“This is not my fucking fault. Without me, the two of you would never have even realized something was wrong.”
Alek grabbed me by the collar, fisting his meaty hand in my shirt. “Tell me it was my fault one more fucking time. I dare you.”
A menacing growl filled the air, calling our attention away from each other and to the wolf with burning eyes who was ready to fight.
Anger and adrenaline coursed through my veins, creating an unquenchable need for violence. I could hardly see straight through the red film coating my gaze. All I knew was the need to taste their blood. To make them bleed.
To make it fucking hurt.
Intent on doing just that, I bared my fangs right as Kingston came barreling toward us.
ChapterForty-Five
KINGSTON
Islammed into the two idiots fighting with each other instead of the madwoman running off with our fucking kid. It was obvious to me she was responsible for their sudden shift in target. I’d felt the whisper of her compulsion try to latch on to my mind, but as an Alpha, that kind of magic rarely worked on me. My will was the only law my wolf recognized, especially if I was in its form. I didn’t think the others knew about that particular immunity of mine, so I was going to have a fucking field day when this was all over, rubbing their faces in my obvious superiority.
First, though, I needed to get these fuckers to focus. Nothing like a blow to the skull to get the message across loud and clear. They went down, both of their heads cracking against the rocky earth. I landed on top of them, my paws raking over their chests as I held them pinned to the ground.
Shifting so that I could speak to them, I snarled, “Get your shit together.”
Thorne’s lip curled, his fangs flashing, but then his eyes focused, the fight bleeding out of him.
“Bloody hell, what was that? I wanted to tear you limb from limb.”
I didn’t have time to explain it to him. Alek’s irises had gone black, filling the whites of his eyes until he was more berserker than man. The last thing we needed was for him to hulk out on us and lose the goddamned plot.
“Alek, come on, man. We aren’t falling for her trick, are we? She wants to keep us busy fighting each other. She has our kid, and nothing about this says she’s just taking her for a play date.”
The Novasgardian strained beneath me, but when he blinked, I knew it wasn’t me he was battling. It was the warring urges inside him. As a berserker, it was probably twelve times harder to pull himself back from the need to destroy.
“That’s it, big guy. Focus on your Sunny. On our Eden. They need us. The mean lady hurt them, and now we need to make her pay for it, okay? You can do it.”
Alek’s breaths came in heavy, rumbling pulls, but the darkness in his eyes receded as he came back to himself.
“You’ve got it. You can smash the shit out of her when we get there, okay? I’ll be right beside you.”
“So will I,” Thorne said.
Together, we brought Alek back from the brink. We were a unit now. And if that horseback riding bitch wanted a fight, she was gonna get one.
We stood, Thorne lingering for a second, his focus on the church. I knew exactly what he was thinking because I felt it too. Sunday was in there, and the pull to go to her was nearly impossible to ignore. He was torn.
“Caleb’s got her.”
“There’s just so much blood,” he whispered, voice tight. “But you’re right. Come on. She’ll never let us live it down if the Apocalypse isn’t stopped.”
I wanted to argue that none of us would be alive if that happened, but honestly, I think he was clinging to hope of a world where we were still together even as chaos reigned.
“Where did she go?” Alek asked. “Where’s Eden?”
Glancing past him, I jutted my chin. “If I had to guess, I’d say we’re gonna find her right over there. You know, where the clouds look like Satan’s fucking vagina.”
The roiling clouds had coalesced into one pulsing, writhing mass. It looked seconds away from coming alive. Or opening up. I’d bet my left nut it was some kind of portal.
“Buckle up, boys. I’m about to go full Cujo on her ass.”
“We’re not going to stop you.”