Brothersong (Green Creek #4) - T.J. Klune Page 0,33

everyone standing in front of him. There was a pause in the gunfire, as if all sound had been sucked from around the house.

The timber wolf’s gaze landed on me.

His eyes narrowed.

And then he moved.

He was quick, quicker than the humans could follow. They fired their guns, but the bullets only hit empty ground, dirt and gravel spraying upward. One of the men stumbled backward, trying to get away, but the wolf was on him, claws tearing into soft flesh. The man cried out wetly before it cut off as his neck broke in a savage twist.

I tried to shout in warning as one of the women swung a shotgun in his direction, but the words came as a snarl. He jumped up, the body of the dead hunter jerking as silver pellets struck his stomach and side, blood arcing onto the side of the house.

I went for the others as the woman screamed, her shotgun cleaved in half as the timber wolf bit down. I slammed a man into the side of one of their trucks, the windows blowing out, shards of glass falling around us.

He raised his hands and said, “Please.”

And I said, “No.”

He never got another chance to speak.

I whirled around and was about to yell for the wolf again when I heard a gun being cocked, the barrel pressing against the side of my head.

I looked over.

The man with the white hair, the one who’d said he was going to blow my head off, nodded at me with a grim smile. “Two of you. Didn’t expect that.” Then he raised his voice. “You move and I’ll kill him right here, right now.”

I looked beyond the truck.

It was a horrific scene. The clouds above parted slightly, allowing the moon to shine through. Shadows melted away, and I could see the ground covered in blood and gore. Three men still stood, and one woman, though she was bloodied and her right arm hung uselessly at her side, obviously broken.

The timber wolf raised his head. The hair on his face and around his mouth was red. It dripped off him as he took a step toward us, lips pulled back over his fangs. His eyes glowed violet in the dark, and I wanted to tell him to run, to get out of here while he still could, to save himself.

I opened my mouth, and the hunter smashed his gun on the side of my head. I stumbled forward, dazed, as I fell to my knees. My vision blurred, and I wanted to kill. I wanted this man dead.

I panted toward the ground as the hunter pressed the gun to the back of my head, standing above me.

“I’ll do it,” the hunter said. “Don’t think I won’t. You don’t like that, do you? This one yours, Omega? How is that? I thought Omegas traveled alone.” He cocked the gun as the wolf took another step toward us. “Unless it’s that magic I heard about. Nasty shit if you ask me. All witches should be put down, just like the wolves. This is a human world, and it should stay that way.”

I rocked back on my knees, the wound on my head healing even as blood dripped down the side of my face. I looked back up at him, still caught in my half-shift. I grinned, and he flinched. “Killed your people,” I growled. “Killed them dead.”

The man nodded slowly. “That you did. Shame, too. Aren’t many of us left. Not like there used to be. Your kind has seen to that.” Quick like lightning, he pulled out another gun as the wolf roared at him, and pointed it at the wolf’s head. The others aimed their guns at the wolf too, and I felt the moon on my face. If I was going to die here, if we were going to die, we’d put up a good fight. I thought Kelly would be proud of me.

The man said, “The way I see it, this can go one of two ways. The right way and the other way. The right way being that I put you down like the rabid dogs you are.” He dug the barrel into the side of my head. I felt my skin split. “The other way—and I’m a big fan of this one, so pay attention—the other way is that you shift back and tell me how many more there are of you. Because I was expecting one, and yet here we have two. By that