Page 126 of Wanted

Emery howls, barks and suddenly leaps over the flame. Her aim is perfect as she latches directly on to Dr. Lee’s throat. The laughter that had lit up his eyes instantly turns to horror as he realizes his own fate.

He thrashes for a second, trying to get Emery off of him, but she’s locked in. A beat later, she tosses his body into the fire.

I don’t even think about it when I lunge for her screaming father. I don’t give him time to beg or plead for his life. He goes directly into the fire pit directly behind Dr. Lee.

“No! No! Stay back!” Emery’s mother shrieks and stumbles back, falling. She rises to her feet and attempts to run onlyto come face to face with my pack that’s surrounding her. She stops, tripping over her own feet.

I snap at her. She yells and swats at me, striking my jaw. The hit barely registers as I snap my jaw at her again, this time ripping the pants she’s wearing. I could easily end her right now, but she deserves all the horror and fear she’s feeling right now.

I taunt her, snapping at her over and over again.

She falls to the ground, her clothes torn and arms and legs scratched and bloody from my bites.

“No, please. It wasn’t me. They made me do it. I didn’t want to.”

It’s her begging and lying that finally convinces me to end her once and for all. Though I can’t hear her, the pathetic quiver in her lips as she pleads for her life pisses me off even more.

I leap at her neck, finally ending her pathetic attempts to spare her life. One violent thrust of my head and she’s tossed into the firepit behind her piece of shit husband and Dr. Lee.

All should be well, now that those motherfuckers are dispersed of. There aren’t any more wolves out here besides the Nightwolf pack, but all isn’t well when I peer over and see Emery’s wolf pawing at the flames.

What are you doing?I ask, trying to get between her and the flames.

He lied, right?she asks frantically.Ashley isn’t really here. They couldn’t have gotten rid of her like that. She has to still be alive. Where is she?

She paws at the ash surrounding the flames. Sparks and embers from the flame fall onto her paws, burning them but she doesn’t stop. I just barely manage to pull her away from the flames before my brother and two other packmates, in their human forms, run over with buckets of water.

I cover Emery’s body even as she fights me to get back to the fire.

Chael ensures the fire’s extinguished and Emery manages to break free from my hold to rush back to the pit. She paws and claws at the ashes, searching for what, I don’t know.

I ignore the bones of the people who were supposed to be her parents to try to stop her.

Suddenly, though, she stops.

Something that glistens from the ashes. Emery paws at it, scraping away the dark embers to reveal a turquoise and stainless-steel wolf pendant. It’s bent and charred, having obviously been in these flames for a while.

Emery tosses her head toward the night sky and lets out a howl full of agony. Pain unlike any I’ve felt before courses through me. But I make it to Emery just as she shifts into her human form, dropping to her knees.

She picks up the pendant in her shaking hands, unmindful of the smoke coming off of the pendant. That’s when I shift into my human to catch her and move her away from the fire pit.

“No, no, no,” she repeats over and over as she peers down at her trembling hands. She looks toward me with tears streaming down her face.

This was Ashley’s. She never took it off.

I catch her before she can crumple to the ground.

My sister’s gone. They murdered her. They took her from me.She wails and wails as I pick her up in my arms and carry her away from that death pit.

CHAPTER 35

One week later.

Emery

I can’t move. There’s no feeling in my body. The pain has swallowed me up whole. Nothing but darkness passes through my mind as I stare at the wall in Chance’s bedroom.

I haven’t moved from this position since he brought me back here. When my mind isn’t in a black void, all I can think about is how I failed Ashley.