by SM Reine
“Please,” I begged, pushing against his solid chest. “Just go home and sleep it off and I promise we’ll talk.”
But his lips began mashing against mine in another sloppy kiss and I turned my head again—my heart pounding wildly as he pressed even tighter against me.
“Stop,” I mumbled. I could feel my wolf pacing anxiously, but I shut her out because of fear.
Fear I would shift and lose control, and who knows what I’d do to him. My heart hammered against my chest so rapidly I could feel it in my throat.
“I can’t breathe, Beckett. Let’s not do this. We can sit down and talk it over,” I offered, trying to rationalize with him.
When he didn’t move, I got scared. Real scared. The kind of fear you only experience in moments when something is about to happen.
Something bad.
“You’re mine, Lex. Mine.” His hand slid up my shirt and gripped my side, short nails digging in deep.
“No, Beckett, stop!” I pushed against him and twisted the skin on his bicep.
His hand cupped the back of my neck and he stepped to the side. With brutal force, he threw me forward as hard as he could.
I flew across the dining table and shattered two vases, sending flowers and water all over the place.
“You like your flowers now, you bitch?”
A vase toppled onto the floor when I turned over. I was lying in a bed of soft rose petals and shards of glass, water soaking through the back of my shirt. Beckett yanked me by my hair and slammed my head against the table. Then he grabbed my ankles and tried to drag me to the floor. I kicked so wildly he stumbled backward when my foot struck him in the groin. I didn’t even think to scream; I was too busy fighting for my life.
I rolled off the table to run to the door when he swung me by the arm and I slammed against the corner of the wall. Pain sliced through my shoulder and I cried out.
The violence pouring out of him stunned me. Beckett seized my upper arms and shoved my back against the wall.
His voice broke when he kissed my cheek again. “You’re my girl, Lex. We go together. You put up with my shit, and I know we could have worked it out.”
Then he was crying against my face. Actual tears, and it made my legs tremble so fiercely that I came close to fainting.
Beckett had never once cried in my presence.
It wasn’t the kind of tears you shed for a love lost; it was a raw emotion I’d never seen in him before.
Ominous.
When his large hands wrapped around my throat and constricted my breathing, I suddenly knew why he was crying.
“Can’t breathe, stop,” I mouthed, trying to pull away and hit his arms. I was too weak—too dizzy. He squeezed harder and tightened his grip.
Then he let go and I gasped for sweet oxygen, falling to the floor.
“Why did you do this to us? We had a good thing and you go and date a piece of shit who gives you fucking roses! You think I couldn’t have given you roses? You never wanted me to buy you flowers!”
He scooped up a handful of stems from the floor and hurled them across the room. I coughed, still gasping for air, feeling like I might vomit. “No… please.”
An obtrusive noise filled my head, but I couldn’t be sure if it was my heart beating against my eardrums or something else.
Beckett fell over me and kissed my mouth so sweetly I almost didn’t realize his fingers were wrapped around my throat.
“You made me do this,” he whispered.
Something switched off in his eyes. The emotion evaporated, replaced by a vacant, soulless stare. I clawed at his face and the pounding at the door grew louder until I heard the crack of wood.
The last thing I saw was Austin Cole, standing in the doorway looking as handsome as ever. He’d never know how beautiful his eyes were to me—like glaciers on a cloudy day. His dark hair was wild and messed up, just the way I liked it.
But his expression was savage.
Bright flashes of light filled my vision and darkness closed in, but I knew the Grim Reaper would have nothing on the menace Austin carried in his pocket.
I let go of Beckett’s face and reached out to a beautiful black wolf with my trembling arms.
And then it went dark.
~ ~ ~
Austin approached the suspicious car in Lexi’s parking lot and confronted the sleeping man, ignoring his ringing phone. It was Reno’s ringtone—“Thunderstruck” by AC/DC.
