“You should have not gotten so greedy.”
Ulric strode forward. “Let her go.”
“The terms of the agreement were that Jacob come alone in exchange for his daughter. It is now null and void.” A smug reply.
Ulric clenched his fists as he stepped closer. “Whatever your problem, she has nothing to do with it. She’s pregnant and needs special care, or she’ll lose this baby.”
“I’m a believer in survival of the fittest.”
Ulric was close enough to smell the man. To smell…
“You’re Lycan,” he said almost accusingly.
Viper’s eyes flashed. “And so are you. Who sent you against me?”
“No one. I’m here for Honey.”
Viper wound the chain around her tighter on his fist, reeling her close. “Given all the interest in her, I have to wonder if maybe I shouldn’t keep her. Although we’ll have to do something about the welp in her belly.”
Her eyes widened. “Ulric.” The way she said it broke his heart.
Before he could reply, another car pulled into the drive and Silver emerged at a run, Quinn followed more calmly. She hollered, “Don’t you dare harm her, Viper. You know the Cabal granted her leniency.”
Viper glanced from Honey to Silver and back again before his smile turned grotesque. “Well, I’ll be damned. This is the pregnant human you asked permission to study? Iris’s daughter?” He laughed. “Isn’t this a coincidence? The very woman I said should be killed for breaking our laws is also the daughter of my enemy.”
It hit Ulric in that moment that Viper wasn’t just Jacob’s enemy, but Cabal. Several ranks above Ulric. But that didn’t excuse his corruption.
“You said you’d trade.” Jacob didn’t manage his usual bluster.
“I lied. No one was ever walking away from tonight alive. But tell you what, I’ll give the girl a running start.” He dropped the chain and shoved Honey. “Go away. I’ll deal with you later.”
She backed away while coiling the length of chain.
“I said go!”
The yell galvanized her. She ran, right into the cornfield as twilight darkened. The moon brightened, and Ulric felt the urge to flip out.
But did he need to? He didn’t smell a gun on Viper, and his posse seemed happy to just casually watch.
Not so Jacob, who pulled out a gun. “Stupid fucker. You just gave away your only advantage.”
“Did I?” Viper grinned, not discomfited one bit.
Jakob took aim and drawled, “You might be new to the Cabal but surely you’ve heard the rumors.”
“That you’re a crack shot? Yes. But even you have limits.” Viper’s smile never wavered, which led to Ulric glancing around. Noting the three guys they’d seen upon arriving were taking off their shirts. More Lycans.
“Let me ask,” Viper drawled, “do you want to die quickly? Throat crushed maybe? Or slowly, where I eat you while you bleed out?”
“How did the Cabal ever make the mistake of accepting you as a member?” Because they were supposed to be the loftiest of them.
“That just shows why you’re not if you can’t see greatness,” Viper hissed, and his teeth lengthened in his human face. He grew hair, but his body didn’t contort.
“What the fuck?” exclaimed Jacob.
What the fuck indeed, given Viper didn’t change like any Lycan Ulric knew.
He remained upright for one. His face furred and bulged slightly but didn’t elongate into a muzzle. His fingers were clipped in hairy knuckles and claws. His jaw hinged even more to accommodate the slavering teeth. His eyes glowed an eerie yellow green.
But shit-your-pants scariest of all?
He talked in a grumbly, growly voice. “After I kill you, I’m going to find your mate and fuck her until that baby comes out.”
Ulric charged, yelling in rage, blind with it. He slammed into the wolfman, and his fists started pounding.
Wham.
Wham.
Wham.
Kept hitting until he heard a strange noise coming from Viper.
He paused to find the fucker laughing. “What’s so fucking funny?”
“You, thinking you can win. While you were beating me, they went after your woman.”
He glanced at the cornfield, its stalks swaying in the moonlight.
There was a howl. Just one, but it sent a chill.
Before he could even think of running to her rescue, the shooting started.
26
Any elation Honey had felt seeing Ulric and her father coming to her rescue evaporated the moment she was told to run.
Everyone knew to stay out of the cornfields. Name one horror movie where that spooky-ass place actually sheltered anyone.
It didn’t exist! Yet she had no other choice. She bolted for the rustling field of maize, expecting at any moment to be grabbed. A mouse scurrying to escape the hawk.
Despite knowing it was a supremely bad idea, she entered the dry stalks and pushed through them, making a godawful racket. Even slowing down didn’t help much. She panted as she sought to see in the deepening gloom as twilight gave way to night.
A night that prickled the skin.
Oh no.
A glance overhead showed the full moon big and bright. Terrifying too. She’d planned to be back at their place before it happened or, if at her parents’, to barricade herself in the theatre room and cry if anyone tried to get her out unless they got her a specific brand of ice cream she used to eat as a kid.
But instead of being somewhere safe, she was out in a fucking cornfield with nowhere to hide.
Which, of course, happened to be the moment she heard the first howl.
As if in reaction, she cramped. An excruciating clench of her belly bent her over with a gasp.
It eased, and she straightened. Maybe just one of those weird pregnancy things. She’d taken a step when the howl came again, only this time a second and third wolf joined the ululating.
A shudder went through her. Her skin continued to tingle, and all the hairs on her body lifted. Her stomach tightened with another contraction.
No. It was too soon. Damned moon. She needed cover. She’d find none out practically in the open, but the house offered no shelter either, not with that man calling himself Viper.
Had Ulric kicked his ass yet?
Ulric would know where to hide her. She flipped around and took the path back to the house. In her ragged haste, she practically ran into a wolf, and she couldn’t have said who was more surprised.
It barked as she lunged, fingers reaching, scrabbling for purchase, and somehow hitting an eye. She didn’t gag when it popped like a grape under the pressure of her thumb.
The yelping wolf had no interest in further engaging, and she stumbled past.
Bang. Bang. The distant firing of a gun came with a sharp yelp. Had to be her dad fighting.
It also meant stray bullets. Best she not get too close, lest she find one by accident.
She sat on the ground, hugging her belly, grunting as another spasm zinged through her.
“It’s too soon, peanut,” she whispered. She clutched her belly and hunkered low against some flopping cornstalks, trying to push herself into a pocket of darkness away from the moon’s rays.
The gunfire tapered off. The yelling came sporadic and indistinct. She closed her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest under her T-shirt, tucking her toes under the hem then pressing her face to her knees, her hair helping to cover flesh. Her hands squeezed in there. She did what she could to minimize her exposure to the light beaming down from the night sky.