in on the people who screamed and ran in a panicked crowd, trying to escape the flying bullets.
I snarled as I watched a man fall to his knees, bullet holes riddling his back. “Die you motherfuckers.”
There was a metallic click. The collar fell from around my neck. I gasped as power flooded me, my wolf clamouring to break free. “Jesus!” I staggered under the weight of his power, fighting him for control as I somehow righted myself.
I inhaled and growled. “Ember…” My voice was deeper than ever. I turned to find Zander staring intently at Ember. She met his gaze and something passed between them.
Zander moved.
I couldn’t stop him. No matter how quick or powerful I was.
“No!” My heart stopped as time slowed. The sight of his serrated-edged knife entering her chest just below her heart was something I’d never forget. And something I could never have done, no matter what I’d agreed to do.
His face morphed into something dark and otherworldly. Horns flashed into existence on the side of his head. His red eyes burned, shadow obscuring his features, and wings appeared on his back.Those hellish eyes met mine before that demonic appearance flickered out of existence.
Ember fell to the ground, her face turning as white as porcelain. She met my gaze, her eyes so green and bright they seared my soul... and she smiled. “So you didn’t have to,” she whispered.
Red filled my vision and I charged, slamming into Zander and sending us both sprawling. The shadow that I had contained all these years erupted, swirling through my blood. It merged with my wolf creating a being full of darkness and fury. No matter what I’d agreed to with Zander, it wanted revenge.
So did I.
I jumped to my feet as my wolf roared and punched through my skin. He had been contained for four long years, but finally he was free—only now the darkness attached itself to him.
“Connor! Don’t!” Zander’s eyes burned.
Kill him, I ordered both my wolf, and the dark being in my soul. My senses were scrambled by the scent and sight of her blood, even though my logical mind knew this was what we’d planned, only it should have been me who killed her.
Baring his large teeth, my wolf launched at Zander’s neck.
“Connor!” Zander yelled again, twisting away in a blur of speed. “Stop! We need to work together now! It’s what she wanted! This was her plan! She wants us to get in that science wing and stop whatever is happening there, but she didn’t want you to have to kill her. She knew it would destroy you—especially if something goes wrong and she doesn’t come back.”
Zander lashed out with a knife. It wasn’t a kill attack, but one meant to warn, or at the most, wound, and slow me down.
Infected with the darkness from my soul that I’d always kept at bay, my wolf didn’t care, all it wanted was to kill. The monster that I’d become landed to one side and circled Zander, looking for a weakness.
Zander stepped closer to Ember. Holding my gaze, he placed his fingers against her neck.
My growl reverberated through my chest and into the air, shattering the windows. His swallow was audible. My eyes narrowed, my fangs grew longer, my vision changed and I could hear the heartbeats of everyone in that arena. It was like a storm of thunder in my soul, insistent and demanding. The screams of agony were like music to my ears, a balm to the creature of destruction that I had become. I inhaled the stench of terror and blood and revelled in it, that darkness inside me growing. Such chaos was the most seductive scent I’d ever inhaled; it eclipsed Ember’s existence to the point I no longer cared about her. The blood leaking from her body called to me, the flesh on her bones merely a feast for my soul.
I peered out from my clouded mind, horror coiling around my heart. What the fuck was this monster that had awakened inside me?
It, no I, took a step towards Ember, hunger striking at my belly. Not just for her flesh but for her soul…For the first time in my life, true fear hit me.
Zander’s image morphed into the demon I’d seen before, horns, wings and long talons flickering in and out of existence. His wings rippled before disappearing. It was as if he couldn’t keep that image or part of himself there for long.
Cold satisfaction swirled through the monster that controlled