That’s when he recognized one of Lorenzo’s men, probably sent to watch Lexi. Some fucking joke as the guy was asleep on the job. They got into a heated argument and Austin abruptly stepped back and looked around. Something felt off. The hairs on the back of his neck rose up and he looked toward Lexi’s apartment window.
Austin lifted his nose in the air—an alpha could pick up scents a regular wolf could not. It was nowhere near the capacity a Chitah had, but sometimes intense emotions bled into the air. Austin could taste the sting of adrenaline in the wind, blowing from the direction of her apartment.
The Shifter became a memory as Austin ran toward the stairwell. The closer he got, the more intense the feeling. Alarm ran up his spine and he leapt up three steps at a time.
That’s when he heard a man shouting from inside her apartment.
Naya peered out of her door with earbuds in her ears. “What’s going on?”
“Back inside!” he snapped, summoning all his alpha energy. Naya slammed the door and Austin turned the knob to Lexi’s apartment, but it was locked.
One singular word almost triggered him to shift involuntarily, but he had to maintain control of his wolf or he’d never get inside.
The word was “no.” Then he heard Lexi say another word that made his animal thirst for blood.
“Please.”
He turned around and back-kicked the door twice, but it wasn’t enough. He almost rammed it in with his shoulder but gave it another solid kick instead.
The door crashed in and the first thing he saw was red petals strewn all over the beige carpet. Then everything in his peripheral became fuzzy when he spotted Lexi lying on her back with the human on top of her, his hands squeezing her slender throat.
The throat he once tenderly caressed with his knuckles on the night Wes died. Austin had wanted to kiss Lexi at least once in his lifetime before he left town. He had dropped by to pick up Wes and when he found out he wasn’t there, Lexi followed him out to his car. Maybe it was the way the warm evening wind picked up a lock of her soft brown hair, or the gentle way that she laughed when he pinched her side to make her smile. Austin knew he might never see her again. He cupped her face with his large hands and tasted her lips for the first time. She barely kissed him back, but there was something between them that felt so right. Years went by and no kiss compared.
“You did this,” Beckett growled, oblivious that Austin had broken into the room.
Austin erupted with fury and dove forward. A shadow of black fur streaked across the air and it was a vicious attack. He gave himself up completely to the nature of his wolf, relinquishing all control.
The human never stood a chance. Austin’s wolf savagely sank his sharp teeth into Beckett’s throat and ripped it out. Flesh peeled back and blood poured free.
It was over in seconds.
Austin shifted back to human form and immediately crawled naked to Lexi, checking for a pulse. He wiped the blood from his face and blew a few breaths into her mouth, just to make sure she was still breathing on her own. She was, thank Christ, and the coloring in her face slowly returned.
“Still alive,” he whispered, throwing on his clothes. Then he landed on his knees in front of her and cradled her head. “Lexi, I need you to shift,” he said insistently. “Can you hear me?”
She was barely conscious. Alphas could force a Shifter to change into their animal, but not so much the other way around as that would require cooperation from their human. Austin summoned the Breed magic within him and whispered in her ear, “Shift.”
>
In a flash, her wolf materialized.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” he said, gritting his teeth. The pain in his chest was insurmountable. So much rage that he wanted to bring Beckett back from the dead just to kill him all over again. Choke the bastard and let him get a taste of his own wickedness.
Austin scooped the wolf up in his strong arms. Her breathing was labored, but the shifting had healed her to some degree. He hustled down the stairs to his car and carefully placed her in the back seat, leaving behind Beckett’s body in the destroyed apartment.
Lorenzo’s man spoke frantically on his cell, shouting a few curse words. After closing the car door, Austin fired off a growl that sent him hauling ass.
Austin barely remembered the drive home. A firestorm of emotions overwhelmed him, from shame to rage, and then complete and utter devotion to this woman. In that moment, he knew with absolute certainty he wanted to protect her for the rest of his life. Whether she decided to take a spot in his pack or as his mate, it didn’t matter. He was willing to die for her. If Lexi didn’t make it through this, Austin would never be able to forgive himself.
