Page 65 of Shattered Stars

But it’s the Moreau boy who comes stumbling forward, naked, his body battered, his hands bloody.

“You!” I roar, charging at him.

He looks up in alarm, raising his hands to defend himself, but then he sees it’s me and his hands fall to their sides. His face floods with shame.

I’m on him in the next minute, smashing my fist against his cheek bone. He stumbles backward, and I hit him again.

“You’re the fucking werebeast. You!” I hit him again and again. He makes no move to defend himself, to protect his face, his hands limp by his side. “You fucking attacked her!” I hit him again and this time he sways on his feet, stumbling down to his knees. “Rhianna! My mate! My! Mate!”

My heart pounds in my ears. I want to kill him. I don’t care about the blood on my hands. I don’t care if it means another mark on my soul. Yet another bereaved family. He tried to kill my mate and now I will kill him.

He looks up at me, blood in his mouth, a cut slicing the skin beneath his eyebrow in half.

“He wasn’t going to harm her.” I growl, my hands forming even tighter fists. “He wasn’t.” A fat tear slides down his cheek,clearing a path in the blood. “He wasn’t going to harm her. He … he wants her. He wants to make her his.” His bottom lip trembles. “That’s why I had to leave.”

He falls forward onto his hands, his head hung low, blood and tears dripping off his chin and onto the dried leaves below him.

The anger seeps away, my fingers uncoiling, my shoulders slackening.

How have I been so stupid? How had I not seen this?

“You love her …” I say.

He doesn’t answer but I don’t need him to. Haven’t I seen it before? With Stone? With myself?

The Moreau boy is in love with my mate.

23

Renzo

I’m notgood with a plan.

I get bored. I forget. The instructions jump around in my mind, tangling and muddling up.

Plans fucking suck. It’s always been better to go with my gut, my instinct.

Apparently it makes me fucking unpredictable. Apparently that’s a good thing.

But I need a plan now. A fucking good one.

I sit out in the forest. Only me and my bike. Away from people and their noise.

My legs jiggle and I chew on gum. Thinking. Trying to unscramble all the chaos in my mind and think.

What do I need to do?

Protect my little rabbit and make her mine.

But Lowsky wants her dead. He says he’ll find someone else to do the job if I don’t complete it.

I can’t let that happen. So what do I do about it? Kill Lowsky?

My leg jiggles harder. He’s the closest thing I have to family. The one who pulled me off the streets. But I’d do it. I’d do it for her. I don’t give a shit about Lowsky. I don’t give a shit about anyone apart from my little rabbit.

Killing him is risky, though. He may kill me first and then there’ll be nobody to protect her. Only those pussies.

I shake my head. No, that isn’t the solution here.