She chokes back a sob and a laugh, the way she does when she knows we’re absolutely screwed and scared out of her mind, but somehow still believes we’ll make it anyway.
I change back to wolf. The moment I feel Emme settle onto my back I take one last leap of faith.
Together we bust through what remains of the ceiling. And hell, has kicking ass never felt so right.
I’m no longer swimming. I’m propelling myself to the surface like a shark ready to maul anything that gets in my way.
Emme’s little. That means she has little lungs. The pressure of moving this fast could burst them, ’cept drowning will kill her just as fast.
Hang in there, Em. Don’t you give up on me.
My hind legs pump hard, fighting against the instinct to slow and permit my wolf’s essence to finish healing me.
Emme’s hold loosens and her body starts to float away just as we break through the water.
I change, wrenching her into my arms.
The moon basks us under the best damn light I’ve ever seen and I’m holding the best girl I know.
“Yeah,” I holler. “We made it, baby!”
Emme coughs and swipes at her face several times. She blinks away the droplets coating her thick lashes and throws her arms around me.
The shore, it’s not too far away, and the docks are only a short swim away at best. I should start swimming, get her to land and safely back home.
Like a jackass, I don’t move. I tread water and just look at her, smiling till my face actually hurts.
“Bren,” she says, holding me close. “I can’t believe, I mean, goodness. I can’t believe we did it.”
“No, baby,” I say. “You did it.”
The smile she greets me with should be illegal. I maintain my position, taking her all in beneath the moonlight’s haunting glow.
It’s been a crappola of a night. Dawn isn’t far away, and neither are the docks. Still, I don’t move, stealing more time with just me and Emme.
Her angelic face grows sweeter as she adjusts her position. For the first time in my life, I know there’ll never be a woman this beautiful. I lean in, ready to kiss her.
Emme jerks her chin away, panic overtaking her in one vicious strike. Sparkles of blue and green flicker from the bottom of the lake, growing in size, and spreading in cahoots with that sense of evil.
“Bren! Una’s still alive.”
I roll my eyes. “Yup.”
Emme screams when I throw her up and away from me. With a large intake of air I howl, summoning the pack with my call.
A long tentacle grapples my waist. This time, I don’t let it tighten before I change.
My fangs tear through the limb pulling me under. Una, shrieks, her mutilated form, slinking away. I dive after her, needing her carcass floating over Tahoe more than I need my next breath.
I’m almost to the crazy witch when she spins like a top, belting me with the stumps of her remaining tentacles. She sucker-punches me in the chin, stunning me long enough to engulf me with her shredded extremities.
Una tightens her vice-like grip, squeezing out the measly amount of oxygen I have left. I curl into a ball and kick out, puncturing her injuries with my claws.
I fight, snapping my fangs and pummeling her with my limbs. But it takes me biting off most of her face for her to finally release me.
I jostle away from her, the lack of air circulating through my blood making me loopy and robbing me of my speed. With all the grace of a toddler, I reach the surface, spitting out water and hacking up Una chunks.
My head whips in the direction of the Watering Hole when the weres I summoned race toward the dock. From the entrance to the labyrinth, the weres from the apartment complex hustle in beast form, their paws kicking sand behind them. To the west, more weres approach in a boat. They’re coming. All the packmates out on patrol are answering my call.
But I don’t need them.
I need Emme.
Relief warms the chill from the lake and I just about collapse when the fish gal lifts Emme from the water and up to a large dock. The tide must have dragged Emme farther down and away from where I aimed.
Mouse girl tries to reach for Emme with those tiny-ass paws, but it’s the vamp with the twisted head who places Emme safely on the dock.
My lungs are on fire and my body is trying to realign at least three busted bones. I’m tired and famished. But I keep paddling with my tongue lolling out, happy as wolf who caught his prey and anxious to be with my girl.
Shit.
My girl?
Here I go again.
The closer I draw to Emme, the colder she appears.
No. Not cold.
Emme is pissed.
She snaps a large branch from a nearby tree with her force and levitates it into the air.
“What the hell?” I ask.
The weres on the dock and fish girl frantically point, yelling all at once. I turn slowly as it occurs to me, no one is actually looking at me.
And I swear, it’s like the theme from Jaws starts playing.
Una’s head pops to the surface like a fin and she charges. She can barely see with that one eye dangling from her skull. But she sees enough.
And so does Emme.
Like an arrow meeting a bullseye, Emme nails Una in her large head with the branch. The sharp tip splits her head open. She wobbles back and forth and sinks.
As the last of her vanishes beneath the water, she loses her fight against Tahoe.
Una detonates. What remains are pieces, swallowed whole by the lake.
“Oh,” I say, turning back to Emme. “I thought you were mad at me.”
Rain trickles across the water, dimming the rising sun and rushing the moon away. I hurry to the dock. Someone throws a blanket over Emme, but it’s not enough. She needs to get out of those wet clothes and wash leftover Una
