Page 117

COLE

H ordes of men spilled from Kyle’s mansion—far more than any of us had anticipated. At least three dozen, from what I could see and smell. Thankfully, they’d been caught by surprise. That helped swing the tide in our favor.

The hidden Harbor Mills pack members unleashed two volleys of gunfire, taking out at least ten men before our two groups crashed together.

When we met, the night air shattered into an explosion of howls, snarls, and snapping teeth.

Langston, Zayde, and the men from Des Moines and North Carolina rushed to the left.

Trent, Farrah, and I led the Harbor Mills contingent.

The first of Kyle’s men to meet me was a shaggy, rust-colored wolf.

He leapt at me with claws and teeth like a buzzsaw.

His aggression and speed were enough to throw me off for a few seconds until his teeth dug into the furry flesh of my chest. The burst of pain brought me surging back.

I latched onto the scruff at the back of his neck, twisted and yanked, pulling him free and tossing him aside.

He crashed into two other enemy wolves, and my men quickly swarmed them.

A few more gunshots rang out, but not many. All the men in Kyle’s employ had shifted, favoring battle in wolf form over pulling a trigger in a more exposed and delicate human body.

Chaos reigned, but faster than I could believe, our team managed to subdue and defeat nearly all of his men. Trent and I took on the remaining minions at the steps to the house.

A familiar scent reached me over the blood in the air. It stopped me in my tracks.

Ashton.

I gazed around the madness, trying to spot my son. I threw my head back and howled, hoping he could hear it, hoping that it would lead him to me, then shifted to my human form.

My wishes were granted when, a few moments later, Ashton came sprinting from the side of the house. My knees buckled at the sight of him. After being gone so long, it was surreal to have him right there .

“Dad!” Ashton shouted as he spotted me, and despite the battle going on around me, a lump formed in my throat. Dad . He’d called me Dad . No word had ever carried so much weight, so much responsibility, so much love.

“Ash!” I rushed toward him, but then I saw the terror on his face and slowed to a stop. Dismay, shock, and horror were all etched into his face, and he pointed behind him.

My heart lurched. Thirty feet behind Ashton, Kyle had a gun pressed against Avery’s temple. He held her tight in front of him, his arm around her neck. My lips peeled back in rage, and a menacing growl emanated from the depths of my chest.

Ashton stood beside me, an equally menacing growl rumbling from him.

“Stay back,” Kyle snarled, yanking on Avery. Tears streamed down her face. “Or I’ll put a bullet in this traitorous bitch’s head.”

I moved in front of Ashton, blocking him from danger and making sure he didn’t rush Kyle. The boy looked ready to kill.

“You think this changes anything?” Kyle nodded around at the havoc.

“It’s over, Kyle,” I said, barely keeping my voice controlled.

“Nothing is over!” His voice had taken on a frantic falsetto. He shook his head, then continued in his usual voice, “It will never be over. I’m going to be the most powerful shifter in the world. None of this matters.”

“All these men?” I asked, sweeping my hand around at the dead, unconscious, and incapacitated men littering the ground. “They don’t matter?”

“Cannon fodder,” Kyle said, spit flying from his quivering lips.

“Stooges like this are a dime a dozen. The weak-minded are always looking for a savior. A man who will say the things they want to hear.” He made a strange, giggling sound.

“A little cash in their hand helps, too. Your brother is a prime example of that.”

“What about my brother?” I asked, taking a single step forward, unable to stop myself.

Kyle mimicked my step but in reverse, tugging Avery back with him, keeping the distance between us equal.

“Your piece-of-shit brother liked money. He was weak and pathetic after the way your dearly departed daddy treated him. In all honesty, I never dreamed he would betray me. Yet, even I couldn’t foresee the little prick’s penchant for making bad decisions.

It’s why he’s bleeding out in my basement as we speak. ”

I lunged forward, my anger and shock too much to hold back.

Kyle rapped Avery on the temple with the gun. Not enough to knock her out, but enough to make her cry out. A dribble of blood oozed from a cut that appeared where Kyle pressed the barrel.

“You think I won’t? Huh? That I won’t splatter this pretty little cunt’s brains all over my yard? Stay the fuck back . ”

Avery whimpered. “Cole.” She said my name like a prayer, and it nearly ripped my heart out of my chest.

“It’s okay, baby,” I said. “I’m right here.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Kyle sneered. “You two are fucking pathetic. You deserve each other.”

