Page 42 of Savage Giant

I dodgedred beams of light, sensing the danger of the unfamiliar weaponry. There were three human males—two with the strange guns—and one who was standing back and watching the fight unfold. I suspected he was the criminal who’d forced Cari to work for him. Salax.

I growled as I tossed a chair directly at one of the armed males, causing him to drop his weapon. It slid across the floor toward me, and I rolled to the ground as I dodged another beam of red light and picked it up, then hurled it out a window.

The male I’d tossed the chair at was bleeding on the floor, a deep gash on his face from the wooden leg of the chair, which had struck him directly in the forehead, rendering him unconscious.

I focused on the male who was still armed. He pointed his strange gun at me and jerked it, but it made a sputtering noise, and the red beam didn’t shoot outward as I’d expected.I launched myself at him and snapped his neck before we both tumbled onto the rug.

A gasp sounded behind me, and I spun around as Salax went after the broken blaster. He grasped it between two hands, pointing it at me. I braced myself, ready to dodge another beam if he got it working, but when he pressed a lever on the side and jerked it, nothing happened. Just another sputter.

I snarled and approached the male, savoring the fear that rolled off him. His evilness was a choking darkness, and there was no doubt in my mind that he’d taken many lives. I thought of my promise to Cari—I’d promised that if he ever came near her, I would tear his arms from his body and let him bleed out.

I glanced at the couch I’d tossed over Cari and saw her peering at me through a crack, her eyes wide, her fear gradually fading as she realized the weapon in Salax’s hands wouldn’t work.

A groan sounded behind me as the first male I’d attacked began to awake. I strode back to him, picked him up by one arm, and dragged him in front of his criminal boss. Then I pushed the whimpering male to his knees, grasped his head in my hands, and snapped his neck while maintaining eye contact with Salax.

The criminal paled and retreated a few steps, heading for the front door, the strange weapon sliding from his hand.

He sucked in a deep breath as I stalked closer, and his gaze turned pleading. His desperation and terror fueled my desire to make him suffer for what he’d done to my sweet Cari.

“How dare you come after my beloved mate,” I said.

He held up his hands in a human gesture of surrender. “Please,” he said in a trembling voice. “Please. I-I can give you money. As much money as you want. Weapons, too. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. But I need Cari to come with me. I’m going to trial soon and I need her to testify in my defense. That’sall. I-I’ll even give her back to you after the trial if you want. I give you my word.”

Did the fool actually think he could negotiate with me? Though I sensed his depravity, I detected no lies in his statement. He truly hadn’t come here to kill Cari, but instead wished to use her for his own nefarious purposes. To save himself from a dark but much-deserved fate at the hands of his brethren. I didn’t know anything about human trials, though I surmised they were similar to Montikaan tribunals that gathered to determine the fate of a wrongdoer.

“Cari isn’t going anywhere with you,” I said, grasping the criminal by his collar. I hauled him outside into the breaking dawn, not wishing my sweet human to witness the brutality I planned to inflict. Also not wishing to spill the man’s blood in her cabin, and I intended to spill lots of it.

“Please! Wait!” He thrashed in my hold as I dragged him into the forest.

I ignored his pleas and carried him past the area where I’d killed the fourth pullshanna several days ago and ventured deeper into the forest, but not so far that I couldn’t glimpse the cabin.

Growls resounded from my chest, bloodlust humming in the depths of my being.

I wanted to spend an entire day making the criminal suffer, but I couldn’t leave Cari alone for that long. I ached to return to her side and comfort her, and I also hoped we might still travel to my people’s cavern today.

Pausing in a small clearing, I twisted the man’s right arm until it snapped. He howled and tried to run away, so I picked him up by one leg and shook him hard, swinging him from side to side. Then I slammed him heavily upon the ground and took great satisfaction in the sound of his ribs cracking. He gasped wordlessly and barely moved.

“You won’t need Cari for a trial,” I said, “because there’s not going to be one. You will soon draw your last breath, and it won’t be long before the land of the living forgets your name.” I landed a harsh kick to his side, breaking more ribs. The crunch was satisfying, and yet I wasn’t finished.

“Please please please,” he peered up at me, his face smudged with dirt, blood trickling from his nose.

I crouched before him, wanting to make sure he heard every word I planned to say. “I once promised Cari that if you ever came here, I would tear off your arms and let you bleed out.” A dark chuckle escaped my throat, and I basked in the look of sheer horror that crossed his paling face. “As you’re about to find out, I always keep my promises.”

What happened next was justice. A grunt escaped me as I wrenched his left arm off his body first, using all my strength as I pulled at flesh and bone.Tug tug tug. His panicked, agonized cries echoed off the mountainside.

Blood gushed and spurted, and he eventually slumped on his side, unable to move.

Though I sensed he was going into shock, I turned him over and grasped his remaining arm. His eyes bulged and his lips moved in a wordless plea, no sound issuing from his throat.

“Promises,” I repeated, then tore his right arm completely from his body.Tug tug tug. The warmth of his blood splashed my fur, the coppery scent filling my nostrils. One by one, I tossed his arms into the forest, though he was too far gone to notice.

I waited until his heart stopped beating, which wasn’t long, and I saw a light turn on in the cabin. Footsteps sounded on the stairs at the back entrance of the building.

In a rush of movement, I lifted the arm-less criminal and hurled him as far as I could into the trees, wanting to hide the violence from Cari. Not because I thought she would judge me for it, but because I didn’t want the bloody scene to give hernightmares. She’d seen me kill other males before, but she’d only watched as I snapped their necks. Quick deaths that weren’t so gruesome.

I ran back to the cabin, toward my sweet mate, praying she was all right. None of the males had managed to lay a finger on her, but that didn’t mean the incident hadn’t terrorized her. I’d never felt her shake so badly as when she’d heard Salax’s voice in the darkness.

We met at the tree line near the cabin, and she paused in front of me, scanning me up and down, concern filling her features.

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