Lorenzo tightened the muscles in his stomach and gripped Fox’s wrist, ceasing the man’s attack. He brushed his lips against Fox’s mangled ear. “There will be no mercy for you.”
A chaotic rhythm of wolves moved around him, as if summoning his own.
Lorenzo kicked off the wall and collapsed on top of Fox, choking him and slamming the back of his skull against the floor. Lorenzo dizzily looked around, the wound on his own head throbbing.
Fox’s eyes bulged, his face turning a sickly shade of purple. He reached out, wrapping his fingers around the handle of a gun lying on his right.
“To the death,” Lorenzo whispered, a promise on his lips.
This wolf did not deserve an honorable death. Now Lorenzo understood his grandmother’s prophecy. In his culture, the sun represented the warm mother who embraced her children, and the moon was the cold mother who punished them. Maybe it was superstition, but it’s why he’d never felt at ease on a full moon. His grandmother saw blood on the moon—a vengeful mother. Lorenzo’s wolf howled and he relinquished all power, leaving Fox at the mercy of his animal as he shifted.
Fox turned the gun toward him and, seconds later, pulled the trigger.
Chapter 20
When I shifted back to human form, I turned my eyes away from the wolves who were savagely tearing at each other’s throats. It took a moment to adjust to being in human form. My bloodstained dress was carelessly spread out on the floor, and my long hair covered my body like a garment.
Wheeler’s wolf sank his teeth into the other wolf’s throat, thrashing his head violently.
Serenity overcame me, as if I were dreamwalking in my memories.
A wolf charged into the kitchen and screams pealed out. He immediately scurried back into the room, toenails scraping the floor in a desperate attempt to flee. Behind him, an impressive wolf that looked more like a Siberian husky stalked out with death in his eyes.
Denver’s eyes.
Instead of going after the wolf, he backed up. Saliva dripped from his mouth as he continued to threaten everyone with a low and deadly growl before returning to the kitchen.
I gripped a chair and pulled myself up, blood oozing between my toes from the oversaturated carpet. Then I saw it.
A few feet ahead, Lorenzo shifted. His grey wolf stood astride Fox, who lifted a gun from the floor, moving his arm toward Lorenzo’s head. Raw anguish constricted my heart and I knew not which way to turn.
Lorenzo’s wolf latched on to Fox’s arm and he shook his head. The gun went off and tumbled immediately to the floor due to the violent thrashing of the wolf’s head.
I staggered forward, moving around Fox until I reached the gun. I leisurely bent down and lifted the weapon, curling my finger around the trigger. Something took over me… something dark.
A wolf vaulted off the bar and landed on Jericho’s back. April cowered behind the bar, throwing bottles at anyone who got close to her. Fox’s pack had managed to disarm most of us, but I heard another gunshot go off. Some shifted, others remained in human form, but there was chaos all around in this sanguinary battle.
“Get back, Lorenzo,” I said in a low voice.
His wolf tugged at Fox’s arm, ignoring me.
“Thunder Wolf! Let me reclaim my honor.”
Thunder lifted his head and a flicker of understanding sparked in his eyes. He reluctantly stepped back.
“I was still conscious when I shifted, Fox. Long enough to hear your confession. How could you do it? My mother!” I screamed, fury erupting from my soul. “The woman who gave life to me.” I lowered the gun from his head to his heart. “You took more than my innocence that day. You took my mother, my son, my father’s love, my horse, and my future. Yet I am still here. I will never gain back what I’ve lost, but the one thing you can never take away is my heart. And it loves, Fox. It loves my family, it loves this proud alpha standing before you, it loves a child I will never hold, and it most certainly will never love you.”
Crack.
The gun went off and a pool of blood spread across his chest like a plague. Lorenzo’s wolf took in his scent, checking for signs of life. Without pause, he ran forward and joined Austin’s black wolf. By this time, everyone had shifted.
I knelt down and placed the gun on Fox’s lifeless chest, erasing all hope that someday I might reunite with my grown son. How could a child have love for a woman who took the life of his father?
Yet I held no remorse for what I’d done. Was I the first girl Fox had taken so cruelly? Was I the last? I shuddered to think. Perhaps with this violent end, I saved more lives than I took.
The sounds died down and I collapsed, falling to my knees with my head hung low.
“Ivy…” A pair of hands cradled my head and I looked into Lorenzo’s dark and captivating eyes. “Sweet Ivy. It’s over.” He placed a kiss on my forehead. “My brave warrior.”