Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (49 page)

She’d played
the hand wrong—he’d never let Kane go.

“Well, that’s
just too goddamn bad, isn’t it? What the fuck kind of Stockholm
bullshit you tryin’ to pull? Years of training to fight, and
cleanin’ up after your ass, washed down the fucking toilet. Where
the hell did I go wrong?” Wade shook his head. “Like you’ve
forgotten what they did to you.” He pulled a tray of tools beside
the table. “Well. You’re in luck. It just so happens, I have a gift
for you, darlin’. Since you’ve up and gone all
senti-fuckin’-mental, chasin’ the wolves in the goddamn moonlight,
maybe we can help jar your memory a bit.” He rubbed his chin.
“Hells bells, Ayden. You know I hate this bad guy shit.” His hand
flew up in the air. “But if I
let
you get away with this,
then the others will start hookin’ up with those lycan bastards.
Hell, before I know it, I’ll be running a goddamn puppy mill.” He
pointed at her. “Lucky for you, I believe in the power of the mind.
And the mind can be broken.” Wade leaped toward her. “What do you
say,” he whispered in her ear, “we see how easily yours will break
when you finally get to meet the one you’ve been looking for all
this time.”

Ayden’s heart
beat a wild rhythm, as a rust-colored, almost reddish, wolf stepped
forward from the group. His ferocious maw upturned in what she
could only surmise to be a smile.

He lurched
toward her.

That sensation
seeped into her bones.

Kill.

She tugged at
the chains.

Destroy.

Her hands
strained, muscles tensed, jaw clenched, pressing into the ache
already present from Wade’s punch.

The lycan
reached her, and Ayden’s control snapped.

She writhed,
eyes golden, trying to break from her binds.

Kill. Kill.
Kill.

Rage pierced
beneath her skin like a thousand needles pushing to perforate.

She bucked
against the chains across her middle. A maddening frenzy took over
her, the closer the wolf came to contact. It reached for her arm,
running its claws up her skin, leaving an open gash in its wake.
Unaffected by the pain, she fought against its touch—until memories
flooded her mind, and she stilled.

The figure in
the doorway of the kitchen approached. Human. Her hands trembled,
still holding the butcher knife. Does he plan to save me?

The man was
large, muscled but heavy, with a layer of fat that hung over his
pants. His uniform urged her to trust him. Something inside,
though, kept her at a distance, kept the knife in her hand.

A chuckle
hummed in his throat.

She jumped
when his body exploded into rusty red fur and silver eyes.

“
Oh, God,
help me,” she whispered.

Everything
went black.

She awoke to
an intense pain in her back, lying face down on the kitchen floor.
Her eyes, heavy-lidded, fought to open. Warm fluid oozed down her
face and dripped into her mouth. Blood mixed with something else.
It hurt to breathe.

Voices echoed
in her head, falling in and out of her conscious mind.

Am I dead?

The thought
was quickly dismissed by a voice somehow distantly familiar. “She
still fuckin’ alive? I thought I told you to finish this one off!
Christ almighty! Can’t trust a goddamn wolf to do anything, can
ya?”

Comprehension
was fleeting. The following silence, for whatever reason, seemed
disconcerting.

She willed
herself to move but could do no more than drag her head against the
cool kitchen floor. The thud of boots pounded through the linoleum
against her eardrum, and stopped as they drew close to her head.
What she assessed were human fingers grabbed the base of her skull
and pressure mounted as a weight crushed down on her.

A scream
rattled in her brain.

“
Hold
still, bitch. I’m here to save your life.”

Blackness.

Ayden sucked
in a breath and yanked herself out of the nightmare. The voice. She
recognized it. “I … wasn’t killed by the wolf. I was … still alive.
Until …” Her sight blazed with golden flames as she fixed on Wade.
“It was you!” She shook with the exertion of trying to break the
chains. “I was your target! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill
you!”

Wade stood off
to the side, a wicked grin on his face. “Kill me? Not likely
darlin’.” He nodded at the lycan still standing beside Ayden.

Claws gripped
her neck, embedding deep in her skin.

