Their scent told you what they would’ve done to Ruby and your children’s future mother.
They deserve worse.
“Please,” she says.
I nudge forward and snarl at the men, bare my teeth until they get the message, and back away to the hole in the barn. Again, I leap at them, snarling even louder.
One of them pisses himself as he spins and runs away.
The other two follow, clasping their wounds and screaming at each other.
Turning to Ruby, I snarl softly.
“I’ll be careful.”
She holds the gun, her hands shaking.
“We have to save Mom.”
I run out into the main section of the barn. Three men crowd around Ilsa. They’re trying to drag her away, one of them aiming his rifle behind them.
Blink.
Time flashes.
It’s instinct, all instinct.
It’s the change-joy power thrumming through my veins.
It’s the knowledge that I’m the wolf, the teeth in the dark, and I can do it.I willdo it.Always. Keep my woman safe.
Men are screaming. Humans.
I’m standing over the three men.
Two of them are missing chunks from their shoulders.
One has dropped his gun, backing toward the door, his hand raised. I feel their bullets in my flesh, blood seeps over my silver fur, but I barely feel it, not the pain.
Just the fire inside me and the knowledge I have to end this.
“You better run off with your friend,” Ruby says, rushing forward and waving the gun. “I mean likefucking now!Move!”
Her voice cracks, but she’s maintaining some level of calm. I can sense it. It’s like she knows I don’t want to kill these men, not slaughter if I don’t have to.
She’s smart. She can sense the need in me as deeply as I can sense it in her.
The men flee, rushing across the field and into their car. Other men yell.
“Where the fuck are you going?”
But they don’t listen.
“Ramsey, you’re bleeding.”
Ruby makes to touch me.
I grunt and move away. I can’t let her lay her hands on me because then it’ll be too easy to lean into that feeling, the soothing balm. But Liam’s still out there, and I can scent men, too, metal and weapons.