Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,4

raced up behind Monroe's car, the 68 Mustang half up on the bank, its headlights casting the shadows aside between the thick trees to the left of the road.

My own headlight illuminated the empty seats inside it and the wide, open doors made it clear that no one was here.

An all too familiar scream caught my attention as I hit the brakes and the bike came skidding to a halt on the gravel at the side of the road, causing me to drag the heel of my boot along the asphalt to stop the whole thing from spinning out.

I cut the bike's engine, leaping off it and letting it drop to the road with a heavy crash before racing into the trees.

I could hear Tatum screaming somewhere in the dark, and it felt like my entire soul was screaming with her as my grip on the bat in my hand tightened and I raced towards her.

The ground sloped away steeply, the light from the car’s headlights quickly getting left behind as I descended into the forest and chased after my girl. Every step I took felt like a torture of a specific kind, the raw, brutal pounding of my heart calling out to her with a desperate kind of plea for her to hold on just a little longer.

I’m coming baby. Just keep fighting for me.

It took everything in me not to call out to her to let her know I was coming, to keep my presence hidden so that I could sneak up on that motherfucker and end him before he even knew I was here. Because if he really thought he could hunt my girl in the dark and not fall prey to the monster in me, then he was about to find out exactly what I was made of when you cut away the bullshit.

Because once you dug beneath my skin, I was all deep, dark, primal violence and I fed my soul on the taste of blood. I’d been raised with the anger of a cornered wolf and the mercy of a starving viper. Nothing in this world could stop me from destroying him now.

I ran at full speed towards the sounds of her screams, and the closer I drew, the more my skin prickled as I heard something in them that was just as dark and brutal as the fury that lived in me.

I burst between the trees with my bat held high, ready to cave his fucking head in and found her instead. Tatum Rivers, the girl who'd sworn to be mine, who had made me hers through chains of passion and fate, who had never once backed down from a fight or caved to the evil in us, finally revealed to be the creature born of nightmares which I'd always known she was.

She was coated in blood, the bright red colour staining her skin and painting her as a queen of death to be worshipped as she stood over the body of the man she'd killed, her chest heaving and eyes wild as she looked up and found me there. No doubt I was stained in death as heavily as she was, the two of us a pair of bloodied, broken souls who had found each other in the dark.

The body laying at her feet was clearly dead, the lifeless corpse bloodied and battered as she stood over him in victory and I swear I fell for her even more as I remained rooted to the spot, staring at her drenched in the blood of her enemy.

Her gaze met mine and a beat of silence passed between us as she realised I’d come to rescue her and I accepted that she hadn’t needed me to. Not that it would stop me from coming for her again every time she needed me.

I dropped my bat and she dropped the gun in her fist as I took three long strides to close the distance between us and caught her jaw in my grasp.

Tatum sucked in a sharp breath as her bright blue eyes widened a moment before my mouth claimed hers.

A growl of pure, carnal, violent need swept through me as I tasted her, my tongue pushing between her lips and swallowing the gasp of surprise which came from her as I stole our first kiss. But if I was a thief then she was the most precious gemstone known to man and she was putting up no protest at me taking her.

I could taste