Page 37 of Claimed By the Werewolf Boss
The terror crushing my chest intensifies, burns until all I can think is survive, survive, survive. The others grab Nicky off me, the snarling and barking barely noticeable over the ringing in my ears. Luca kicks my crotch until I choke on his blood and release him.
But as he rolls away from me, a gun goes off. He howls in agony, and then his body begins to convulse when Dino fires his taser into him. Blood pours from his shoulder and his knee as he transforms back into a man. I lick my jowls, panting on my knees as I watch the man who used to be my best friend writhe in pain.
“Hold him down,” I growl.
Everyone moves at my order. Luca is barely lucid after the shock, but I don’t care. He’s going to get exactly what’s coming to him for what he’s done. I place my claws on his chest and press into his flesh until it rips. Muscles compress and bones splinter as I reach for his heart. I wanted to torture the rat when I caught him, fill his last few hours on earth with suffering for what he has done to our family.
But kidnapping my mate?
I don’t care. Luca’s words mean nothing to me, and all I want is to see his heart crushed in my fist. He wails, screams, and gnashes until blood gushes between his teeth. He tries to shift, but we’re all here crushing one bone after another to prevent the change from happening.
The weak muscle gives a dying pulse as I sink my claws into it.
“Rot in hell,” I snarl, with one final yank.
I don’t even think about what I’m doing when I tear into his heart. His eyes are empty, his body has stopped twitching. He’s dead, but I swallow his heart to make sure it will never taint another being again. He was my best friend, but a rat is a rat.
Luca knew exactly what would happen to him when I found out.
Dino and Ugo drag his corpse out. Cristina grabs Nicky’s body next, and I wait for them to leave beforeI turn to the rapidly beating heart in the cage tucked into the corner of the room. Her panicky, reedy breaths bombard my senses. The anxiety of the night and the morning weighs down my shoulders.
I’m terrified to look at my mate now. She has seen me for the killer I am. This was never part of the plan. I wanted to show my wolf to her, explain that the first assumptions about Andrea and me were right. We are the mafia, but we are more than that. We would never hurt her, and yet I’ve put her in so much danger in such a short time.
“Valentino,” she whimpers.
Chapter fourteen
Cheyenne
My heart clenches in despair when the giant wolf finally looks at me. His large dark grey head moves, and bright eyes meet mine. I know it’s Valentino, my heart knows it’s him. The fur covering his body is soaked in blood and viscera, but I reach for him through the bars of the cage.
I need him to reassure me that I’m not going crazy. This is real. He is real. Werewolves are real. Just when I thought everything was falling into place, my world has been blown into a million gory chunks. He can’t abandon me now. Not after everything I’ve seen, right?
“Please,” I beg when he stares at me.
Am I wrong? Is this beast someone else? Something else? The horrifying panic of watching men transform and then be murdered fades, the rush of anxiety andterror reshaping into a dull emptiness that I’m scared is swallowing me alive.
“Baby, scoot back,” he growls.
His mouth moves like a cartoon, seamlessly perfect, yet it sounds so unnatural coming from his wolf muzzle. His ears draw back as he slowly approaches the cage. A giant fist wraps around the grates of the door.
It’s like child’s play. One little motion from his wrist, and Valentino has the whole door pried open. He offers me his hand, the roughened dark pads, fur, and claws up close are so different from anything I’ve seen before, but when I place my hand in his, it’s like I’ve grabbed hold of the last rung of a ladder before I fall into the abyss.
There isn’t a breath between our hands meeting and him tugging me into his arms. He clutches me so tightly to his chest I become as soaked as he is. A sob breaks from my lips, and I weep into my werewolf’s chest. This is real, I’m alive, and Valentino came for me.
“Tell me you’re okay,” Valentino demands. “Tell me, Cheyenne?”
He cups both of my cheeks with his oversized paws and pulls me away from him enough to give me a once over.
“This is your blood,” I say, scrunching my nose up. “I’m mentally scarred for life, but otherwise in one piece.”
“He didn’t touch you, did he?” He scowls, the frown lines on his werewolf forehead so impressively normal. “I should have done worse to him.”
“Choked, drugged, tied up, tossed in a cage.” I list off everything I know happened like it’s groceries. “Completely unsexily, by the way. There is no way I’ll be able to channel this into a new book.”
“Jesus Christ, I’m going to kiss you, and you’re absolutely not putting this in a book,” Valentino groans.
His lips are on mine before I can tell him how much I need that. They are different from when he’s human, but no less intoxicating. My legs wrap around his torso, my arms around his broad shoulders. The emptiness begins to fill, my heart pounding against my chest like it would rather belong to him than to me.
