“Well, f**k.” Comprehension darkened Jude’s voice. “The dick in the basement.”
Yeah.
“Erin, I-I’m s-sorry…” Her mother’s whisper.
Erin straightened her shoulders and turned her stare back to her mother. “It’s not your fault. What he did—you had nothing to do with that.” Theresa had loved the wrong man. The wrong, psychotic man. But her mother hadn’t known. “It’ll be okay, Mom, just stay with me.”
Her mother swallowed, the gulp loud and painful. “Trying…Legs are a…m-mess…need sh-shift…”
But she wasn’t strong enough for that, not yet.
“A judge?” Dee asked and the scent of her blood burned Erin’s nose. She was still bleeding. Human. She’d scar from the wounds, they were too deep not to scar.
She could sure understand Dee’s disbelief. Her stalker had been Lillian’s citizen of the year for five years running. He’d sure been good at fooling the world.
“Huh. Never did care much for judges.”
At that, Erin fired a look over her shoulder in time to see Dee toeing the judge’s body with her right foot. The hunter had her gun against her hip, and she was painstakingly loading fresh bullets into the chamber.
Better late than never.
Jude’s hand curled around Erin’s shoulder. “Hey. You okay?”
She would be. Finally, she would be. Her eyes fell to Harper’s still face. Handsome, even in death. Refined, almost—
His eyelids flew open.
Oh, hell.
Sick understanding burned through her. The shift had saved him. He hadn’t shifted to die, he’d shifted to live.
“Dee!”
Too late. Harper lunged up and grabbed her, jerking Dee down onto his body and anchoring her against him. One hand rose to clutch her throat and his claws dug into her jugular.
“I can kill her with one slice.” His voice was hoarse, guttural. Because Jude had nearly ripped out his throat. The wound was still there, still red and jagged and angry, but he’d healed enough, just enough.
Erin knew he wasn’t bullshitting. He’d kill the hunter in a heartbeat of time. “Harper, let her go.” She rose to her feet, deliberately keeping her mother behind her.
Jude’s fingers tightened around her.
Harper’s eyes narrowed at that small movement. “Touching her…always… touching her…” He licked his lips.
Dee didn’t move. Her face was blank, her body tense. Her blood pulsed from her wounds.
Erin shrugged free of Jude’s hold and took a step forward. Behind her, she heard the rumble of his fury. “Let her go,” she repeated.
But Harper shook his head. “Bitch…could have been…perfect…”
“There’s nowhere to go.” Jude’s hard voice. The guy hadn’t stayed back. Now he stood beside her, naked and strong and more than ready to face down the devil with her.
Gotta love a man like that.
Love. Erin’s breath caught.
“Bitch!” A scream from Harper. “Should have…been mine! My mate, my—”
“I’ll never be yours.” She shook her head. “And you should know there’s no way you’re leaving here alive tonight.”
Wouldn’t happen.
Sirens screamed in the distance.
A cage wouldn’t hold him.
But they would stop him. “Now let her go!” Erin demanded.
“Mine,” he whispered, but sounded broken, lost.
“No, ass**le,” Jude growled. “She’s not.”
Harper shook his head frantically.
Erin’s stare jerked to Dee’s face. The woman’s lips moved, soundlessly. Save her.
Dammit, she was trying! Trying to save them all. Dee, her mother—
Dee’s eyes tracked to the right. Her gaze landed on the gun she’d dropped when Harper grabbed her.
Again, her lips moved. No sound. Save her.
Dee had reloaded that gun just moments before and she’d—
No. Not save her. That wasn’t what Dee was trying to say.
Once more, the human’s lips formed words. One word, not two. Silver.
Jude tensed beside her. He’d seen and understood.
“I loved you,” Harper whispered and his hand flexed.
Dee’s head moved in the slightest of jerks, and Erin saw her body rock forward.
She’d have to move, fast. They both would.
Harper’s face twisted with hate, not love, and she knew he was going for the kill. “For you,” he said and the claws dug deep.
“No!” Erin lunged for the gun.
Dee twisted hard, jerking and squirming, and Jude was there, slashing with his claws and yanking her into his arms as he spun, attempting to shield Dee with his body.
Erin brought up the gun.
Harper smiled. “Just like me.”
She fired. The bullet blasted into his chest.
Right into his heart.
Her father had taught her that, too. Shoot to kill. Kill to protect.
“No, bastard, I’m nothing like you.”
Harper’s eyes were wide open when he fell back. All the better to see death.
Her breath came out on a hard, ragged exhale.
Jude lowered his arms and turned back to glance at the body.
A grim smile curved Dee’s lips. “And this time, you’ll stay down, ass**le.”
Silver to the heart. According to the legends, a surefire way to kill a werewolf.
Or in this case, a hybrid wolf shifter.
Slowly, Erin stalked over to the judge. The gun was a solid weight in her hand as she gazed down at his face. Dee was right. The judge wouldn’t be getting up from that one.
Over.
The wailing sirens were so loud now, screaming in her ears. Doors slammed nearby. Footsteps thudded. Voices rose.
Men, women.
One was louder, angrier than the others. “All right…get the hell out of my way! Jude! Dee!”
Zane was there.
Erin dropped the gun. She spun around. “My mother!” Theresa’s eyes were closed and she’d sagged back against the ground. Tear tracks stained her cheeks. Had she seen Erin kill Harper? “Mother!”
Two men with stethoscopes raced toward Theresa.
“Easy…” Antonio appeared before her. He grabbed her shoulders, holding her steady. “I need an EMT here, now! She’s got severe injuries and blood loss!”
“I’m already healing,” she whispered. “But you have to understand, my mother’s not human.”
A quick nod. “Samuels!” A female EMT scrambled from the back of an ambulance. “Take care of the female victim!” He jerked his thumb toward Erin’s mother. “Then, Barlow, come over here and see about this bastard.” His hand sliced toward Harper.