Page 63 of The Bookseller and the Alpha
More men kept spilling out of the building. I trumpeted my challenge. They were between me and my mate. I know I said that I’d let her help me, but if I did it right, they’d all be dead before she was in any danger. What could I say?Oops. My bad.
I stepped forward, meeting the next wave of men. Something glittered in my peripheral vision. My claws raked down the chest of the first fool, still trying to shoot me. Moron. I snapped my teeth at him as I disembowelled him, my claws holding his body up even as he slumped. I swivelled, throwing the corpse at a group of three on my left. They’d stopped at a distance, fiddling with something on the ground. But my attention was taken by the sight of my mate coming around the side of the building. She glowed. She fucking glowed. She was like the sun. Golden and warm.
The sting of a blade in my lower back told me that someone had gone for a kidney. Reaching back, without taking my eyes off my mate, I grabbed the idiot who’d stabbed me. He’d been smart, waiting until I was distracted, but it still wasn’t going to do him any good. I dragged him around my body, keeping him in a headlock. He was struggling against me, buthis strength faded as I pressed harder on his neck until I heard the snap. I barely noticed as I dropped his body, my attention riveted on my mate. I met her eyes and the connection down our bond fizzed and pulsed. It radiated from my heart along every nerve ending, like liquid fire through my body.There you are, sweetheart. I drank in every detail. Looking for any signs of injury or pain. Her clothes were rumpled and she held one shoulder a little stiffly but I could see no sign of serious injury. She looked strong. Powerful. It felt as though my heart swelled in my chest when I saw the expression on her face. Fierce. Ready to fight. To fight for me. To fight for us.
She was perfect, a fucking warrior. A queen. A destroyer. An equal to my Beast.
But she’d also been kidnapped and trapped in a fridge. A fucking fridge. The horror I’d felt through her bond when she realised had almost made my heart stop. She was a queen, but I was her Beast. I wanted her in my arms. Safe, away from this carnage. It was time to finish this fight and take my mate home to bed.
Tearing my eyes from hers, I tilted my head back to the sky and roared. My mate could destroy all these men in a heartbeat, but she was still human and vulnerable. I’d keep their attention so she could work from the shadows. And then we’d go home.
Chapter 77
Calypso
I’d expected to see signs of violence when I came around the sight of the building. I thought I’d been prepared. The roars and the gunshots had made it pretty clear. Or so I’d believed. But I’d been wrong.
Luc, in his Beast form, had made it most of the way to the front door of the warehouse. The building was set back from the street, with an open concrete square providing no cover as he had approached. It must have seemed like the perfect killing field. One person against at least twenty. But they’d had no idea of what they’d unleashed when they stole me away. No idea of the lengths my mate would go to for me.
Luc stood in the open, in the full glory of his Beast form. His silver skin was marred by bullet holes, but he moved quickly, smoothly, his claws disembowelling the man who’d tried to shoot him at point-blank range. Bodies scattered in gruesome piles formed an uneven circle around him. Bodies. And body parts. I swallowed. I wasn’t going to puke. These people didn’t deserve any sympathy.
As if he could sense that I’d rounded the corner of the building, Luc’s eyes snapped to mine, trapping me in his dark gaze. Power swelled down the bond, phantom fingers caressingmy cheeks, my hair, down my spine. He didn’t break eye contact even when he reached behind his body and pulled a skinny shaven-headed thug to his side in a headlock.
There you are, sweetheart.His voice down the bond was darkly seductive. As if he wasn’t in the middle of fighting. As if we were alone. His voice lit up every nerve ending in my body. For a moment I forgot where we were. Forgot everything except the presence of my mate. I was suddenly panting, desperate for him to touch me. It was too long since I’d been in his arms, had his lips on mine, his body over mine, trapping me, devouring me.
Luc broke our stare, pulling me back into reality. He roared again, the sound guttural, primitive, warning every living being that an apex predator was nearby.
