Holy hell, if he called me a bitch one more time…
“Look, if you spill blood on these streets, you’re going to attract attention. Who do you think your leader is going to come after? Him?” I asked, pointing at the brown wolf on my left. “We both know you’ll be the one reprimanded. Take me with you, and we’ll get answers from my mate. Nobody gets hurt, and nobody’s ass is on the line.”
I stopped short of him, my eyes centered on his and not on the dagger on his left hip.
His nostrils flared as he drew in a deep breath. I didn’t think he was old enough to tell right away that I was pregnant, but his proximity made my heart quicken.
“Please,” I urged, my tone submissive.
A wolf yelped from behind, tearing the alpha’s attention away. “You blood-sucking Vamp!”
The alpha suddenly reached for my hair, and I went for his knife.
In a blur of motion, I unsnapped the safety on his sheath and pulled the dagger free. He tugged my hair, forcing me to look up. The human part of my brain told me it was wrong to commit murder, but when the thought of protecting my baby flitted through my mind, I plunged the knife into his side, giving it a sharp twist. Metal scraped against bone, and he let go of my hair.
I ran even though I knew he could pull the knife out and shift. I’d been in fights before, but my wolf had done all the dirty work.
Atticus tangled with a black wolf on my right. He violently slammed it against the concrete before turning to face another attacker emerging from the shadows. One of them lunged at me, and I stood defenseless against him.
He knocked the air out of my lungs on impact and then buried me beneath his weight. I crossed my arms in front of my face to protect my throat. I could hardly breathe, but when his canines pierced into my arm, I screamed.
“Lexi!” April shrieked.
“Stay where you are!” I cried out, pain lancing my arm and forcing tears to my eyes. April wasn’t anywhere in my line of view. The wolf’s dark eyes rolled into the back of his head. Slobber and blood dripped on my neck, and his foul breath heated my skin.
I prayed he didn’t thrash, or my arm would become a mangled mess. His teeth sent a dull throb radiating up to my elbow, but in the frenzy of panic and shock, I knew it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it should have.
From the corner of my eye, the leader had shifted to wolf form and back to human, healing his wound.
The muscles in my shoulders were trembling, and only sheer willpower kept my arms locked in a cross as blood spattered my face. The wolf astride me suddenly yelped, knocked off with immeasurable force and hurtled to the other side of the street.
“They’re everywhere,” Atticus said. “Get up!”
He pulled me to my feet, and I looked around. A trail of bodies littered the street on my right, evidence that Atticus had protected me on a much larger scale.
The alpha shifted, and his wolf set his sights upon us with a vengeance. Atticus made himself a shield, but two more were approaching from the right.
A man appeared as if from thin air and threw a blast of Mage energy into the leader. I immediately recognized Charlie’s stature and thinning hair. He knelt down and put a deathblow of energy into the alpha, wasting no time before flashing to the wolf on his left and delivering the same fate. I’d never seen that man so much as jog to the bathroom, let alone move at such incredible speeds.
The alpha’s blood still warmed my right hand and mingled with my own, drawing the attention of our attackers.
Atticus baited the wolves by waving his arms until they lunged at him instead of me.
Charlie’s eyes went wide. When he flashed toward the shop, a dreadful chill ran up my spine. In that moment, the hands of time stopped. I had no sense of the bitter wind lashing against my flushed cheeks, which were numb from shock. In front of the shop, beneath a canopy of orange light from the lamppost, April was lying on her back in the street near the curb.
Motionless.
Her white off-the-shoulder sweater I loved so much—the one with two conjoined hearts over her own—was soaking up a pool of blood.
Chapter 14
The blonde withdrew from April like a rabid animal, a bloody knife clutched in her left hand and her eyes crazed. Charlie seized the woman’s arm, and she convulsed when his Mage energy knocked her out. She landed on the sidewalk in a heap of pathetic limbs. Dead? I didn’t know.
I didn’t care.
My heart rose to my throat—I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even hear Atticus fighting the wolves anymore because my blood was pulsing in my ears. Hot tears stung my eyes, and a grievous pain rooted in the center of my chest. I’d always imagined losing April to cancer or old age, but never this.
Not like this.
A wail poured out of my mouth that came straight from the darkest part of my soul. Unable to see through my tears, I stumbled forward.