Beautiful Moves (Shifting Steel Book 3)(65)

Ella stared at him stoically as she rose off the floor. The walls began to shake when the final floodgate on her curse fell. The violent tremors grew, knocking the men to the floor. The plaster and stone veneer on the walls came crashing down, only to be swept up in the swirling maelstrom.

Drake’s eyes widened as he suddenly understood the error of his ways. The jackal made a futile attempt to back down the aisle, but he was pinned by the unseen hand of vengeance.



Wolf

“The jackals followed Ella into the theater,” Cain reported to everyone. “But we’ve got a problem, the casino’s starting to shake like it’s having a seizure.”

“Ella!” Wolf heard Char cry in distress. “I’m going in there.”

“His men are trying to get out of there, but you want to go in?” Cain yelled through the earpiece.

Wolf ignored the pain in his chest and stomach as he ran into the hotel lobby.

“She might calm down if she sees me,” Char said.

“We’ve got your back then,” Vick replied.

“Get out of my way,” Tony snarled.

Wolf heard the scuffle in his ear, as the jackals attempted to prevent his pack from reaching Ella.

“It’s your funeral,” one of the guards yelled, giving up the fight.

Wolf grunted as he made his way through the casino. The last of the guests and employees didn’t care if they knocked into him as they fled. Wolf forced open the rattling theater doors. He briefly glanced at Char and the guys. They were tucked against the back wall, attempting to avoid the churning chaos.

Wolf’s eyes swung to the stage, and he was instantly riveted to the sight of Ella. She was a vision unlike any he’d ever seen. Ella hovered twenty feet in the air. Her long auburn hair was swept back, suspended in a wild halo, as all around her whipped a vortex of debris.

Her hands were outstretched, palms up, in a gesture of supplication. Ella’s head tilted to the side, her expression placid as she gazed upon the doomed soul standing at her feet. She was an angel, beautiful and pure, awesome and terrifying.

The power radiating from Ella, pressed against Wolf, crushing the breath from his lungs. Still he fought to reach her, ducking the debris careening through the air. Wolf wasn’t the only one attempting to get to Ella. The fucking jackal alpha stood in the eye of the storm. But he wasn’t going anywhere.

Wolf watched in smug satisfaction as Drake dropped to his knees under the weight of Ella’s immense power. The bastard bellowed, and shook with impotent rage, his fangs gnashing. But the invisible force tore at the jackal without mercy or reprieve.

Wolf stared in horror and awe as the skin began to rip from the jackal’s body, starting at his outstretched hand and working up his arm. Muscle and sinew were revealed, layer by agonizing layer, followed by bone, which crumbled to nothing as Ella laid waste to her tormentor.

“Wolf, no,” Char screamed in horror, when she looked away from the nightmare, to see Wolf’s struggling forward.

“She needs me,” he snarled.

“You can’t. Look what she’s doing.”

“I know, Sis.” Wolf calmly smiled back at Char, despite the chaos.

Ella had lost herself to a force Wolf could barely fathom. She saved him. Now, it was his turn to save her. No one else could do it. And it had to happen soon. The hotel was starting to come down around them.

Wolf battled against Ella’s immense strength, putting one foot in front of the other. He looked down and noticed he was bleeding again, but pressed forward any way. His wolf surfaced giving him strength, until he finally got to the point where he couldn’t go any further. The stinging, suffocating, sensation of Ella’s gift was too much.

Wolf watched what remained of Drake explode and whip violently around the theater. Yet still Ella raged out of control. He had to reach her somehow.

Wolf took a deep breath.

“Hey, Princess,” he bellowed with as much force as he could muster, his beast tinging his voice.

Ella turned blank eyes toward him. Their beautiful hazel depths suddenly filled with sorrow.

“I’m sorry he killed you,” Ella mumbled, torment twisting her beautiful face.

The despair she felt manifest in her power, and Wolf felt it grip his heart. It was as emotionally painful as it was physical.

“Beautiful, I’m not dead. You saved me. But you gotta calm down. I’m here to take you home,” Wolf called out to the woman he loved, trying to break through the nightmare she was trapped in.

“Wolf?” Her brow furrowed as she blinked. The power eased to a low roar, and all the churning debris crashed to the floor, as Ella stared at him in confusion. “Wolf, your face.”