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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ZURI

“Derrit is your brother?” I whispered, stepping back and staring at the man I had seen many times before back at my old pack.

He had hung around the bar at the restaurant every night, had been my sister’s crush, and had even … snuck into my bedroom more than once.

My throat dried, fear rushing right through my body. My sister had always had a thing for him, but he always ignored her. Always showed me the attention. Which made my sister hate me even more because she thought that I wanted him back. I never had, but he’d kept coming around.

Derrit glanced at me, his lips curling into a small smirk. I stepped behind Stone and sucked in a breath, attempting to make myself as small as possible so he wouldn’t see me, so he wouldn’t say anything to my mate.

“Zuri,” Derrit murmured, “how’ve you been?”

A ferocious growl escaped Stone’s mouth. “Get off my property.”

“Settle down, brother,” Derrit taunted. “I’m talking to my gi?—”

Before Derrit could finish his sentence, Stone leaped forward. I snapped my hand around his wrist and yanked him back with as much strength as I could because I had seen Derrit fight before. I knew the chaos he was capable of.

Stone struggled against me, but I dug my heels into the ground to hold him in place.

“Don’t listen to him, Stone,” I whispered. “Don’t give him what he wants.”

“Don’t lie to your mate, Zuri,” Derrit said. “You know what you meant to me long ago.”

“What is he talking about?” Stone growled through clenched teeth.

“Nothing,” I said, heart pounding. “He’s talking out of his ass.”

Derrit moved closer to us and bellowed in laughter. “I know the whole family, brother. I would bet that she hasn’t introduced you to everyone yet, hmm? Her sister. Her friends. And her pretty little pus?—”

Stone ripped himself out of my grasp, leaped up, and shifted midair into his enormous black wolf. Tears spilled from my eyes, and I stumbled back into Stone’s grandmother as cries escaped my mouth. Derrit would kill him.

While Stone was crazy, Derrit was a werewolf with warlock abilities.

He had cast magic so dark that entire towns turned to dust when he stepped into them—which I guessed was another reason they referred to him as Dirt.

He had made demons crawl out from the ground and beheaded the town’s children. It had been a horrific mess.

And if Stone wasn’t careful, he and his pack would suffer the same fate.

“Derrit,” I cried, my knees buckling, “please don’t hurt him. Please, Derrit!”

When Stone latched his canines into Derrit’s chest, Derrit shifted into his wolf. I stared in horror at the two wolves, my stomach twisting and bile rising in my throat.

Stone’s grandmother grabbed my wrist. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you to safety.”

But I couldn’t move because something wasn’t right.

Derrit wasn’t using magic, was incredibly weak, and the wolf’s fur coat was blond, but, like Stone, Derrit had a black coat. At least, that was what I remembered of him. Yet both the wolves moved so quickly that … maybe I was seeing things. Or maybe Stone was too blinded by rage.

“That’s not Derrit,” Grandma Bee said a moment later, her grip loosening.

I wasn’t seeing things. This must’ve been some magic spell that Derrit had cast on a wolf.

“Stone!” I shouted through my tears. “Stop it! It’s not your broth?—”

Before I could stop him, Stone sank his canines into the wolf’s throat and tore it right out of his body.

Blood splashed everywhere and splattered onto my face.

I ripped myself out of Grandma Bee’s hold and sprinted to Stone, grabbing his wolf by the back and yanking him away from the wolf who was slowly shifting back into human form.

Stone quickly returned to his human form, standing on his two feet, and spit the throat out of his bloody mouth. Another growl escaped his throat, his eyes as black as night. But when the man began forming, realization crossed his face.

It wasn’t Derrit. It was his own packmate.