Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Warmth spread through me. Blushing with pleasure, I nibbled on my bottom lip and gazed at him through the shield of my lashes. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“I should have trusted you sooner.” He stood and cupped my cheeks. “Stay in Scotland. Marry me. Let me make you my queen in every way. Doesn’t have to be today. I understand you’ll want to get to know me better. So tomorrow.” Pure, undiluted yearning consumed his features. “You didn’t escape when you had the chance. You stayed and fought for me, and I will do no less for you. I will fight for you every day of my life and find how to cure you of your allergy to dogs. I already have ideas.”
“Callen,” I rasped, overcome.
“You were always my firebrand, lass.”
My breath hitched, and I struggled to process the beauty of his confession. A proposal? From my husband. Who wasn’t really my husband. Even though he was. And he had his sights set on forever.
Another screech echoed around us. Sorcha hadn’t given up.
Callen ignored her. I did, too. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”
With another grin, he gifted me with a hard kiss.
“I hate you, Callen,” Sorcha screamed, struggling against Buzz’s hold. “I hate you with every fiber of my being!”
Callen ended the kiss with a sigh. “Go with your guards,” he told me. “I’ll see Sorcha to her prison and return to you. We’ll start our lives fresh.”
Though I didn’t want to leave him, I nodded, and all but skipped off to join Ponytail and Buzz, who passed his burden to Callen. What a wonderful day this had turned out to be!
“Not a scratch on her. She bears my mark and will be crowned your queen,” he called.
The pair didn’t say a word as they escorted me to the car. But once seated inside and on the road, Buzz stared at me for a long while, his eyes narrowed. I shifted, growing uncomfortable. What?
Ponytail noticed and nudged him with his elbow. “What’s wrong with you?”
“More than you know.” Motions swift and fluid, Buzz withdrew a gun and shot him in the heart with multiple rounds.
I gasped, hit by horror as crimson flowed from the wounds, soaking Ponytail’s shirt. He tried to speak, but only choking sounds escaped his mouth.
I lunged to catch him as he slumped forward, but Buzz tapped the weapon, shook his head, and tsked, keeping me in place. My knees quaked.
“Hello, darlin’,” Buzz said, and I knew. Tavish had soul-switched with him. He rested the gun on his lap, making sure I had a view of it. “To my home,” he told Angus, the driver.
“Yes, sir, boss.” Angus cackled with laughter and bounced in the seat, nothing like his usual self. He’d been soul-switched, too. But with whom?
No wonder the berserker kings insisted on executing those who participated, willingly or not. The ability left others in constant danger.
“I knew Sorcha would betray me,” the wolf said. Though he couldn’t wolf-out in the body he currently occupied. Right? Only berserker out. Or would he force the change in the other man? “That’s why I merely used her as a distraction.”
I should have planned for this. “What’s the goal? Lure Callen into a trap and hurt me in front of him?”
“Something like that.” Buzz-Tavish gloated a moment. “Callen took my firebrand from me. Soon he will know the suffering I have endured ever since.”
Such hate. “Callen isn’t responsible for his mother’s death.”
Tavish reacted without missing a beat, slapping me. Pain exploded in my cheek, and blood trickled over my tongue. Inside, I screamed with fury.
“Say that again, and find out what happens,” Tavish bit out.
I looked him straight in the eye, unwavering. “Callen isn’t responsible for his mother’s death. You are. I’m guessing you didn’t perform the ceremony to make her harder to kill.”
His second slap sent my body flying to the floor. A good thing. The car jerked to a sudden stop, Angus banging into the steering wheel with such force he was knocked unconscious. The momentum shoved me against the back of his seat while Tavish flew forward, banging his face on the back of the passenger seat. Confused thoughts battled for dominance until a fist punched through a side window, glass shards flinging.
With eyes glowing vivid blue, Callen ripped a door off its hinges and yanked Tavish from the vehicle. I watched, shell-shocked, as the two tore into each other. Well, Tavish tried. Claws extended from his nail beds, but not Callen’s. Buzz’s teeth lengthened and sharpened, his bones more prominent, baring the true animal nature of his berserkerage. But not Callen. He appeared double the size, yes, but he exhibited no animalistic traits. Once again, pure power pulsed from him.
He easily blocked Tavish’s attacks and landed bone-crushing blow after bone-crushing blow.
The switched shifter was losing, his motions slowing. “How are you doing this?”