Chapter Seventeen
Joanna
“Where is that motherfuckin’ dog you abominations call Alpha?” James hollered. His voice cut through the crying and screams as the werewolves scrambled away from the green canisters spraying wolfsbane into the air.
Marcus drew in a long breath and shielded his eyes with his forearm. He ran up to one of the three canisters and kicked it through a shattered windowpane.
As James pulled his gas mask over his head, Marcus dashed to the next canister when he began coughing. Maya started after him, but I grabbed her shirt.
“You’re next in line if something happens to him.” Despite her protests, I held my breath and pushed her out of my way, running toward the last canister.
My eyes watered as I approached it. Even with my mouth closed, the poison tried to seep into my pores, my ears, my nostrils. I grabbed the canister and threw it toward my comrades.
Knowing it wouldn’t cross the threshold, I snatched an arrow from my quiver and shot at the canister. My magic guided the arrow through its cap, propelling it and its wolfsbane through the broken glass.
I squeezed my eyes shut trying to quell the burn and dropped to my knees, gasping for air.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Marcus demanded through coughs from beside me. I heard him drop in front of me. “Joanna, are you okay?”
“Joey!” James was choking now. He must’ve taken off his mask. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he exclaimed, as if scolding a hunter. “You don’t have a clear shot, jackass. And if you hit Joey, I’ll end you myself.” His order to me followed right after. “Joanna, come out now!”
“Of course she’s here.” Malik’s voice. “That’s how badly he’s fucked with her head.”
“Shut the hell up, Malik,” I mumbled. I brushed off Marcus’s hands and rose to my feet on my own. I blinked a few times and had to rub my eyes before I could finally keep them open.
Grace appeared at our side, one of her long, jet-black goddess braids unraveling while she spoke. “What are your friends doing, Joey?” she whispered. “Do they think we’ll keep the device for ourselves?”
In that moment, I realized I had no clue what Marcus told his warriors to explain why he’d returned to the compound without me.
“The cloner’s already on its way to the Bureau, Grace,” I said with a small smile.
Grace didn’t give me one in return; instead, her worried gaze flicked between me and her alpha.
I peered through the shattered glass. “I’m coming out, James. Are you going to shoot me?”
James huffed from up ahead.
I nodded at Grace and turned to leave when Marcus suddenly grabbed my arm. “Let go of me,” I grated out.
He searched my eyes for any hint that he could persuade me to stay and found none. With a pitiful sigh, he dropped his hand.
“James, I swear to you. If any of you shoots the Alpha while I am walking toward you, I will kill them and never speak to you again. Do you understand?”
James blew out an annoyed sigh.
Glass crunched beneath my combat boots as I marched forward, keeping my chin high.
But I must admit, as I approached the group of hunters, my heart drummed in my ears.
These people were my colleagues. We all bore the same hunter’s mark.
But I was probably the only one who’d disgraced hers so royally… And now I faced judgement.
I pushed open the double doors and swallowed at the sight of about thirty hunters removing their gas masks and throwing them to the ground. Most of them fought beside us in the warehouse… That stung like hell.
I soon spotted Greg, the asshole with the silver chain, who’d critically injured one of Maya’s warriors that night. And hiding behind a tall Black hunter with a high top was Rebecca, her red hair blowing in the wind as she avoided my gaze.
James stood with both thumbs hooked into the front of his waistband. “Are you hurt?”
“You mean after you sent wolfsbane flying into the building?” I growled.
“I didn’t know you were in there, Joanna.”
With my bow, I gestured toward the crowd.
“Do they know why they’re here?” My eyes darted from one hunter to another.
“You’re here to fight the pack that has only ever helped us.
Did those two explain that part?” I nodded toward James and Malik.
“That it’s because of Blackwood and his warriors that the Bureau has a list of all the supporters of the uprising, which they’ll use to take them down? ”
A low rumble of whispers dispersed through the crowd.
“Did they admit to you the reason they’re risking your lives is because they don’t approve of my fucking the Alpha?” I threw up my hands exaggeratedly. “But can you blame me? I mean ladies, take a good look at him.”
“Joanna,” Marcus warned.
I prayed to God that my flippant remarks would wedge some doubt between the hunters, and I smiled when it seemed to work. Behind James, the whispers grew into a dull roar as hunters faced their neighbors, questioning if it was all for nothing.
“He’s gotten her pregnant,” James snarled in disgust.
