Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Two, pull out his nails, slowly, one at a time.
“Uncle Venetto was wrong to trust a monster like you. He had been nothing but generous to you and how did you repay him? You had a dog between your legs and you began to kill every panther that got in your way.” It dawned on me that he was speaking too loudly, like he wanted the people above us to hear him.
Three, skin him alive, peel his fur inch by inch.
“If I hadn’t been raised to respect the Panthera, I wouldn’t bother waiting for their sentence. I’d have given you to my men and let them treat you like the slut that you are and when they’re done, I’ll have you chopped into pieces and fed to the dogs you so love. I doubt they’d know the difference.”
Four, slice his scalp open and turn his brain into a pincushion.
He spat at me again. “If you’re smart, you’ll be praying for a quick death at their hands.”
Five, sew every opening in his body shut. From his eyes, his ears, nose, mouth, and even the slit in his cock. Every damn opening.
As he turned away, I whispered, “You should pray for the same, too. Cousin.”
The words had Raoul tripping on his own feet.
It should have made me smile, but it didn’t. Maybe, maybe when my hands had turned red with his blood, I would regain my sense of humor.
Raoul and his men left not soon after, just like Alejandro had predicted he would. When the massacre happened, Raoul would not be in the scene, which provided him an alibi of sorts. I counted the seconds, needing them to be far enough to be out of earshot before I made my move.
Five minutes...ten minutes...fifteen minutes...
I stood up. Vladimir or Amalia hadn’t gotten around to teaching me how to control my dark fits, but I didn’t think I had to worry about that in this case. What I felt, she felt. What I knew, she knew, and what mattered to me, mattered to her.
Tonight, we both knew, was all about retribution.
Twenty minutes...
I closed my eyes.
Twenty-five minutes...
When I opened my eyes, both of us were awake, and both of us wanted to kill.
Metal bars bent and curved under my fingers like they were made of plastic. The screeching sound had the guards rushing down into the dungeon. By the time I stepped out of my cage, they were all in front of me, fear written all over their faces.
I recognized them as guards of the Panthera. For that reason alone, I would do my best not to kill them. “You can try to hurt me or capture me. But do not try to kill me, or I will kill you.” I took a step forward and they all took a step back, and it was like an impromptu dance between us.
They looked at each other, as if needing themselves to be brave as one unit before charging towards me at the same time. A minute later, and they were all groaning in the ground, their injuries rendering them temporarily immobile. Not even their shifter blood would be able to heal them quickly enough to stop me.
When I reached the surface, there was no sign of any other panthers – neither foe nor ally was around, and it only meant one thing. What Alejandro predicted had indeed come to pass, and tonight either Raoul or I would die.
I walked alone in the dark, the inhabitants of Midtown all shut safely inside their homes. Either they knew what was going on or they were sensitive enough to the undercurrents in the air and knew better than to interfere.
The first attack came the moment I stepped past the town borders. A steel arrow swooshed from the north. I caught it handily and broke it into two with a snap of my fingers. A torrent of arrows followed, together with a shower of bullets, but it was too late. I ran, too fast for them to hit me, and their own weapons became my tracking device, exposing their location like a predator finding its prey’s jugular.
They saw me coming, but that was all they could do.
See.
It was the last thing they could do.
For their eyes, all their eyes, were just like Raoul’s.
Evil. Greed. Soulless.
Bones broke. Necks snapped. Spines crushed.
The second wave of attack came as soon as I eyed where Raoul hid and waited in all his cowardice. A fortress that belonged to his mother. It had been a home to warriors once, but now because of him, the place would be a mass grave.
It broke my heart to see members of my own pack rushing towards me. Venetto had loved them all. Every damn one of them, and this was how they would return his love? If they had no mercy or love for him, then I had none of the same for them.