Waiting for my next kill has never felt so exciting.
Thunder rolls overhead, and rain falls in heavy sheets, drenching me to the bone as I stand outside the IT Solutions building. It’s a miserable night, but my anger keeps me focused, my mind occupied with thoughts of killing him tonight.
The man, a waste of space, isn’t innocent at all, and now it’s time to put an end to him. Water streams from my black hair, dripping onto my face and obscuring my vision, but it doesn’t bother me.
I can still see the entrance to the building.
“We finally tracked him down,” Max says, standing next to me, his bright red hair visible in the rain. “Took us long enough.”
Gunnar grunts in agreement, his steel-gray eyes gazing intently at the building. “Now that we know it’s him, he’s not getting away.”
My blood boils every time I think about the man who works inside these walls—a child abuser, the lowest form of scum. My pack and I have been surveilling him for weeks, and tonight, we’ll make sure he pays for his crimes.
A civilian had taken a risk and contacted us, hoping we could do what the police had so far failed to do.
“The man you’re after,” he had whispered over the phone earlier in the day, “he’s not just another thug. He’s running a trafficking operation that’s tearing the city apart. Children have gone missing, and I can send you a photo of him.”
His voice quivered with fear and anger—he knew what was at stake if this man was allowed to roam the streets.
My pack and I are ready for him. This is our livelihood, but I do it mostly for myself.
A roll of thunder sounds overhead, snapping me back to reality. I take a deep breath and steel myself for what is to come.
“Can’t afford to make any mistakes,” I say. “We need to confirm it’s him and that he matches the picture we have. I don’t want anyone else to suffer because of this piece of shit.”
The human had provided us with valuable information, but we’ve also hijacked the town’s police system, cross-referencing records to ensure the people we’re after are indeed criminals. Our pack only hunts those who deserve it, and we need to be sure we’re pursuing the correct targets.
“Don’t worry, we’ve double-checked everything, Damon. This guy’s got a record as long as my arm,” Max assures me.
“Let’s just hope he gets out soon,” Gunnar mutters, his gaze fixed on the entrance. “I think that’s him.”
“Oh yes, that’s him,” I growl, fury coursing through my veins, heating my blood when I see him leaving the building. The stories I’ve read about this guy sicken me to the core. I clench my fists at my sides, my nails digging into my palms.
“Here he comes,” Gunnar murmurs, his voice low as Max stiffens beside me.
We all focus on our target. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, moving with a confidence that sets my teeth on edge.
Thomas.
His name is seared into my memory from endless nights of research, a dark stain on my conscience that won’t be removed until justice is served.
I know without a doubt that it’s him.
“That’s him. He looks exactly like his picture,” I say, my voice barely audible over the rain. My packmates nod, their faces set with grim determination.
Thomas walks toward his car, glancing around as if sensing something’s off. We still have the element of surprise, for now. I nod as he reaches for the door handle, and Gunnar moves like a shadow, ambushing him from behind. He clamps a hand over Thomas’s mouth—
—and Thomas explodes.
He slams Gunnar backward with brute strength, his eyes flashing amber, claws extending.
“Fucking mutts,” he snarls, his voice a guttural growl that confirms what we feared: he’s not human. He’s a rogue alpha.
Max lunges, catching Thomas’s arm before he can shift completely, but Thomas twists violently, sending Max crashing into a parked car. Metal crunches.
I don’t hesitate.
I charge in and ram him into the building wall, snarling in his face. We grapple, claws slashing, our strength evenly matched in the downpour.
“You came for me? You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” he spits, fangs bared.
“I know exactly what you are,” I snarl, ramming my knee into his gut. “And I’ve killed stronger.”
With Gunnar back in the fight and Max shaking it off, we overpower him—barely. The three of us take him down hard, using every ounce of our combined strength to keep him pinned.
“You’re making a huge mistake,” Thomas pants, his eyes wild.
“Mess with someone your own size,” I snap. “You’re the lowest scum on the planet preying on innocent children.”
We gag him, bind his hands in silver cuffs we brought for this exact reason, and haul him into the backseat.
“You can’t do this!” he growls, thrashing like a wild animal.
“Shut him up,” I bark.
Gunnar shoves a rag into his mouth, and I gun the engine.
The drive to the quarry is a tense blur. Thomas doesn’t stop moving, straining against his restraints with a strength that would tear a human’s limbs out of their sockets.
“Careful,” Max mutters. “He’s got fight in him.”
“Let him,” I say. “I want to rip it out of him when we shift.”
The rain intensifies as we reach the woods. It’s the perfect place to finish this.
We kill the engine, and I bark, “Let’s get this done.”
