Lowlander Silverback(32)

“No, Rhett. I don’t care about getting in your head, and I don’t care if you betray anyone. Your life is over after tonight. Can you hear your heartbeat pounding in your chest? I can. Enjoy it now because the sound won’t last for long. Listen,” Kong said on a breath. Even over the breeze of the oncoming storm, he could make it out. “Bum-bum, bum-bum. So fast. So scared because you can see it in my eyes. Your death is coming, and I’m the grim fucking reaper.”

Rhett’s smile stretched his face into something feral. “A challenge from the mighty Kong?”

Kong dipped his chin once.

“All over a human. Did you know,” Rhett said, pulling his shirt over his head, “old Mac knew why I was there the second I slipped in his window? He tried to yell for help but I was faster.”

Kong shook his head, warding off the black inky tendrils of rage that were pushing against his insides. “Stop it.”

“He yelled under the pillow. Little. Pathetic. Human sounds. I took a picture for Fiona. She likes to see bodies.”

Kong’s skin exploded with a ripping sound and a volley of cracking bones that echoed across the clearing. He slammed his oversize fists against the ground, shaking the earth. Rhett’s silverback burst from him and charged. Kong beat his chest, the sound popping like a drum before he lowered to all fours and ran for Rhett.

He was going to bleed him, rip him, kill him for hurting his mate. For hurting Mac. They clashed with a force of an eighteen-wheeler head-on collision. This wasn’t posturing like so many gorilla battles were. This wasn’t beating the chest and circling before one decided he was beat on dominance alone and slunk away. This was a rip-roaring, bloodletting, fur-ripping, skin-hacking, body-beating battle to the grave. The woods were filled with the death chants of their roaring.

Kong hacked at him with his long, razor-sharp teeth, beating Rhett with his arms, pummeling him toward the trees. Rhett turned and swung from a low branch to buy time, but Kong was right on him. On the ground or in the trees, it made no difference. Rhett would breathe his last breath tonight for what he’d taken from Layla.

The beast Kong didn’t think, wasn’t careful, didn’t calculate. Rhett had raised the monster within him, and now he’d have to deal with the consequences. No chance for control, he let his gorilla have his mind. Rhett was on the run now. Kong could see fear in his eyes when he looked behind him to see how close Kong was. He swung from branch to branch, higher and higher, but the canopy wouldn’t save him. A thick branch cracked under the force as Kong launched himself toward Rhett. His body crashed into the silverback, who screamed as his fingers brushed and missed his next branch. They tumbled to the forest floor and slammed onto the unforgiving ground. Kong reared up and roared, exposing his long canines so that Rhett could see his end coming, then he slammed his hands down. Rhett went limp under the force of his fists, but movement through the trees said this wasn’t over yet.

He smelled them then, Ivan and Gordon. His own personal nightmares. The silverbacks who had taken such pleasure in carrying out Fiona’s task of breaking him and threatening his mother. They were here for round two.

Ivan was Changed already, but Gordon was still human, and he was smiling in the blue moonlight. “Very good, Kong.”

Kong lifted his lip and charged a few steps. A warning. Back off or you’re next.

“Fiona will be glad to see how far you’ve come.”

Gordon reeked of dominance. The smell raised the short hairs on the back of Kong’s thick neck.

“We’re here to bring you in.” Gordon tossed a look at Rhett’s body, then flicked his attention back to Kong. “Fiona thought Rhett wouldn’t be able to neutralize you by himself, and Kirk is next to worthless. It seems our wise leader was right. Come on, boy. Your destiny awaits.”

“Fuck you,” Kong said in a growly, inhuman voice, a voice that was marred by his animal vocal cords.

Gordon’s eyes tightened as Ivan paced beside him, his clenched fists punching the earth. “Don’t do this again. Remember the last time you fought your title? So much agony. So much blood.”

Slowly, Kong stepped over Rhett’s body and lifted his head, puffing out his chest as he stood ready. His lips twitched with rage as he glared down the shifters who had stolen his freedom.

Whether he liked it or not, this was the moment Kong chose. This wasn’t just about avenging Mac anymore. This was the moment he declared Layla was his and cut himself off from his people completely. There would be no chance at redemption in Fiona’s eyes if he killed her prized enforcers.