Chapter Twenty-Five Flynn

I stared down the laughing Tyr, no idea what had caused him to erupt. I thought it might be a trick, so I held the gun high, my arms still shaking.

"By the gods!" he wheezed, his hands on his knees. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Let my Nana go, Tyr," I growled. "I'm the one you want."

He glanced back at my tied up and gagged Nana, still cackling. "I was doing the whole big bad wolf bit to be funny!" He pointed back at me, wiping the tears from his eyes. "But I never expected him to show up with ginger hair and a red hoodie!" He let out a few more laughs, clearly mad with amusement. "Please tell me you had to cross a river on the way here. Or maybe there was a handsome woodsman on the way? Got any bread in that back pocket of yours?"

"You're fucking crazy," I muttered, not lowering the gun. "But that doesn't mean I won't shoot you."

"Oh please." He waved me off in dismissal. "If you were gonna shoot me, you wouldn't have announced yourself." He gave me one good look up and down, sobering up at last. "I can tell just from the way you're holding that thing that you have no idea what you're doing. Clearly your Nana here never trained you."

"I don't need to be trained to pull a trigger."

"Yes, actually, you do." He glared my direction, clearly no longer amused with my standing up to him. "Your Nana and her husband went through years of training to learn how to kill werewolves. I have no doubt both of them had taken down dozens of them before they finally retired. If anyone could tell you how difficult it is to take one of us down, it would be her." He leaned close. "She's a cold-blooded killer."

"I don't believe you," I snapped back. "Nana would never do anything like that!"

"How can you be so blind?"

"I'm not blind just because I don't believe you! You tried to kill my mother, and you killed my grandfather! If anyone here is a killer, it's you !"

"Well, you're definitely right about that." He took a few steps closer. "And I can see that you are not a killer. Takes one to know one, right?" He sighed. "You don't have the stuff, kid."

He was right, and I knew that. But it didn't mean I couldn't wound him if I needed to.

"Let Nana go," I ordered.

He laughed. "No."

I tilted the gun toward his shoulder, clenched my eyes shut, and pulled the trigger, bracing myself for the blast.

But there was only a dull click as the slide snapped backward and stayed there. Tyr looked me dead in the eye, a cruel smile curling over his lips as he clicked his tongue.

"Good try," he said, shooting out a hand and ripping the gun from my grip.

But the moment it touched his hand he let out a yelp and tossed it to the ground where it slid into a corner. He stared down at his hand, his skin shiny and burned where he'd touched the gun.

"Silver?!" he growled.

I expected the skin to heal over quickly. I'd seen simple scratches on Thor close up in seconds. The night he'd given me a drop of his blood to help me heal faster, the wound closed in less than a minute. It should've already been healing.

That's when I saw the scars on Tyr's arm and on his torso through the open flap of his shirt. His clothes were grungy and torn, his skin was dirty and unwashed, but the scars were still bright and shiny, as if they were new. And they looked like bullet wounds.

Silver bullets… Not only did silver burn werewolves, but it stopped their healing powers from activating. That meant, if I could just do enough damage to him, he'd die. Tyr could be killed.

It was a short-lived revelation as Tyr suddenly leaped forward and grabbed me by the arm, twisting it painfully behind my back. With his foot he kicked the back of my knees, forcing me to the ground. With one hand on my arm and the other in my hair, he dragged me across the room toward Nana.

"Your family has been a pain in my side since the day I was born," he growled. "The day your grandfather killed my mother I swore that I'd put an end to your line."

"You're lying!" I managed to squeak out as I was tossed to the floor next to Nana.

"Am I?" he laughed cruelly. "Maybe your Nana here should tell you the truth ."

He reached across, ripping the gag from Nana's mouth. She coughed and sputtered, drawing what was probably her first deep breath in hours. As soon as she was free of the gag, he yanked me over in front of her, his fist full of my hair as he pulled my head back.

"Tell him!" he barked, glaring at her. "Tell him how you and your husband hunted down my mother and her pups, trying to kill each and every one of us! Tell him how you slaughtered my entire family one by one until I was the only one left! Tell him how you ruined my life!"

Nana looked at me, her eyes filling with tears.

"TELL HIM!"

Tyr yanked me backward, making a motion like he was about to slash my throat open.

"It's true!" Nana screamed, tears streaming down her wrinkled face. "What he says is true!"

The hand on top of my head relaxed and I could hear Tyr smile. I stared at Nana, unable to believe what I was hearing.

"H-How… How is that possible?" I asked. "Maybe grandpa but… but not you." I stared at her, my eyes pleading. "You're not a killer, Nana. I know you."

She shook her head. "Not as well as you might think."

"Y-You said the day Tyr attacked my mother was the first time you'd seen him!"

Another shake. "No. I'd seen him many times before that as a pup." She turned her gaze to the floor, her gray hair hanging around her face in strands. "When your grandfather and I hunted his kind."

"For sport," Tyr hissed.

"No!" she barked back, her green eyes blazing as her gaze rose to meet his. "Your mother and father were killers! And they were teaching you and your siblings to do the same!"

