Walker looked pissed, seriously pissed, but it was Caleb who caught my attention most when I saw his eyes. Golden. Two golden, furious eyes burned right before he shifted and turned into the most monstrous wolf I think I’d ever seen. Huge. His wolf was huge and a russet brown, as if his bear and wolf shifted together.
They were coming. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I did. Now all I had to do was buy myself some time.
“You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?” I snarled, taking a step back gingerly when he growled and stepped closer. “Your poor mother is so wrong about you, and I doubt she’ll ever accept that. Did you tell your friends here why we divorced, huh? Tell them you turned into a drunk who couldn’t get it up?” I taunted, a scream breaking from me when I realized I’d gone too far.
Shane hissed, his face a mask of fury, and lunged for me so swiftly I flinched back and…
Fell.
Caleb
I roared, every part of me screaming in denial as I broke through the tree line and spotted Ren, her blond hair flying in the breeze just before she was shoved and flew back. Into air. Nothing. A dead void of space that had her plunging away in a blink. All I heard over my roar was her screams, and when my bear and wolf both roared, I stopped fighting something I’d spent months fearing.
I felt it happening, that sick slide of insanity, the raging fury, the madness of the feral state that nearly killed me. This time I didn’t fight it like I tried to last time in an attempt to save myself. I didn’t want to be saved, not now. Not with my mate gone, I thought, agonizing anguish choking me so hard my roar ended on a whimper of crazed grief.
“Ren!”
I heard Cole yell as I started to shift and let out an earsplitting howl. Becoming a monster, I attacked, tearing through males without thought. I tasted blood and heard screams of pain and gurgles of death, but nothing mattered as rage and grief coalesced and overtook me. I killed, not thinking beyond the pain of loss. When I finally got to Shane Sheppard, standing near the cliff’s edge, his eyes a blazing blue that brightened when he shifted, I felt true bloodlust hit me.
Kill, my bear growled, making me aware that I was thinking.
Me. Not my wolf. Not my bear. But me.
“Caleb!” Walker yelled, trying to gain my attention.
But I didn’t give it. I wasn't insane, not feral, and it was shocking and frightening as I faced off against this male who thought my mate was his to harm. I wanted to be mad, wanted my mind gone, wanted to be...gone. Without Ren, I didn’t want to live, and it had nothing to do with pride. It had nothing to do with my male worth and being humiliated.
It was about her. Knowing I wouldn’t wake up with her every morning and see that smile. Never hear that chatter and the way she talked to herself. It was me, never smelling her sweet vanilla scent or hearing her call me a dick-wart under her breath when she thought I wasn't listening.
It was Ren. My Ren.
Gone.
Snuffling because the pain was as intense as the rage, I glared at Shane and bared my teeth.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her! I swear I wasn’t. All we wanted was help.” He cried, his cowardice turning my stomach because I couldn’t believe he thought he was good enough for Ren.
This sniveling, weak bully thought he could hold a female as strong and brave as my Ren? I snorted at the thought while my chest burned, and tears filled my eyes, the pain of it nearly crippling.
“Mine.” I rasped, shock tearing through me when I spoke in animal form.
Males went still, falling silent around me, and I heard Cole gasp when he stepped in beside me and laid a hand on my shoulder. I was huge, monstrously big, so he had to reach up to touch me, but I shook him off.
“Caleb. Do it fast.” He said, stepping away when Shane Sheppard suddenly shifted completely and lunged at me.
Part of me, the broken part that had just died with Ren, wanted to turn and bare its throat and let him kill me. The still sane part of me that was filled with a white-hot rage lunged forward and bit savagely.
The moment my teeth sank into him and blood flowed, madness took over. I was hurting so deeply, but the rage was so thick within my blood that when he tried out, my bear growled. It wanted Shane to hurt, and for once, I was letting him have his way. Shaking my head, I flung him away and watched as he landed and rolled, coming onto his haunches.
Shifters are fighters, and as much of a coward as Shane was, even he couldn’t deny the need to fight. He growled, the sound a deep rumble of aggression, and I welcomed it when he lunged at me, his teeth sinking into my foreleg.
“Caleb, stop playing with him.”
Ignoring Walker, I growled and leaned in, biting again. My bear and wolf both rumbled their satisfaction when a whimper filled the air, and then we were rolling as Shane tried to defend himself and snapped at me. The fight was brutal as we clawed and bit, but I was stronger. With two animals inside me, I would always be Alpha in any fight, and this one was no different. Bitten, inured from Shane’s razor-sharp teeth, I threw the wolf off and reared up, letting out a howl of fury. He needed to die now, and when he lunged again, his teeth focused on my throat, I waited.
The moment he thought he was going to win, I turned my head and closed my muzzle around his throat, biting down with a growl of rage that echoed when I shook my head and blood exploded from his throat.
Shane let off a whimper, the sound ending on a bloody gurgle, and fell still. Dropping him, I allowed my wolf and bear a moment to sniff at him and only when they were sure he was dead did I pull back and bare my teeth in victory.