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Nothing deep. Not yet.
The shifter’s body twitched, and his face changed, a snout emerging as ears poked through his hair.
A tingle registered over my neck moments before an iron band gripped my middle, lifted me off the wolf, and slammed me into the closest wall. A painted canvas and a framed photo tumbled to the ground, the glass shattering around us.
“Stop, Tate.” The male’s vicious, sinister roar had my insides going up in flames.
There he was.My beautiful beast.
He checked over his shoulder and said something to the wolf as he struggled to his feet, slowly transforming back to his human shape. The shifter I’d attacked nodded as he tore the rest of his shirt off, blood covering his torso.
The beast with one blue eye and one gold turned back to me. “What are you doing?” Panic flashed over his expression before anger masked it.
“Playing.” I licked the blood from one of my talons. “Why did you take my toy away?”
“He’s not a toy,” he snapped. “That’s Preston.”
I tried to shove him off, but he wouldn’t budge. “If you don’t want to play, you can go now.” My muscles strained as I focused on forcing him to disappear.
His lips curled back, baring his teeth. “I’m here in the flesh. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He grabbed my chin hard enough to bruise it and forced me to meet his stare as his face lowered, his warm, cinnamon breath dusting my lips. “Snap out of this, Tate.Now.” His power hit me like a punch to the gut, and I flinched.
“Fuck you.”
He pressed into me, so I felt every hard, blazing inch of him. “Come back to me, and I just might.”
His words urged my muscles to melt, but I couldn’t give in. I wouldn’t. “I’d rather fight you.” Catching him off guard, I crushed my foot into his shin to kick him off.
The beast stumbled back and snarled. “I’m not playing with you, Tate. Don’t let that thing control you.” He moved too fast, and his hand clawed at my shirt, lifting it to reveal the black swirling ink below my ribs. “This isn’t you. You’d never hurt Preston.”
More figures moved into the living room, and a child darted toward the bleeding shifter.
“Preston! What happened.” His wide, innocent eyes turned to me. “Tate?”
Oh, a little one.
I stepped forward, salivating at playing with a miniature wolf, but the beast shoved me against the wall again. He slammed his forehead onto mine.
“This isn’t you, Tate.”His hand pressed into the tattoo on my throat as his rough voice continued to pummel my mind.“You would never hurt Preston, and you sure as hell wouldn’t hurt Dylan.”
My gaze flicked to the shifters on the right, now four of them. A female fussed over the injured male while casting worried glances toward us, speaking to Fane.
Fane—that was the beast’s name—shook his head and shortened the tiny space between us to nothing.
The little one’s lip trembled.
Hot and cold tingles spread down my back. I knew these shifters from somewhere.
Fane’s head dipped, his lips brushing the tattoo on my neck.“Break the amulet’s control and find your way back.”His warm breath made me shiver, and my arms wrapped around his back, my hand pressing in as the talons retreated.“You’re the strongest person I know. You can do this.”
I clung to him as the fog receded, focusing on the way his body molded to mine and the sound of his voice, like a version of home I always wanted but never had. The horrible urges drifted away, and hazy memories bubbled forward.
Oh, no. What did I do?
Fane knew the moment the Infernal Sol’s influence released me. He felt the pounding of my heart and the tremors racing through my limbs as panic descended. Vague flashes of Preston resurfaced, and my stomach clenched.
I’d hurt him.
My fingers flexed on Fane’s back, the same fingers stained with Preston’s blood. When did he even get home?