His stomach twisted into a nervous knot as the wind from the open windows created a vortex within the car.
The tires skidded across the driveway of his house and Austin hopped out, opening the back door.
“What the hell is going on?” Reno shouted out.
Austin gently lifted her out and growled a warning at Reno when he stepped forward and got an eyeful.
Austin actually bared his teeth. “Get away from her,” he said darkly.
“Bring her inside.”
Lexi’s head flopped down and she began to twist her body. “Easy, girl,” he soothed in his alpha voice. She relaxed and Austin stalked toward the house with Reno following close behind.
Denver strolled along the edge of the woods with Maizy up on his shoulders. She had a jar full of lightning bugs sitting on top of his head. “Lookie, Mr. Cole! I got a bunch of ‘em!”
“Denver, you two stay outside,” Reno demanded before turning his attention to Austin. “What happened? I tried calling your ass and you didn’t answer. I happened to check the monitor and caught a man entering her apartment, but we don’t have cameras set up inside.”
“Someone tried to strangle her,” Austin replied through clenched teeth.
“Hope that someone is taken care of,” Reno said in a chilling voice.
Lynn shrieked at first sight of the wolf. “What are you doing bringing that in the house?”
“Red alert, boys. We got a situation,” Reno announced.
Austin gently placed the silver animal on the brown carpet spread across the center of the living room. Ben and Wheeler stepped back, and Ivy cautiously lingered in the hallway, tugging the end of her braid.
Austin searched Lexi’s body to see the extent of her injuries; she needed to shift once more in order to heal. He had already tried in the car, but her wolf refused.
“Hold her back,” he ordered the twins without looking up. They hooked their arms around Lynn to keep her from running—the worst thing you can do around a wolf.
Silken fur tickled his palm as he grazed his hand around her graceful neck. She whined, and it felt like a pitchfork pierced his heart.
“Lexi, shift,” he demanded.
Three more times proved unsuccessful.
“That’s not going to work,” Ivy informed him. Her loose braid draped over her shoulder and the ends of her long gown swished as she took a step forward. “Do you think a woman wants a man yelling at her when she’s hurt and afraid? She won’t listen unless she trusts you.”
“And what do you suggest I do?” He lifted his eyes to meet hers. What Austin didn’t say was that he was willing to do anything.
Ivy knelt down and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Kiss her nose. Tell her she’s safe. Whisper you need her back. Don’t demand it, Austin. Ask her. Let her wolf know she’s more than just another Shifter of a lower rank; make her trust you because you care about what happens to her.”
In front of all his pack, Austin laid down on the floor without a second thought. He stroked her white face and nuzzled against her snout, close enough to her canines that her wolf could have taken a chunk of his face off if she wanted.
“You need to shift to heal,” he whispered, stroking her soft ears back. “No one here will hurt you; I won’t allow it. No one will ever touch you again.”
Her glittery eyes partially opened and she whined, her tail flapping once.
Austin smiled and kissed her nose. “There’s my Ladybug.”
And just like that, Lexi’s wolf shifted.
Nudity was not a huge deal because it was part of their lifestyle with the shifting. Austin still pulled his shirt over his head and draped it across her hips to protect her modesty. The cuts healed and the bruises on her windpipe were faded, but not completely gone.
“I don’t understand. What’s going on?” Lynn gasped, barely holding on to her sanity.
Austin lifted his chin. “Your daughter is a Shifter. Your husband stole her from a pack years ago after killing her mother. We can discuss this later, but right now, I need to save her life.”
He turned his focus back on Lexi and she moaned, her hands beginning to slide up to touch her throat.
“No,” he said, gently holding her wrists. His mouth grazed against her ear and he asked her to shift. In another split second, Lexi switched back to her wolf. Relief swelled through him, as he knew this process would work the healing magic.