"Werewolves have to kill to stay alive," he retorted. "In nature it's killed or be killed. Your kind has been hunting us for generations. We killed to keep ourselves safe."

"Your father killed humans to eat them," Nana growled. "He and your mother both loved the taste of human flesh, and they took far too many lives by the time we finally caught up with them." She looked up at me, a pleading look in her eyes. "The werewolf hunters might've been tasked to exterminate the Lycan race centuries ago, but in the modern age we only go after those that attack humans willfully. That's why we came here. Our target was that family only . After that we were going to retire."

"You lie," Tyr scoffed. "Hunters hunt. They don't differentiate between who is guilty and who is not."

"Then why didn't we kill the rest of your pack?" Nana asked. "We had plenty of chances."

"Because you're weak . We were too powerful for you to take on at once. That's why you picked off my family one by one, reveling in their deaths."

"We did our task and nothing more. I took no joy in killing those wolves." She glared him down, daring him to retort. "And when we were done, we packed everything away and retired, vowing never to kill another again. At least, until you came along and tried to eat my daughter."

Tyr laughed at that, but I still stared at Nana.

"You… You and grandpa… killed people?"

I thought of Thor and his brothers. I thought of all those wolves in the pack meeting, each of them looking so normal . Sure, they were mad at Tyr for attacking them and they wanted blood, but they didn't do that out of spite or vengeance. No. I saw how they clung to their children, their spouses, their families with fear in their eyes. They wanted to protect their own. It was the most natural thing in the entire world. I felt that way toward Thor and he felt it for me.

But Nana… she hunted people down and killed them. Just because they were werewolves didn't mean they weren't people .

"We only killed those guilty of heinous murder," she replied. Her head sagged again. "But yes… I killed people."

Tyr let go of me, letting me drop to my knees on the hard wooden floor. "You see?" he grinned. "Your Nana isn't so innocent after all. And now you can thank her for your fate. Once I'm done with you, I'll kill her. And then, if I'm feeling frisky, I'll wander over to the city and take care of your mother as well." He crouched down beside me, lifting my chin with his finger. "And here I was thinking you were sleeping with Thor just to get close so you could kill him."

My eyes widened and I felt a tinge of embarrassment. It seemed stupid considering the situation.

"Oh yes," Tyr smiled. "I can smell him and the stink of sex on you. I'm surprised he let you get so close. Then again, his father was a fool as well. It only stands to reason that he'd let a simple human worm his way into his pack. That's breaking the cardinal rule of all werewolves." Tyr pulled himself to his full height. "So, when I'm done with you, I'll kill him too for putting our kind in danger." He winked at me. "Thanks for making it so easy."

"Leave… him… alone," I growled, my voice trembling.

"Oh hush," he said, putting a foot on my shoulder and kicking me to the ground hard. "I'm doing you a favor. Once he's dead you two can spend the afterlife together. Although, I'm not sure if werewolves and humans go to the same place." He tapped a finger on his chin. "I don't really care either way because neither of you can be allowed to live."

He stood there for a moment, his hands on his hips as he looked awfully pleased with himself.

"Don't you touch… him," I managed to say, lifting myself from the floor.

Tyr pushed me down again with his foot, laughing.

"When are you going to learn that I'm always right? I told you that your grandmother was a murderer, and I was right. I told you that you couldn't save her, and I was right. I even told you that you couldn't shoot me, and I was right again." He crouched down close to me, his voice gravelly and cruel. "So believe me when I say that your Thor isn't going to survive the night. And neither are you."

"But you're wrong about one thing, Tyr," Nana said, her gaze lifting to him. "It wasn't my husband that killed your mother or your older siblings."

His brows furrowed.

"It was me ."

He stared at her open-mouthed.

"In fact, I'm the reason you're still alive," she continued. "Your mother begged me to spare you, her youngest pup. And being a mother myself, I gave in. I see now that I made a mistake. I should've slaughtered you both then and there in that pool of your family's blood!"

With a roar of rage, Tyr lunged and kicked Nana's chair over. I tried to stop her from falling, but I was yanked back at the last moment. Her bound body hit the floor hard with a crunch and she was still. Tears filled my eyes as I was dragged backward, a cruel deep laughter filling the cabin.

"One down," Tyr snarled, grabbing me by the neck and lifting me high into the air.

I kicked and sputtered, trying and failing to take a breath. His grip tightened and I felt my airway collapse. I wasn't sure if he'd suffocate me or break my neck first. But as he raised a clawed hand, his eyes shifting to gold, he paused for just a moment. His grip relaxed and I breathed, albeit shallowly, as he pulled me close. He took a few deep whiffs of me then grabbed my shirt and wrenched it aside, revealing the bite wound Thor had left on my shoulder.

"You little whore," he spat, tightening his grip again. "You let that Alpha breed you…" He raised his clawed hand again. "Too bad the bond is weak with humans," he snarled. "I'm sure he's on his way to save you, but it's too late. You'll be dead long before he gets here."

The claws extended, Tyr's eyes flared bright, and his arm swung toward my face. I clenched my eyes shut, preparing for the pain that would end my life. With the last of my energy, I sent a single message mentally toward Thor, wherever he might be.

I love you. I'm sorry.