Despite the fact it was a warm day, cold crept into her core. Her teeth chattered as she stared at the maniac standing in front of her.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I was hoping you'd ask me that." Jake walked around her like a predatory beast. "I'm going to lure Sebastian here and make him bow to me…then I'm going to murder you and his baby right before his eyes. I'll sink my teeth into him as he screams your name."
"You can't." Emmy was sick. Not Sebastian. Not her baby.
"I can and I will." He drew nearer, drinking up her fear as if it was an elixir. "And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."
Emmy flinched as Jake drew nearer, yet that only made him lean in closer and sniff her hair. After he breathed in her scent, he released her.
"But why?" She didn't understand how anyone could be so cruel.
The grin on Jake's face became twisted. Repulsive. She didn't want to look at him, yet she feared that if she looked away, he might strike her down.
"Do you know who my father was?" Jake's crazy eyes remained trained on her.
"No." How would she know that?
His eyes hardened as he ran his hand down her shoulder. "The pack Alpha. I always knew that it was my destiny to follow in his footsteps. It's not unusual for the Alpha's child to gain control over the pack."
She noted that Jake's gaze dropped to her stomach as he spoke, and she wrapped her hands around her waist to protect her baby. "Still, that doesn't explain why you're going to kill me."
"Oh, but it does. You see, Sebastian was chosen to lead the pack instead of me." Jake grabbed a fistful of her hair. "He went behind my back and stole the Alpha position. The spot was supposed to be mine and nobody else's. But no, he had to be a conniving ass."
Jake yanked at her hair, making her scream in pain.
"You're hurting me." Tears filled her eyes.
In his insanity, Jake ignored her pain. "The Alpha position is still destined to be mine. All I have to do is take down Sebastian. That's why I'm doing this."
"No." Her eyes widened.
"Yes." He yanked at her hair again. "Unfortunately, killing him is harder than I imagined. The little shit has many allies, and I can't seem to touch him. But then I found out about you and you're pregnancy. At that moment, I put my plan in action. All I had to do was distract him long enough to kidnap you. Then after I lure him here, you know what happens next."
Jake's eyes glistened maniacally as he looked down at her stomach.
Her eyes narrowed in fury. "Don't you dare hurt my baby."
"Whether you like it or not, the Alpha's baby has to die," Jake said. "And so do you."
The words were enough to make her weak in the knees from terror. If Jake hadn't been holding her from behind, she would have toppled to the cement.
"How can you be so heartless?" She was desperate to save her baby, and at that moment, she would have done anything to convince Jake to let her go. "I'm carrying an innocent child."
"I don't give a rat's ass about your baby," Jake said.
The man spoke so callously that she knew he was telling the truth. Jake wouldn't feel remorse if the blood of an innocent was spilled.
At the thought of his heartlessness, vomit crawled up her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut and hacked. Finally, Jake released her hair, allowing her to fall to the floor. Puke spilled from her lips, causing a slimy lake to flood the floor. Though Jake wrinkled his nose, he grinned at the sight of her trembling form.
"I love how scared you are." Jake bent over her, grinning.
"You're sick." Emmy spit in his face.
Despite Jake's fast reflexes, he wasn't expecting her to spit at him. Howling, the man recoiled as if she'd doused him with acid. When he blinked the spit away, he narrowed his eyes in rage and she knew she'd made a mistake. The man seized her by her hair and dragged her to her feet.
"If I wasn't saving the show for Sebastian, I'd beat that baby out of you," he growled. "I guess I'll just have to settle for a little less for now."
Snarling, Jake slapped her across the face. When his palm struck her cheek, she saw white and her skin stung. She screamed, falling to the floor for the second time.
As she lay on the cool cement, Jake seized her by her shirt and hauled her up to face him once more. The smell of his breath was foul as if he spent his evenings chewing on rotting flesh. Even though his features didn't change, her stomach twisted with disgust. He was a monster, even while in his human form. At that moment, she remembered what Sebastian had said: "There are bad humans who want to hurt people. There are also bad werewolves. The shift doesn't change who we are inside. Jake is always a monster no matter what form he's in." And she realized that Sebastian had been right. Jake was a monster no matter what he looked like. At the same time, that meant that Sebastian had never been her enemy. Even when they first met, he'd gone out of his way to protect her.