Series: Mated for Life Series by Stacey Espino
Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
“You got any great ideas?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, kill this motherfucker!” He didn’t think, charging at the bear, and he clearly took the son of a bitch by surprise as he fell back with a growl. He needed to split his skin, allow his wolf to come barreling through. Taking the bear down should have given him time, only it didn’t, the bear threw him across the land, and he hit a tree, crashing to the ground.
Joe was next, shifting into his fur, allowing his bear to come out, but he was too slow.
They’d spent too long procrastinating about this.
Fuck. Double-fuck. Pouncing from his position, he attacked the bear, landing on his back, and he sank his teeth deep into his flesh. Even the bear’s blood tasted bitter and acrid, as if he’d been burned from the inside out. There was nothing worth salvaging. He was pure evil. His entire body and twisted soul were disgusting, cruel, and just as he was about to slice across his neck, he was thrown again.
Caleb didn’t like being thrown. He certainly didn’t like feeling weak and against this rogue bastard, he was. He landed in the water and had to break the surface. The female was still struggling. Rather than rush back out, seeing as Joe was quite happy to be thrown and punched, he wrapped his arms around the woman and started to tread toward land. She didn’t flail in his arms, and for that, he was thankful.
“I’ve got you,” he said.
She collapsed on the edge of the lake, panting. “Please, kill him.”
“I will.”
Getting to his feet, he saw that Joe was out cold, and he gritted his teeth as the rogue threw him into the lake. Fuck.
The rogue laughed. “It’s time for him to be reborn. What do you think? You think he’s got it in him to do that?”
He hoped Joe woke up.
There weren’t a lot of choices for him. If he jumped in to save Joe, this woman’s life was pretty much over, or if he waited it out, Joe could drown. He didn’t like either option.
He didn’t go rushing to his friend.
As he stepped closer to the rogue, his enemy smiled.
“I like you. We should be friends.”
“You took my woman.”
The rogue rolled his eyes. It was odd as he’d changed only his head into a human while the rest of his body was that of a bear. It was eerie.
“What made you this way?” he asked.
“You don’t like me?” The rogue laughed. “Of course, you don’t. No one likes power when it knocks them on their ass, and this, this is power. Not bad for someone who was once the lamest person in their pack.”
“You were weak?”
“I was the runt. I was the one they made do everything. I was nothing more than a punching bag for them to beat the shit out of.” He growled, the sound rumbling through his body. “I showed them. They all didn’t laugh when I showed them I’d poisoned them. I watched their bodies. The way they reacted. Their stomachs all exploding, and I was the cause. They couldn’t make me do anything they wanted. The power.” He breathed in, closed his eyes. “That is heady. I got stronger.”
No, he didn’t get stronger. What happened was the bear went crazy. The man had killed his sleuth, and the bear had gone insane. He was a freak of nature.
“You’re going to die.”
He snorted. “You think I haven’t heard that before? I have. No one has been able to stop me. They try and it’s all cute, but no one can stop me. When we’re done here, I’m going to fuck your mate and as I do, I’m going to rip her throat out. I’m going to make her beg for you. I could let you live, tear you limb from limb, keep you alive, and fuck you up. I can do that, you know. Keep you alive. Make you beg for death.” He giggled.
This man had gone past mad.
Joe still hadn’t broken the surface.
“You’re weak,” the rogue said. “You think I don’t see what’s going on in that head of yours? I can. I know what you want to do.”
Gritting his teeth, he ran with speed and as he was midway through the air, he changed into his wolf. Landing on the bear, he sliced his hands down, but the bear had his arms in front of him.
He was like fucking metal.
Caleb took the impact as he was thrown once again, but he didn’t change back into his human form. He kept on going, attacking the bear, taking him by surprise with a slash here and there.
Each time, the bear came out of his trance and he was thrown around once again.
His wolf, each time he was thrown, got angrier. He’d never come against a rogue wolf, let alone a rogue shifter. Caleb had always been the strongest.