Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3) - Nalini Singh Page 0,141
Tk of Renault’s strength. Not in a fair fight. But the way he’d set up the chair in an open space in the warehouse meant she couldn’t sneak up behind him and whack him over the head.
Memory, Memory, Memory. A sigh from the ghost of Amara in her head. Have you learned nothing? We don’t whack people over the head. We make them whack themselves.
Memory’s gaze fell on the rope at his feet.
Smile slow, she squared her shoulders and focused her tiny amount of Tk to nudge the rope around his ankle. Gently. Gently. Tie the knot.
A keening sound in her ears, her telekinetic ability burning out.
Shaking in the aftermath, she went to stall again somehow . . . and sensed a piercingly familiar wildness in the air. Her heart kicked. Alexei was here. That changed everything. She had to put herself in position to help him and stop Renault from teleporting.
You hurt me again. Once more, she tried to infuse her telepathic voice with fear instead of anger and protective fury. How do I know you won’t put me in the hole?
“I own you!” Renault yelled, his cool demeanor cracking under a wave of red-eyed rage; whatever drug he was on, it was seriously destabilizing his psyche. “Come here right now or I’ll teach you pain!”
Memory looked again at the wrench in her hand as Renault began to assault her mind with warning strikes that were shallow but still bruised. She had no way of knowing if Alexei was ready, but she had to take action before Renault lost it and launched a deadly assault.
He’d be sorry afterward, but she’d still be dead.
She sent her determination and readiness down the mating bond, not sure if it would work. The returning wave of feral resolve nearly had her growling. Teeth bared in a primal smile, she hefted the wrench and threw it as far from herself as possible. It clanged loudly against a bookshelf.
The sound had Renault jolting to his feet, his eyes glimmering. “There you are.” He went to move.
His foot hooked on the rope and he fell onto his face.
She heard the crunch of his nose breaking.
Even as rage contorted his bloody features, a wolf launched itself at him with lethal fury.
“Renault!” Memory yelled and stepped out of her hiding spot.
Turning his head toward her, he pushed up to his knees. Ugliness twisted his face. “I’ll make you pay—”
The wolf hit him hard, taking him to his back.
That wolf had its jaws around Renault’s throat before the man could recover enough to teleport. It was over in seconds, blood spilling onto the warehouse floor, the wolf’s muzzle drenched dark red.
Memory collapsed to her knees. Right in front of her lay a blood-splattered plas packet, a lock of hair within. Memory didn’t pick it up; that wasn’t her mother. Diana had been smart and gentle and protective. Memory would not reduce her to a memento kept by a psychopath.
“He’s dead,” she whispered, her mind free; the PsyNet was alive around her once more, stars appearing in the darkness in an endless carpet. “Finally, he’s dead.”
When the wolf turned to her, she held that amber gaze without fear, with love. “He deserved to die.” She felt no pity for Renault, felt nothing but the ache of justice long denied. “My mother, all his other victims, they can rest in peace now.”
The wolf padded to her. Fisting a hand in his fur, she buried her face against his warm body and she cried. For all the years lost. For all the lives taken. For the battle won.
Chapter 53
Shoot first and ask questions of the corpses.
—Rumored motto of the SnowDancer wolves
THE WOLF THAT was Alexei glanced up at Judd as the other man walked up to the scene of the execution. Taking in the blood and Renault’s lifeless body, his friend said, “You want to disappear this?” He placed Alexei’s discarded clothing to one side.
While Alexei hadn’t needed Judd’s help to keep Renault from teleporting out, his fellow lieutenant had helped him get inside. Alexei had given him a boost up so Judd could look in a small window at the far end of the warehouse, gain a visual inside the space. They hadn’t been able to see Memory from their spot, but Alexei had scented her, his wolf prowling under his skin.
Judd had teleported them both inside.
And Memory had thrown the wrench after warning him of her intent. Alexei had never known the mating bond could be used that way—and perhaps