We strip and shift, our massive wolf forms towering in the shadows. Thomas doesn’t flinch—he smirks.
Then he shifts.
A monstrous silver wolf now stands before us—larger than we expected, scarred and wild-eyed.
He bolts into the woods.
“Go,” I growl, launching after him.
Thomas is fast, agile, and experienced. Every now and then, we catch his scent, then it vanishes again, lost in the rain. But he’s bleeding from earlier, and that’s what gives him away.
Gunnar howls. He’s spotted him.
We converge, fangs bared, muscles surging with power. I catch sight of Thomas ducking under a branch, but I’m faster. I leap, slam him to the ground, and my teeth sink into his neck.
He fights like hell.
His jaws snap at me, claws raking my side, but Max and Gunnar dive in too. We tear through fur and flesh until there’s nothing left of him but blood and broken pieces.
Together, we tear the abuser apart, limbs reduced to oblivion. When the attack is over, Thomas’s lifeless body lies in pieces before us, and the red haze covering my vision begins to disappear as my heartbeat returns to normal.
Justice has been served.
We shift back into our alpha forms, but a long, eerie siren pierces the air, stopping us from congratulating each other on a job well done. We freeze, recognizing the sound as a tornado warning.
Shit.
“Guys, we need to find shelter now,” I growl through clenched teeth.
I’m covered in blood, and Max and Gunnar are no better off, but we won’t survive out in the storm. The rain seems to fall harder, washing some blood off my skin. I can think about what we’ve done later, but we need to get somewhere safe right now.
“Agreed,” Gunnar says, scanning the area. “We can’t stay out here.”
“Let’s grab our clothes and get moving,” Max suggests, urgency lacing his voice. We wash ourselves haphazardly in the rain, trying to clean as much blood off our skin as possible before grabbing the spare change of clothes from the car and changing into them.
“Aren’t we going to get rid of the body?” Gunnar asks.
“I don’t give a fuck about that,” I reply darkly. No one would ever track us down, and it looked like a wild animal had gotten to Thomas.
The storm is picking up, the wind whipping around and causing the trees to sway wildly. It won’t be long before the tornado arrives. I glance at the sky and hurriedly gesture to the car, pulling open the driver’s side door.
“Everyone in,” I order, climbing back behind the wheel.
“Sure thing,” Gunnar replies as he and Max quickly pile into the car to prevent their clean clothes from getting soaked. The engine roars to life, and I push my foot on the accelerator, getting us moving.
We drive through the darkened forest and onto the main road just outside the quarry in search of refuge. The storm is worsening, and at this point, any building with a basement will do—even a shopping mall.
It’s almost impossible to see anything beyond the windshield.
As we head back into town, the mile markers blur, and I squint, trying to make out landmarks along the road. My pulse races, a mixture of adrenaline and anxiety coursing through my veins from our recent execution and the storm. It’s almost poetic justice that we killed Thomas on a night like tonight.
The bastard didn’t deserve any better.
“Hey, there’s a building with a light on over there,” Max points out, his voice snapping me from my thoughts. “Maybe we can wait out this storm there.”
“Ah, the library,” Gunnar says slowly, his tone tinged with excitement. “I met the librarian earlier today. She’s… interesting, to put it mildly.”
“Oh really?” Max smirks, raising an eyebrow at Gunnar. “So you read books now?”
“I guess so,” Gunnar says, lost in thought. I can tell his mind is elsewhere as he thinks about this mysterious woman. “There’s just something different about her, all right?”
“Like what?” I ask, intrigued despite myself.
“When our hands touched, I felt a spark. It was strange, but it felt like fate,” says Gunnar after hesitating.
I’m surprised by Gunnar—he’s usually the most serious of us, so for him to say something like that must mean the experience jarred him.
I scoff at the idea but remain silent. Mating with a human would be impossible, especially for our pack.
We haven’t had a mate in years, and it’s unlikely one would just walk into our lives like that. But as the rain continues to pelt down and the wind roars, rocking the car from side to side, I shove my skepticism aside. We need shelter, and we need to find it now.
The tornado is fast approaching.
“Fine, we’ll go there,” I say, turning toward the library. It’s a short drive, and soon enough, I’m approaching the building. I cut the engine, and we hurried out of the car, slamming the doors behind us as we sprinted toward the front door.
I bang on the door again, ready to break it down and barge inside, when the door swings open to reveal a small, pretty woman in a blue dress.
Her eyes widen in shock at the sight of us, and she moves to close the door immediately upon seeing us.
“Wait!” I call out, quickly stopping the door with my boot.
As soon as I see her face, I’m captivated by this woman, even more so than Gunnar’s story had led me to believe.
