by Tessa Cole
“You can scream better than that.” He dug the claws of his free hand into my gut, drawing a scream that made him sneer with pleasure.
I bucked under him and scratched at his face, but that only made him dig his claws in deeper and grind his erection against me, showing me just how much he enjoyed my pain.
Marcus stumbled into the living room, holding his baton instead of his sidearm, and dodged a swipe of Rough’s claws. His gaze locked on mine, his expression a mix of horror and rage.
Rough roared and leaped at Marcus, fur rushing over his body as it melted from human to wolf in one fluid, horrifying moment. It was so fast that if I’d closed my eyes for a second, I would have missed it. Rough, now a massive gray wolf, slammed into Marcus, who jerked to the side, somehow keeping his balance. But Rough wrenched his head around and snapped his teeth onto Marcus’s biceps. Snarling, Rough wrenched on Marcus’s arm and yanked him to the floor.
No. Please, God, no. I had to get my Glock. Save Marcus. Save the girl. Where the hell was our backup?
I heaved against Quiet Guy on top of me and punched him in the throat. He jerked back, and I scrambled for my Glock, but he drove his claws back into my thigh and yanked me toward him again. I kneed him in the head with my free leg, but that only made him dig his claws in deeper.
Marcus screamed, and my pulse lurched.
Blue and red light swept through the window, then a gunshot exploded in the room and Rough yelped. Officers McLellan and Herberling rushed into the living room, their flashlights jerking around the room as they yelled for the shifters to lie face down on the floor.
Officers Keels and Nishida rushed in as well and yanked Quiet off me, but Rough lunged for McLellan. Herberling shot him with one of the department’s new Tasers, with a setting specifically for supers. Rough stiffened as electricity surged through his body, then his fur rolled off of him and he melted back into a naked man — his clothes destroyed by the magic that let a shifter shift.
Marcus glared at me, his breath quick gasps, his eyes wide. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“They were going to kill her.” Except I didn’t know that for certain, and really, I hadn’t been thinking at all. I’d panicked and rushed in.
“So instead they almost killed all of us.” He hugged his arm to his chest.
Oh, shit. My stomach bottomed out. Oh shit oh shit. He’d been bitten. The odds were slim he’d be susceptible to lycanthropy, but there was still a chance, and it was my fault.
With the flashlights jerking around the room and the strobing lights from the cruisers outside, I couldn’t see how badly he’d been hurt, but blood dripped from his elbow into a dark puddle on the floor, so it had to be significant.
“Marcus, I’m sorry.”
“There’s God damn protocol for a reason.”
A paramedic hurried into the room, saw Marcus first, and knelt beside him.
“I’m fine,” Marcus snarled.
“Officer—”
“I’m. Fine.” Marcus glared at me, his expression dark with barely contained rage as the temperature skyrocketed. He shoved up to his feet and stormed out of the townhouse.
I scrambled up, my body screaming in pain.
The paramedic reached for me, but I pushed him away. “Go check on the kid,” I said, and chased after Marcus. “Marcus—”
He shoved past another officer headed into the townhouse, the heat of his fury searing my skin, and stormed up the street to our cruiser.
“Marcus, please.” God, I hurt. My arm and gut burned, and my legs were on fire. “Marcus.”
He wrenched around. “I told you to wait. I told you to follow protocol.” His expression tightened, his piercing green gaze dark and ferocious, terrifyingly similar to the shifters we’d just fought. “I told you!”
I stumbled back, the force of his emotion burning me up and making my stomach clench with guilt. He could have died. I hadn’t known for certain the kid was in imminent danger, and even if she was, protocol said we weren’t to confront that many shifters. And I’d just proven why. If backup had been a few seconds slower, we would have died.
The muscles in his jaw flexed and a strangled groan escaped. “I fucking told you,” he snarled.
The ferocity of his words froze me in place. He stormed to our cruiser, got in, and drove away, taking his burning rage with him.
Cold rushed around me, and my throat tightened. I’d almost killed him because I hadn’t followed protocol, and worse, I hadn’t stopped to think. I had to make this right, prove to him I wasn’t a fuck-up or a danger to him. I had to—
God, I had no idea what to do. There wasn’t anything I could do that could make up for nearly getting him killed.
* * *
Essie and Marcus’s story continues in
DESTINED DARKNESS
Other Books By Tessa Cole
THE NEPHILIM’S DESTINY SERIES
Destined Shadows, prequel story
Destined Darkness, book 1
Destined Blood, book 2
Destined Fire, book 3
Destined Storm, book 4
Destined Radiance, book 5
