Last Wolf Standing. Rhyannon Byrd

decide what I’d like to do first. Rip out your tender little throat? Or should I reward myself with a tempting go at this delicate little body instead? One that rips you apart inside—that leaves you broken and bleeding when I’m done with you.” He paused for a moment, silent and still, looking as if he were thinking the repulsive idea through, the way a director might visualize a particularly compelling scene within his mind. “Wouldn’t that make for some good storytelling when I get around to ending your half-breed’s life? I don’t imagine Mason likes to share his playthings.”

      Torrance felt her eyes go wide, unable to believe what he’d just said.

      Mason? Mason! The psycho hunk from the café? Oh, no. No way. My luck can’t possibly be this bad!

      But it was all clicking into place now. That crazy friend of his had said something about putting her in danger. Damn it, she’d known that gorgeous face was too good to be true. And now look at her. Not even her mother had been this unlucky when it came to men!

      A new feeling began seeping into her system—a cool, slow-burning fury that filled her from the bottom up, tingling in her fingers and toes, burning at the backs of her eyes. The monster licked a disgusting path up the side of her face, and she jolted, sensation rushing back into her limbs as he pressed his muzzle to her ear. “Yeah, I’m going to enjoy sharing the gory details of our time together with Dillinger,” he growled. “Almost as much as I’m going to enjoy making you beg for mercy.”

      Torrance suddenly heard herself make a tsking sound, her upper lip curling with disgust. “Didn’t your mom ever teach you not to play with your food?”

      He shifted to stare into her eyes, and grinned at what he found there. “Oh-ho, so there is a little life in her, after all. Goodie.”

      Oh, God, what the hell was she doing? Before she could figure it out, he leaned closer, pelting her face with his rank breath. “And to answer your question, my mother was a weak bitch who betrayed my father and died in another man’s bed.” He smiled again, making her cringe as the hazy shafts of light stealing into her room caught the dull gleam of fangs set within pink gums. “The idiots never even saw him coming. Dad told me she was still screaming from her climax when he sliced her throat open.”

      “Jesus,” Torrance croaked hoarsely, knowing the scene he’d just described was going to play front and center in her nightmares from now on—if she lived long enough to have another nightmare.

      “He took a souvenir to remind him of her, and I’m thinking that maybe I should do the same. Killing Dillinger’s new woman is certainly something I’ll want to remember. But what should it be?” he murmured, looking her over with slow deliberation. “A lock of hair? A…finger, perhaps? It’ll be fun, rubbing it in his smug face that I had you. Especially when he wanted you. I could tell. Oh yeah, he wanted you bad. But I’m the one who’s going to get you.”

      He lowered his head back over her chest, watching her watch him, and let his long candy-pink tongue slip toward her breast, swiping at her cloth-covered nipple. Torrance grimaced, squirming, a sickening icy fear fisting in her gut, before settling lower into those deep, inner feminine places, and wrathful frustration surged through her.

      She could feel it building…building…and in the next moment a loud, endless roar filled her ears, echoing through her brain…and with a stunning jolt of shock, she realized that it was her! “Get…off…me!” she shouted, her rage taking hold, gathering like a coming storm, mounting in her taxed muscles until she felt like she’d explode.

      Those black, vapid eyes, empty and cruel like a shark’s, narrowed, slick black upper lip curling as he bared long, vicious incisors. “That’s it,” he whispered with chilling satisfaction, leaning so close that he almost touched her mouth. “But maybe we should keep it down a bit.” He stroked the side of her face with one claw-tipped hand, his cold eyes traveling over her features, one by one. “Just think. Even now, he could be out there, watching for a sign of you. He thinks he’s so clever, but I got to you first and he doesn’t even know it. Now I can have you…then leave you like leftovers for him to find. Sweet, isn’t it?”

      “You’re disgusting.” She spat in his face.

      “And you’re terrified,” he said with a soft, guttural laugh. “In case you didn’t get it the first time, fear really does it for me, honey. The more frightened you get, the more satisfying this bit of payback is going to be.”

      “Payback?”

      “A long time ago, Dillinger took something from me, and I’ve been waiting for the chance to return the favor. Now that it’s here, I plan to enjoy every moment of it.”

      Sitting back in a sudden shift of movement, he released her wrists as he straddled her, his brutal claws reaching for her jeans. Rage, sizzling and violent, raced through her blood, and her body instantly went on autopilot as survival instincts finally kicked in. Moving faster than she’d ever thought she could, Torrance bent her knees and planted her feet flat on the ground. Gritting her teeth, she thrust her hips up, hardly moving his solid weight, but jarring him enough to shift his body to the left. She immediately twisted in the opposite direction, lunging to the side as she pulled her right leg free, then struck out, knocking his hips off center. At the same time, Torrance flattened her hand as she slammed it against the floor, frantically searching for the fallen letter opener that he’d knocked from her grip.

       Come on…come on…come on… Yes!

      The second her fingers touched smooth silver, Torrance grabbed at it, swinging her arm around, aiming for his mangy ruff and sending the cool metal sinking through the tough skin at the side of his throat. An inhuman roar surged up from his chest as she used every ounce of her strength to shove the blade deep. She twisted her wrist, and his body jerked above her, writhing, knocking the breath from her lungs as he fell forward and slammed her back into the hardwood floor. One powerful arm swiped at her face, sending her glasses flying as she jerked to the side, just missing the lethal slash of his claws but smacking the back of her skull hard against the base of her dresser. Stars exploded before her eyes, glittering and bright against the graying edges of her vision.

      “Arrrgh,” she grunted, gnashing her teeth, using the flat of her palm to push the letter opener deeper, ignoring the impulsive urge to let go when blood began pumping from the wound, pouring over her hand in a slick wash of crimson. Shoving with her leg, Torrance nudged him farther away, the gurgling sounds dripping from his muzzle monstrous and grotesque, like something torn straight from the depths of hell.

      “God, just die already,” she screamed, the deafening cry drowned out by the harsh, outraged shouts she could suddenly hear coming from the outer hallway.

      The wolf’s face lifted at the commotion, nostrils flaring as he threw back his head and unleashed an unearthly howl that rattled the doors and windows, the letter opener now fully imbedded in his muscular neck. A crash sounded in the living room, followed by the sound of running feet, heavy and pounding, moving at full speed, and then flashes of a hard, strangely familiar figure as something solid and fast slammed into the beast and sent him hurtling to the side, freeing her. Torrance tried to draw in a huge breath, her lungs burning from lack of oxygen. At the same time she struggled to focus on the chaotic scene, but her head was throbbing and everything was happening too fast.

      Curling onto her side, she pulled her legs up into the fetal position and tried again to focus on the blurry shadows crashing around her room. Three twisting figures were fighting with inhuman strength, growling…snarling…biting out virulent curses as they destroyed her furniture. Bodies slammed into one another with preternatural force as they battled for dominance, coarse grunts followed by the sickening sounds of crushed cartilage and tearing flesh. Torrance squinted, certain she had just seen a human arm sporting an amazingly wicked set of claws but couldn’t hold the image. A quick, sharp cracking noise, like a snapping bone, came from the other side of her bed, and her stomach churned at the revolting sound.

      Then the sound of broken glass hit her ears, followed by a familiar voice shouting into the small alley between