Chapter 39

The seat I crashed into shattered to bits and my red flesh melted back into my skin, leaving me in a pulsating pile of pain. The edge of the broken wood stabbed me, but I didn’t dwell. Bouncing to my feet, I brushed my hair out of my face, trying not to focus on the spike of pain at my temple. He’d whacked me across the head a few times earlier, and it still throbbed. My stomach cramped with every attack. I would need to feed after all the beatings because my poor body tried to heal the extensive damage as fast as possible. He fucked me up every time I came at him. I couldn’t get a leg up on him.

A handful of greedy Unnaturals had summoned him because they thought this psychotic fucker would give them domination? Stupid and foolish of them. Now they were all dead and this guy ate our kind.

And he showed no signs of tiring. Concerning, since we’d been going at each other for a while .

“Once you no longer have your attachments, you will join me.” The deep intonation sent a crawling sensation down my neck.

Come . The whisper filled my head, but I blocked off the connection, building a wall around my brain.

He tilted his head. “You are no longer weak-minded.”

Students swarmed the auditorium in a rush. Likely under his control. I was certain he was speaking in their minds.

The moment of distraction allowed him to wrap his fingers in my hair. I gasped when he jerked me as if I were on a leash.

Beckett’s wolf form jumped at us, and he sank his teeth into Osmodus’s arm. Osmodus let my hair go as he fell back, tossing Beckett away from him with a shake of his arm.

I hurried between them as Osmodus sneered at the black blood on his arm. The wound had already closed. “They are an annoyance, spawn.”

He backhanded me, sending me rolling across the ground and then he grabbed Beckett’s scruff. Every molecule in my body stopped. Elliot appeared and yanked Osmodus’s horn, giving Beckett time to escape.

“Back away from him!” The words burned coming from my throat. Both of my mates backed away. Relief dropped my shoulders, and my brain calmed.

Beckett shook his fur out, his blood spraying my cheek. I gritted my teeth, nose flaring.

Osmodus touched what belonged to me . That would not stand. I charged at him. Gripping his horn, I used it as a brace to swing my legs over until my knees rested at his shoulders. With the momentum, I brought him down and at the same time, jerked his horn back to expose his throat. My knees dug into his upper spine, and I stabbed my claws into the back of his neck. Blood burst from the puncture, hitting me across the cheek.

His screech lifted the hair on my body. He tensed and before he flattened me to the ground, I tumbled back in a roll, taking his horn with me. A gaping hole graced the top of his head. Panting, I swayed on my feet, watching blood leak from his open wounds. Up to this point I hadn’t seen him angry but now he practically trembled with it. To enrage him further, I tossed the detached horn at his feet. It clattered upon landing.

He came at me without precursor, and my face exploded with agony. I went flying backwards, and my spine and head hit the wall. Holy fuck, that hurt like a bitch. I crumpled and fell onto a steel chair a few feet down. It bent beneath my weight. The embedded outline of my body rested within the wall plaster he’d thrown me against.

No wonder it fucking hurt.

I wiggled my nose but stopped when it radiated pain toward my cheekbones and mouth. I sucked on my teeth. At least I still had all of them.

Behind him, Elliot and Beckett held back a few Unnaturals, but I trusted they could handle themselves. I needed all of my attention on Osmodus.

He stepped off the stage and sped to me faster than I’d seen him move. Had he been playing with me this entire time? He slammed me on the ground, pinning me. “Pity I couldn’t convince you.”

Osmodus wrapped his hand around my throat, cutting off my oxygen. He squeezed so hard it felt like my eyes were about to pop. I kicked my legs out, but he pinned them with his, immobilizing me completely. My pulse pounded in my ears, drowning out the screaming and shouting. I tried clawing his face, but I couldn’t reach him. Wrapping my hand around his wrist, I yanked and pulled, but he didn’t move an inch. His grip around my throat tightened. After everything I’d survived, was this how I died? Tears trickled out from the corner of my eyes. His thin mouth twitched the barest amount. He was enjoying my struggle. My arm flopped to the ground, landing on debris.

My vision blurred. He’d kill me and then what would he do to my mates?

I inched my trembling fingers to the side, desperately searching for something—anything. My knuckles hit a cold surface.

“Nothing can stop me?—”

I fisted a jagged metal piece on the floor and shoved it into the side of his neck. Blood bubbled from the wound.

I grunted with each shove of the bar into his neck. His mouth parted and blood splattered on my face. I gripped the other end sticking out of Osmodus’s neck and twisted it in different directions. The edges moved an inch and then snapped off. Unsheathing my talons, I sank every single one into his throat and latched on. Digging my fingers into his skin was the hardest thing I’d ever done.

“Stop. Being. A. Fucking. Cliche.” Harder and harder I squeezed my nails into him.

His hands and claws matched the position of mine. Pinpricks from his talons sliced into my throat.

Blood filled my mouth, but I didn’t stop the progress of my claws. If I died, it meant my mates died. The fact sparked a renewed sense of determination. Gritting my molars, I pushed through the spots dancing in my vision.

Ligaments popped as his throat detached, and finally his unattached head thumped onto the floor above me while the rest of his body dropped on me. I grunted from the weight.

Then ringing silence. No more screaming and shouting. My head drooped to the side. The all-out war had stopped, and everyone dropped to the ground like their puppet strings had been snipped. I stayed panting in place, trying to get my thoughts in order, but it was no use. Everything fuzzed around the edges. I blinked.

Weighted down by his body was the least of my struggles right now. A pit of need ballooned in my belly. I cinched my eyes tight and breathed. I could almost hear blood leaking from my throat where his talons remained buried in my flesh from choking me.

Osmodus’s weight shifted, and Tanner hovered over me. I hissed from pain, wincing at the removal of the claws in my throat. The wet sensation trickling down the sides of my throat doubled. Tanner’s brows furrowed as he peered at me. The edges of my vision blurred. Eucalyptus filled my senses, and that growing need in my belly pulsated.

“Tanner,” I said wetly.

“Maya, love,” he croaked, and his hands fluttered over my throat, jaw feathering. I’d never seen his eyes shiny like that. I winced as his hand pressed down. “Don’t move.”