Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
“What he said?”
She leans back in my embrace, staring up at me. She turned off her flashlight a while ago, so I can clearly see with shimmering eyes, the light dancing across her cheeks as though joining the flushed gorgeousness.
“Master Pete is the cult leader.”
“Don’t call him master,” I growl, my voice brimming with the wolf, thundering with the wolf.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“Don’t be.” I clench my teeth. “I just can’t...he isn’t a master of anything.”
“You’re right. He’s an evil man. He’s a cult leader, Ramsey. They did that to Mom. She doesn’t talk about it a lot, but she’s told me enough.”
My skin burns for my woman’s mother.
And to lock my woman away, to lie to her....
“He doesn’t deserve to live,” I snarl. “Not after that.”
I’m stumbling backward, unable to take it anymore, the ferocity of life. The pretenders who target the vulnerable because it makes them feel tough.
Come and challenge the wolf, Pete. Come and howl with the wolf, fight with the wolf, and die with the wolf because I’m the wolf, and the wolf is me.
And I’m howling now, cracking from the inside, ready to set the world straight, ready to maim and slaughter any fucker who touches my woman, my human.
Mine, mine, mine.
“Ruby,” I croak, stumbling backward.
Suddenly, I realized I might’ve lied. I said another quick change wouldn’t kill me.
But my bones are expanding too fast. My passion is coming too suddenly, and my human body isn’t ready.
Blood and bone, blood and bone, blood and bone – over and over in my mind.
Images of deep reds and scents so powerful I can’t even understand them.
Run, Ruby, I mean to say, but now my throat is changing and human words are no longer possible.
Teeth and rage, blood and the moon, the glorious silver of the moon, bathing us, me.
I collapse onto the grass, shuddering.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ruby
I scream when he falls. It happens so suddenly, so violently, I’m sure he must’ve hit his head.
Even if the grass is soft, it doesn’t matter. He dropped.
I rush toward him, his eyes flaring, his whole body twisting in an agonizing way.
Tears rush to my eyes when I hear the shiver in his voice, the crack of his bones. He’s growling now more than anything, but I can tell he’s trying to wave me away.
“Ramsey,” I say, kneeling, pushing away a sob. “You have to look at me. You have to listen. Calm down. Please calm down. I know you said it’s not dangerous, but this doesn’t seem right.”
“Argh,” he roars, rolling over and over.
My eyes widen when I see claw marks in the earth. At least, I think that’s what they are. It’s dark. But then Ramsey rolls over again, kneeling, collapsing onto his forepaws.
His arms are already transformed, clothes shredded, but his body is still his.
His eyes are red, but his face is Ramsey’s, then it starts to shift.
“Ramsey.” I rush over, wrapping my arms around him, my heart thudding.
“The...claws,” he gasps.
He’s warning me.
“I’m already here,” I say in his ear, hugging him so tight, not letting myself flinch when I feel his bones changing shape in his back. “You didn’t hurt me. You won’t hurt me.”
He rumbles and collapses onto his side, and I go with him. Tears are streaming down my cheeks, hot and filled with sadness and pain.
But I’m not going to let my man suffer alone.
I won’t, even if it makes me an idiot.
My whole body aches, my core is screaming at me to keep him safe, the same way he keeps me safe.
“I’m right here,” I cradle him, even when I hear the scree of his shirt ripping, his muscles changing shape.
But it’s getting slower.
Maybe this is working in some way.
“I’m right here,” I whisper, laying my cheek against his silver-haired chest, the hair sprouting against my face, tickling, but then he rumbles, and it slows down.
His whole body does.
“I’m right here,” I say again, coughing back another sob, wishing I could stop but knowing I can’t. The tears keep coming.
“You’d never hurt me, Ramsey. I know you wouldn’t. You’re not like that other wolf. You’re not like the wolf who killed your parents. You’re different. You’re better.”
I love you.
“Ruby.”
It’s Liam, calling from the other side of the field.
“He’s changing.”
Liam jogs over with a note of something like wonderment in his voice. Mom trails after him.
Liam stands off to the side, looking at us closely.
“I know he is,” I say, as I keep holding my Ramsey, squeezing him closer, his body starting to shift around me.
But slower, slower, and those awful noises have stopped. Ramsey’s half-human face is shaped into a smile, the form changing even slower than I realized.
He looks so happy.
“Ramsey, can you hear me?” Liam calls.
Ramsey says nothing, but I feel him tense against me.
A low rumble sounds from his throat.
“I don’t think he wants you to talk to him,” I whisper.