Ruler (Wolves of Royal Paynes #2) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,104
but I couldn't just shuffle there and listen to Diesel refusing to give up even though he clearly doubted our chances for survival. If we died, I couldn't let his last moments be desperate. I looked up, finding his gaze already on me.
He wasn't scowling. He wasn't even frowning. He smirked, and it was the friendliest he'd ever looked. He wasn't taunting me; he was indulging me. "Maybe they are here to help."
I didn't think it was possible to decipher any more from the wall of violent sounds outside, but I definitely heard a new layer. More bullets, but these weren't aimed at the hotel. Or, if they were, they were all misses.
Then the gunfire that had pigeonholed us against the wall ceased. Diesel reached his eyehole in two strides. "The helicopter is firing on the Portal men. It's…Storri."
I knew that wasn't right. I was right here.
"Storri." Diesel said my name again but with more urgency. At the same time, he threw his hand out, indicating I was to stay where I was. "Faust and the twins. Those dicks stole a helicopter. A Portal Ventures helicopter." Diesel couldn't sound any prouder.
I had to grab on to Dr. Tiff to keep from rushing forward and making Diesel angry—again. My alpha had come for us. He was alive. He was—
The blast knocked me off my feet, hotter than any of the others. I coughed and looked around for the damage. Diesel had said we had two hits before the hotel came down, but I couldn't find the damage from this one.
Something had been blown up, though.
If it wasn't the hotel—
I ripped the front door off its hinges. Distantly, that seemed like it shouldn't have been possible, but I quickly forgot that thought as I stepped out of the hotel and witnessed the wreckage.
The charred remains of a helicopter—the smoldering propeller still spun—smoked and quickly caught the surrounding foliage on fire. Nothing inside, not the seats, any of the equipment or the…bodies were recognizable from each other. There was too much fire.
I narrowed my eyes at a Portal soldier standing behind the wreckage, the smoking barrel still propped on his shoulder. I burst from the hotel, my mind nothing more than an angry buzz. I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet, and yet the soldier grew steadily nearer. "You killed my mate," I seethed.
Seeing the wreckage broke something soft and tender inside me. The anger flowing through my veins felt like being wrapped in a barbed wire blanket. I'd never held so much hatred and loathing. Not when my mom was taken from me, not when Grouse threw me in that tower…This was new and boiling.
The man dropped his weapon, falling on his ass in his scramble to get away. His wide, horrified eyes shone in my direction.
I enjoyed the way he looked when he was afraid. "You killed my mate." Speaking those four words felt like my guts were being ripped up my throat and out my mouth.
In the back of my mind, I heard terrified screaming, not just from the man in front of me, but from various spots in the forest. Yelps of pain paired with frightened wails for help. I let out a trembling exhale, concentrating on the snarls and growls circled around me.
It sounded as if every animal in the area had converged on this one spot. My anger flowed through them, each creature an extension of my pain. I'd brought them here. It was my emotional breakdown that had drawn them here and riled them up. With teeth and claws, they made the men feel what I felt, like my heart had stopped beating.
Faust had once said I was like spring. He'd been wrong. I wasn't spring. I was winter.
"Storri—"
I spun with a growl, swiping my clawed hand through the air without a second thought.
Faust caught my arm and yanked me against his chest. He had a cut across his forehead, was covered with bruises, and had twigs and leaves sticking out of his hair, but he was alive. "Storri, breathe. Kitten…Jesus, are you okay?"
My brain short-circuited, unable to handle the many thoughts all coming at once. Faust was alive? How? I needed to kiss him until we both passed out, but if Faust was alive, that meant he'd just witnessed me turn into the white witch and murder a person… I thought about the other screams from the forest.
People. I'd just killed people, and Faust was going to—