It was time to finish this fight and get my mate out of here. Somewhere private, where I could show him how much I loved him. The violence wasn’t a turn off. Maybe it should have been, but I’d gone into the mate bond knowing who my mate was. What he was capable of. I’d seen it in the parking garage. And it didn’t scare me. I knew, with soul deep certainty, that Luc would never,couldnever, turn that violence onto me. But he would protect me and do whatever it took to keep me safe. Even kill. And these men deserved to die. I took in the bullet holes scattered across his body. They’d shot him hundreds of times. I let my anger rise, pulling my power into my fingers. My fingertips heated. Tingled. My mate would kill to protect me, but I would also kill to protect him. I was a Witch and I was angry.
Luc was now occupied with several men. It looked like they’d decided to rush him in a last-ditch attempt to overpower him. Throwing my power towards them wouldn’t work. They were too close to Luc and I didn’t have enough control to pick them off one by one. I looked towards the road. It wasn’t too far to the car. I could get there easily, the path clear, but what then?Would it just be best to get out of here? Luc had come here for me, and I didn’t want him to stay in danger for any longer than necessary. I was ready to fight for him, with him, but maybe we didn’t need to.
Suddenly unsure, I hesitated, eyes darting from Luc to the men he was fighting. Movement in the shadows snagged my attention. Three black-clad figures huddled at the other end of the quadrangle, bending over some sort of equipment. I couldn’t see what they were doing, but my stomach tightened uncomfortably. I had a bad feeling that it was something important.
One of them stood up, facing Luc. His shape was distorted. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing, even as I started running, straight towards them. My instincts were going haywire. Whatever they were up to was very, very bad. And I needed to stop it. Now. I didn’t have the range to reach them. I needed to get closer.
“Hey bozo,” I shouted. “Look at me.”
He ignored me, but his buddies didn’t. They turned towards me, swinging automatic weapons around. I threw myself to the ground, rolling. I was in the open, exposed, nowhere to hide. The first burst of automatic fire went over my head, but they would adjust their aim. I had seconds only before I was riddled with bullets.
Fuck that. I wasn’t dying today. I raised myself to one knee and slashed my right arm in the air across my body, my fingertips pulsing painfully as I released every last bit of magic.
Chapter 78
Luc
I’d lost sight of Caly. I could feel her through the bond, but I couldn’t see her. I didn’t like it, even though it had been my plan. My roar had incited the final few and they’d all piled onto me, trying to overwhelm me through sheer numbers. No longer trying to kill me they’d decided to go for one final push. To get the journal. Logically, if they were swarming me, then Caly was safe, unnoticed. But the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Beast’s senses were telling me that something was wrong.
Automatic gunfire sounded behind me. On instinct, I hunched my shoulders, ready to take the rain of bullets, even as I struggled with the men trying to hold me down. The expected pain didn’t come and in that moment of distraction, when I paused, manacles tightened around my ankles. Manacles. Ha. As if manacles could stop me.
But they could slow me down until I broke them. And if the gunfire hadn’t been aimed at me… Fuck, fuck, fuck. Caly. My mate. They were shooting at my mate.
A guttural sound tore from my throat as Beast pushed extra power into me. My muscles bunched, and I threw two of the men off my body, tossing them into the building. More arms reached for me. I grabbed an arm, pulling the torso towards meuntil I could pick the man up, lifting him above my head. I tried to turn, but my movements were hampered by the short length of chain between the manacles.
Caly. I was taking too long. I was too slow. Every heartbeat felt like an eternity. I barely felt the snap of the chains as I flexed my legs. Throwing the man like a shotput into the remaining men rushing me was almost an afterthought. I needed my arms free. If Caly was in danger, it was time for us to leave. I should have grabbed her the moment I’d seen her peer around the corner of the building. Just grabbed her and run. But I’d been caught up in the bloodlust, wanting to kill every one of the men who’d been involved.
Feeling like I was operating in slow motion,slow, too slow, I finished the turn, my eyes cataloguing every horrifying detail. Two men with automatic weapons trained on my mate. Firing on her. Firing on my mate. A man between her and me. Blocking my path. Soon to be a dead man.
Beast had no more power to give me. He couldn’t push me any faster. My legs moved automatically even as I continued taking in the scene. Twenty paces until the man trying to block my way. Twenty more paces from him until I could reach Caly and pull her away. She was on one knee. Apparently unhurt. One arm moving in a violent slash across her body.
