Page 138 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

BLOOD AND WRATH

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER 1

KAI

Arumble vibrates through the ground beneath me, shaking the building’s foundation, and along with it, my rage ignites. Embers crackle like kindle on my skin, it travels in jagged dark lines up my arms as flames erupt alongside them. My body grows and expands to make way for my hound.

Or one of them.

I grit my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, and push back the shift before I destroy the entire building and everyone in it.

Not that me or the boys would die. Thanks to our mate, we are pretty much indestructible now.

I’d be lying if I hated the upgrade, but our abilities were not the only thing that grew. Our beasts also became…more.

More powerful. More dangerous. More fucking terrifying.

My hound always had two sides. One more vicious than

the other, but this… new side, awakened from our bond, is more deadly than them both.

He wants our mate—the only thing we can agree on at the moment—but he also wants out, and even I fear what he will do when fully unleashed.

As if hearing me, a ripple of dark power seeps over me, the new beast inside wanting revenge and destruction for our lost mate.

Soon,I promise us both.

Soon,it agrees. It sounds more like a threat than a deal.

The dark power slowly retreats, releasing its grip on me and halting the near shift about to happen.

I pull back the rest of the shift bit by bit, until it’s completely back inside me, focusing only on the present and what we need to do to get Kiarra back.

What she needs is us focused, not running around destroying everything in our path. Burning the world down when she’s still out there, isn’t the way to do it. At least… not yet.

The deteriorating building gradually slows its shaking. Dust and chunks of concrete fall around me before it comes to a halt.

What was once an old hotel is now nothing more than a barren construction site that sits on the edge of Manhattan.

Glancing around the silent crumbling building, I move to find the others.

A thunder-like whip shatters the silence, cracking what’s left of the walls around me. They rip and tear open.

Axel slams into the ground beside me, cracking the floor beneath us while leaving a large gap in the ceiling above from his landing. Ripples of scales slide over his skin, slowly retreating along with his wings, but his eyes tell the truth to his emotions.

He’s not in control. His dragon is trying to force its way to the front to take over.

We’re lost… again. Without our center, without our mate, we’re hanging on to whatever we can, trying in vain not to lose it and take out everyone and everything around us. Add heightened emotions and new powerful abilities, and you have one psycho group of alphas on the loose.

With Axel’s gold eyes now red-rimmed, I can tell it’s only going to get progressively worse if we don’t find our mate soon.

Until then, we need to stay focused.

We needher.

“Go. Before you take down what’s left of the building.”

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