“You’d been to
the hospital one week before that.
Amelia Jayne
. Homemaker
extraordinaire. If you’d have just
stayed
home and sipped
some fucking tea with lemon, like everyone else, you might not be
laid out next to a wolf with a hard-on to kill ya twice. Goddamn
hypochondriacs these days. Go to the hospital for every little
sneeze. And what the hell happens to ya? Lose your entire family to
a pack of wolves. Now, that is a shame. Good ole’ Bobby here,” he
said patting the wolf’s back, “gave me the skinny on ya and, well,
now you know the rest. Taught me a lesson, your killin’ did. Too
much publicity is a bad thing. Felt like it took forever for your
daddy to call off the search.”

The wolf
beside her snarled.

Ayden stared
off. A pounding throbbed in her ear.
Jayne. The Jayne family.
Everyone knew what happened to them. My entire family … mutilated
in my home.

Her mind
reached for the details that she’d merely skimmed at one time, not
giving much thought to the Jaynes’.

“Finish her
off this time, Bob. We’ll prep her for Mindslating when she’s good
and dead then bring her back all fresh and new. This time I won’t
fuck around being Mr. Niceguy. In fact,”—Wade nodded toward
Kane—“finish her boyfriend, too.”

“No!” Snapping
back to reality, Ayden’s cry consumed the room.

The wolf
closed in on her.

“I’ll kill you
and watch you burn in hell! Come on you piece of shit. Come get
me!”

The wolf bared
its teeth and growled.

A ferocious
roar penetrated her mind, leaving her paralyzed.

Even the wolf
paused as if suddenly aware something bigger lurked.

Not a
wolf,
something told her. Something deeper, more vicious.

A sweep of an
enormous claw and the wolf disappeared from her view. Ayden’s eyes
grew wide, as wolves burst through the door that once separated
them from the humans and closed in on a beast with white fur and
black stripes.

Like a
tiger.

Twice the size
of the wolves, its muscles bulged in its arms, chest and legs. The
beast thrashed, clawed and fought off the wolves that crawled all
over it.

Ayden’s heart
thumped erratically. “Kane,” she whispered.

Somehow, he’d
turned into something else. Bigger and stronger.

“What the
fuck?” Wade said, his voice filled with awe. “What the hell is
that?”

Minutes passed
before he leaned in to Ayden. “I’ll be back to pick up the remains
once these animals have finished you off.”

She spat in
his face. “It was you. You gave them the order.”

“I did.” He
wiped her phlegm from his cheek. “And if they”—he nodded toward the
brawling beasts—“don’t finish you, I’ll do it again. And bring you
back, of course, all shiny and new.”

“You can kill
me a million times over, you son of a bitch, and I will find you.”
Ayden spoke through gritted teeth. “I will hunt you down, and gods
help you when I’m finished with you.”

Wade turned
away from her and made toward the door, but twisted back from his
departure when she released a dry laugh.

“Hey, Wade,
want to know what’s stronger than you and stronger than your
goddamn hex?”

“What’s
that?”

“Revenge. Sons
of Wrath, I summon you to vengeance!”

In the next
breath, Ayden’s chains broke free from her head.

Gavin caught
Wade by the neck, holding him outright, as Zeke ripped the
remaining chains from Ayden’s arms and legs.

Zeke glanced
about as he held out his hand to help her up. “What, in Obsidius,
is going on here?”

“A psycho’s
fucking dream come true,” Ayden muttered, her attention snapping
straight to Kane.

The wolves
still clawed, but Kane clawed back. Fierce and divine.

One swipe
sliced a wolf’s head from its body.

Wolves slipped
against the blood streaming across the floor of the morgue, all of
them lurching toward the tiger in the middle.

“Gavin!” Ayden
shouted over the sound of brawling wolves. “The kill is mine!”

He nodded, and
Ayden leapt from the table, with Zeke at her heels, and grabbed the
first wolf that got in her way.

She slammed it
against the bloody floor, grabbed hold of its head and twisted it
away from the body.

A quick upward
glance brought her target into sight: the rust-colored lycan wolf
that had destroyed everything she’d once known.

It emerged
from the frenzy, just as two wolves toppled Ayden to the
ground.

Kicking
against them, her body slid against the slick surface of the floor.
In the corner of her eye, the wolf she itched to get her hands on
drew back on its haunches, his launch pose aimed her way.

