24. Leigh

TWENTY-FOUR

LEIGH

" C ome back to me!"

Claude's voice ripped through her mind, barreling down the neural pathways of the desperately snapping wolf until it reached the woman inside. All she knew, all she could feel was blind, rage-induced hunger. There was nothing else in the world, only this one sensation that defined her very existence.

Until Claude reached her.

Leigh screamed in a gut-wrenching howl that morphed into a woman's plea for help as her limbs lengthened and face narrowed back into her human form. She blinked her eyes open, her senses readjusting to their dampened form as she took in the carnage around her.

"No," she whispered. The drug-induced haze gave way to a clarity she would give anything to hide from. "No!"

All around her lay the bodies of the dead, including some she knew damn well who met their fates in her own jaws. She keeled over, feeling a wave of nausea grip her as she desperately tried to steady herself on shaking arms.

Her senses were less heightened in this form, but she could still smell the distinct odor of blood and death. And it surrounded her, caked on the walls and floor of the club she'd worked so hard to open.

She glimpsed patches of blood-soaked fur, torn limbs, wolves lying on the ground with eyes blank and broken jaws hanging open.

"They're all dead…" Leigh realized, scanning the club around her. Every other wolf she howled and rushed and attacked with lay dead. The Wolfe brothers, standing there caked in blood and viscera and struggling to catch their own breaths, made sure of that.

So why was I spared? she thought. But more importantly, she asked herself why she was able to shift back from the brink of oblivion when no one else had before.

She finally looked up, seeing Claude staring down at her with equal parts relief and terror.

Claude. Somehow, he'd gotten through to her. He'd used their mate bond to reach her mind, pull her back from the brink. He did the impossible through sheer force of will.

How?

I told you , her inner wolf said, exhausted and meek. He's our mate.

She reached up, trying to grab at his coat or pants or anything she could reach to find some sort of security in him.

"Thank you," she whispered, her voice cracked and broken as she held back a sob. "Thank you."

But Claude wasn't looking at her anymore. He was staring behind her toward the club's main entrance, his eyes dark and posture stiff.

And without a single word of acknowledgment, he took off, faster than any human could. Leigh looked around herself, still in shock and alone with the men who killed the other wolves around her.

She knew them. She trusted them. But she couldn't stay there, not like this. Not after everything that just happened.

She needed Claude.

Leigh shifted back into her wolf form, her mental faculties all hers once again, and chased after him. She easily tracked him to a nearby alleyway, different from the one Kim cornered her in but the same in size and length.

The smell of a dozen different beings hit her all at once, almost all of them caked in blood and fear. She came to Claude's side, a short distance from a group of vampires bound and on their knees. They were injured and exhausted, making them perfect prey for a woman on a mission.

Behind them stood Kim, knife drawn and ready to start slitting throats.

"How could you?" Claude asked, fists clenched and voice booming. "These people are innocent. Those wolves were innocent."

Two of the hostages looked at Leigh like a rabid dog ready to pounce on them. It shattered her heart to think some of those injuries may have been her own fault.

"There's no such thing as an innocent werewolf. All of them wear the blood of my husband on their filthy paws. And you, Aria's lackey, you're just as guilty!" Kim screamed, seemingly secure that no one was going to interrupt her little bloodbath now.

Leigh began instinctively growling, low and angry, oblivious to the terror she was adding to the hostages.

Kim's attention focused on her, and she smiled wide. "Wolf. Kill," she commanded, pointing at Claude.

Leigh felt nothing, no pull or desperate need for obedience. Claude looked down at her though, ensuring that she was indeed fully in control.

Leigh replied by barking at Kim, snarling her anger. How dare she make me into a murderer. she thought. How dare this woman use me as a bloodthirsty pawn in her sick game.

Leigh swore Kim wouldn't get away with it.

"How interesting. I suppose your dose may have been faulty. Oh well, it doesn't matter now. My massacre is complete, and soon enough there'll be no witnesses left. Just a pile of dead bodies, and the faulty vampire leadership who let it all happen." Kim shrugged as if all of the death and violence was an inconvenient little errand she had to run.

"At least, there'll be no witnesses who will say anything." Kim crouched down, brandishing that knife against the pale throat of a young woman. "Swear your loyalty to me or die. That goes for you too, Claude."

Claude put his hand out, signaling for Leigh to back down slightly. The situation had become more desperate, dangerous.

"Anyone who swears an oath of loyalty to me and my son, you're rightful leader, will come out of this alive." Kim dug the side of the blade into the girl's throat, letting the slightest bright red trickle of blood seep out. Tears welled in her eyes, her lip quivering. "Answer me!" Kim screeched.

Claude, seemingly lost in finding his opening, found it. He moved with a swiftness and grace Leigh had never seen. Before she could tell what was happening, Kim was pinned against a dumpster with a blade stuck in her shoulder. She dropped her own weapon in the confusion, leaving her vulnerable.

Leigh didn't need permission. She took off, lunging over the lineup of hostages, and pounced on Kim who'd just snatched the blade out of her flesh.

The vampire slashed it at Leigh, but not hard enough to pierce the flesh beneath her thick coat. Leigh sank her teeth into Kim's wounded shoulder, causing her to scream out in agony and fall back against the ground.

She was there, helpless and vulnerable, and Leigh felt the instinctive urge to clamp her jaws around the vampire's exposed throat. She hesitated, though, as images of the dead scattered around the club flashed through her mind. Even as Kim readied the knife again, this time aiming for Leigh's face, she struggled to give the finishing blow.

I'm not a killer , she told herself desperately. I'm not! I'm not like her!

"Well, I am," Claude said out loud, answering Leigh's cries through their bond. He snatched Kim's wrist in his grip, squeezing so tightly, she cried out and dropped the knife. Claude caught it and, in one swift and brutal motion, ended the woman's life.

Certain the threat was finally over, Leigh shifted back. She shivered out of a mix of adrenaline and stress, but Claude took off his coat and draped it around her shoulders.

There was so much she had to say to him, so much explanation and questions and gratitude she needed to express.

They could do that later. For the moment, she simply nodded at him and grabbed the other knife. Together they cut the hostage's bindings and helped them get their bearings back. Leigh's heart broke as she watched a young couple grip onto each other, both certainly sure they were meeting their end that day.

The Wolfe brothers found them alongside Claude's men.

"We'll get them medical attention," Tristan said reassuringly.

"Along with their witness statements," Aric added.

Claude and Leigh remained behind, watching over Kim's corpse as they waited for the authorities to arrive and take over.

"Fuck," Leigh said, studying her wide and lifeless eyes. "I can't imagine how deep her grief must have been to do this."

"That's a charitable way to view her actions," Claude replied, sounding somewhat annoyed. But he reached out and took Leigh's hand, comforting her.

"How could she leave her son like this? Fuck, her son!" Leigh cried. "He's an orphan now."

Claude nodded. "Demetrios is going to be a point of contention now. There's no avoiding that."

"He's a child," Leigh said. Though she fully understood the consequences regardless.

"A child who will either grow up with shame for his parents, or a desire to avenge them. Either way isn't healthy."

Leigh shook her head. "Is there anything that can be done for him? Any way to help?"

"Well," Claude said with a sigh, gripping Leigh's hand tighter. "That's for Aria to decide."

As the flashing lights of emergency vehicles filled the dark alleyway with blue and red, Leigh contemplated everything that had brought them here. The grief, rage, violence, all wrapped in a need for power.

And how it all ended, cold and dead on a paved street next to a dumpster.