Most guys didn’t care about scars, so they didn’t bother shifting to heal the little things. Serious injuries could be taken care of by shifting, allowing the magic to work its way through the body, as long as it was done as soon as possible. The more time that elapsed, the less likely a wound would heal through shifting. Breed magic was something remarkable without explanation.
Austin rose to his feet and confronted Lynn with the truth about her daughter. “It’s imperative you never speak of this to anyone. There are consequences for revealing our secrets. This is who I am, who I’ve always been. This is why I couldn’t stay here after Wes died, because I belong with my own kind. Lexi loves you as a mother, and I hope you can still love her as a child. But know she’s a dangerous animal, and the only reason I can get so close is because she’s barely conscious. Our animals are nothing to mess around with.”
When he twisted around to kneel by Lexi’s side, Lynn broke free from the twins and flung herself on top of the wolf.
“Don’t you touch my daughter!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I opened my eyes and found my face nuzzled in silken fur.
“Oh no,” I murmured. Lorenzo had somehow found me again and wrapped me up in fur blankets. Although, they were warm blankets. I lifted my heavy head and glanced around.
No penthouse view. I noticed a poster of Led Zeppelin on the wall and my left arm was tucked around something soft, furry, and warm. When his head popped up and he growled, I was eye to eye with a wolf.
My heart skipped and I slowly retracted my arm. The wolf flipped onto his feet and stood over me, yawning. I curled my arms, instinctively covering my neck, and then it all came back.
Beckett choking me.
I threw my arms out and slapped at the wolf’s chest and head. In that moment, I didn’t see a wolf—I saw Beckett. My breath quickened, my legs kicked. He merely turned his head to the side and made a grunt, taking the full beating. My panic attack subsided and I threw my arms over my face, trying to catch my breath.
He was an impressive creature. Sable black fur with the iciest blue eyes I’d ever seen, rimmed in black and staring down like two glaciers. He stood astride me with his legs on either side, sniffing my nose. I would have been willing to bet he weighed more than I did.
“I have to pee.”
He seemed unconcerned with the current state of my bladder. The wolf lapped my cheek with his pink tongue. When I tried to push myself up
, my weakened body refused. It was similar to the gravity you feel when you try to get out of a swimming pool after having spent over an hour in the water. I tried again and sighed in frustration.
The wolf rested his chin on my shoulder and snorted, making an impatient sound. Instinct took over and I did what might have been one of the dumbest things I’d ever done, and that was wrap my arms around a wolf’s neck.
He backed up, pulling me to a sitting position. There wasn’t much room on the bed, so he hopped on the floor and sat down. Thankfully, someone had dressed me in a long nightgown.
“Austin!” I called out.
The wolf barked.
“Austin!”
Then he howled. The door cracked open and Denver peered in. “What the fuck is going on in here?”
The wolf reared around and snapped at him, causing Denver to swing the door closed to just a crack.
“Denver, where’s Austin? Why am I locked up in here with a wolf?”
The animal delivered a death threat with a low, thrumming growl.
“Damn, girl. You really were knocked in the head. Austin won’t let anyone near you.”
“Where is he?”
“In front of you.”
The door slammed and my mouth opened. Austin had warned me about his wolf—how dangerous he was. I didn’t doubt it, either. He was always a tough guy growing up, but the past seven years had changed him from the person I once knew. He had a fierce animal with thick shoulders, sharp canines, and savage eyes.
“Uh, Austin?”
He lifted his eyes to mine and I blinked, looking away. Raw power emanated from his gaze, and while I’d never felt submissive in Austin’s presence before, I now understood why his brothers were so obedient. He truly was born to lead, in all forms.
I touched my throat and felt the back of my head. There wasn’t any bruising or pain, so I must have shifted to heal. I couldn’t remember.
A series of knocks sounded at the door and it swung open. “Lexi, honey, Denver told me you were awake,” Mom said, squeezing inside.
“Mom, no!”
She held a small plate of food and my eyes went wide.
