Page 36 of The Fated Hunter Wolf

15

RHYS

Ididn’t remember moving.

One second her breath was ghosting across my cheek, her lips slick with the words—I killed them—and the next, my vision exploded. The world had become hell, and I was on top of her, teeth bared, my body pure heat and muscle and rage.

I slammed her down onto the floor, her back hitting hard enough to knock the wind out of her. My hands clamped around her wrists, pinning them above her head, and bones snapped as something in me shifted halfway—spine bowing, teeth sharpening to points.

Everything jerked back as I forced the change down.

“Say it again,” I snarled, my voice more wolf than man. My face hung inches above hers, sweat stinging my eyes. “Say it again, because?—”

I’ll fucking tear her apart.

My wolf reeled back, howling at me.I won’t let you.

The man in me didn’t give a shit. The man wanted blood. The man saw the image she’d burned into me—ash, chains, my brothers broken and gone—and wanted to end her with his bare hands around her throat.

Her chest rose beneath mine in quick, taunting breaths. She didn’t shift, even though her wolf form could’ve given her an escape. Her body was soft under mine, curves pressed against my chest, and my wolf wanted again to claim her and tame her. He had lost his fucking senses.

My vision warped, the edges going fuzzy. Her scent filled my mouth, my lungs. Even now—after what she’d said—my body and my wolf still wanted her. Still recognized her as mine.

She has to be lying.The words came from my wolf.

Sable stared up at me with those unreadable silver eyes, and Goddess, that made it worse. She’d put a wall between us, thick and solid, and I couldn’t see through it.

My wolf whined low in my chest.Make her explain. She’s yours. She can’t?—

“She said she killed them,” I whispered aloud to my wolf. My grip tightened on her wrists. “She said she killed my brothers.”

“And they deserved it,” she hissed, then spat in my face.

Everything went white.

Then red.

A sound ripped out of me—too raw to be human, too broken to be wolf. I was shaking from the inside out, every cell in my body wanting to claw through her, to drag the truth out inch by bloody inch. But the bond—the fucking bond—still whispered,Don’t.

“Rhys!” Logan’s voice reached me.

Other voices followed—Eve, Raina, Kenza. The sound of boots hitting gravel and the steps to the cabin, too many scents crashing into me: pine and sweat and fear and power. Even the damn wind was too loud.

“Rhys,let her go,” Logan barked with full alpha command. “Now.”

I couldn’t, no matter the alpha command. A part of me was already feral at the wretched thought that the twins were gone.

My hands were locked on her wrists, burning like brands. Every muscle was on fire with restraint. My vision doubled as memories ran through my mind. The forest where she’d shown me my brothers, the way she’d carved me up with slashes that wouldn’t heal, all the lies she’d fed my soul about this cursed bond.

And still—my wolfachedfor her. He still wanted to bury his face in her neck and never let go.

“Rhys, seriously, if you hurt her—” Kenza didn’t finish. Because she, like all of us, didn’t know whose side to be on.

“She killed them,” I rasped, still straddling Sable, teeth bared. “She fuckingkilled them.”

“Believe it,” Sable said, like it was a fact, not a knife in my heart.

The world tilted again, in my head and in my soul. Everyone heard her say it like it didn’t cost her a damn thing. Like she wasn’t tearing me apart with those words.