CHAPTER4
Gunner stumbledout the front door, the crisp air hitting his skin. He braced himself against the side of the wall, his head no doubt dizzy from the copious amount of alcohol. He slouched against the hard, cold brick of the alley, gazing up to the moon, taking in the sight of its ominous fullness.
Coming here was a bad idea.
Gunner let out a defeated grunt as he fished around in his pocket for his keys. Yet, it felt as if something else was missing. Something that should have been there...
“And just what do you think you’re doing?” A smooth, cool voice broke through his stupor.
The girl from the table, the one with the two colored irises.
“None of your fucking business,” he grumbled.
“Mhmm. I highly advise you to do as I say and hand those over to me.” She spoke definitively, almost as if she were ordering him. No one ordered him.Not Gunner Brickman, the next alpha of the Brickman household.
“What are you going to do if I don’t, sweet cheeks?” He chuckled, his gaze settling on her figure.
Then he noticed she held something in her hand. Something she most certainly should not have her long fingers wrapped around.
The Diviner.
His family’s heirloom.
A shiver ran down his body.
I will pry it from her cold hands if I have to.
“Do not test me. You will be loathe to reap the power I possess,” the woman spoke.
She stood tall against the shadows of the alley, illuminated by the moonlight. Her skin almost seemed to glow. But that couldn’t be right…
Perhaps the alcohol is finally getting to me.
Her dark hair blew lightly in the wind, one long silvery streak standing out almost white against the darkness, her blue and green eyes almost so very…bright.
No, they are glowing.
“I’d like to see you try.” Gunner approached her, squaring his shoulders, feigning a menacing look despite feeling completely and utterly ill fitted for the situation. Still, if he knew how to be anything, it was to be intimidating, especially in the face of a threat.
And as long as this woman possessed his family’s sacred Diviner, she fit the description of a threat.
“I believe you have something that belongs to me,” he growled.
“What, this little thing?” The woman’s eyes bore into his as she held up the diviner between her fingers, long black nails curled around the precious stone like the trappings of prey in an eagle’s claws.
He reached his hand out to pull the stone from her grasp, and she held her free hand up with her palm pressing against his chest.
Energy coursed through his body like a shockwave.
The feeling was electrical, furious, and sought grounding through all of his nerves, boiling his blood, and left him feeling as if he were being fried alive.
Gunner clutched his chest as he pushed through the pain, swiping for his talisman as the woman backed away.
“What in the blazes…” She looked at the stone with surprise, then back at him, her hand still resting against his chest, freezing him in place.
Their eyes met, and suddenly the world fell away. Gunner could feel an energy in his blood, a powerful energy. It begged to be set free, like a caged animal.
Wanting.
Needing.
To chase prey, to clamp its teeth down on flesh and taste blood.
To mark the one who’d awakened him.
To howl at the moon.
Within an instant the fleeting feeling was gone, and everything went black as Gunner collapsed.