Page 52 of Bad Medicine
But Eli didn’t move. Finally,he looked at Jared.
“Obey her,” Jared snarled.
Eli turned immediately to lopethrough the woods, two of his warriors with him.
When Adam took a step back, hishands shifting into his wolf’s hands, I grinned and did the same, easily, andonce again, I surprised him. “My father was right,” I told him. “You are aworthless leader, and you are a coward.” I took a step toward him. “I shouldhave killed you long ago.”
“Your father,” he sneered, assome of his late-arriving warriors began to creep from the shadows. “Ask yourmother about your father. Ask her about you. I think it’s time we sto—”
“Adam,” my mother screamed,hurtling toward him. I hadn’t even known she was there. She shifted on her waytoward him, her teeth bared, and she meant to kill him. Apparently my motherdidn’t believe I could handle him, and I couldn’t blame her, really, forinterfering. I didn’t care about what he’d meant to tell me. I couldn’t trustanything that came out of his mouth. Adam Thorne was all about lies andmanipulations.
Jared stepped into my mother’spath, causing her to stop so suddenly she tripped and then rolled several feetbefore she stopped. “You will go home,” he told her. He pointed at two of hiswolves. “Take her back.”
At the distraction, Adamapparently thought he could slip away—but not before gesturing at his warriors.He signed for them to attack me, and then he turned to run. And everythinghappened at once.
I was intent only upon Adam—Iwould not let him escape. He was going to fight me, whether he knew it or not.His wolves did nothing. Even though he was their alpha and disobeying him wouldbe difficult, they’d apparently reached the limit of their acceptance of AdamThorne.
He was all mine.
And I would not think aboutZach.
When he realized his onlychoice was to fight, Adam shifted, but not before I’d welcomed my ownimpatient, vicious wolf into the world. She was ready for him. Because of AdamThorne, her entire existence had been spent in a hell he couldn’t haveimagined. Yes, she was ready for him.
The wolf, hobbled for so long,and the woman whose father had been killed in front of her. We were ready.
Some of Adam’s wolves could notresist his command and they fell upon Jared’s wolves, but it didn’t matter tome. Their snarls and growls and death howls were a savage, beautiful backgroundmusic that spurred me on.
I fought him for my mother, andfor me. I would kill him for my father.
Someday, kid, you’ll killAdam Thorne for me.
I can’t kill the alpha,daddy.
You can do anything. Swearit to me, right now.
I swear.
I remembered that forgottenconversation abruptly, so violently that I nearly screamed with the pain of it.I remembered. I’d been…seven years old, maybe? Even then, my father had knownAdam would end up killing him. And even then, he’d known I would be the one toavenge him.
Make me proud, princess.
I will. I will.
I could almost feel him there,watching. But maybe it was just Nicole I felt. I caught a glimpse of the angelstanding still and almost invisible, watching. Waiting, maybe, for me to die soshe could carry my soul off to wherever I was supposed to go.
And for a second, I doubted. Ifaltered.
I was powerful, strong, andfull of vengeance, but Adam was all of those things, as well. Also, he wasdesperate. He needed me dead. He didn’t seem to understand that Jared wouldsimply kill him anyway if I failed.
But I wouldn’t fail. He bore meto the ground, his teeth at my throat, his body huge, muscular, and nearlytwice the size of mine. Pain ripped through me as he buried his teeth in myflesh and pierced me with his claws, and I thought,God, no, I can’t die. Ican’t lose. I can’t go.
And the very second Jared leaptthrough the air, ready to take Adam from me, I found that thing inside me thatmade me lose my mind and find my…my everything. It burst through me and fromme, and suddenly, I was the one on top.
I shoved my claws into Adam’schest and I clasped his heart, and at that instant, he shifted.
“Let me live,” he whispered. “Iknow what you are. I know who you are.”
And I did not care.
