Page 81 of The Bookseller and the Alpha (Witch Twins #1)

Luc

Never bring a gun to a Beast fight. Even if they had silver bullets that could do serious damage to a lesser Shifter, the guns they were using didn’t have enough clout to get through my skin.

Not once I was fully in my Beast form. It was a different matter when I got injured when the explosion took out my car, because my human body was more fragile.

And I hadn’t merged with my Beast then. Even in human form I would now be stronger and harder to kill than before.

All my life, it had been hard to draw power, because I’d kept Beast as a prisoner and his power had never been given.

Only taken. Now I was finally feeling the full benefits of being a Shifter. I was faster. Stronger. Deadlier.

But for wet work, nothing beat being in Beast form. In Beast form I was almost invincible. Even if one of them had a shotgun, my enhanced healing would make the slugs little more than an inconvenience. Losing a limb would hurt, but even that wouldn’t be enough to put me down.

I’m better . Beast was smug.

I ripped the gun out of the hands of the man standing in front of us, as he desperately pulled the trigger. As if that would save him. His head made a satisfying squelch as I removed it from his neck. It’s not a competition dude. I waded through the blood to the next man.

You’re a sore loser .

No. We’re a team. You and me. Together. Saving our mate. Keeping her safe.

Yes . His words had a finality to them. A weight.

As if he finally, truly, understood that I was no longer going to lock him in a cage and deny his existence.

And even if I could put him back into that prison, I wouldn’t.

This was my true self. This is what I was born for.

The world was a dangerous place, so I needed to be the biggest, scariest, motherfucker out there to keep Caly safe. Let’s save our mate.

More men kept spilling out of the building. I trumpeted my challenge. They were between me and my mate. I know I said that I’d let her help me, but if I did it right, they’d all be dead before she was in any danger. What could I say? Oops. My bad.

I stepped forward, meeting the next wave of men.

Something glittered in my peripheral vision.

My claws raked down the chest of the first fool, still trying to shoot me.

Moron. I snapped my teeth at him as I disembowelled him, my claws holding his body up even as he slumped.

I swivelled, throwing the corpse at a group of three on my left.

They’d stopped at a distance, fiddling with something on the ground.

But my attention was taken by the sight of my mate coming around the side of the building.

She glowed. She fucking glowed. She was like the sun. Golden and warm.

The sting of a blade in my lower back told me that someone had gone for a kidney.

Reaching back, without taking my eyes off my mate, I grabbed the idiot who’d stabbed me.

He’d been smart, waiting until I was distracted, but it still wasn’t going to do him any good.

I dragged him around my body, keeping him in a headlock.

He was struggling against me, but his strength faded as I pressed harder on his neck until I heard the snap.

I barely noticed as I dropped his body, my attention riveted on my mate.

I met her eyes and the connection down our bond fizzed and pulsed.

It radiated from my heart along every nerve ending, like liquid fire through my body.

There you are, sweetheart . I drank in every detail.

Looking for any signs of injury or pain.

Her clothes were rumpled and she held one shoulder a little stiffly but I could see no sign of serious injury.

She looked strong. Powerful. It felt as though my heart swelled in my chest when I saw the expression on her face.

Fierce. Ready to fight. To fight for me. To fight for us.

She was perfect, a fucking warrior. A queen. A destroyer. An equal to my Beast.

But she’d also been kidnapped and trapped in a fridge.

A fucking fridge. The horror I’d felt through her bond when she realised had almost made my heart stop.

She was a queen, but I was her Beast. I wanted her in my arms. Safe, away from this carnage.

It was time to finish this fight and take my mate home to bed.

Tearing my eyes from hers, I tilted my head back to the sky and roared. My mate could destroy all these men in a heartbeat, but she was still human and vulnerable. I’d keep their attention so she could work from the shadows. And then we’d go home.