Because that’s what Emme needed—more tales of blood and entrails. “Hey, Liam. Have you asked Emme about her day?” Liam shook his head. “Maybe you should.” I smiled when he gave me the thumbs-up. Good thing for Emme it didn’t take much to distract Liam. I watched them until they disappeared through the side emergency exit. Patrons weren’t allowed to step through the door, but only a masochistic bouncer would confront Liam. Like me, the wolves naturally leaked the “don’t make me eat you” vibe and pretty much ran whatever territory they occupied. I stared at the door as it closed behind them, hoping Aric would magically appear.
Gemini quietly interrupted my thoughts. “I don’t think Aric is going hunting.”
I rolled the beer bottle in my hands. “Why? Liam makes it sound like a good time.”
Gemini’s dark almond eyes brightened as he rubbed his goatee. “Because he doesn’t like being away from you. He’s had a difficult week without you.”
My gaze dropped. I’d killed things. Lots of things. Most times, quite brutally. But I wasn’t cold-blooded. And I carried remorse like a second skin. Humans found me intimidating—scary even. Yet those few who knew me—really knew me—would not have been surprised by my blush.
“I hope you’re right,” I said almost silently.
Taran placed her hand on Gemini’s shoulder, igniting a blue spark beneath her fingertips. Her irises blanched from blue to white, then back again, affected by the strength of Gemini’s wolf. “What about you? Are you going?” Her smile and tone carried a spark of their own. I thought for sure Gemini would beg to bask in her awesomeness.
I thought wrong.
Gem gawked at her palm like she’d slapped a dead rat on his shoulder. “Ah . . .”
Taran dropped her hand, and slumped her typically ideal posture. Aric had made Gemini his Beta based on his strong leadership skills and his ability to make thought-provoking statements.
Yeah. Right.
I took a sip of my beer and almost choked on it when Emme screamed. I bolted across the dance floor toward the side exit, Koda and Gem at my heels. The door flew off its hinges as I crashed through. The alley extended into the next lot, where a new restaurant was currently under construction and where Emme’s screams turned from terrified to pained.
Gemini and Koda rushed toward her cries. “Stay behind us!” Gem ordered.
Screw that!
My hair whipped behind me as I bolted through the alley, my claws and massive fur-lined body shredding through my new dress as I changed. My tigress form skidded around the corner and into the half-erected building, taking everything in in a single glance. A pile of vampires slashed into Liam near a freshly mortared brick wall. He wasn’t fighting back. His four-hundred-pound wolf form curled around Emme, shielding her from the vampire’s razor-sharp nails.
My paws dug into the concrete, propelling my body into a wide leap to tackle three of the vampires skewering Liam. Blood spewed as I clawed out the first one’s heart and the wolves dismembered the first of their prey.
I faced the other two, my fangs snapping and itching to bite. Something flew past me, severing their heads before I could strike. Shayna had flung a razor-sharp sphere she’d converted from a metal trash lid. She spun with a dancer’s grace, driving Misha’s elongated hairpin into the chest of a vampire leaping from the second story.
I nudged her back with my rump and knocked a she-vamp’s head clear from her shoulders just as a wave of electrified energy stroked my fur in the opposite direction. Taran had stumbled through the opening in her ankle-breaking shoes, throwing streams of blue and white lightning like javelins and jolting three vampires to cinders.
The skeleton frame of the building rattled as Koda collided with an enormous vampire. His large red wolf sank his fangs into a vamp’s neck, tearing his jugular open. The vampire’s blood splattered like rain against the support beams before converting into ash as the droplets dribbled down the thick metal.
My claws had burrowed into the stomach of another vamp when I caught sight of one stalking toward Emme. I chuffed loudly to draw attention, but she failed to acknowledge me, crying as she cradled Liam’s limp human form against her. I abandoned my kill and rushed toward her. Before I could reach her, Emme slammed a forklift into the vamp with her force, crushing his chest inward and instantly destroying his heart. She’d used her anger to react, all the while whispering to Liam that she loved him and begging him not to leave her.
I edged backward, my animal instincts alert for the next attack. Two more vampires circled Gemini. But when his wolf sprouted a second head, and a new wolf leapt from his body, the odds evened and body parts flew through the air like hail. To anger a two-wolf being was to meet a bloody and painful death.