Page 100 of Rocky Top

“Then maybe you should’ve died with him.”

Flint cocked the shotgun. “Nah. See, we got a deal. You give us safe passin’. And you admit what you did to Mark. In front of your club.”

I laughed. “You think I’m scared of a confession?”

“Don’t matter if you’re scared,” Brent said. “Let your club see what kind of monster you really are. But we’re taking the girl and your new mate. Looks like you saved me the trouble of turning her.”

Birdie moved, so fast I barely saw her. One second she was beside me. The next she was on Flint, teeth bared, claws diggin’ into his neck.

He screamed.

Brent dropped Emma.

I lunged.

Everything went red.

A bullet hit me, but I tackled him into the mud, fists flyin’, rage pourin’ outta me like a river in flood. He swung back, knife slashin’ across my shoulder.

Didn’t matter.

He wasn’t walkin’ outta this.

“You don’t get to breathe the same air as her,” I snarled, punchin’ him hard enough to hear bones crack. “You don’t get to exist in the same goddamn world.”

He spat blood in my face. “You’re just like me, wolf.”

“No,” I growled. “I don’t hurt women. I don’t steal children. And I sure as hell don’t betray my pack.”

I reached down and pulled.

Snapped.

Brent’s scream was sharp, high-pitched, and then it cut off.

He was done.

I stood, chest heavin’, covered in blood.

Flint was gone, run off or dead, I didn’t care.

Emma was sobbin’ in Birdie’s arms. She’d shifted back and was whisperin’ to Emma, soft and gentle, rockin’ her like a mother would.

I came to them, kneelin’.

Birdie looked up at me.

“You okay?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “But I will be.”

We locked eyes.

We were in this together now.

Bonded by blood, by instinct, by war.

The club wouldcome soon.

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