Page 68 of Cold Foot Revenge
“I’m not scared of anything!” he roared, pacing toward Crystal.
This was it. This was her moment. She had enough room, enough time to get out the door.
Roxy yanked the door handle and bolted out of the room. Oh, she felt the wind from Grave’s hand as he tried to grab her, but she was fast too. She sprinted into the hallway and screamed it again. “I Challenge Grave! I Challenge him for Alpha!”
In the main room, the members of the Grit-Bron Crew were gathering, eyes wide, and questioning.
She drew Grave into the most open area of the room and rounded on him. “Please Coyote. Help me,” she whispered under her breath. “Don’t leave me alone.”
A snarl crawled up the back of her throat. Oh, hell yeah. Rage and the animal that was scratching at her skin were the only two allies she had here now.
Shifter or not, Grave would break Crystal, just as he’d broken Roxy. It’s what he did, and now Roxy was a part of that awful story for another woman? She didn’t have tears anymore. She had boiling blood and heated cheeks, and clenched fists and an animal who wanted to rip Grave’s throat out.
“You want to fight?” Grave asked, arching his dark brows up higher. “Okay, little girl. We can fight.”
“You’re going to die, you dumb bitch,” Leech announced as the Grit-Bron Crew pushed tables and chairs out of the way.
“I’m dead either way,” she uttered, meaning it with her entire being. She couldn’t live like this, and she had to make her stand before she lost herself completely.
Grave had pushed her toward the edge, and Turning Crystal had pushed her over it.
There was too much wrong with this place. Too much evil being swept under the rug, and her last act as a member of this Crew would be to injure an untouchable king. It would be to show the Crew Grave could bleed. It would be to show them that someday, they too could rise against him, if they weren’t too far gone.
If her last act in this world was to draw blood on the man who had caused so much pain to so many, then she had to be okay with the loss—the loss of Dylan, the loss of a better life, the loss of Crystal’s humanity, the loss of so many of these Crew-members’ shots at being decent men. This hell was full of junkyard dogs who hadn’t known care in far too long, and they didn’t know how to be soft anymore.
If her last act was this…she hoped Dylan would someday figure out what had happened here. She hoped he would be proud of how she went out.
She circled Grave, unblinking, seething with hatred for all that had happened here. The cavernous room was filled with the sound of chair legs being dragged across the scuffed wooden floors.
Grave clenched his fists and yelled at the ceiling, and the demon’s sound there turned into a roar as his massive grizzly ripped out of him.
The coyote inside of her whispered,Don’t run, and then the animal exploded from her.
She was fast in this form, but she’d never had a reason to test herself. Roxy pushed her legs and ducked his six-inch-long claws by millimeters as she aimed for the tender spot under his chin. She latched on and ripped, shaking her body hard to apply maximum damage to his throat. Grizzly skin was thick, and tough, but she pierced him. He flung her off and she went crashing into a row of chairs. He was on her again before she was even upright, but the cluttered chairs bought her the split secondshe needed. He had to swipe the debris out of the way, and she bolted between his legs, skidded around when she was behind him and jumped on his back. Her teeth found purchase on the side of his neck, and she could taste blood.
With a snarl, Grave spun, trying to reach her with a paw, but missed. The second swat dragged his claws up her ribs, and she had to let go with a yelp. Her muzzle was wet with blood, but it wasn’t enough. He was on her now, charging, and she had to create some space so she could get to his back again. Heart pounding, she zigzagged through tables with his hot breath at her back. She used the support beam by the bar to run up and leap backward, twisting in the air. She snagged his ear and ripped, flinching her body and kicking her back legs in the air to get more power behind the rip. She shredded it, but Grave was too big, too strong. Too deadly. He flung his head and slammed her into the wall by the hallway. She hit the corner hard, and the air was knocked clean out of her lungs.
Get up.
Her body wasn’t working right without the ability to breathe.
Get up!
Grave was stalking toward her, hunger in his glowing orange eyes, and time slowed as she looked around at all the faces of the Grit-Bron Crew. There was no pity. No remorse. No feeling in anyone but Nick’s eyes.
She hoped he would figure out Crystal was in the other room. She hoped he would help her.
Grave charged the last few yards, and lifted his enormous paw into the air, and this was it. This was where it all ended.
She inhaled sharply, preparing for the agony.
Grave flew sideways as something monstrous slammed into him, and they went straight through the support beam. Chunksof the ceiling crashed down on the brawling grizzlies, and Roxy pushed up on her locked front legs in shock.
A huge bruin was going absolutely insane on Grave, and she could see her Alpha’s eyes. He was uncertain. He was panicking.
Oh, he’d been ready to fight a coyote, but another grizzly bear was here, defending her. One she didn’t recognize, didn’t know.
His fur was darker than Grave’s, but she knew those eyes. They were orange. Only Grave and his brothers had orange eyes. Leech was helping her.
