Page 113 of Never Tamed
“Are you going to yield, darling?” she singsongs.
I am not breakable.
And I am not going down, not when my mate is out there fighting and holding her own. Not when our web of bonds strings tighter and tighter
If you don’t get your fucking ass up, dickhead, then I’m kicking you out of the harem,Mathis grunts in my head.I’ll have our girl all to myself.
It isn’t his tone or his threat that provides the impetus to move. It’s Ren, and her trust in me. She’s not breakable either. And she’s across the clearing counting on me.
I kick out and smack the dude in the face, slamming into him until his jaws release. There’s enough room for me to drag my leg free, and I roll before Catarina slices the knife down where I’d been.
Fucking bitch. Her disappointed growl is a slap in the face. I turn and grab the half-shifted man by the arm, wrenching it behind his back until it pops out of place. His face shifts back to human as he cries out, the ligaments stretching.
His bone breaks with a pop.
It's a macabre sound, and one I intimately enjoy in this case. Hopefully he’s agonized. Hopefully he’s realizing his mistake to fuck with me and mine.
But no, these people have the power of delusion on their side. They swallow down Andras and his bullshit claims of superiority and dive headfirst into the vindication of being a victim.
So I snap his goddamn neck.
It’s a favor to the world.
Catarina doesn’t see it that way. She launches herself at me with a screech like she is personally wronged for every dead soldier. Too bad. She’ll have a lot more to lose before we’re done here. And the bodies keep coming. So they keep piling up. I’m out of breath when I move to meet her, my jaw clenched and my ankle and side both screeching in agony.
“Go fucking die!” she roars.
They all have to be put down. It’s the thought in my head as I face her head on. Maybe I am pulling my punches a little. Maybe there is still a piece of me that’s what she says, a bleeding heart. I can’t stand to hurt her. I wanted to build a future with her once, not out of love, but out of necessity. I thought love would come, and I resigned myself to the fact that maybe it wouldn’t. I was okay with it.
I want her out of my way. But I don’t want her to die.
I grab her by both arms and squeeze until she yelps, her eyes bulging and the silver blade toppling.
“You chose wrong,” I tell her in an undertone.
She hears me even if the words are hardly audible. The wind picks up and slaps us in the face with drops of ice and snow. Still holding her wrists, I force her down, exerting enough pressure to buckle her knees. And because the dagger is too damn close, I kick it away with my bad leg, only realizing it’s the bad one when agony fills the limb with fire.
“You betrayed your people, and your pack. You betrayed everyone who gave a crap about you.”
“What the hell do you know?” she spits out.
Killing her is the smart choice. The sane one. She’s the type of person who does not give up no matter what obstacle is put in her path. Revenge? She’ll live for it.
But there is something pathetic about her now. Something to pity instead of fear. Ah, shit.
She’s on her knees in front of me, her head tipped up and her eyes begging, pleading for mercy. And under normal circumstances, I’d refuse to grant it. I’m her judge and executioner today.
I grab her hair and yank until her lips thin with pain.
“Go on,” she grinds out. “Do it.”
She’d like it, wouldn’t she? Catarina might be a stranger in a lot of ways but she knows as well as I do there’s no coming out of this kind of situation in one piece. There’s sacrifice required. Did she think she’d make it to the end game? Did she really think she’d be able to see this plot through to the end and be crowned the winner?
It’s no use thinking about it but something in me stalls with my claws inches from her throat.
How easy it is to tear her throat out.
Easy, but maybe not the right thing. I thought I’d marry this woman. I thought we’d build a life together and it might not be what I wanted, but we’d make it work. We had to. It was a mutually beneficial decision, or so I thought. But I was never safe.