I was going to kill this bastard. He would not see the next sunrise. All I needed was an opening. As much as I wanted him dead, I wanted Avery alive more. A half second, even a quarter second, was all I needed.

“Don’t move, Avery,” Kyle snapped. “Don’t you move a finger, or your precious little boy is gonna watch Mommy’s head go boom.”

Keeping the gun pressed to her head, he released her and reached into his rear waistband. He pulled a second pistol out and tossed it at Ashton. The gun clattered and bounced, coming to rest a couple of feet from his sneakers.

“Pick it up, you brat,” Kyle shouted.

“What?” Ashton looked back at him like he’d lost his mind.

“Do it,” Kyle snarled through gritted teeth. “Or dear Mommy here goes bye-bye.”

“You sick bastard ,” Ashton spat, but he picked up the gun.

This strange play was taking place in the middle of a battlefield.

Kyle’s men were still fighting my people, but the battle was dying down.

Distantly, I heard Langston shouting orders and Trent calling my name, but none of that mattered right now.

The entire world had vanished, leaving only the four of us in this showdown.

“Now,” Kyle said as Ashton stood, gun in hand, “aim that at your daddy’s face and pull the trigger.”

Ashton gaped at him. “No.”

I kept my eyes on Kyle, waiting for an opening.

He grinned, sickly sweet. “Choices, choices, young Ashton. Let me lay it out for you. Shoot your father, and I’ll let Mommy go.

Don’t shoot your father, and I will shoot him for you, then I will blow your little bastard brains out, and then Avery here takes a dirt nap.

Kill one, or I kill all three. Up to you. ”

Ashton looked from Kyle to me, his hands shaking. “I can’t.”

He was kind, not made for things like this. I would gladly lay my life down for either of them in a second, but Ashton didn’t have that ability, no matter how serious the threat.

“Do it, you little fucker! Do it, or I will shoot this bitch. Do you understand? Kill him. Kill him !”

Kyle was growing more unhinged and unpredictable by the second. I needed to do something. Maybe I’d have to risk it and rush him. Pray to God that he turned his gun on me rather than shoot Avery. It might be the only chance.

Ashton’s hand twitched, but the gun didn’t angle toward me.

It looked like he was thinking of pointing it at Kyle.

I wanted to shout for him not to. The man wouldn’t hesitate to turn his own gun on my son and shoot him in the head.

I opened my mouth to tell him to stop, but that was when the flutter of movement behind Kyle caught my eye.

A waifish young woman inched up behind him, an old broom or rake handle raised above her head.

Everything slowed to a crawl.

Ashton’s hand rose, aiming the gun at Kyle.

Kyle pulled his pistol away from Avery’s head.

A scream caught in my throat, a shout of terror for my son.

Even as my mouth opened to shout, the girl behind Kyle flexed her arms, twisted her hips, and brought the wooden handle down toward his arm.

Kyle’s pistol moved faster than Ashton’s, the barrel a dark pinpoint of finality aimed at my boy’s chest. Unsure if the girl’s strike would do the trick, I dived to the left.

As I did, the girl wood made contact with Kyle’s arm.

It wasn’t a solid blow, only glancing, but it was enough.

His gun fired, but the bullet went wide.

A buzzing ripple of air whooshed past my ear as the bullet slammed into the wall to my right.

Kyle’s gun flew from his hand and landed on the grass a few feet away.

I slammed into the ground. Even as I scrambled to my feet, Kyle was turning, his eyes filled with blistering rage. When he saw who’d struck him, his lips peeled back in a rictus grin.

“Traitors everywhere. My own daughter?”

“I’m not your fucking daughter, you bastard?—”

Kyle slapped her hard enough to send her crashing to the ground. It was the opening Avery needed. Jerking out of Kyle’s grip, she ran.

For the barest of moments, Kyle and I stared at each other, the gun on the ground between us. It was his only chance. He knew it. I knew it.

“Fuck you,” Kyle hissed, diving forward, arms outstretched for the pistol.

I lunged at him, shifting as I did. Kyle had moved first, but in my wolf form, I was faster.

The moment his fingers touched the metal of the gun, my teeth sank into the bony part of his wrist. There was no holding back.

Weeks of terror, anger, fear, and frustration burst through me, and I bit down as hard as I could, shaking my head for good measure.

I felt the bones in his wrist snap. Kyle yowled and managed to yank his arm from my jaws, tearing the flesh to the bone.

The taste of his blood sent a surge of primal pleasure through me, and my wolf reveled in it.