“Until he has no further use for you.”
Molly went very still, and I saw a shine to her eyes. When her jaw tightened, I knew she was holding in her aggravation. “Not every man spits a woman back out when they’re done with her,” she hissed. “But I know you never could relate.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I was a piece of shit back then. I might still be, but at least I’m trying to turn my life around.”
“Because of her, right?”
I threw my head back and rolled my eyes.
“She’s just a special little snowflake, isn’t she?” she continued. “What is it about her? This stupid, tiny person who doesn’t know when to shut up. She’s not special, Max. She never has been.”
“It’s a good thing I don’t give a shit about your opinion.”
“You’re talking to me like I couldn’t end you right now.”
“You’re talking to me like I’d let that happen.”
Molly slyly smirked. “Where is she, Max?”
I scoffed, because she acted like asking again would somehow change my tune. I shrugged again and said, “No clue.”
“You’re such a liar.”
“Oh no, you’re hurting my feelings.”
“Where is she, dammit?!”
“You think if I knew where Cora was that I’d tell you? I’d rather fucking die.”
She hopped off the car effortlessly and walked toward me. “You’re in luck, Maxwell, because that’s something we can easily arrange.”
I dropped the duffle bag and said, “Go for it, Molly. Kill me for protecting someone the same way Owen tried to protect her.”
Molly bit down on her bottom lip and clenched her jaw. “Tell me the truth, Max. Who did it? Who was the one who that killed my brother?”
The truth wasn’t an option. The hate she had for Cora was irrational, but telling her that Cora pulled the trigger that ended Owen’s life would add fuel and actual reasoning to her hatred. Molly would kill her. There was no doubt in my mind.
I crossed my arms, and as genuinely as I could, said, “I did.”
A gust of breath escaped her lips.
“The hall, where you held the dating auction, was attacked by a pack of werewolves. Owen was a part of that pack. He killed dozens of people, and until I shot him with my rifle, he would have killed Cora too.”
She shook with rage. “When are you going to stop lying to me…I can smell your lies from here. You’re drenched in them.”
“You wanted the truth.”
“And I didn’t get it. You’re so deceptive about everything except for this, and that’s how I know she’s the one who did it. I could already feel it in my bones, but you just confirmed it.”
“Who cares who fired the shot?”
“I do! He was my brother!” she screamed.
“And look what he did to you!” I yelled back just as loudly. “We found your mangled body hidden in the trunk of a car. He did that! Not Cora, not Melanie, not me. You wanna be pissed at someone, be pissed at the person who made you into what you are now! That’s all on Owen.”
“You leave my brother’s name out of your mouth!”
“Your brother turned me into a fucking beast. I think I have every right to namedrop his ass any time I feel the urge.”
“Someone with the same plight as him might show a little compassion.”
“I have all the empathy in the world about his condition, I really do, but my sympathy kind of drained after the second or third slaughter. You’d think after killing your entire family, he would have learned to tighten the chains.”
“Shut up!” she screamed. Her face went white, her eyes blood red, and she lunged at me with a ferocity and speed unlike anything I had encountered before. Her nails dug deep into my chest and she pinned me to the ground so quickly, I didn’t even have a moment to fight back.
Her red eyes were electric, wild, huge, and her mouth opened so wide that the corners of her lips were cracking. She looked fucking insane. Molly threw her head back with her fangs protruded from her mouth, and I instantly knew she was going for my neck. I tried to shove her off, but her nails clinged into me so tightly, it was like trying to pry a suction cup off a window.
I knew what I had to do.
As hard as it was to focus during a struggle, it was exactly what I did. I imagined my arms and my legs bending into the shape of a wolf’s, my ears lengthening, my torso shortening, my hair becoming a long coat. Within seconds, my body began to shift beneath Molly, and her grasp was forcibly shaken.
I became a werewolf once again, but it didn’t deter Molly. She jumped at me, ready for a fight, and I tossed her every time. She sprung onto my back, and I threw myself down to the concrete floor and rolled around with her, using the scattered tools on the floor and the imperfections in the pavement to scratch up her body and force her loose. But she held on and chomped down hard on my back. I howled in agony. A vampire’s bite isn’t like a human’s or even a werewolf’s. It felt like a dozen thick needles repeatedly stabbing me in my muscles. There was so much stinging and spreading pain that I was desperate to get her off, so I threw us both against the windshield of the parked vehicle. The broken glass in my flesh didn’t feel as bad as that bite.
The crash into the windshield sandwiched Molly between my body and the car, and the impact stilled her. I rolled off the hood and looked back to see she was jammed into a busted, circular hole in the glass, with her ass on the dashboard and her
