Page 25 of Nick
“Nick will learn that the hard way,” Vincent said.“He should have stayed gone.Now he’ll pay the price for his foolishness.”
Karla leaned in, her breath hot against his ear.“Make him suffer,” she whispered, her desire for vengeance only increasing the heat between their entwined bodies.
Vincent’s response was to force Karla to her knees.She went willingly, unbuckling his belt as she gazed up at him.
As she took him into her mouth, Vincent fantasized about destroying his enemies.There would be no escape for Nick this time; the Sunburst Pack belonged to Vincent, and he would accept nothing less than utter submission.
Chapter 11
THE SUN STREAMED THROUGHthe window of the Moonstone shifters’ motel room, casting stark lines of light and shadow across the carpet.
“Then Martin ran,” Nick said, finishing his part of the story for the Moonstone shifters.
“Nick and I shifted, but we didn’t go with the pack.We went back to my trailer,” Sarah added.
“What happened to Martin?”Ryker asked, his expression serious.
“Did any of you go?”Bronx asked, glancing around at the Sunburst Pack members.
“We did,” Malcolm began, his voice a low growl.His eyes seemed to darken with the memory as he spoke.“When we all found Martin, it was…it was a massacre.”
Nick remained silent, his muscular frame taut, his gaze fixed on Malcolm.Sarah could feel the heat radiating from his body.
“Gregory and Percy pinned him down,” Malcolm continued.The brutality of the act made Sarah swallow convulsively as she envisioned the scene: the terrified struggle, the claws, the teeth…
“Like prey,” Anders said, his voice laced with disgust.“He didn’t stand a chance.”
Conall’s face was ashen, the freckles scattered across his nose standing out starkly.“It’s one thing to talk about pack law, but this…” His words trailed off as if the full reality of what they’d seen refused to be voiced.
Quinton’s jaw muscle ticked rhythmically, his entire body tight with barely contained rage.“We couldn’t stop it.”
“We couldn’t,” Conall reiterated.“We were outnumbered.”
Sarah felt the tremor in her hands.She glanced at Nick, searching his features for any sign of understanding, any flicker of forgiveness.Was he remembering his own brush with death?
“Karla,” Larissa said, her tone tinged with revulsion, “she was the one to make the first move against Martin.”
The image flashed before Sarah’s eyes: Karla, with her calculated cruelty, bearing down on Martin, her claws extended in a vicious arc aimed to maim.The thought sent a shiver skittering across Sarah’s skin, the imagined sound of tearing flesh all too real in her mind.
“Her claws raked across his chest,” Larissa continued.“It was deliberate, precise.As much a message as an attack.She wanted us to know that defiance would be met with pain.”
A murmur of disgust rippled through the room.The echo of it curled in Sarah’s stomach.The entire episode was a stark reminder of the primal violence that lay just beneath the surface, a beast they all struggled to cage within themselves.She could almost taste the collective dread, their shared disgust and horror.
Anders shifted beside her, his hands clenching into fists as if ready to fight off the memory itself.“Vincent wasn’t content to let Karla’s warning stand,” he said, grim.“He needed to prove his dominance.”
Sarah’s gaze flicked to Anders, seeing the strain in his expression.“With Martin already subdued, Vincent…he went for the kill.His teeth tore through him.”
She could almost hear the horrific rending sound, imagining the blood that must have spilled hot and scarlet onto the ground.A visceral image formed in her mind of Vincent’s face, contorted with the ferocity of his assault, his teeth bared and dripping.
“Ripped Martin’s stomach open,” Anders finished, his voice barely above a whisper yet carrying the horror they all felt.
Sarah closed her eyes against the onslaught of images, the raw terror that threatened to overwhelm her.This was the same pack that had once been her sanctuary, the same shifters who were supposed to embody strength and unity.
Are we any better?she wondered.
“And then?”Ryker prompted.
Sarah moved to sit on the edge of her chair, bracing herself for the next wave of gruesome details.