Quick gasps from every direction ceased the murmurs with an embarrassing retribution.
“Fuck you, James.”
Where I expected to see pain etched onto James’s face was instead a cold nothingness. His lips formed a thin line. His blue eyes were as dark as the ocean’s Abyss. “You’re no longer walking toward me, Joanna.” James whipped out his gun and fired above my shoulder.
I spun in time to see Marcus had dodged the bullet.
“Warriors!” Maya yelled.
The werewolves shifted into their beast forms, their muscles rippling beneath their skin—bodies contorting with raw power. They sprinted forward, jumping through the large windows, teeth snapping and ready to draw blood.
Marcus’s amber eyes burned with anticipation.
Look at me, I begged silently.
His gaze cut to me, and I gasped in disbelief.
He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes.
I composed myself and shook my head, begging him to spare the humans crashing into me as they charged toward his pack.
He read the plea on my face, saw it in my eyes…
but then he smirked and let his wolf take over.
Shit. He’d given his wolf complete control. He was going to make good on his threat to kill my comrades… this family that I’d built with James.
Unless I stopped them all.
I stuck out my arm, and a hunter crashed into it, falling to the ground. “Sorry,” I mumbled when she glanced up at me, stunned. I took out my knife and hit her hard upside the head with the handle, knocking her out.
Another hunter had seen what I’d done. He lunged at me with his knife in the air. I side-stepped as he swung down, jumping onto his back and pulling my bow against his throat.
He flailed his arms as his lungs screamed for air, and while I focused on keeping the blade of his knife from my face, he caught me in the leg. I clenched my teeth but refused to let up, and soon he fell to the ground unconscious.
The sound of a gunshot echoed through the air.
I scanned the chaos for the source of the following yelp and saw a hunter looming over a werewolf, about to go for the kill.
I sprinted to the hunter and slid to the ground, kicking his feet from beneath him.
He landed hard on the concrete while I caught the gun that flew from his hand.
I slammed the butt of the gun against his head. Lights out.
Another shot cut through the noise, and a werewolf dropped to his knees. Two more, and another werewolf tried to crawl away, leaves clinging to her wet fur.
Another shot.
This had to stop. I stared at the gun in my hands and inhaled, filling my lungs until my head grew light and I heard my heartbeat in my ears. Like butterflies, tiny orbs of my aura swirled around me, awaiting their command.
Siste. Stop.
I focused hard on the metal, squeezing until my palms turned red.
Siste. Stop.
Another shot. Another yelp.
I took the risk and closed my eyes, diverting all my strength to the words swimming in my mind. Siste.
Click… Click. Click.
“What the hell?” a hunter cried out.
“Yours too?” another replied.
I opened my eyes and smiled.
I threw the useless gun on the ground and scanned the area for Marcus, James, and Malik. Thankfully, they hadn’t reached each other yet. That meant I still had time to end this.
I winced and checked the cut on my leg. It wasn’t deep, but it burned like a bitch. Biting the inside of my cheeks, I ran behind a werewolf about to snap a hunter’s neck and pulled out my knife.
He howled in pain as I slit both of his Achilles tendons.
“You’ll heal,” I muttered, turning my gaze to the young hunter. “I saved your life and am asking you to walk away… or I’ll have to claim it for myself.”
The girl dipped her head in submission, her eyes wide.
I soon found Maya in the crowd. “Maya,” I called out. “You don’t owe me anything, but please, try and spare them.”
Her wolf eyes glowed with apology.
…How many hunters did I lose already?
I shook off the self-doubt and returned to impeding humans and werewolves from killing each other—but that had its consequences.
The werewolves avoided me, fearing their alpha’s revenge. But the hunters landed their blows. The jamming spell made me exhausted. And at that point, I couldn’t even tell where some of the blood was seeping from.
I’d stopped another werewolf and knocked out the hunter who refused to let her be, when dread whispered in my ear.
James and Malik had finally cornered Marcus—and he was smiling about it.
I prepared to rush toward them when a chain suddenly snaked around my neck.
I dropped my bow, my hands darting to the chain. My fingers wrapped around the cold silver, preventing it from restricting my airflow. The quiver fell as if someone had cut it off my back, and the tip of a knife rested above my belly button. My hands stilled.
“Go ahead, protégé,” Greg whispered in my ear. “Scream for your beast.”
How did I let him sneak up on me? “Go to hell, you old fuck.”
He pushed the knife into my skin, and a nervous cry escaped my lungs.