38. Kane #2
There’s the sound of a distant explosion from somewhere downstairs. These guys aren’t amateurs if they’re using shit like explosives.
Our security systems we have are top of the line, but they’re still home defense. Home defense isn’t traditionally made to stand up to explosives.
I throw a punch. I’m pretty sure my knuckles split open .
Fuck, I should’ve had a gun stored closer to my bed. Maybe under my pillow. I used to sleep like that for years before I finally felt safe.
I bite the inside of my cheek, tasting blood. I’m not the little kid I was when the rioters killed my parents.
I’m grown. I’m strong. I’m capable.
I have to protect Luna.
“Kane! Watch out!” Luna cries out.
Everything happens in slow motion. I jerk my gaze away from the alpha underneath me and see Luna running.
Running straight towards the other alpha with a gun aimed right at me.
Bang.
The crack of gunfire makes my ears ring.
Luna stumbles to the floor. Her blood splatters all over the carpet.
I see red.
The red of her blood. The red of my parent’s blood. The red blood of these fuckers when I’m done with them.
I lose control. The roar that leaves my chest makes my throat feel raw. I’m pretty sure I snap the neck of the guy underneath me with a quick and savage twist before lunging for the bastard that shot Luna.
My Luna. My omega.
More red flows onto the carpets, except this time, it’s the blood of my enemies. I don’t feel the pain of my fists crunching against bone. I don’t feel anything other than the burning fury that’s threatening to swallow me whole.
There are more explosions in the background, but everything sounds muffled. Like I’m underwater. Like I’m not real. Like this is all a fucked and twisted nightmare.
More men start appearing in the room. I don’t fucking care. I just tear them all apart .
“Kane!” Luna’s voice is the only thing that cuts through my fog. “Kane stop, they’re dead!”
I blink, trying to clear away the red from my vision. But then I realize that everything around me is red from the blood of the man underneath me.
My gaze immediately jerks to Luna, who’s curled up against the foot of my bed, clutching at her arm. Her blood drips down from the bullet wound and onto the carpet.
“Oh thank god,” She sniffles, wiping away some of her tears with her good shoulder. “I thought you couldn’t hear me. You—you were lost. You weren’t responding to me.”
I blink, trying to clear my vision. Bodies litter the ground around me. I count seven.
Fuck. I’m going to vomit. I dig my hands into my forehead, feeling the need to rip my skin off.
I’m a monster. I’m a fucking monster.
“Kane, look at me,” Luna chokes out.
“I’m sorry,” I croak out, my voice strained. “I’m—I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Kane,” Luna says, offering me a strained smile. “You protected me. Those crazy guys are dead now.”
I stare down at my trembling hands. The hands stained red with blood. Blood I barely even remember spilling.
The face of the corpse I’m straddling isn’t even recognizable. If someone were to identify him, they’d have to go for dental records, and even then, half of his teeth are probably knocked out, scattered on the blood soaked carpet around us. It’s the same with all the other corpses around me.
I throw myself off the corpse I’m on top of, pressing my back against the wall. The world is hazy around the edges. I can’t get enough air.
“I—I didn’t protect you. You—you’re shot.” I scrub my hands down my face. The smell of blood is driving me crazy .
Rubbing my blood soaked hands all over my face probably isn’t helping either.
We both freeze when the door to my bedroom swings open.
“Kane? Angel?”
I deflate when I hear Madden’s voice. He enters my bedroom, his handgun drawn and aimed at the floor. His hair is wild and sticking up in all directions. It looks like he was asleep when these bastards broke into our home too.
“Fuck! What happened?” His face goes pale when he sees the carnage of the room.
My throat closes as I look at what I did and my heart feels like it’s too big for my chest.
“I—I lost control,” I croak out.
I barely even remember it. I’m a monster. Nothing has changed since when I was a kid.
“Hey,” Luna says softly, her voice a soothing balm for my frayed nerves. “It’s okay. You only did what you had to do to protect us.”
“Yeah, man, this isn’t your fault,” Madden says, coming over to me and squeezing my shoulder.
His eyes dart between mine as if he’s trying to assess how much of my sanity I still have. The answer is a lot less than I’d like.
I shake my head.
“Luna got hurt because of me.”
I’m not even an effective monster. If I were, Luna wouldn’t be hurt right now.
“What?” Madden jerks back and stares at Luna. I guess with so much blood in the room, he didn’t notice how the blood dripping down from her arm is her own.
“I—I was shot,” she says, trying to laugh, her voice strained with pain.
“Fuck,” Madden hisses under his breath. He steps over a couple of the corpses and makes his way to Luna, who’s still curled up, leaning against the foot of my bed. “Let me take a look, Angel. I have to see how bad it is.”
His hands tremble as he reaches out.
She winces as she pulls away her hand. I wish I could see how bad it is, but my entire body is still shaky. I don’t know if I can stand just yet.
Madden whips off his t-shirt and wraps it around her shoulder, trying to stop the blood. “It’s a clean shot through. You don’t have the bullet still in you.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” She asks, wincing at the pressure.
“Yes.” Madden swallows hard. “It’s as good of a bullet wound as a bullet wound can be.”
Guilt sits heavy on my chest. Why can’t I breathe? I can kill seven men without blinking but I can’t get air into my lungs?
How in the world could I have let Luna get hurt?
“Kane,” Luna calls out softly. “I can see what you’re thinking. Stop it. It’s not your fault.”
“No, I failed you, you got hurt because of me?—”
“No, actually, I got hurt because I decided to jump between you and the guy with the gun. I’d say that’s my fault,” Luna says.
“You what ?” Madden hisses.
Luna winces.
“Yeah, not smart, I know. I just didn’t know what else to do. The guy was going to shoot Kane.” She turns back to me. “And again, it’s not your fault. It’s the fault of the crazy people trying to kill us.”
My jaw clenches and I bare my teeth in a snarl. “Whoever dares attack you. Attack the pack house. They’re dead. I vow it. When I get my hands on them?—”
Another explosion rocks the house and I clench my hands into fists by my side. Sitting here and freaking the fuck out won’t do anything to help us get out of this situation.
I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. When I open my eyes, my hands feel less shaky .
“What does it look like outside?”
“Bad. This is a planned attack,” Madden glances at the corpses in the room, pursing his lips. “I think they’re after Luna.”