Page 127 of Watch Me Burn
“How dare you break into my house!” Luna backs toward the kitchen, her chin up in that stubborn way I know so well. “What do you want, Caleb?”
“I want my life back!”
Hunter advances on her. Her eyes whip around the room, like she’s calculating distances, looking for escape routes.
That’s my girl.
“I want you to call your lawyer and tell him you’re revoking the restraining order. I want you to admit you lied about me hitting you.”
“It wasn’t a lie.”
Hunter’s face twists with rage, and he lunges at her. Luna tries to dodge, but he’s faster than his drunken stumbling suggests. His hand cracks across her face, the sound making my vision go crimson with fury.
“You always were too mouthy for your own good.” He grabs her wrist as she tries to back away.
Luna fights back. She’s not some helpless victim. Her free hand comes up, nails raking down his face and leaving angry red trails in their wake.
“Let go of me!”
She wrenches her body away, but he outweighs her by sixty pounds. He uses that advantage, slamming her against the counter. The impact drives air from her lungs in a visible gasp. Before she can recover, his hand swings back and connects with her face again—harder this time. Her lip splits, blood welling at the corner of her mouth.
“Stop fighting me, Luna. You brought this on yourself.”
Purple blooms across her cheekbone. Blood trails from the corner of her mouth. The dashboard clock mocks me.
Two minutes and forty seconds away.
Hunter’s hand disappears behind his back. When it reappears, black metal glints in his grip. He levels the Glock at her face.
“Now, we’re going to have a real conversation about how you’re going to fix what you did to my life.”
Luna stares down the barrel of the gun. All color drains from her face except for the blood from her split lip, but she holds her ground. Even bleeding, even staring down a gun, her chin lifts in defiance.
“You’re drunk, Caleb.” Fear roughens the edges of her words, but her voice holds steady despite the tremor underneath threatening to break through. “Put the gun down before you do something you can’t take back.”
“The only thing I can’t take back is letting you destroy me.” Hunter waves the gun in the air. “Do you know what it’s like, Luna, to lose everything because one vindictive bitch decided to—”
Shadow materializes from the darkness beyond the threshold like a force of nature, 180 pounds of protective fury. Every line of his massive frame screams lethal intent, muscles bunched, and ears pinned flat against his skull. His lips peel back to reveal fangs designed for crushing bone and tearing flesh. The growl thatrolls from his chest carries the promise of swift, brutal justice for anyone who dares to threaten Luna.
Hunter spins toward the sound, the weapon swinging wild and dangerous. “What the fuck—”
Shadow explodes into motion. The wolf that Luna has raised with gentle hands and patient love vanishes, replaced by something primal and savage, the instinct to protect her awakening the inherent fierce wolf inside him.
The gun goes off as Hunter staggers backward, the bullet wild and high, lodging in the wall in the hallway, but Shadow’s momentum carries him into Hunter’s outstretched arm.
They crash to the floor in a chaos of fangs and flesh. Hunter’s screams mix with the wet sound of tearing fabric and crunching bone. The gun discharges again, the explosion deafening in the confined space. Shadow jerks and staggers sideways, crimson spreading along his gray ribs where the bullet carved its path. But his paws find purchase on the hardwood, and he positions himself between Hunter and Luna like a living shield.
Luna’s voice breaks on his name, anguish and fear bleeding through every syllable.
Hunter scrambles for the gun he dropped, blood streaming from the bite wound on his arm, cursing as Shadow circles him like the predator he is.
Chapter thirty-two
Damien
The Range Rover’s door slams against its hinges as I launch myself from the driver’s seat and sprint toward the house. Luna’s scream cuts through the mountain air, the kind of sound that bypasses thought and goes straight to muscle memory.
I move through the doorway like the deadly hunter I am, taking in the scene in a split second. Hunter on the floor, bleeding from a wolf bite, trying to grab the gun just out of reach. Luna, with blood on her face, edges her way around Shadow as she tries to reach the gun before Hunter gets to it, her eyes wide with terror and relief when she sees me. And Shadow himself, magnificent in his fury, standing guard despite his injury.
