I stayed still, letting him attack me head on until the last second. I dropped and shifted my weight to the side even as my side screamed in protest. But the move paid off.
He tripped, trying to chase me to the ground as I ducked, and exposed his throat.
I didn’t hesitate to turn my head and clamp my teeth on the underside of his throat. Wrenching my head to the side, I dragged him down with me into the dirt and rolled him under my body.
With a whine, his legs kicked, struggling to find any kind of traction, but all he found was empty air until I released him and stepped back.
I could have ripped his throat out. Maybe I should have, but I wasn’t done playing with him yet. He didn’t get to check out of this fight so fast.
Skye had spent years being tortured and bullied by him. If I could pay him back a fraction of that pain in the next few minutes by dragging this fight out, then I happily would.
Cassian got to his feet, slower. His eyes blinked into focus, but he didn’t attack me again. He knew what I was doing. He knew he had lost.
The only question was how long I would let him suffer.
I pushed off, using the muscles of my back legs to attack him again, this time rounding on his right side. I bit his shoulder, tearing the muscle to the bone.
He retaliated by biting my shoulder, but there was little force behind the movement. His throat had lost a lot of its muscle and power when I sank my fangs into it before. At best he scratched me with his teeth before I twisted away.
I didn’t give him time to recover before I bit his back leg from behind, giving him zero chance to get to me.
My teeth snapped through the tendon into the bone with a sickening scrape that vibrated from my jaws through my skull like a victory gong. His legs gave out with a high-pitched scream, unable to support his weight with the ligaments shredded. He dropped into the dusty road on a cloud of blood and dirt.
Licking my lips, I stepped away from him, watching as he tried to get up but couldn’t.
Part of me wanted to finish him off for good. To be done with it. But another part of me wrestled with the idea of killing someone who was completely vulnerable. Yes, he had done unspeakable things, but I wasn’t sure I should be his executioner.
I had done that to Preston, and while I didn’t really regret killing him, something about taking his life when he was helpless sat wrong with me.
I hesitated long enough for Cassian’s body to change back, his wolf retreating and leaving him naked and bleeding in front of me, curled on his side. Both arms were bloody and his feet twisted at awkward angles from where I had torn the tendons apart. His throat was a steady stream of blood and he coughed more blood into the dirt with a wheeze.
I watched him, still debating on what to do. My wolf craved his death, but the human in me knew this fight was over and he had lost. He absolutely deserved death, but this way felt wrong. The challenge was over and he was helpless.
But he had also come back from the brink of death before, and look where that had gotten us.
My lips pulled back, exposing my teeth as I went in for the kill.
“No!”
My head wrenched around when Skye screamed, but it wasn’t me she was yelling at. She was looking over my shoulder, her face twisted in horror.
I glanced back in time to see ten of the Long Mesa wolves had shifted and were about to attack me.
Every muscle in my body tensed, bracing for the inevitable impact.
45
Skye
“No!”
The word clawed out of my throat, fueled by a desperation I had never felt before. Terror spiked through my chest like a gladiator swung a mace into it.
I had been too busy watching Remy, relief coursing through me as I realized Cassian was done. He would never hurt me or anyone else ever again.
I had missed Marc shifting, several other men joining him. Now they were all poised to attack Remy.
We would never get to him in time. As strong as Remy was, he was injured and couldn’t take on ten wolves. They would rip him to pieces before we even shifted and made it halfway to him since everyone had stepped back to give the Alphas room to battle.
Lulu shoved me back as I stepped forward in a futile attempt to get to Remy. She lifted her arms, and the wolves about to attack froze for a second before falling to the ground. They screamed in pain, the animalistic sounds deafening, as they writhed around. The remaining men from Long Mesa stumbled back with wide, fearful eyes.
“What did you do?” I whispered, stunned.
Sweat beaded on her upper lip as her arms fell. Her gaze cut to me, her gray irises swallowed by the inky black of her pupils. “I stopped them.” Her chest heaved and she blinked, her eyes clearing as she stumbled back a step.
Dimitri was there immediately, grabbing her arms and holding her up as her knees buckled.
I wasn’t sure what the hell had just happened, but Marc and the others were still screeching in pain.
“What the fuck?” Rhodes stepped up beside me, his jaw gaping open.
Remy shifted back in the confusion, pulling on his jeans. I took off at a run, hurling myself into his waiting arms. He grunted and rocked back.
“Shit, I’m sorry!” I tried pulling away, remembering his injured side.
“It’s fine,” he assured me, not letting go. His hand fisted around my hair, tugging my head back so he could kiss me.
“Your side,” I gasped into his mouth.
“It’s already healing. Shut up and let me kiss you,” he simply grumbled, his lips coaxing my mouth open so his tongue could slide against mine.
He let me go after a minute or ten of nibbling and licking and kissing. I let out a plaintive whimper as he stepped away just as things were getting good.
But the audience surrounding us quickly brought me back to where we were.
“What the hell happened to them?” Remy asked, frowning at the men on the ground.
“Lulu,” I replied honestly, looking over to see she was back on her feet and looking better. Dimitri was still hovering behind her like he was waiting for her to collapse again.
“Is that … magic?” He seemed to taste the word on his tongue as he spoke it.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Damn,” he murmured appreciatively, still looking at the men. They had stopped screaming, but they were still on the ground.
Speaking of on the ground …
I looked over at where Cassian lay. He was gasping, barely able to get air in through the bubbles of blood frothing around his lips.
“I think I crushed his windpipe,” Remy said quietly.
I walked the few feet to Cassian and crouched beside his head.
His blue eyes focused on me after a second. I could see the fear reflected there, twisted and swirled with the agony he was in as he died in front of me. I wondered how many times he had seen that same desperate look in my eyes as he pinned me down.
“You look like you’re in a lot of pain,” I murmured, reaching down to brush a lock of sweaty blond hair from his eyes. My jaw hardened. “Good.”
I stood up slowly, fluidly, and stepped over his body to head back to my friends.
Remy watched me with worried eyes as I approached. “You okay, babe?”
I nodded and looked at Lulu. “Is what you did to them permanent?”
She glanced over. “I crushed their ribs. Sort of … ground them to dust. They won’t be able to get back up unless I reform the bones.”