Claimed by the scarred Alpha

ETIENNE

Kayden jerked backward, shock flashing across his face before his mouth opened to scream. Laurent crossed the room before the sound could fully escape, driving his fist into the man’s throat with enough force to choke the cry into a wet, strangled gasp.

I locked the door behind us and crossed to the sound system, turning the volume up until the music thundered through the room, swallowing every other sound.

Kayden clutched his throat, stumbling backward as his eyes darted between us.

"Who," he rasped, each word scraped raw, "who the fuck are you?"

"I’m not entirely sure why you’re surprised," Laurent replied, his voice almost conversational, "considering the kind of monster you actually are."

My attention shifted to the boy still huddled on the bed.

I crouched beside him, pulling the blanket higher around his small shoulders before gently turning his face away from Kayden and positioning myself between them.

"You’re all right now," I assured him, keeping my voice low and steady despite the fury burning through me. "You’re leaving this place today. I promise you that."

His lip trembled.

For a moment, he seemed too frightened to speak. Then something barely louder than a breath escaped him.

"He has a gun."

I looked up sharply.

Kayden had been inching backward the entire time, and I’d mistaken it for fear, the instinctive panic of a cornered animal. It wasn’t.

His hand had been moving steadily toward the drawer beside the nightstand, inch by inch, until his fingers were already curling around its edge.

"Cover your ears," I instructed the boy.

I drew my weapon and fired before Kayden could fully reach into the drawer.

The shot caught his hand squarely, shattering bone and tearing through his fingers. Blood sprayed across the floor as he shrieked, the sound high and raw with pain. Whatever he’d been reaching for slipped from his grasp and clattered uselessly onto the floor.

Laurent raised his own weapon.

"What a low blow," he remarked, his voice cold.

"Fuck this," Kayden snarled.

Then he moved.

The transformation wasn’t even complete before he hurled himself toward the window. His body crashed through the glass, sending shards exploding into the night as he disappeared through the broken frame and dropped toward the alley below.

Laurent lunged after him, already moving toward the window.

"That’s my fight."

I caught his arm before he could follow.

"Take care of things in here."

His gaze held mine for a fraction of a second. He understood.

Laurent released a reluctant breath, then nodded and turned back toward the boy on the bed.

I didn’t wait.

I shifted and launched myself through the broken window after Kayden.

The fall hurt less in wolf form, my body absorbing the landing better than a human frame ever could, and I hit the pavement running, Kayden’s scent already thinning as he sprinted down the alley toward some direction he clearly knew better than I did.

He had distance on me.

Rage narrowed everything else out of my vision, and I felt myself gaining ground with every stride, the burn in my legs meaning nothing against the sheer force of what I wanted to do to him.

He turned to fight when he realized I was closing the gap.

I was ready.

I swerved around his first swipe and clamped my jaws into his side, wrenching my head hard enough to feel something give beneath my teeth. He howled and twisted away, dark blood streaking through his fur where my teeth had torn into him.

I released him just long enough to reset.

He came at me again.

This time, I went for his throat.

My jaws snapped shut a fraction too late as he shifted back to human at the last possible instant, my attack grazing across his skin instead of closing around his neck. He scrambled backward, breathing hard, already gathering himself to shift again.

I didn’t give him the chance.

I lunged before the transformation could begin, driving him into the ground beneath my weight. My jaws found his lower spine, and I bit down.

The crack of bone was unmistakable.

His scream tore through the alley as I tightened my grip, shaking my head once, then again, until the resistance beneath my teeth gave way. His legs collapsed beneath him, suddenly useless. Whatever chance he’d had of shifting again to be a threat vanished with the damage I’d inflicted.

I released him and stepped back.

For a moment, I simply watched him.

The man who had once carried himself with such arrogance was staring up at me now, terror finally settling into his eyes, replacing the confidence he’d worn like armor.

I let myself enjoy the sight.

He had spent years making other people suffer.

Now, for once, he knew exactly what it felt like to be helpless.

He dragged himself toward the base of a tree, trying and failing to prop his ruined body upright.

"Is this about business?" he gasped. "Are you assassins? I can pay you. Whatever they’re paying, I’ll double it. Just stop. It hurts. Please, it hurts so badly."

I shifted back.

"I said the exact same thing once," I told him. "I’m sure of it. Do you remember?"

He squinted through the pain, trying to focus on my face, and I watched the moment recognition finally landed, his eyes going wide with a horror that had nothing to do with his shattered hand or ruined spine.

"You," he stammered. "You—"

"Yes. Me. That boy you assaulted," I said. "So many times. It’s been years, and you still haven’t stopped. Different boy tonight, but the same appetite. The same nothing behind your eyes when you do it."

"I’m weak," he said, his voice cracking. "I’m sorry for what I did to you. I never meant it. I swear to you, I never meant it."

I felt nothing shift in me at that. No forgiveness. No pity.

"Sadly," I told him, "your apology isn’t what I came here for."

His gaze flicked toward my eyes. They must have already begun changing again, the shift creeping through me as my vision sharpened and my body prepared to transform.

Despite one hand reduced to a bleeding stub and his entire lower body useless beneath him, he tried to drag himself away anyway.

His arms dragged weakly against the ground, fingernails scraping over concrete as some last, primitive instinct refused to accept what his body already understood.

I watched him for a moment.

"It’s your head."

I shifted fully.

Three strides were all it took to close the distance.

Kayden twisted around to face me, his expression finally stripped of every trace of arrogance. There was nothing left now but naked terror.

He screamed.

My jaws closed around his skull.

The sound stopped almost immediately.

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