29. Havoc #2
Because once, that's exactly what I would have done. Unleashed Monster.
Let him tear through everything.
But I have something now that I didn't have then.
Them.
“I won't.”
“You promise?”
I bring her hand to my chest. Right over my heart.
“I have too much to come home to.”
Her face crumples.
“Rowan.”
I kiss her.
Not hungry. Not sexual. Just hard and deep enough to make a promise I don't have the words for.
Then I pull away.
“I'm bringing our boy home.”
She presses her forehead to mine.
“We're bringing him home.”
Fuck.
Yes. Emotions pound through me, and if someone asked me right then I’d swear my heart beats for this woman. I live for her.
My mate.
My Omega.
I nod once.
“We're bringing him home.”
Twenty minutes later, we're at the trailhead. Wreck is already somewhere in the trees.
I can't see him. And that’s good.
Justin is nowhere in sight either, which means the Dragon is airborne and cloaked. Which is even better.
Gabby stands in front of me. She looks small against the fucking mountain.
Soft.
Curvy.
Beautiful.
Mine.
But I know better now than to mistake softness for weakness. This woman escaped an entire Wake with a baby in her belly.
She's survived years of fear. Worked herself half to death to protect her son.
And now she's walking back toward the male who terrorized her because Matteo needs his mother.
Fuck anyone who ever called my mate weak.
I adjust the small radio clipped beneath her flannel.
“One tap if you can't talk.”
She nods.
“Two if you see Matteo.”
“Okay.”
“Three if—”
“Rowan.”
“What?”
She reaches up and cups my face.
“You're stalling.”
“Damn fucking straight.”
“I have to go.”
Every cell in my body screams no. Monster claws at me.
Mate stays.
“We follow.”
Mate stays.
“We protect.”
Mate—
“She chose this.”
That shuts him up. Because that's the fucking point, isn't it?
Gabriella chooses.
Always.
I kiss her forehead.
Then her lips.
One last stolen second.
“Eyes on me whenever you can.”
“I will.”
“And Honey Girl?”
She looks up.
“If that bastard touches you—”
Her mouth twitches despite the fear in her eyes.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
My canines lengthen.
“He's mine.”
She takes one step backward. Then another.
Our hands remain linked until distance finally pulls her fingers from mine.
The matebond stretches between us.
Hot.
Alive.
Terrified.
Trusting.
Gabby turns away. Then she starts walking up the main trail.
I wait five seconds.
Longest five fucking seconds of my life.
Every instinct inside me screams to go after her immediately.
Mate.
Protect.
But five seconds gives Gabby the distance she needs to make this look real. Five seconds keeps Ethan’s attention on the woman he thinks is walking helplessly into his trap instead of the fucking nightmare following her through the trees.
One.
Two.
Three.
By four, Monster is clawing at the inside of my skin.
Five.
Go.
I disappear into the trees.
Once I’m safely beneath the cover of the forest, I strip naked and let Monster rise.
My change is swift.
Violent but painless.
I hardly feel it anymore.
It happens from one step to the next.
Skin becomes fur.
Hands and feet become enormous clawed paws.
My spine lengthens. My shoulders broaden. Bones crack and reform while my jaw pushes forward and my senses explode outward.
Then Monster takes his next step.
My Wolf isn’t something you’d see at a fucking zoo.
Hell, most Wolves would take one look at me and know something about my beast is fundamentally different.
Wrong, some might say.
Monstrous.
He’s huge. Nearly seven feet tall when fully upright, with powerful hind legs built to run on all fours when speed demands it, but Monster prefers two.
Always has.
It makes him look less like a natural Wolf and more like something dragged straight out of an old nightmare.
Long canines protrude from my lupine muzzle.
My claws sink silently into the damp forest floor.
Power bunches through every muscle.
And yet for something this fucking big?
I’m stealthy.
Monster was born to hunt.
The forest changes around me as my Wolf senses take over.
I hear Gabby’s footsteps on the trail.
The accelerated beat of her heart.
Her breathing.
I smell her fear, sharp and bitter beneath the warm woodsmoke-and-autumn scent that belongs only to my Honey Girl.
The matebond pulses.
I’m here.
She can’t hear the words.
But I push everything I can through our connection.
You are not alone.
A branch moves overhead.
I don’t look up.
I don’t need to.
Justin.
The Dragon owns the sky.
Somewhere across the trail, I catch another familiar scent.
Bear.
Wreck.
Good.
The Alpha Bear is moving parallel to us through the forest, keeping enough distance that Ethan won’t catch his scent before we want him to.
Three predators.
One target.
But this isn’t about the hunt.
Not yet.
Matteo first.
Monster agrees.
Pup.
The word nearly destroys whatever control I have left.
My fucking pup.
Some bastard has his hands on the little boy who steals my fries and counts my swear words. The kid who leaves dinosaurs all over my cabin and thinks Justin should breathe fire on command.
The boy who looked at me like becoming part of his world was the most natural fucking thing imaginable.
Ethan threatened him.
Monster’s lips peel away from his teeth.
No sound escapes.
Good.
Silent.
Focused.
Deadly.
Ahead of me, my mate walks toward the male who thinks he owns her.
Above us, a Dragon owns the sky.
Across the trail, a hybrid Bear stalks silently through the forest.
And hidden among the trees, the monster I spent most of my life fearing has finally found something worth unleashing him for.
My family.
Ethan of the Suicide Cliff Wake has absolutely no fucking idea what is closing in around him.