Caspian was by the desk, spinning an envelope opener in each hand, rolling them over his fingers, before hurling them at the painting on the wall of an old white-haired fart on a yacht.
Give my brother a piece of paper, and he’d fashion it into a deadly weapon to carve out your heart.
“Stop fooling around,” I said, then darted back out just as Hendrix sliced a man’s throat right in front of our door.
“Fuck,” I hissed and retreated for him to drag his victim inside the study, while I slid back out, desperate to find Syn. To know where the fuck Brayden had put her. The problem was, the more I looked where the crowds were at the entry to the mansion, the more I was certain she’d be over with the guests and not somewhere alone.
And I couldn’t exactly stroll up there dressed like a ninja.
Nope, that wouldn’t work. So another plan formed in my mind. I backpedaled into the shadows, spotting a guard in his navy, tailored suit uniform with silver stripes across his shoulders several feet away. He didn’t notice me.
The ass was on his phone, and then suddenly he darted deeper into the house, away from the party. And I was on his heels.
Swallowing hard, the hairs on my arms rose that I’d be spotted since the guy was turning left and right down various corridors. It was only when he entered a room and shut the door quickly behind him, that I took my chance.
I charged in there after him. Sure, not my brightest move, but I’d had enough of playing nice.
It just so happened that I burst in on the guy as he pulled open the front of his pants and snapped a photo of his junk.
“Fuck, man, is that necessary?” I blurted.
He startled so much at my abrupt entrance into the bedroom, that he fumbled with the phone and dropped it.
And that was when I attacked, having no time to spare. I slammed into him and he hit the ground hard. I straddled his chest, my knees pinning his arms down. I pressed the tip of my blade just over his eye and stared down at him.
Terror blanched his face as he breathed heavily, his body trembling.
“Listen here, dickhead. Either you can remove your clothes and give them to me, or I’m scooping your brain out through your nose with my blade. And trust me, it’s gonna get messy.”
He whimpered, and apparently that was all I needed to do–threaten him. He nodded desperately, and in less than a minute, he’d stripped and dumped his guard suit on the end of the bed.
“Now be a good boy and tell me where Brayden and the pink-haired girl are in this shithole,” I growled, collecting the rope used to tie up the curtains and lassoing the guy up to the four-poster bed in the room. Of course, he fought me, but I snatched his arm and snapped it in half over my knee to teach him a lesson.
His cries irritated me. “Shut the fuck up. And answer my question. Where’s the girl?”
“S-she's in the courtyard with Brayden.” He sniffled like a damn baby, crying louder.
In his boxers, he was spread out like a starfish. I yanked his sock off his foot and stuffed it into his mouth to shut him up.
Then I rushed over to get changed just as the door burst open to another guard. I’d just stripped off my own clothes when the newcomer decided to interrupt me. I sighed, pissed at his interruption.
“Really? You had to come in now?”
He glared at me, then at the guy I assumed was his boyfriend on the bed to explain why he’d found us so easily. With a growl, the bastard came at me so fast I couldn’t respond quick enough. He tackled me around the middle and slammed me up against the wall.
Breath expelled, I grunted as he knocked the wind out of me. “Fuck, you’re a big bastard, aren’t you,” I groaned in his face.
“What the fuck are you doin up here? You’re not a guest,” he droned in my face.
I snarled, shaking with agitation that he was wasting my time when I had Syn to find. Darkness shrouded my thoughts, and I went wild. I head-butted him right in the face, giving me just enough leverage to shove my hands against his chest.
The idiot with a bald head stumbled backward, his upper lip curling up over lengthening canines. The scent of wolf fur flooded the room, and I figured I’d take him down with ease, whatever form he took.
“Bud, get the hell over here, you pussy,” he snarled at the guy tied up in bed.
His friend started to thrash, transforming into his wolf form, his binds loosening…and, well, they forced my hand. I lifted my gaze, narrowing my eyes at the fucker who’d just pushed me too far. Savagery and purpose pulsed in my veins, along with the hunger to spill blood intensifying.
I ripped open the floodgates, calling to my wolf.
He gushed out in a heartbeat, moving with speed, tearing out of me, my skin splitting, bones cracking. I fell to the floor on all four paws, my silvery fur covering me. I unleashed a growl, lowering my head, ears pasted to my skull as I eyed both my enemies closing in on me, both in animal form. Both dark as the night.
Anger hit me like the crack of a whip.
Syn was all I saw in my eyes, and these two stood in my way.
My growl deepened, turning feral, and I charged for them both. This wasn’t my first rodeo, and it sure as fuck wouldn’t be my last.
We clashed, and rage consumed me, the room filled with growls of ferociousness.
Fur and fangs. Blood and wounds. I didn’t stop and only saw fury. The walls trembled as I threw one after the other aside like rag dolls, and there was no stopping. Not when I’d come so far.
Just the flash of torment filled me, images of Syn being tortured. Thoughts of Brayden laying a hand on her. I screamed on the inside at the depraved images painted in my mind. And I lost it, my form pulsing with fury.
No one would survive tonight if my girl was hurt.
It was only when my feet slipped and I hit the ground, my face smacking into something wet, something slimy, that I shook my head and really opened my eyes to my surroundings.
Blood.
It covered everything. The walls. It ran across the floor, and some even got on the ceiling.
The two wolves were nothing but pieces scattered around the place.