Page 67 of Beautiful Madness

I said a silent goodbye to theend, and I greeted the new beginning with hope in my heart and hunger in mysoul.

“Bring it,” I murmured, sendingthe challenge out into the world, into life. “You cannot break me.”

And life lifted an eyebrow.“Hold my beer,” it whispered.

I laughed.

I was ready.

ChapterThirty-Six

I stood beside Jared as hefaced the two who’d caused so much distress for every single one of us. Hewouldn’t drag it out. He wouldn’t cause either one of them to suffer to make anexample of them or to give them back some of the pain they’d caused his pack.

He would simply kill them.

The wolves had already takenout their anger as much as possible on Lennon and Eli—Jared wouldn’t allow themphysical violence, but he didn’t care how much they voiced their contempt andrage.

They waited now, silent andmorose, their anger spent. They grieved for the ones they’d lost and theywanted to make sure the two traitors died for their sins, but they were readyfor it to be done.

Like me, they wanted to endthat chapter in their lives and begin a new one.

Eli wouldn’t look at any ofthem—especially not his alpha—but Lennon watched Jared and me with her chin upand her beautiful lips curved in a contemptuous sneer. Both were bound and hada silver spike embedded to keep them from shifting, and when Eli, at the end,finally spoke, his request was to be allowed to die holding Lennon’s hand.

Lennon denied him before Jaredhad a chance to. “Die knowing you were a fool,” she snarled, and maybe that wasthe instant Eli understood that he’d given up everything for a love that hadnever existed.

Then she put her calm stare onthe alpha. “I will die looking at the one for whom I did everything. You willnever again know love like mine,” she told him.

“That wasn’t love.” He glancedat me. “I know love.”

“Fuck you,” she whispered, andat last, her tears welled. “Kill me fast, Jared. Put me out of my misery. Iwould never want to live without you, anyway.”

He nodded and slid his silveredblade into her chest and carved out that offending vessel, then did the same toEli. He left them for his warriors to dispose of.

They were dead.

After they fell, he pulledsomething from inside his jacket. Lennon’s wand. He wordlessly handed it to me,and I wordlessly took it.

Damn me, but I took it.

I would always have a weaknessfor such things.

We all contained shades of goodand evil, didn’t we? We all held greed, we all coveted, we all made mistakes. Thatdidn’t mean that in the end, I wouldn’t always try to do the right thing. Thegood thing.

I looked at Sam, who stood withthe pack as though he were one of them, his face disguised but his eyesunmistakable. I knew his eyes as well as I knew my own. We did share aconnection, and as he’d said, that connection was because we were the same.

Shapeshifters.

I had a lot to learn. Mytraining with the wolf alpha elder would continue. My work with and for themwould continue. I would never lose my suspicion of them, though. Not entirely.

Sam offered me a small smilewhen he saw me watching him, something new in his eyes. He’d found his place, hiscrew, his purpose. He wasn’t alone.

Would that keep him fromkilling blonde women with abused sons?

No.

Had he gone off the deep endand killed the innocent, as Rick had believed? I sighed, then returned hissmile.

I did not know.