Page 97 of Baseball and Shifters

Trent gasps, clawing at the hand around his throat. “Y-you said she was mine!”

“I said to keep your filthy hands off her until I gave the word!” Ranger’s grip tightens. “You touch her again, without my explicit permission, I’ll tear you apart.”

“Absolutely the fuck not!” Trent shouts back, shoving him off with a powerful kick. “You’ve been using me from the start! I’ve done every single thing you’ve asked. Every message, every report, every fucking humiliating errand and you were never going to give her to me, were you?”

Ranger’s eyes narrow, golden and feral. “No.”

Trent reels back like he’s been slapped.

“Evenifshe survives the bond breaking potion,” Ranger continues. “I never would have allowed her to be with someone as low-class as you.”

“Bond breaking potion?” Trents eyes are wide with disbelief. “You’re working with dark witches?”

“You killed Everett,” I rasp my accusation. “You gave my mother a potion to break their bond, and it killed him.”

“Yes, Trent. Well,adark witch. They’re not so easy to find these days.” Ranger doesn’t even blink as he turns to me.“Everett was weak. He died because he couldn’t survive the severance. That’s notmyfault.”

“And now you want to do it to me,” I say, voice shaking. “You think I’ll survive it?”

He smirks. “I guess we’ll find out.”

The room spins. I feel the fear rising like bile in my throat.

Trent stares between us, the full truth hitting him all at once. “You son of a bitch. You were going to break her, and just let her die.”

Ranger shrugs. “If she’s strong enough, she’ll survive. If not… well. She was a mistake from the beginning.”

Trent snaps.

With a scream of pure fury, he lunges at Ranger, and they collide in a tangle of fists, and feet.

It’s chaos. A blur of movement, snarling and growling and splintering wood.

I don’t wait. I force all my focus on getting myself to shift.

My fox rips free of my human form with a burst of wild energy. She’s small and white-hot, a blur of russet fur and glowing eyes, slipping out of the ropes like smoke through cracks. We don’t stop to look back. We bolt through a broken section of the wall, paws pounding over the mossy floorboards. Our four distinctly different tails fan out behind us as we reach the outdoors.

The afternoon air hits me like a slap as I break out into the trees, and run. Heart racing. Legs flying. No direction, just away.

Twigs lash across my muzzle as we leap over roots slick with moss. The scent of damp earth and old leaves clings to our fur, but we don’t stop.

I can’t.

And then… movement.

Voices.

Familiar scents on the wind.

I skitter behind a tree, chest heaving, ears perked. Someone’s coming. Heavy footfalls, sharp breaths. I crouch low, terrified it might be one of them.

But then…

“Rachel!”

It’s Derrick’s voice. I peek my head around the tree and see a black wolf heading my way at a dead run.

Liam.

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