voice immediately. He’d never forget it. Jake was one of the members of his pack who had beaten the living shit out of Christian.
“Hello, Jake.” Christian walked farther into the building. Getting closer to where Jake was, he could see the other two members who had been in on his beating.
“You actually came alone.” Jake sneered. “You fucking moron.”
“You said come alone or Owen died,” Christian replied and tried not to cry out when Owen was dragged into view by Mike and Liam, also pack members who had participated in Christian’s beating. His little mate was tied up and gagged, and blood dripped from his nose. “I’m here, let him go.”
“Yeah, right,” Mike said, rolling his eyes. “We kidnapped a human who’s going to witness us killing you. Yeah, we’ll let him go when hell freezes over.”
“Let him go now before you kill me,” Christian begged. “He won’t see anything then.”
Just then, something clawed up the front of Liam, who was holding Owen. Wanting to take advantage of their surprise, Christian shifted as fast as he could and leaped at Mike. Mike had been especially brutal when they had beaten him. Payback was going to be a bitch.
Mike didn’t even have time to shift before Christian was on him. He gave two strong swipes of his claws over Mike’s face to temporarily incapacitate him before turning toward Jake. Unfortunately, Jake had enough time to shift into a wolf, and he was ready for Christian.
“Get Owen out of here, NOW,” Christian growled to Constantine through their mental link. He wanted to see where his little mate was, but he couldn’t turn his back on Jake. The man was by far the most vicious of the three men.
Seeing Jake was about to spring at him, Christian did the same. They met in the air crashing into each other hard. Christian ignored the pain of the wounds Jake was inflicting, fighting for his life and to protect his mates.
Somewhere in the middle of claws and blood flying everywhere, Jake was lifted into the air and was thrown across the room. Christian only then looked to see Owen standing by the door, still bound and gagged, but otherwise out of harm’s way.
“Shift back and get Owen free,” Constantine told Christian in a voice that wasn’t quite Constantine ’s as he shimmered into sight. “I’ll take care of this trash.”
Christian had grown up around wolves who could take their third werewolf form. He was used to it so he wasn’t surprised by Constantine ’s appearance. Christian guessed Owen wasn’t used to it, though, when he saw the man’s eyes practically bug out of his head.
“Are you okay, Constantine ?” Christian asked after he shifted back to human form and dropped to his knees from the pain overwhelming him.
“I’m fine. They never even touched me. Can you get up and get to the truck with Owen?” Constantine asked. “You’re not looking so good there, mate.”
“I’m fine.” He stood slowly, then hobbled to Owen. The first thing he did when he got to his little mate was remove the gag. “Are you okay, baby? I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.”
“I’m okay, Christian,” Owen, hands still tied behind his back, said before kissing Christian on the mouth. “I could never hate you. You came to rescue me, fought to save me. This wasn’t your fault, and I hope you killed them all.”
“This would never have happened to you if not for me,” Christian said, trying to hold back his tears while he freed Owen’s hands. He helped Owen up and guided him toward the door. Once they walked outside, Owen wrapped an arm around Christian’s waist to help him. “I’m so sorry, Owen. I can’t even begin tell you how sorry I am.”
“It’s not your fault,” Owen answered again. “I’m just in awe at how fast you shifted like that. I mean I knew you guys were werewolves, but I’ve never seen it. And Constantine was invisible in there, right? I mean I think I heard him, but I couldn’t see
Lisa Shearin
David Horscroft
Anne Blankman
D Jordan Redhawk
B.A. Morton
Ashley Pullo
Jeanette Skutinik
James Lincoln Collier
Eden Bradley
Cheyenne McCray