Page 38 of Rabid
His entire countenance changes into one of deathly coldness, but I don’t care.
“I’ve heard all about you and your pack and the savage things you’ve done, the punishments you mete out. You live life on four legs more often than two. You’re all wild beasts who don’t ever interact with humans. Which is a good thing, I guess, since you’re also known for kidnapping other shifters and killing their families. I don’t know which is worse though: killing strangers or leading a massacre on your own pack.” My challenge is breathless, but my eyes are unforgiving.
I’ve heard all the rumors about him, heard all the gossip about what sort of monsters the shifters in Ruin Falls really are. I’ve always hated the fact that they were so close to Twin Rivers. Now I’ve been dumped here, only to be claimed by the greatest monster of all.
How’s that for fucking luck?
His abs tighten as he leans in closer to the desk. “You’re exactly right. Ruin Falls does do all of those things. So why the fuck would you run during our claiming hunt?”
“What part aboutI didn’t know there was a claiming huntdo you not get?” I shout in frustration. “I was trying to run away, not run into a mate!”
His brown eyebrow arches up. “I have it on good authority that you were told to stay in the fucking shed.”
“Was that before or after your people snared me like hunted prey and then tied me up like a dog?” I shoot back. “Forgive me for not wading through the cryptic mumblings of an old male or putting a lot of stock into what your crazy ass pack members said to me. If it were you, you would’ve tried to escape too. And Warrik made damn sure that I heard him say I needed to run if I had any chance last night. So that’s what I fucking did. I ran.”
“Warrik is being dealt with.”
I roll my eyes. I have no interest in hearing about this alpha’s need to get into a shifter brawl with Warrik so he can flex his own brutality. “I’m sure your pack of savage monsters will enjoy watching,” I retort.
Something cold pierces me from the narrowing of his eyes. “You’re awfully quick to judgemypack when Twin Rivers was the one to dump you on our land like trash.”
Furious heat crawls up my chest, spreading a flush to my cheeks all the way to the tips of my ears. But the worst part of my anger is how much it’s filled with crushing sadness. I can’t even argue with him. Because my packdidlet Burke throw me away. They let him attack me, dump me on a monster’s territory, let him kill my mom. No one did a damn thing to stop any of it.
Everything in me crumples, like all of my hot air was just deflated with his one sharp blow. “I want clothes and food,” I say thickly, my arms crossing over my breasts.
I wait on tenterhooks, expecting for him to dig further into the crack of weakness he just found, to attack it until I’m a broken mess beneath his feet. I’m already tipping to my breaking point, and we both know he won, so I ready myself for another crushing blow. Because that’s what monsters do. They destroy.
But to my utter shock, Tyran’s expression softens. “Okay, Vicious,” he says quietly, using a tone I wouldn’t have ever guessed he was even capable of. “Second door to the right will get you to a bathroom. There’s clothes that should fit you in the attached bedroom.”
I turn on my heel and stalk to the door, more than ready to scrub his scent from my body and get away from his domineering presence so I can steel myself once more. But just as I open the door, his hand is there, slamming it closed. I gasp, head whipping to the side, finding his face just an inch from mine. Without warning, he shoves his shirt back over my head, so hard that the collar practically chokes me.
I’m ruffled with hair in my face, cheeks hot with irritation, he gets right up close and personal, his nose nearly touching mine. “Go ahead and try to wash me off you, see how well that works out for you and your wolf,” he says in a clear taunt. “But if I see you unnecessarily walking around naked in front of any of my pack members again, I will take it as a sign that you want to be fucked in front of them. To which I will happily oblige, and then I’ll bend you over my knees and spank you raw.”
I gape at him. “What? I’m a shifter. Shiftersshift. It’s not like my wolf can walk around wearing a damn dress!”
He’s already sauntering back to his desk, sitting down again and paying me no mind whatsoever. A frustrated growl clambers from my throat, and I yank open the door, slamming it behind me as hard as I can, hoping it rattles his stupid walls.
Fucking wolves.
Fucking alpha prick.
Chapter Thirteen
Hot water rains down on me as I sit on the tile floor of the shower. My knees are to my chest, my head resting on top, my thoughts far away and overwhelming. The steady stream of scalding water has made my skin turn even pinker than it was as I scrubbed all traces of what happened last night off of me. I watched dirt, leaves, and blood wind down the drain as I scoured my skin before shampooing and conditioning my hair and scalp raw.
I should probably get out. I think I’ve been in here for over an hour. I’m surprised the water hasn’t become ice-cold at this point, but this small, tiled space feels like the safest option for me right now, and I’m not ready to abandon it to discover what’s on the other side of the connecting doors. My throat is thick with emotion, but no matter how long I sit here and think about every awful thing that’s happened to me recently, I still don’t cry.
My heart aches as though someone put it through a shredder and then did a shit job of trying to tape it back together. Nothing in me works the way it’s supposed to. I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what can be done about that, but I still have no idea. All I want is to talk to my mom. She would know exactly what to say, know exactly how to help me fix my broken. But she’s not here. And the wrongness of that feels like a grater against my insides.
I’ve never felt so lost, so utterly foolish in my entire life. How am I going to survive being claimed by the crudest, most savage alpha my kind has ever seen? How am I going to subsist on a shattered soul? What’s been done to me and my wolf since the Flux...I don’t know if there’s any coming back from that.
Presley’s words ring in my mind, joining with Burke’s and the shouts of my old pack. Is it really only a matter of time before I’m just as volatile and vicious as my wolf seems to be?
So many questions pick at me like starving crows at carrion. Yet it doesn’t matter how long I sit here and stew, hoping the answers will come to me, none do.
I’ve spent the last three years being hunted by an alpha, but I never thought through what to do if I was caught by one. I was stupid to think my mother’s position would protect me forever. I knew Burke was fucked up, but I couldn’t comprehend the lengths he would go to have me. I’m grateful for what my wolf and I did to survive him, regardless of how damaged it has left us. I just wish I could understand what we’re supposed to do with this new wolf she’s dead set on claiming. She should hate Tyran, should want nothing to do with him. And yet every damn second he’s near, she wags her tail like an excited pup and throws my logic and needs right out the window.
With a frustrated sigh, I push up from the shower floor. My leg muscles are shaky and tired, my body in desperate need of food. I’m so hungry I could literally eat a horse right now, and my mouth waters at the thought of gorging myself on meat and blood and bone. Turning the water off, I grab a fluffy towel from a stack on a small table beside the glass shower door. I dry off, hunger suddenly riding me hard.
