45. Kaycia
Chapter 45
Kaycia
H ow are they all just watching?
Adrenaline floods my veins, making my head swim with panic as I kneel trembling and cold to watch the giant wolves circle in the center of the clearing. They’re lit by what is normally a romantic glow from the string lights, but now it feels sinister. Like I’m watching some sordid cage fight. Colton’s goons blatantly disregard Raquel and me as any kind of threat, focusing on their alpha and Shane preparing for battle.
From the corner of my eye, I watch Raquel across the clearing trying to wake Max. Even though he’s large for a bird, he looks small and broken lying there in the rain. How can someone hold this many worries at one time? It feels like my chest is going to burst.
The man who took my pistol stuffed it in one of the pockets of his leather jacket, too risky for me to try to reach even if I were brave enough. I assume Raquel still has hers. None of Colton’s men have gotten close to her, especially since she has the shotgun propped against the tree next to her and Max. They’re all too focused on the challenge.
I’m useless. Just like they warned me I would be.
I watch Shane’s sister staring intently at the fight. When Shane bites Colton her eyes flare gold and she leans forward before one of the men grabs her shoulder. She shrugs him off with bared teeth and he steps back. Hope springs forth at the sight of Shane gaining the upper hand, but it fades just as quickly when he’s attacked. I can’t help the panicked cry that tears from my throat.
When Colton pins Shane on the muddy ground I begin to shake harder. I’m already cold from the rain, and my adrenaline has faded after the chase and being roughly handled. I worry that I’m going into shock. Will he kill him?
With a terrifying snarl, Lana shifts. She never even takes off her clothing, just tears through it as she changes into a light grey wolf, gold eyes glowing while Colton’s men stare at her. She focuses on Shane, before he tilts his head toward me, then over to Max and Raquel, continuing to struggle. It’s a small relief to see Max back in his human form, naked and shivering under Raquel’s jacket. Any comfort his condition offers dies when I look back to the bloody mess in the yard and hear Shane’s plaintive whine.
Shane meets my gaze again, letting out another whine of pain that cracks my heart in two. Then, with a sudden inhale, he twists his body and throws Colton off him.
“That’s right! Get him, Shane!” Lana is screaming, cheering in her destroyed tee and jeans, fully human once more. She gives a meaningful glance to Raquel, then refocuses on her brother.
Raquel is standing now, her body taut like she’s ready to fight or flee. She cuts her dark eyes toward the man standing next to me, looking between me and the jacket pocket he shoved the pistol in. She can’t possibly think I can get it back from him. I furrow my brow in confusion, but her only communication is to dip her chin once before she reaches toward the shotgun.
Snarling, followed by a shiver-inducing squeal, snap my attention back to Shane and Colton. Shane has Colton pinned, blood running down his shoulder and dripping onto Colton’s fur. He grips Colton’s throat between his jaws and his rival’s eyes roll with terror.
The man at my side is still and silent, wholly consumed by his alpha’s struggle with no ability to help. The others seem to be paralyzed, too, all eyes frozen on the fight. No one but me notices that Raquel is no longer a spectator, or that I have started to creep closer to my captor.
Now that Shane has taken the upper hand, teeth still clamped on Colton’s throat, Colton stops moving. Shane isn’t biting down though, the only blood I see is what’s remaining on their fur from earlier wounds that have begun to knit together. As I edge closer to the man in the leather jacket, taking advantage of his focus on the fight, Colton shifts back to human form.
“I yield,” he rasps, still pinned under Shane’s massive wolf form. Then, louder, he repeats, “I yield.”
Colton’s men deflate at those words. They each take a knee, bringing the shifter next to me close enough for our shoulders to brush against one another.
Shane steps back and shifts, grabbing the wet jeans that Lana tosses to him. He has ragged healing marks on his skin, pink and angry, but there’s no fresh blood anywhere on his naked, bruised body. A relief after watching him and Colton tear at one another so viciously. The men keep their heads bowed while he struggles to pull the wet denim over himself.
But Colton doesn’t.
He has retreated to his clothing as well, and I watch in disbelief as he pulls the pistol from the pile and aims at Shane.
Without another thought, my hand is in the man’s pocket next to me, pulling the revolver from it, scrambling to my feet, and aiming at Colton.
“Shane! Watch out!” I cry. He snaps his attention to me, then pivots toward Colton as I fire.
A second shot echoes through the trees a breath later and I can’t hold back my scream.