Page 78 of The Tracker's Dawn: Sunderverse
I scrambled away, glancing around. From the looks of it the mental attack had stopped. Jake was sitting up, shaking his head. My shoulders slumped with relief.
“No! Noooo!” A cry of absolute pain rent the air. It was guttural, primal.
My attention snapped to Travis as he knelt on the floor, his face disfigured in despair, his neck corded as he screamed with all his might.
I was confused for an instant until I followed his gaze andsaw.
Olivia was sprawled on the floor, a puddle of blood building around her head. My spine turned to ice as I stared, unable to blink, unable to process.
Travis crawled toward his daughter, the gun still in his hand, clanking with every move. When he got there, he seemed to realize he was still holding it. With a disgusted growl, he flung it aside then used that same hand to tentatively caress Olivia’s face.
“Baby? Baby girl?”
I blinked, and a lone tear slid down my face. She wasn’t going to answer. The bullet had hit her right between the eyes. No werewolf could survive that—even if the bullet hadn’t been laced with wolfsbane.
“O?” Marcus whispered as he sat up and took in the sight. “No. Not you, O.”
Travis broke down and began sobbing out of control, picking up Olivia’s hand and pressing it to his lips as he wept.
“My baby girl. My sweet baby girl,” he sobbed.
I pressed tight fists to my temples and squeezed, hoping to erase the horror, to wake up from the awful dreamscape.
A hand squeezed my shoulder, startling me. I glanced up to find Jake standing there, his clear eyes scanning every inch of me to make sure I was all right. His attention slowly drifted to Travis and his daughter. Ulfen and Khal stood to the side, looking confused. It seemed everyone was free of the trance now.
Marcus got to his feet, his entire body trembling, his face shining with tears under the dim light trickling in through the windows. He moved closer to his sister, grief making him sway like a drunkard.
When Travis noticed his son’s approach, he glanced up. For an instant, his expression revealed the ravaging pain tearing through his soul, then his face morphed, first going slack, then tensing into a grimace of unadulterated fury. He dropped Olivia’s hand and rose to his full height, glowering at his son. Marcus took a step back, looking stricken.
Travis opened his mouth then closed it again. His dark eyes darted left and right until they came to rest on me. Baring his teeth, he stepped over Olivia’s body as if she weren’t even there anymore, as if she’d already vanished from his mind.
“You, you did this!” He came at me, charging like a bull.
Jake took a quick step forward and blocked Travis’s line toward me. “Heel,” he ordered, the brunt of his alpha strength pouring forth.
As if he’d hit a wall, Travis came to an abrupt stop. He bore his fangs, growling. Dark fur sprang in streaks over his face, while his ears grew pointed.
I didn’t know why—the sudden fury toward me shouldn’t have mattered—but my heart shriveled, struck by pain and regret. Whatever could have been had simply died tonight.
Travis tried to come at me again, leaning his weight forward and raising his hands as if to strangle Jake.
“HEEL!” Jake commanded again.
“Get. Out. Of. The. Way!” Travis ordered.
Marcus stepped into his father’s field of vision. “And then what?!”
A frown appeared on Travis’s forehead and, reluctantly, he glanced sideways at his son.
“What are you going to do to her, father?” Marcus demanded.
Travis shook his head, his frown deepening, his fur and ears retreating back into place, but not his fangs or claws. He appeared bewildered, lost.
“You’re going to kill her forsavingyour son?” There was so much hurt in Marcus’s words that I felt the raw ache in my own chest. He thought his father would’ve preferred it ifhehad died.
Travis pulled back and whirled, muttering something between a sob and cry. Pulling at his hair, he disappeared in the shadows while Marcus went to his sister, knelt by her side, and wept inconsolably.
I tried to understand what’d just happened and found myself unable to cope with the emotional upheaval. I shook my head and closed my heart and soul to all the pain.
