“Alpha,” he snarled in my ear.
And then I was impaled by his other hand, claws slicing into the skin of my stomach, punching in until his whole hand was inside me.
Joe screamed behind me.
I’d never heard him make such a sound before.
It broke my heart even as Richard Collins tore his hand out of me.
I coughed, unsure of what had just happened.
I looked down.
Blood was gushing out of me.
Part of me was hanging out, a wet and red meaty-looking thing.
I looked back up. I felt like I was moving in slow motion.
I was very tired.
Richard took a step back as I fell to my knees. Blood began to pour from my mouth.
Richard tilted his head back. Popped his neck from side to side.
The lacerations on his body started to heal.
He opened his eyes.
They burned the red of an Alpha.
For those next long few seconds, he had gotten what he wanted. What he’d started so many years before had finally come to an end.
He roared.
I felt it down to my very bones.
It was a strong sound.
A powerful sound.
But it was cut off when Joe Bennett placed his hands on either side of his face, claws extended, and then tore Richard Collins’s head from his shoulders.
Richard sank to his knees, mirroring my own pose.
Except I bled from the wound in my stomach.
He bled in great bursts from the ragged stump of his neck.
It was fuzzy. My everything.
I couldn’t swallow.
I didn’t think I could breathe.
Joe dropped Richard’s head to the ground, and I wanted to ask why he was moving so slowly. He was an Alpha, but it was like he was underwater and I didn’t understand why.
Richard fell backward.