Wild Heart - C.R. Jane Page 0,1

have anything to do with this,” I whispered.

He snarled, his eyes wild. He’d obviously lost control of his wolf. I knew from experience in my old pack that it was all downhill when that happened.

A snarl ripped through the air, and suddenly, Wilder was in front of me, his teeth bared. As a Lycan wolf, he could only change on the full moon, unlike the Bitten wolf who’d been about to jump me, but Wilder was very much still a force to be reckoned with. You could feel his power reverberating through the air. The man who’d lost control immediately dropped his gaze and bared his throat, falling to his knees in front of us. Wilder advanced on him stealthily, snarling one more time for good measure. The other two people had also fallen to their knees and were looking down, throats bared. It took me a second to realize I should have had the urge to do the same, as I’d always done it in the past. Looking back, I’d done it with Wilder and Daxon at times since I’d been here.

The fact that I wasn’t feeling a pull to do it now was certainly an interesting development. I heard the snarl of a motorcycle from far away, and within what seemed like seconds, Daxon was suddenly there, intercepting Wilder’s advance on the other bitten wolf.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Daxon snarled at Wilder. I watched, mesmerized, as his eyes shifted back and forth from human to wolf. He was trying to control himself, and I hoped for everyone’s sake he would succeed. Neither Wilder nor Daxon seemed to have noticed the pressing issue of Eve. My heart squeezed in my chest as my gaze flicked back to Eve’s lifeless form. She was staring up at the sky, wide-eyed. She almost looked shocked. I hoped for her sake the attack had been unexpected and quick.

Daxon and Wilder were still having some sort of bullshit standoff, and the three other townspeople were eyeing each other nervously, like they were preparing to run if things got serious.

“Losing control of your people, Dax?” Wilder asked sarcastically.

Daxon threw a disdainful look at the three quivering people still kneeled on the ground. “I can handle my own,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Then why was Conley about to attack Rune?” asked Wilder, pointing a rigid finger at the man in question.

Daxon’s face went blank. His golden gaze turned cold, spine-chilling actually. I’d never seen him look like that. His eyes were usually warm, caring, sweet…with the exception of when he’d stalked me through the woods. The man in front of me was a stranger. There was something playing in his gaze, a hint of madness almost, that had my stomach churning with a mixture of fear…and lust.

I probably needed to talk to a therapist about that.

Daxon’s gaze flicked to mine briefly and softened as he examined me, as if he was making sure I was all right. I didn’t know how he could tell either way. I was covered in blood.

Whatever he saw must have been enough to reassure him that I wasn’t about to keel over because Daxon’s face transformed back into the scary, deadly stranger from before as he turned to face Conley. Daxon stalked towards him like he was prey. Conley was a sniveling, shivering mess at that point. Daxon squatted down in front of him, his nails on his right hand transforming into sharp black-tipped claws, much longer than the ones Conley had displayed. I watched in horror-struck fascination as Daxon gripped Conley’s jaw, tiny rivulets of blood dropping from Conley’s face as he did so.

“Were you going to attack Rune?” Daxon purred in what might have been the scariest voice I’d ever heard. The front of Conley’s pants darkened as he wet himself in stark fear of whatever Daxon was about to do.

Wilder snorted at the sight, and then the woman let out a pitiful cry. That was enough to jerk me back to my senses.

“Daxon,” I snapped, weaving around Wilder’s body and rushing towards him. “Haven’t you noticed that Eve’s dead?” My voice caught on a cry as I pulled his clawed hand away from Conley’s face.

Daxon used his other arm to throw Conley down to the ground before standing up. I could feel Wilder’s warmth as he crowded me in from behind.

I resisted the urge to scoot back into Wilder’s embrace while pulling Daxon with me. Despite the fact that I was still furious at Daxon, still