Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Leon sitting up jerks me awake. He’s in his human form now, but you can see the wolf inside him by the way he leaps off the bed, tense and alert.

Nearby, Quinn groans. “What’s going on?”

“I hear something,” Leon says. In a moment, the others are on their feet. “Someone’s outside.”

All four brothers stalk to the bedroom door, hands curled into fists. I pull a blanket off the bed and wrap it around me, following behind the four rather naked men.

Outside the house, though, there’s no sign of anyone or anything. The full moon shines down, beams of silver light sneaking through the trees. It’s chilly, too, so I pull the blanket tighter.

Leon sniffs the air. “Come on out,” he growls. “I know you’re there.”

From between the darkened tree trunks emerge six men dressed in black suits. They’re silent on their feet, and each of them has one hand poised on what’s clearly a gun.

Horror fills me. “Wait!” I reach out to grab Leon. “Those guys are armed!”

Leon just snorts. He curls his arm around my back and pulls me to his side. “Don’t worry.” He turns back to the men. “Are you sure you want to trespass on our territory?”

“Sorry to intrude,” says a woman’s voice. “But we have to tie up some loose ends.” She’s the last one to appear out of the shadows.

“Mrs. Smith?” I ask, dumbfounded. But now her hair is down, and she has a gun of her own in hand. “What are you doing here?”

“I tracked your car.” She quirks an eyebrow at me. “So there are four of them now?” she asks. With a sad shake of her head, she says, “I don’t want to have to do this, especially not to all five of you. I wish you’d been alone, Ms. Dockett.”

I back up, but Leon tightens his arm around me.

“Do what?” I ask, my voice tight. But I think I already know the answer, because why else would she be here with a battalion of armed guards?

She means to kill us.

“Clean up this mess. It’s already been such a long night.” Beatrice sighs as if this is all very tedious. “I wish Orland hadn’t pulled you into this because you seem like a nice girl, Tiffany. But here we are.”

I’m wishing that now, too. “Where is Mr. Bosley?” A stone settles in the pit of my stomach. “Isn’t your problem with him? I haven’t done anything.”

A faint smile crosses her face. “Oh, he’s not a problem anymore.”

My throat goes dry. She can’t be saying what I think she’s saying.

“You…” My blood feels cold, and goosebumps spread down my arms. “You murdered him?”

Beatrice frowns. “What a harsh way of putting it. That makes me sound so cold-blooded, Ms. Dockett.”

She killed my fucking boss, and she’s talking about it like she put down a rabid dog.

“And now I’m next?” This is how it ends? That’s too stupid. I refuse to die for Mr. Bosley’s scheme.

“I told you to quit your job.” Beatrice narrows her eyes. “Now you know too much. And that idiot Orland made sure your name was all over everything.”

I pull Leon closer, because now I’m terrified for him. If she wants to take me out, then that means they’re all in danger, too.

The six suited men step forward, snapping their holsters open.

“As if.” Quinn laughs, tilting his head up to the moon. “Nice night tonight, isn’t it?” Beatrice furrows her brow in confusion, and a wide grin crosses Quinn’s face. “Full moons are omens, you know. A lot can happen on a night like tonight.”

And then he changes. Brown fur erupts across Quinn’s body, and there comes the sound of creaking as his bones elongate, making him taller and taller until he’s long past his usual werewolf size. I can only stare, my mouth ajar as his face stretches out into a snout and his lips peel back in a sneer. His tail emerges with a pop! and unfurls behind him as he stands there, eight or nine feet tall, like a true monster.

Our visitors gasp at the immense werewolf in front of them, and a few of the men murmur, slipping their guns from their holsters. For all of Quinn’s confidence, they’re armed . What chance do four creatures, made of flesh and blood, stand against bullets?

Even Beatrice is taken aback by what she sees. She eyes Quinn up and down.

“Some rather special boyfriends you found, Ms. Dockett. Just when you think you’ve seen it all...”

Quinn laughs, and it’s a feral sound. “You haven’t seen shit, lady.”

He squares his body, his claws extended, and poises to lunge.

“Quinn,” I whimper, reaching for him. “Don’t!”

A safety clicks. There’s a sudden flash of movement, and one of the men screams before any shots can be fired. Quinn has gone from standing next to me to being on top of his victim, pinning down the man’s body with one huge paw, his jaws wrapped around his throat. Leon pushes me behind him, and soon he’s changing, too. In the darkness, Eli’s black shape is like a shadow flying through the air as he tackles two of the other men at the same time. He’s enormous now, rippling with barely restrained muscle, as if he’s been pumped full of blood. I’ve never seen anything so monstrous, the personification of death itself.

Air rushes past me as Leon joins the fray, a massive white beast full of teeth and claws. He slashes with one huge paw, sending a man flying and slamming into a tree, his body falling to the ground.

Jace leans down to me, huge and gray, his eyes twinkling. He licks my face. “Don’t worry. These guys can’t stop us.”

A gunshot rings out, and Leon howls.

