Page 180 of Jagged Souls

But when I came into the room, Digby blamed Stephen instead, which means he has aligned himself with Tim now, cutting Eduardo out, always swapping teams to be on the winning side.

I glance at Stephen’s corpse. A pedophile who got what he deserved. He has all his clothes on, but the smell of syrup still lingers in the air. A child’s breakfast. Micha must have learned what he was, and that level of sadism has Timothy’s name all over it. Meaning all of these fuckers were in on it at one point or another, and all of them will pay.

“Why did Stephen –Bear,” I say, using the name she knows, “give you the V?” I signal for Eduardo to wait. He stops beside Micha, his body drenched in sweat. He played his hand and lied to me, telling me it was Tim. He knows if she doesn’t tell me the same thing, he’s fucked.

I brought him in to make hybrids, but he’s failed at that, having only made chimeras. They are stronger and faster than a normal wolf, but I don’t need them to fight a war anymore, having lost most of my pack to the other two gangs and the police they used like puppets. His use to me has dropped. His teleportation network will stay up even after he’s dead, and I can find a merc to replace him easily enough.

“He wanted…” She swallows, pain and disgust twisting her face. Oh, she knows what Stephen was, alright. I do not doubt that he wanted her to role play for him, but he was a coward through and through. He never would’ve disobeyed me. So I lift my hand to her chin and feather my thumb across her mouth.

“Lie to me,” I murmur, “and I will leave your daughter where she is.” She shudders as tears fall down her cheeks. “Tell me the truth, and I will bring her home.”

Her lips wobble.

The last of her fight leaves, too beaten down by her hope that I can save her child.

“I gave her it,” Timothy says, stepping forward, his words strong.

Digby’s head snaps to him in shock. Eduardo’s mouth drops open.

“I wanted to break her. The fighting was getting boring, and she just wouldn’tshut up.”

“Is that true?” I ask her.

“Of course –” Timothy cuts himself off when I look at him.

She trembles in my grip. Wets her lips. “Yes.”

“You’ve just lost your daughter.”

“No!” she screams as she starts thrashing in my hands. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I lied! He told me I had to agree with him. But he didn’t do it. Sunny did. Sunny –”

I throw her at the bed as Timothy lunges for me. The fool was hoping I’d be too slow with her in my arms. She hits the mattress and bounces off it. Eduardo darts back, out of the way as a glint of silver arcs through the air, aiming for my heart. I pivot to the side. Timothy twists the knife to cut at me again. Digby –Sunny as she calls him– rushes at me from the other side, with a knife of his own, and Eduardo, the coward, waits to see whose side he will take.

Perhaps if he joined them now, they could get in a few good shots. I might have a natural resistance to magic, but he could still blind me with a flash that fills the room. Still disorientate me with an ear-bleeding noise. Then again, he never learned combat magic outside of the basic red ball of energy.

A pathetic fool.

I dodge out of the way of Timothy’s attack. Grabbing Digby’s knife arm, I kick Tim in the chest. As he flies back unconscious, I yank Digby to me. My body shifts into that of my wolf from the waist up. He screams. My mouth closes over his head. My teeth crunch through his skull, and the knife he holds drops to the floor. Fucking pathetic.

I take another bite, consuming the left side of his face, eating his life and his power.

Tossing him at Eduardo, I shift back into my human form. “Strip him,” I say before my attention to Micha, who kneels on the bed, sobbing and begging for forgiveness.

“Please,” she cries. “Give me another chance. I won’t lie to you again. I promise. Justplease. I want my little girl.”

I walk over to her as she shakes.

“Please… Please… I’ll do anything.”

I grab her face, pulling her up to her knees, then release her. “Give birth to the pup inside you.”

She flinches. Pain rips across her snot-covered face, but she doesn’t deny me.

“And help me kill the Shadow line.”

Her throat works hard as she caves in on herself, warring with the choice to help me get her daughter back at the cost of the rest of the people she loves.

“Just them?” she asks eventually. “Not the whole gang?”