Never Cry Wolf (Night Watch #4)(77)
Author: Cynthia Eden

I don’t want to hurt you, Piers. Listen to me, dammit. That wasn’t your mate. Look at her!

But Piers was only looking at him and the rage in the other wolf’s eyes seared his skin.

Josette. He should have connected the dots sooner. Shit, Piers had even told him that he’d been watching her. How long had the guy known she was his? And why the hell hadn’t he tried to claim her? Piers had danced near the edge too long, he should have gone after Josette with everything he had.

Like Lucas would have gone after Sarah.

Piers swiped at him, but Lucas slammed his head into the wolf’s side. I don’t want to hurt you. He blasted out the thought again. His teeth snapped together. But I will. He couldn’t get past the red wall of rage in the other wolf’s mind.

“Caleb turned on you.” Rafe’s voice droned on. “Sure, it took some poison and the promise of an excruciating death, but I got him to lie and lead you right into my trap.”

A trap that hadn’t f**king worked.

“He should have killed you.” Now Rafe didn’t seem quite so pleased. “Caleb had the chance to attack, but . . .”

But he’d pulled back.

Piers tore into Lucas’s shoulder.

“This one won’t pull back.” Ah, now Rafe was happy again.

Sorry, Piers. Lucas leapt up and shoved his claws into the knife wounds on Piers’s back. When the wolf howled in agony, Lucas lunged off his body and dove right for Rafe.

Rafe didn’t back up. He didn’t try to shift. He just stood there and Lucas crashed into him. They slammed into the floor, and he went for Rafe’s throat.

“Something you should know . . .” Rafe murmured. He wasn’t even fighting. “Sarah’s dead.”

Lying bastard.

His teeth dug into Rafe’s skin.

“Or else, she will be, if you don’t get the f**k off me.” Lucas froze, the taste of the bastard’s blood on his tongue, then Rafe said, “My men have her surrounded outside. Her gun—the one you probably heard firing a moment ago—is out of bullets, and as for your little brother . . . well, let’s just say he’s not quite the scrapper that you are.”

Shit, shit, shit . . . Sarah!

She should have been back at the hotel. Safe. Rafe could be lying, but . . .

The gunshots.

“Get off, wolf . . . or you can rip my throat out, like you did to Marley, and then you can go and mourn over your dead lover.”

Lucas lifted his head.

“Thought so,” Rafe said as Lucas raced back to that broken window. He hurtled past the jagged glass and his paws slammed into the ground. He ran, fast, fast—desperate to get to her side.

He heard the clicks just as he burst onto the sidewalk. The clicks from Sarah’s empty gun. Six dead coyotes littered the ground. Sarah and Jordan were standing, back to back. Sarah had her gun up and when she saw him, her eyes widened. “Lucas!”

He realized too late that her shout was a warning. He tried to turn and glance back, but the bullet drove into him, and even as he fell, the form of the wolf began to melt away.

The fur melted from Dane’s body and the heat singed his flesh. He didn’t have a choice. He had to shift. The wolf could escape the fire, but if he did, the woman would die.

Maybe, just maybe, the man could save them both. Besides, what was a little pain?

This what you meant, Marie? Do I have to get ready for the f**king pain again?

He hefted Josette into his arms. Her head lolled against his shoulder. “Baby, this is the part where you’re supposed to be holding on,” he muttered. He took a breath. No clothes. No cover. The fire would burn right against his flesh.

Her eyelashes began to flutter.

“No.” He exhaled. “You don’t want to see this.”

Then leapt, dove through the fire, but the flames touched her skin and she screamed.

And screamed.

He didn’t stop running. The fire ate at him, and he hunched his shoulders, trying to protect her as much as he could. The smoke filled his lungs, choking him, but he kept going and then he was before the door he’d broken. Dane shoved his way past the splintered wood and into the other room.

He fell to the floor, rolling, twisting as he tried to put out the flames.

Josette wasn’t screaming anymore. Her eyes were open, wide, and blank with shock.

He caught her chin. His hands were covered with blisters and rough, red flesh. “You’re going to be okay.” The pain rolled through his body. Pain—that teasing bitch. He knew her so well. He took the pain, pulled it in deep, and let it make him stronger.

A ragged groan reached his ears. He turned his head and saw Piers staring at him. The white wolf’s pelt was matted with blood. Piers growled at him, advancing slowly.

Behind him, Dane saw what was left of Marley. Looked like Lucas had kept his word and taken her out.

So where was Rafe?

“Ease up, Piers. She’ll be all right.” He glanced back at Josette.

Piers growled again, and the low, menacing sound had Dane tensing.

Piers leapt toward him, but froze when thunder filled the night. No, not thunder. Gunfire.

The white wolf’s head snapped toward the busted window. Seconds later, Piers raced into the night.

The fire slipped into the room then, and the crackles almost sounded like an old woman’s laughter. Not again. Dane grabbed Josette, didn’t even feel the tear of his skin as the burned flesh ripped, and followed that bloody wolf.

“Lucas!” Sarah lunged forward, but Jordan grabbed her, hauling her right back to him.

Lucas was on the ground, his body contorting, and the wolf vanishing as his body automatically shifted in a bid to heal and live.

Her heart raced in her chest and then . . . then her knees gave way. If Jordan hadn’t held her, Sarah would have fallen face-first onto the ground.

A strange cold wrapped around her body, a cold that numbed her legs and arms, even while her back burned—burned and throbbed as if a bullet had lodged near her spine.

Not my spine. Lucas’s.

“Sarah? What the hell is happening?”

The gun slipped from her fingers and hit the ground. She opened her mouth, tried to explain to Jordan, but only a ragged moan of pain came from her lips.

“Bastard, you should have died the first time I pumped you full of silver,” Rafe snarled and closed in on Lucas. “Fucking magic won’t save you now. It can’t.”

He lives . . . you live.

Sarah’s eyes squeezed shut as the fire from her back fought that numbing cold in her limbs.