“No!” I cry out, moving to run toward him, but Jace holds me back.

“Stay here,” he says firmly. “Leon will be fine.” I have a hard time believing that as red drips down Leon’s bicep, and he turns on the man who shot him. The white wolf leaps, ripping the gun out of the man’s hand—along with some of his arm.

I scream as blood sprays.

“Oops.” Leon tosses the dismembered arm away. “Don’t know my own strength.”

There’s another gunshot, but Jace has already bridged the gap to the man who fired, and the shot misses him. Jace grabs his victim by the waist and hurls him into the last man standing, the two of them colliding with a loud thump !

Beatrice’s face has gone from smug to utterly slack. Her eyes travel across the chaos, each of the brothers holding down one or more of her men. Then her gaze reaches me.

“Not quite the mouse I thought you were,” she says, a ghost of a smile tweaking her lips. “But you’re a reasonable woman, Ms. Dockett. Maybe we can find a middle ground.” It’s the first time I’ve heard uneasiness in her voice.

Eli stands tall, ready to pounce on her. I hold up a hand to him. She might have killed Mr. Bosley, but I don’t want any blood on my own hands.

“What sort of middle ground?” I ask.

“You don’t tell anyone about me,” Beatrice says, talking too fast. “You pretend you have no idea what happened to Orland. And you let us go.”

I arch my eyebrow. “That sounds like mostly favors to you,” I say, taking a step toward her. I come to Leon’s side, gesturing to his injured shoulder. “When you’ve already drawn blood.”

She shudders. “Right. Sorry about that.” She looks around at the four werewolves, then at her men groaning on the ground, one of them clutching his stump of an arm. “But you got what you wanted, didn’t you? It looks like everything worked out in your favor. Now just let me go, and I won’t come back here. I’ll tell my boss to leave you alone.”

I’m really tired of other people telling me what to do, then walking all over me and expecting me to simply tolerate it.

“Why should we let you leave?” I ask her, fury bubbling up inside me. “You came here and tried to kill us. And now you want mercy?”

Quinn snarls, all the hair on his body standing up on end. The wheels are turning in Beatrice’s mind as she realizes just how dire her situation is.

“Okay,” she says finally. “Okay. I’ll pay you, all right? Everything I owed Mr. Bosley, we’ll give it to you.” She gauges my reaction, but I keep my face carefully schooled. “And we could give you protection. I could get you a better job.”

But I don’t want any favors from this woman. I just want to be left alone, to live my life in peace.

“No.” I’m tired of this. “We’ll let you go. You won’t tell a single soul what you saw. You’ll give the payment to Mr. Bosley’s wife, you’ll scrub my name off everything, and I’ll send you the hospital bill.” I narrow my eyes at her. “And you won’t suck any other innocent people into your fucking schemes.”

Beatrice nods with relief. “Thank you.” She straightens her back. “It’s nice to see you stand up for yourself. I hope that continues.”

Carefully, Eli, Jace, and Quinn release their captives, but Leon looks ready to end the man he has pinned down.

“Let me kill one of them, Tiff,” he growls. “Just one. So they really don’t come back.”

The moon must be driving him to rage. I scratch behind his ear, and he leans into my hand.

“No.” I tug on his fur. “Leave him. She understands, and won’t ever show up here again.” I glance at Beatrice for confirmation.

“Yes, of course,” she agrees.

With a growl of disapproval, Leon relaxes his grip around the man’s throat and backs away. The one who lost his arm moans as the others help him to his feet. All of them stumble away into the woods, Beatrice giving me one last nod.

“I’m glad you found what you were looking for,” she says, glancing at each of my werewolves, then back at me. “Who knew.”

She follows her henchmen off into the darkness.

When she’s gone, I rush to examine Leon’s wound, all my adrenaline at last catching up to me.

“This isn’t good,” I mutter, pressing my hand to the bullet hole to staunch the bleeding. “We should take you to the hospital right now.”

He just turns and smiles at me. “Don’t worry, love. It’s a full moon. I’ll be fine.”

“Fine?! You were shot!”

Jace chuckles as he shrinks back down to his human form. “Really,” he says, pushing my hair back from my face and kissing me on the temple. “We’re more resilient than you think.”

Leon gets to his feet, towering over me in this new, full-moon form. Then he leans down and slides his arms underneath me, lifting me up.

“Leon!” I cry. “Your arm!”

He licks my cheek. Then he nods to the others. “We’ll be back.”

“Go on,” says Quinn, flapping one big paw at us, “and work off all that heat in your veins.”

Jace snickers as Leon turns around and trots off into the woods, clutching me tight to his chest.

“Where are we going?” I ask as I cling to him, the trees whizzing past us.

“To clean me up.” He nuzzles my face. “And if I don’t fuck you soon, I’m going to go find and murder each one of those guys just for looking at you.”

I grin and pet the side of his face. “Aw. I’ve never had anyone offer to kill for me before.”

Leon’s fangs flash in the moonlight as he grins. “I’d do anything for you, Tiff.”