Page 28 of Crave

A flash in my peripheral vision told me that help had arrived. It might be too late, but at least Susannah was safe. That was all that mattered, really. Hot liquid splashed across my face, streaks of red washed through the darkness. A voice pleaded for mercy in the background as I drifted in and out of blissful unconsciousness. I was definitely dying this time. Susannah was going to be pissed.

A face appeared before me, a stranger smeared with blood and gore. Not what I thought the Goddess’s Handmaidens would look like, but I mean, it fit.

“Are you okay?” the Handmaiden asked.

Was it a Handmaiden if it was a guy? Handbachelor?

“Okay, so head injury and blood loss at the very minimum.” I hissed as he moved my head from side to side. “What hurts?”

I wanted to laugh becauseeverythinghurt. It hurt to tell him everything hurt. The Handbachelor looked over my head. His face turned scarier, like how was that possible as blood dripped down his cheeks.

“Wilkie kicked him in the face, so his jaw? There's—I mean, Ithinkthere's a gash on his side and maybe broken ribs?” The male voice was wobbly and filled with fear. Well, I guess that made sense.

The Handbachelor cursed softly. “Bloody hell. What have you gotten yourself into now?”

A low growl sounded across the clearing, and the Handbachelor raised a brow at me. “He sounds pissed.”

With that, a shifted Manix form slammed into the Goddess’s chosen one. I sighed. I didn’t think I was dead anymore, no matter how much that would make the pain stop.

“Calm down, mate. I found them like this.” A slight pause. “Well, not him. I did that. But Quinn and Murphy were like that when I arrived.”

I realized that the Handbachelor was really a blood-soaked Tanner.Shit.

Susannah was suddenly leaning over me kissing my face. “You’re alive. Thank the fucking Goddess, you’re alive.”

I groaned, rolling onto my side to spit out the old blood that was welling in my cheeks. Maybe I’d bitten my tongue? My whole face hurt, so it was hard to define what part hurt the most. “Kinda.” She helped me sit up, and I looked over at Murphy, who looked just as banged up as me.

But it was the rest of the clearing that made me want to vomit.

Wilkie lay unseeing on the ground between Murphy and I, his chest gaped open and his heart gone. The appendage in question was lying on the dirt ten feet away. His throat had been savaged, and his lifeblood pooled around him, the smell dulled by the scent of smoke. His hands, which had hurt me so often, had been ripped off.

A shifted Merrick and Tanner were still staring off with each other, uncaring about the fact that Joseph, with his throat torn out but his chest still unopened, was dead at their feet.

“I heard the scream, so I came to investigate,” Tanner said defensively. “I might’ve gone a little overboard, though.” He stared down at the dead bodies, looking remorseful. “Fuck, this is going to get me into trouble.”

Merrick transformed back, and he helped a now naked but much healed Murphy to his feet. Tanner walked over, ignoring the growls of the other Manix in the clearing. Grabbing my cuffs, he tore them off, like they were made of plastic. “If you shift now... Have you come off the drugs enough to transform?”

If it hadn’t hurt so much to shrug I would have. Since I stopped taking the tablets I hadn’t tried to shift. If I was honest, I was a little scared. Scared that after keeping my Omega repressed for so long my Beast wouldn’t rise. I’d be forever locked into my human form.

Susannah’s hand squeezed mine. “It’s okay. If it doesn’t happen it probably just means we have to wait a little longer. Your Beast is in there. I can feel him.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, trying to remember the shift and how it felt. Magic rippled over my skin as my body stretched and contorted, aching as my bones meshed and elongated. It was like being in a cramped space for so long all your limbs forgot how to work.

Finally, I opened my eyes, and Susannah was beaming down at me. “Hello, handsome,” she purred, and my Beast thrummed low. I lifted my hand, but I’d only shifted into my half-form. Soft, multicolored fur covered my body, as well as small but sharp claws. My ears twitched on my head, so I knew that my face had shifted too. I’d been aiming for a full shift, but this would do for now.

I stood up tenderly, Tanner’s hand under my elbow, and I turned at the sound of Murphy growling. “Take your hands off him,” he grunted.

Tanner laughed, but moved away. “Easy, Alpha.” I guess it was hard to be scared of a man who was threatening you while his dick hung in the breeze.

I looked past him at where Merrick was standing over Errol. Whatever he was saying was making the man’s shoulders shake. It wasn’t Errol’s fault. He’d been just as much a victim of Wilkie and his Pack as we were—he just didn’t have a Susannah to lean on in the hard times.

I moved toward them but Susannah grabbed my arm. “Wait.”

Merrick pulled the Beta into his arms and held him tight. I watched as Errol shook and cried. Then Merrick pulled away, patting the man on his shoulder and pushing him in the opposite direction. “Go. Don’t come back. Start again somewhere else.”

I knew what he was doing. People hated Wilkie, but if the story ever came out, they wouldn’t understand why Errol had stood by and let his Packmates be killed. They’d judge him, and he’d be a pariah.

Errol looked over his shoulder at us one last time. “I’m sorry I failed you two. I’ll live with that forever.”

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