A Kitty in the Lion's Den(37)

Maverick’s fingers twitched, and he felt his lion come closer and closer to the surface. His beast was almost out, almost ready to tear through his human form and take control. It was hell knowing that Konstantine wanted to hurt his female, and absolute fucking torture when the asshole pulled out a Dark Ops VIN-1 knife from a case at the small of his back. The lion in him clawed faster, moved more swiftly, and Maverick tasted the wilderness moving within him, but he couldn’t shift fast enough, not when Konstantine got down on his haunches and slapped Kettah across the face, waking her so she was lucid when he tortured her.

“No.” The word came out of him on a gruff whisper. Fuck, he needed to get stronger. There was more commotion behind him, and he forced himself to grab onto his strength and push himself up. The sound of Viktor cursing, of threatening whatever was going on with the other two shifters, was loud, but not as loud as his lion roaring out.

“Do it now, Konstantine, before he regains his strength,” Viktor yelled out, and the sound of a gun going off, although muted from a silencer, was the last thing Maverick heard before his lion broke through the haziness of the drugs. Rage churned fast and toxic inside of Maverick. Konstantine chuckled, and before Maverick could even blink he was slicing right into Kettah’s thigh. The strong scent of her blood was immediate, and Maverick knew her femoral artery had been damaged in some way. She screamed and tried to move away, but even from this distance he could tell the hit to the wall had rattled her. He shifted, felt his bones break and realign, felt his skin tear and make way for fur, and then he was standing in front of the male he should have killed a long fucking time ago. Martin charged forward, and right before he got to Maverick he saw Viktor and the other shifter fighting. Maverick didn’t give a fuck on what was going on, because it was going to end tonight. Martin reached him with a snarl on his face and his body in the process of shifting, but Maverick was on him before he changed fully and ripped the fucker’s throat out. He roared out when blood sprayed along his mane. There was another gun that went off, but this time it was the shifter Viktor had been fighting with that went down. Blood started to pool on the floor by his arm. Maverick turned and faced Konstantine, who had since moved away from Kettah during everything.

“What the fuck? What the fuck?” There was almost a panicked quality to Konstantine’s voice. Good. At least the bastard knew he was going to die.

“Control yourself, boy,” Viktor snarled out. “Kill him, son, kill him and be done with it.”

“Father, he is fully shifted—”

Viktor hissed out, and the other Pallas’s cat snapped his mouth shut.

“You’re fucking weak, Konstantine.” Viktor turned and looked at Maverick. “You think you can handle both of us, lion?”

Maverick growled low in his throat and glanced at Kettah. She was alive, but the blood from her wound was a steady flow down her leg. He calculated his next moves, knowing that if he went for Viktor, Konstantine would attack Kettah, and vice versa. Konstantine was closer to his mate. “Come on, lion.” Viktor charged at him at the same time he barked at his son to finish her off.

Maverick ran forward, slammed his shoulder into Viktor, which had him being shoved back toward the open door, and dug his teeth into the fucker’s leg. He growled out and went for his gun, but Maverick clamped his jaw on his forearm, swung his head wildly, and tossed the other male into the hallway. Everything had happened so fast, that when he turned to Konstantine the other male stood there with a horrified look on his face as he watched what had just happened to his father. Maverick had the blood of two men already on him, and he was about to add a third. Konstantine had his knife raised, turned toward Kettah, and was about to go for her throat with a shaky hand. Seemed like the shifter had balls of steel when he had back-up, but now that he was all alone he was ready to shit his fucking pants. Maverick launched himself at Konstantine, and before the other male could even blink he had his teeth latched around his arm, tore the limb clean off, and dropped it to the ground, the knife still clutched in his hand. Konstantine screamed out in pain, but only seconds had passed, and Maverick was wasting time. He attacked, sank his canines into his throat until the sound of crunching bone drowned out his gurgled screaming, and growled low in satisfaction. The cat slumped onto the ground, his eyes not quite lifeless yet as he stared at Maverick. He couldn’t revel in the joy of watching his enemy die because Viktor chose that moment to pull his old and now battered body off the ground to attack. A piercing sensation sliced through Maverick’s front limb, and he roared out. He swung around, tackled the other male, and brought his claws down across his face. Viktor screamed out, tried to grab Maverick’s mane and get supremacy, but he wasn’t faster than the lion. Viktor didn’t dare shift, not unless he wanted to be a snack for the lion. After another attempt to throw him off, Maverick was done with this.