Total pages in book: 205
Estimated words: 204377 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1022(@200wpm)___ 818(@250wpm)___ 681(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 204377 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1022(@200wpm)___ 818(@250wpm)___ 681(@300wpm)
“The bargain she made ends now.” Leo’s vibrating posture matches my emotional turmoil.
He moves with the grace of a lion in a cage, desperately trying to break free. Furniture trembles in his wake, and the very foundation of the cabin seems to shake with each step he takes toward Denver.
I’m hesitant to put a hand out to stop him, worried he’ll take off my arm. But I do it anyway, grabbing him from behind, and earn an elbow in the solar plexus that knocks the wind from my lungs.
“Stop.” I cough and grip him again, swinging him around to face me. “Deep breaths.”
“You know how to end her bargain,” Denver taunts at his back. “You know what I want.”
He wants to fuck us for sadistic fun while we fuck Frankie and sire children for him.
Leo considers this, his features blank.
My lungs crash together.
I stare into the eyes of a man who will stop at nothing to annihilate the evil that has cursed our lives for far too long. The same evil that now terrorizes the woman he swore he would never love.
The frozen wasteland outside may be ruthless, but it pales in comparison to the wildfire burning and shifting the shape of Leo’s heart.
I know this because I feel it, too.
Denver will pay for what he’s done. But we must be smart about it. Not impulsive.
“Snap out of it.” I give his cheek a hard slap. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
“Careful, Son.”
I ignore Denver’s warning, keeping my gaze fixed on Leo. “She made the bargain so we wouldn’t have to. If you do this, everything she’s endured over the past sixteen days is for nothing.”
Too late, I realize that’s the wrong thing to say. Each word lands like a hammer to Leo’s psyche, reminding him what Denver stole.
He stole our mothers.
He stole our innocence.
And now, he stole Frankie.
The cold Alaskan winds howl outside. But inside, the atmosphere seethes with tension.
Leo slowly turns, cocking back his arm and aiming for a death blow.
“Every strike against me will have consequences.” Unflinching, Denver rests his hands in his pockets. “I’ll return it tenfold. Against her. While my cock is in her cunt.”
Each punctuated pause is a calculated blow. A methodical dismantling of Leo’s sanity. And his wink at the end is the tipping point.
“Not if you’re dead.” Leo lunges, all fangs and no brains.
I expected it, my fist already moving, landing on Leo’s jaw hard enough to snap him out of his murderous haze.
“Enough.” I haul him back, dragging him away from Denver. “Rein it in, goddammit.”
“You won’t touch her again!” He wrestles against me, trying to reach the object of his wrath. “You’ll have to go through me!”
“Kodiak.” Denver sighs. “Remind your brother what happens when you fight me.”
The scars on my back stretch and burn.
We can use our fists against Denver. We can physically overpower him. We can form a wall around Frankie and stand our ground. But in the end, Denver has nothing to lose. If we put him in a cage, hold a knife to his throat, torture him, cut off his limbs, none of it will matter. He’ll never give in or give up.
He’ll never stop being anything less than evil.
“We’ll starve.” I clutch Leo’s collar and put my face in his. “If we don’t find a truce, he’ll take us down with him. He’ll starve us until we’ll wish we were dead, until we’ll do anything to end the pain. We’ll break, Leo. I will break, because I won’t be able to watch you wither away. I’ll break the same way your mother broke. And then…”
“I’ll bury her alive.” Denver meets us stare for stare, his eyes glinting with atrocious, bald-faced honesty.
The fight goes out of Leo, his gaze losing focus. I know he’s reliving that night. The night his mother died.
I use the distraction to haul him toward Wolf, who stands in the hall, nodding at the cellar door. He must’ve found Frankie.
“This isn’t over,” I whisper in Leo’s ear. “But right now, Frankie needs you.”
The mention of her name sends a wash of clarity and purpose across his expression. With a snarl, he pushes away and follows Wolf down the stairs.
I press the heels of my hands to my eyelids.
That could’ve gone better.
It could’ve also gone much worse.
We’re still alive.
For now.
“I can always count on you to diffuse him.” Denver returns to the couch and his whiskey. “Looks like your hunting trip was a success. I take it the injury didn’t slow you down. Or maybe it did. Is that why you were gone for three weeks?”
I don’t indulge him with a response.
As intelligent as he is, he seems oblivious that he’s walking on a fault line. If I so much as glance in his direction, I’ll erupt.
He hurt Wolf.
He hurt Frankie.
I failed to protect them.