“No!” Ayden
cried, pinned beneath the weight of the two wolves.

Her enemy took
flight and she braced for assault, yet it flew no more than a foot
before being taken down with an earth-shattering wham by one large
paw.

Kane.

Two wolves
jumped his back, and he swung backward, his claws raking through
fur. Free of them, he tore across the room toward Ayden, hauling
the two wolves from her and hurling them through the air as though
they weighed nothing.

Ayden raced to
the opposite side of the morgue, kicked down and straddled her
target. Amidst the chaos that surrounded them, she leaned her lips
close to its ear. “Let the last memory you carry into hell be your
blood on my hands.”

She dug her
fingers into its neck and yanked the wolf’s head from its body,
holding it for a moment as she watched the blood trickle down her
wrist.

Finally
destroyed, Bob faded to his human form beneath her.

After
clambering up to her feet, Ayden shuffled across the room in a
daze.

In the corner,
Gavin had tied Wade’s arm and legs with the chain link. One arm had
already been removed and lay beside him. Gavin worked him, Wade’s
mouth opened in a scream the growling and roaring of the fighting
animals drowned out.

Her gaze
trailed back to Zeke, fighting the wolves as effortlessly as Kane,
but steering clear of the rampaging tiger.

The wolves
that hadn’t broken rank and escaped lay all about the morgue floor,
their heads separated from bodies. Some had begun to turn back into
their human form, lending to the most grisly scene Ayden had ever
witnessed.

Kane tore the
final head away from its body. Panting heavily, he swung his focus
to Ayden, and he lurched forward.

Zeke stepped
in front of her.

The tiger’s
weakened growl seemed to challenge the demon, before its body
collapsed to the floor.

Ayden stood
trembling, her hands outstretched. “He … changed …”

Zeke kept his
distance. “Took the tiger’s form. Twice as strong as a wolf.
Solitary hunters.”

“How? They
gave him the antibody to keep him from changing.”

“I don’t know
exactly. You know, it’s been a long time since lycans have taken on
the form of other animals. They like the packs. Maybe his ties
weren’t strong enough. Or … maybe he had good enough reason to
fight his brethren.” Zeke winked at her.

“Wade ordered
to have me killed. He’s …”

“Alpha. Well,
not when Gavin finishes him. More like
Alpo
after that.”

Ayden lowered
to kneel beside Kane.

Zeke grabbed
her arm. “Ayden, we don’t know much about him. And he’s obviously a
hell of a lot stronger than the wolves.”

“Please,
Zeke.” She yanked her arm away from him and twisted back to the
lycan tiger.

Bloody gashes
mutilated his white fur. Her hands gingerly passed over them,
fingertips tracing the ragged edges of flesh. His chest heaved with
each panting breath.

“Will he die
from his wounds? With the effects of the antibody?”

“Probably
not.” Zeke crossed his arms over his massive chest. “He managed to
change into his lycan form. His scars will probably remain, though.
They look like they run pretty deep.”

“How did he
turn? I thought the venom was neutralized by the antibody.” Ayden
knew Zeke wouldn’t have all the answers—still, talking to him
proved to be a comfort.

“Might’ve worn
off. Something more powerful took over his body. I guess you
triggered that. Maybe he views you as his mate. And you were in
trouble.” Zeke chuckled. “Now that’s some ironic shit.”

She frowned.
“What’s ironic?”

“The woman who
doesn’t believe in love was saved by it. Better yet, by the
only
species in the world she can’t stand.” He threw his
head back. “Oh, shit. That’s a good one.”

Ayden ran her
hands over Kane’s fur, and his purr thrummed in his throat.
A
tiger.

A bellow from
Wade broke her enthrallment.

Kane startled
beneath her hand, but continued to lay motionless, lids still
closed.

She stood and
crossed the room to where Gavin loomed over Wade’s bloodied body.
Slices across his face and chest indicated that Gavin had taken his
time.

“Any final
words?” Gavin asked him.

“Yeah. Fuck
you.” Wade spat blood at Gavin’s boot.

Gavin gave him
a sharp kick in his ribs, and Wade turned over on himself. “These
are Italian, asshole.”

Ayden grabbed
the hilt of Gavin’s dagger and tugged it from the holster. “Hey,
Wade, see you in hell.”