As I look up at the last place I saw Pru, I see her fighting against Nicolai as he pulls her down the stairs with him. I take a quick survey of her body to check for any wounds or damage. Aside from looking exhausted and a little malnourished, she looks to be okay. Even though I’m on my knees with a gun pointed at the back of my head, I can’t help but find relief in seeing her breathing.
“Ryker!” I hear Remi scream from my left. She runs toward us, my brothers and father close on her heels.
“Oh good, the whole family is here,” Nicolai comments dryly when he sees them. “I was hoping for a family reunion. Very well, we’ll just have to take care of them all at once.”
Nicolai motions to one of the guards who raises his large gun at my family as Pruitt and I both struggle against the men holding us in place. Nicolai nods at the man, and I watch in horror as he pulls the trigger. I feel like I’m watching this all happen in slow motion.
The bullet flies through the air directly toward my sister, and I’m completely helpless to do anything about it. I’m filled with remorse, knowing I’m the reason Remi’s even here. If I’d listened to my gut and refused to allow my family to come they would all be safe, and now here I am holding my breath and watching her scared face, waiting for the moment it reaches her.
But it never does. She stands completely unscathed, but it’s Jax who lies bleeding from his chest on the ground in front of her. He had appeared in front of Remi just in time and had taken the bullet instead.
“Now look what you’ve done!” Nicolai shouts at Pru, who is staring wide-eyed at Jax. “You and your goddamn family have been fucking up my plans for years, and now you got my prized medical miracle shot. You couldn’t behave and hate the demon like the rest of us? You had to go make friends with him and now look—he’s probably going to die tonight just like your mate is.”
“No, stay away from him!” Pruitt cries when Nicolai passes her off to another guard who holds her tight against his chest. “If you hurt him, I will kill you! I swear to God, I will rip you to shreds!” she screams at the back of Nicolai’s head as he makes his way down the stairs to me.
As always, he walks with an air of arrogance around him. When he grins down at me, I see the sharp points of his own fangs, and his eyes shift into their wolf form. And when he takes the place of one of the guards and stands behind me, I expect to feel his claw wrap around my throat. Instead, I feel the hard metal of a gun barrel pressing into my back.
“Any last words for your little mate before I kill you?” he asks with a sneer.
I look at Pruitt, who is thrashing and fighting to break loose from the guard holding her in place. The whole time she keeps her eyes on me, never removing them from my face, and the look of pure panic and fear on hers breaks my heart.
“I love you,” I tell her through the link in our heads.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you bleed,” Nicolai growls at me before pressing the gun harder against me.
42
Pruitt
Everything I was trying to avoid when I left them is happening before my eyes, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. Remington is pressing her jacket into Jax’s chest to slow the bleeding from his gunshot wound. Elias, Ransom, and Ranger each have a gun pointed at them, and then there’s Ryker. Ryker is covered in bleeding bite and claw marks, and Nicolai stands behind him with a gun pressed to his back, fully intending to shoot him while I watch.
My heart is beating so fast and loud I can’t make out what Nicolai says to Ryker. Ryker doesn’t respond to Nicolai. Instead, I hear him in my head, telling me he loves me. Having his voice in my head is usually calming, but the way he says, “I love you” sounds like goodbye, and I refuse to accept that.
I refuse to sit back and watch as the family I’ve created for myself is killed. I refuse to be a pawn in Nicolai’s sick game.
“Don’t do it!” I shout as I kick and scream against the man holding me back. At one point, I’m able to break free of his hold for a second, but I only get a foot away when his arms wrap around my middle, and he hauls me back. My feet aren’t even touching the ground anymore as he holds me against his chest.
My wolf is going nuts in my head. She’s fighting and growling just as hard as I am to get free. I feel the same panic she does, knowing her mate is in grave danger. I feel the same amount of desperation as she does, watching Nicolai stand with a sickening grin on his face behind Ryker.
“You really should have listened when she told you to stay away,” Nicolai tells Ryker before the deafening sound of a gun going off echoes through the night.
My whole world stops as I watch Ryker’s body jerk as the bullet enters his back and exits through his chest. His
