Page 85 of An Unending Claim
I swallowed hard as I swung my leg out, then screamed when my hip popped out of the joint. But I didn’t stop until I’d slammed my foot straight into his kneecap, causing him to fall backward and land on his ass. Then I pulled myself up to my feet and stared down at him where he’d fallen onto the floor.
I pointed the knife at him and worked hard to stay steady on my feet and upright. “I like my face just fine, thank you. How about your balls? Do you like those? Because I’m more than willing to remove them.”
He shot his hand out to reach for the blade and I turned it to just the right angle to catch his inner arm, leaving a deep cut from his palm to his elbow. He shrieked and brought his injured arm to his chest. I didn’t expect him to swing out the other one and grab the knife. I wasn’t about to let it go without a fight and I broke his nose and sliced through one brow in the tussle.
But when he landed a punch to my abdomen, I screamed and doubled over, so terrified I barely noticed the pain. However, I couldn’t help either of us if I gave into the fear and didn’t try to take Xavier down.
He scrambled to his feet and backed up, growing more afraid with every step that brought me closer to him, despite the fact that I was basically hobbling. It was probably the unbridled rage in my eyes, matched by the flashes he was seeing of my panther.
The knife was still clutched in his hand, and he waved it wildly in front of himself. At first, I wasn’t sure what the fuck he was doing. Then it dawned on me he’d had no fight training and any upper hand he’d gained with me had been sheer luck—not that luck had made the punch to my abdomen any less devastating.
No wonder he’s always surrounded by bodyguards.
They’d obviously heard his scream because they came barging in, but before they reached me, Xavier did the one thing that brought me to an immediate halt. He tossed the knife straight at me and with my legs in such precarious condition, I nearly fell forward, making it even easier for the knife to plunge into my stomach. But I caught my balance at the last second and wrapped my arms around myself so the weapon went deep into my forearm instead.
The pain was excruciating and I bit my lip to keep from crying out, but it still took two guards to subdue me and relieve me of the knife again. Then they made the stupid mistake of holding my biceps, leaving my hands dangling at my sides. Xavier must have seen my claws extend because he called out to the men. Not quick enough though. My razor sharp claws were already embedded in their thighs. One grunted and the other screamed like a little girl, making me smile. The screamer released my arm and I pulled out my claws, only to jab them straight into his chest.
The other guard swore and yanked my hand from his buddy’s chest and held them both behind my back. It wasn’t the ideal position or time to shift—considering my injuries—but my girl was sick of standing on the sidelines, and I was tired as fuck, so I let her take control. My bones popped, muscles tore, and my body basically dismantled and then put itself back together in wolf form. It had been a lot more painful than normal, but the adrenaline of the situation was still keeping us upright.
My panther ripped her paws from the bodyguard’s hands, which were too small to keep a hold of her anyway. Then she clamped her jaws around his neck and tore out the flesh, spraying blood everywhere before letting him drop into a heap on the ground.
Xavier had backed up and he practically killed me with his eyes as he wiped blood from his face. Then his gaze dropped to the ground and the knife laying by my back paw. My girl growled, low and menacing. I was surprised she hadn’t lunged at him yet, until I realized he was inches from the gun he’d been holding earlier.
“Fine,” he spat. “Keep it.” He snatched up the gun from the little table, and his lips curled into a sneer. “But don’t expect to win when you bring a knife to a gunfight.” Then he fired the weapon and the bullet whizzed by my panther’s ear, so close we heard it.
Okay, not completely incompetent at protecting himself.
Xavier edged along the wall toward the front door, the gun pointed at us the entire way. We watched him leave, aware that we could use time to heal and regroup. When he came back, we would have no choice but to be ready.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
NATHAN
“Nathan.”
I barely heard my name being called as I walked the crash site. My focus was on finding anything that would give us a clue as to who had Peyton and where they had taken her. She and Ephraim had taken the brunt of the damage, but the other car had plowed right into the driver’s side, banging up Tanner and Allison, leaving everyone unconscious.
It had been almost ten minutes after the crash before I even knew it had happened. When my text to Tanner asking if Peyton was home safe went unanswered, I’d known something was wrong. That was when Jase had come bursting into my office, naked and sporting his own barrage of cuts and bruises.
Along with Sabrina and Mason, he’d fought with a group of wolves who’d appeared from the woods and immediately attacked. While they were engaged with the other animals, a second car had careened into the area, screeching to a stop by the two totaled cars. They’d dragged Tanner out, then Peyton. No one knew anything about her condition, so the best I could do was reach through our mental link to at least find out if she was alive. The air had been sucked from my lungs as relief flooded me when my mind nudged hers. But she was unresponsive, likely unconscious, so I’d gone to work.
“Nathan!”
The urgency in Tanner’s voice caught my attention this time and I turned away from the sight of broken glass, a tree trunk, and a fuck-ton of blood. Right where Peyton had been sitting.
“What?” I growled, stomping toward the KBO ambulance and paramedics.
“I think I felt Peyton reaching out to me.”
“Excuse me?” I shook my head, sure that I’d misheard him.
“I can’t be sure, it was like a whisper, just the slightest brush of her mind against mine.”
“What the fuck?” I bellowed, making everyone except Tanner cringe, although he did wince. Probably because he had a killer headache from the accident. I didn’t care though. I wanted to know why the hell my mate would reach out to Tanner instead of me.
“Have you tried to connect with her?” His tone was calm, which only pricked my temper even more.
“Yes. She was unconscious. You think I’d still be here if I’d sensed she was dead?” My jaw was hard, barely able to get the words out.