Page 59 of Blood Magic

But even as the first goon fell dead to the pavement, the remaining goon began to shift. Zach had been able to surprise them, but they wouldn’t let that happen again.

Adam’s wolves should have known better than to shift in public. If that had been Jared’s wolf, he would have been punished for such a thing. But Adam Thorne was a bully and a careless asshole, and his goons weren’t exactly circumspect. So the goon shifted, but I would fight as a human, because I would never shift in public.

It was okay. I wouldn’t need to shift. My demon blade was in my hand, and my wolf’s rage roared over me. I saw the goon rush a smiling Zach, and then I concentrated on the alpha who wanted not to kill me, but to own me—and I agreed with Zach. Some things were worse than death.

The eagerness for blood and violence shook my entire body. I’d never considered that I was a sociopath, but when the need to fight and to kill took me over, I was just that. Nothing had ever felt better to me, and I was sure nothing ever would.

Adam didn’t shift either. It would have been too much for his pride to become his wolf against a knife-wielding girl. He didn’t even pull a blade. He balled his fists and came to meet me, but fuck him. There was fear in his eyes. I had cut him before, and his wolf hadn’t been able to heal him. Yeah, he was scared.

I ducked under his fist and when I came up, I raked the tip of my blade from his ribs to just over his heart, and I swear I saw steam rising from the wound before he punched me in the face and sent me flying backward.

It was nothing to be ashamed of. He was an alpha. His punches were going to hurt me—but I had also given him some damage. Getting so much as a single cut made me proud.

I shook off the pain and sprang up from the pavement, then sprinted back toward him. He hit his bloody chest with his fist like a barbarian and urged me on. We’d drawn a crowd as those inside the church slipped out to watch us, but no one made a sound.

I caught a brief glimpse of my alpha, grim and still. He’d warned Adam not to come for me, but Adam had ignored him. They’d fight, but first, Jared would let me do what I needed to do. He wouldn’t interfere—unless I was dying, maybe—but afterward…

The strip I’d cut into Adam’s flesh had poured blood but just as quickly stopped, but like the cut on his face, it would scar. And I’d be happy to give him a whole bunch of those gifts, because he wouldn’t leave me alone. He deserved whatever pain I brought him.

He punched me again, and that time, my blade didn’t touch him. If I hadn’t been a wolf and maybe a little bit more, that blow would have killed me. But I leaped up, wobbled only a little, and rushed him. God, I was just so fucking mad.

I wanted revenge, as I’d always wanted revenge, not just because he’d killed my father, but because he’d killed my mother’s love. Because he’d forced her from the pack. Because he’d hobbled my wolf for so very long. Because he scared me. Yes, maybe more than anything else, that rage was because he scared me.

I wanted to shift. My wolf wanted to rip her way from my puny human body and devour him, to taste his blood, but I had to fight him as Kait.

He seemed content to stand there and watch me come, to punch me in the face, and if I hadn’t known him I would have had no clue that he was afraid of me. It satisfied me, that fear, and it energized me.

I ran at him, feinted to the side, ducked, and sliced him from knee to hip, then turned, dragging the knife across his lower belly. As I continued to turn from that slice, he grabbed me by my long hair.

His breath was full of pain.

“Why won’t you leave me alone?” I cried, as he yanked me back against his bloody body, and finally, he pulled his own blade.

He surprised me by answering. “Because I can’t.” He lowered his nose to the side of my throat and brought his blade from my stomach to my chest, and I felt the hot line of blood he drew. “I can’t be your wolf, Kait. I am Alpha.”

I didn’t know what that meant.

Suddenly Zach was in front of us, his body loose and limber, his blade in his fist, a little wild as he stared at us through his hair. And my alpha was beside him.

Bastien stood behind them, waiting to see if I would need his help.

“I won’t let you kill her,” Jared said.

“Jared,” I murmured. “I won’t let him kill me.”

And I did what I’d been refusing to do. I shifted.

But just a little. Only my hands, and maybe, from Jared and Zach’s expressions of horror and shock and something else I couldn’t identify, my face. Just enough to give me a boost of power equal to Adam’s. I exploded from his grip, grabbed him by the throat, and rode him to the ground.

I could have killed him then. I could have ripped his out throat with my wolf’s teeth. I could have torn his heart from his chest. But I only stared down at him, and I let him live. “I can’t kill you. I don’t want to kill you. Let me go, Adam.”

I wanted his death. Truly, I wanted his death. But I couldn’t kill him. I didn’t understand it. I wanted to kill him. I didn’t want to kill him.

And even as his eyes widened, I threw myself off him and started to stride back to my car, my heart full of fury and tears and questions.

Jared shot out a hand to stop me. “Kait.”

I couldn’t look at him. “I don’t know, Jared. I don’t know anything right now.”