Pack Poisoned, page 28
part #2 of Thrown to the Wolves Series
He’ll heal. He’s going to be good as new, but it might take a few days to recoup.
It means that there’s no way in hell he can climb down or fight. I’m running on fumes, but if I’m dragging him out of here, I can’t tear anyone’s throat out, so we’re going to have to hunker down here for the time being and hope for the best. The others will continue to pick people off, and I have to imagine we’re nearing the last of them by now. They’ll come find us after, and one of them can carry Hunter back to the truck. I just need to hold down the fort until then, tackle any stray threats that stumble across us.
Ignoring my screaming muscles, I rise to my feet, nearly falling again as Hunter shouts in pain. Biting his fist to muffle the sound, his back arches off of the ground, and several barely healed wounds are torn back open by the violent, jerking motion.
Highlighting the blood slowly spreading across his shoulder, and the ring of puncture marks in his shirt from my teeth.
No good deed goes unpunished, I mentally bite, glaring at Hunter like it’s his fault.
Though maybe shifting will help speed up the healing process, so I should be grateful. Hunter loves to criticize everyone else, preferring to handle shit himself. If he can get back into passable condition, then he can at least walk his happy ass out of here, guard our backs since I’m not in the best shape myself. I might not be able to burn someone’s face off, but I should at least be able to help soothe his other half, make the transition a little quicker and easier.
Determined, I take a step closer to him, only for a streak of orange to slip through the bars of the railing beside me and past my feet. My other half snaps to life and violently wrenches control away from me, reacting before I even register baring our teeth and lunging at the thing. But as the small fox begins to expand before my eyes, taking on a few recognizable features, I slam up a mental block between me and my wolf so fast to stop her that I shift back, slamming into the figure standing where the fox was a moment ago.
Completely human, and butt ass naked.
Hastily climbing off of him, I scramble back, bumping into Hunter who hauls me closer with an inhuman snarl that I can’t even be upset by right now, sliding closer to him. “Jonathan?” I whisper, head spinning from... everything. Smoke inhalation, exhaustion, and a heaping fuckton of confusion. I don’t fight Hunter as he yanks his filthy shirt off and shoves it over my head, beyond grateful for any sort of coverage.
Unperturbed by his nudity, Jonathan’s umber eyes are hard, colder than I’ve ever seen them, bright red hair matted to his head and darkened by the rain. “I'm sorry Sabrina, but I can't let you create any more of those abominations. You’re too much of an exposure risk and going to get all of us killed at this rate, undo everything we’ve done to convince humans that we’re nothing more than stories so people like us can finally have lives again.” A flash of sorrow cracks his hardened glare and he swallows. “Reid may hate me, but he’ll understand. After the bullshit his parents pulled, I’m not the only one keeping an eye on Shadow Ridge. If it’s not me, it’ll be someone else, and they’ll likely do a hell of a lot worse to you first. It’s better this way, a mercy.”
I don’t even see the gun he must’ve snagged off of the corpse at his feet until it’s pointed at my face. Hunter barely manages a shout before Jonathan fires, and I brace myself for the explosion of pain.
But it never comes.
Faster than I’ve seen any of them move tonight, one of the lycans hauls himself over the railing of the balcony, unintentionally putting himself in front of me at the perfect moment. The bullet hits him in the stomach, not slowing him down as he advances on his target. In two steps he’s in front of Jonathan, taking his head between both monstrous hands. He doesn’t even flinch as Jonathan fires several more shots into him, jerking his arms and ripping Jonathan’s head clean off of his shoulders with a roar that threatens to shatter my eardrums.
I make eye contact with the severed head that used to be my friend, my stomach tightening and threatening to revolt. There was no regret when I killed people tonight because they were nameless; nothing and no one to me. Their lives impacted me in no way beyond inconvenience, and I came here knowing I’d kill them. I chose that, accepted it, made my peace with it.
Jonathan was my friend, though... up until he tried to kill me, at least. I won’t get any answers of how the hell he could shift into a fox and not one of us ever realized, if he was under the same sort of curse as the rest of us, or simply a shifter like mainstream stories depict.
With this lycan a stone’s throw away and me completely burned out, Hunter half-dead already, I’ll never be able to tell the twins that I was right. That there are others out there, and the wolves’ curse is likely because they’re all so damn self-absorbed.
“Sabrina,” Hunter whispers in the shell of my ear. “I’ll draw its attention, you go for the gun, alright? You can do this.”
Jonathan’s severed head lands with a sickening thud, the rain mixing with his blood to stream closer, my breath hitching as it joins the water pooled beneath us, staining it red. The rest of the blood didn’t faze me, but this isn’t a faceless stranger’s. I knew Jonathan. We spent weeks together, learning each other’s syntax preferences and favorite foods, joking about all of the ways we’d murder Jenna for what she-
Oh my god. Maybe it wasn’t Stonewood setting me up for her death, but him. He was a shifter, yet we had no clue; anything’s possible at this point. He certainly knew enough about us to risk coming here in the middle of a bloodbath just for the opportunity to kill me without being caught, could slink in and out in the chaos. How long has he been circling for the perfect moment to remove me from the equation? To blame my death on someone else and escape unscathed?
The breath rushes from my lungs, and I can’t seem to draw in another. The delivery driver that left the drugged food at my apartment; it was a girl. Maybe it wasn’t to knock me out and abduct me, but actually poisoned... by Jenna. What do you bet she was one of them, too?
“Sabrina!” Hunter hisses, shaking me out of my shocked state and squeezing my shoulder, fingers tightening until they’re sure to leave a series of small bruises.
Unable to speak, I nod rapidly, trying to regain control of my numb limbs, preparing myself to launch into action despite virtually running on empty, my brain disconnected from my body as I process the shock. Desperately, I try to shove it all away for the sake of survival like I’ve always done, but I’m struggling more than I ever have before, staring at Jonathan’s face devoid of life and unable to make sense of it.
He was going to kill me, but not the lycans surrounding us. He really thought that I was more of a monster than the one that killed him.
The lycan turns with a quiet rumble that grows into a growl as he drops onto all fours, slowly stalking forward. It’s a narrow ledge, but there’s enough room that if I’m quick enough, if he’s distracted enough, I should be able to dart past, or worst-case scenario, pray to the tricep gods that I can swing around the handrail...
A pang lances through my chest and I cut off my mental spiral, scanning everything for what set off my internal alarm system. But all that’s around us are rain-soaked corpses, and-
And a familiar set of ice blue eyes.
Staring straight at the monster that’s only a few feet away now, bloody handprints trailing behind him as he stalks closer with his teeth bared, I swallow. “... Reid?”
***
To be continued in Pack Punished
mybook.to/PackPunished
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J. Kearston, Pack Poisoned
