeat anywhere in this house.

Because her blood is here. Her blood is here in fucking bucketloads. But everything that makes herheris gone.

“Fuck!” Maddox tries to flee, triggering a hunting instinct inside of me. It boils through my veins until my teeth ache and bloodlust fills me, coaxing me to feed, tokill.

To lose myself in the violence until I kill everyone in this fucking city so there’s no one left to hide my wife.

Grabbing my brother by the throat with one hand, I slam him into a wall. A low growl builds in my chest as I lean in.

I know the fucker likes my wife.

I know she likes him.

If he’s fucking hiding her, if her absence is nothing more than an elaborate plan to steal her from me, to get me to believe she’s been kidnapped by the Boss of the Death Hunt rather than by him, I will.Kill. Him.

“Where is she?” I roar.

His dark-brown eyes widen. Maddox holds his hands up. “V, I’m not –”

I cut him off with a snarl, not wanting to listen to his lies. One brother has already betrayed me. I can’t trust any of them.

Especially not the one in front of me. Maddox likes to play with people like they’re toys. He keeps them locked up so he can break them. So he can have fun with them. He’s a twisted little psycho.

“Did you have fun with Dayne and Bambi?” I growl as my fingers tighten around his throat. “Have you kidnapped my wife to have more fun with her?” I can smell his panic now, can feel the terror beating away in his pulse. His guilt is so clear across his fucking face. He grabs at my hand, trying to peel me off his neck. But my fingers only tighten. My eyes don’t leave his. He should’ve known I would do anything to get her back.

He gasps, panic in his eyes.

His heartbeat starts to thrash just like his legs.