Wolf's Hunger (Mafia Monsters #5) - Atlas Rose Page 0,4
called out. “Do you need help?”
I waited for her to answer…waited for anything other than the chill of the air crawling up my spine.
“We need to go.” Arran repeated, yanking my arm, and this time I followed, turning my back on that cold, lifeless world.
“He’s coming. He’s coming and this time he’s not going to stop.”
I stilled at the cry, and jerked my gaze back to the building, my heart hammering inside my chest. “I can’t leave, Arran. Not until I…”
I pulled my arm from his hold and took a step toward the building, and that need rippled in my chest as the green glow brightened. But it wasn’t just the heat of desire this time, not that burning desire…it was darker, harder.
My lips curled, baring my teeth as Arran let out a tortured moan. “So help me, woman, you have ten seconds to turn your ass around or I will throw you over my damn shoulder. And I’ll enjoy it.”
He was serious, deadly serious.
“Ten seconds, right?” I licked my lips, pushing my damn luck with the Wolf. “I’ll take that.” I took a step toward the darkness.
“You’re gonna get us fucking killed.”
“No, I won’t.” I took a step toward the building, sucking in as deep breaths as I could. The echo of my boots was lonely in the night as I left the asphalt behind.
The shadows trembled and lashed against the building as I got closer. Shadowed fingers crawled along the ground toward me before they curled and drew away, like this world tasted me…like it somehow knew me.
I licked my lips and stepped up into the gaping doorway, listening to Arran give a whimper behind me, and tried to focus on the sound of her cry. “I’m here!” I called. “Tell me where you are so I can find you.”
There was no answer, nothing but that emptiness as goosebumps raced along my skin.
“Phantom’s gonna be pissed,” Arran warned, shaking his head.
“Then let him,” I replied, and took another step.
One savage snarl, and the Wolf was with me, striding through the gaping ruins and into the empty doorway.
“See?” he barked, and grabbed my arm. “There’s no one here.”
But I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t sure about anything. Not about this place, or this night. Gunshots still resounded in my head and Harlan’s savage howls of retribution lingered at the edges. We needed to get out of here. We needed to find the others. We needed to get somewhere safe…and just think.
But I could no more turn my back on someone in danger than I could see the Wolves framed for a crime they didn’t commit. “Talk to me.” I demanded. “Tell me where you are.”
A cry echoed back to me, low, choking.
That green glow pulsed inside my chest, the heavy throb swallowing the echo of my own heartbeat. Something moved in the corner of the gutted building, a blur of darkness, malevolent and malicious. Something that was birthed from the shadows with a chilling growl.
“Carina,” Arran warned.
There was no fighting him this time, no tearing my arm from his hold. The Wolf lunged, grabbed me around the waist, and hauled me backwards as the thud of heavy steps grew louder…and a man stepped into the room from the darkness.
He was a beast of shadows, growing bigger and more terrifying the closer he came. “Wolf.” The threatening growl resounded all around us. “You shouldn’t be here…and neither should you…Carina.”
I flinched at the sound of my name, watching as the shadows clung to the hard planes of his face. He was breathtaking…haunting and mesmerizing. I couldn’t tear my gaze away as that merciless desire inside me called to him, writhing and rubbing, making me want to sink to my knees right there in the ruins and the dark.
I’d let that beast do things to me no man should want to do…
A savage sound tore from my lips. But he wasn’t a man…was he? He was an Unseelie.
Arran let out a low, predatory snarl and stepped forward. There was a flicker of amusement from the Unseelie in front of us as he glanced at the Wolf and me. “Easy now, Wolf.”
“Shrike,” Arran spoke carefully. “You scared the shit out of me.”
But the brooding monster didn’t offer a smile, instead he watched me with a frightening gaze. “What are you doing here?”
“There was a problem.” Arran licked his lips. “The police opened fire, cops are everywhere, hunting us from the other side of the city.”