Michael took her up the stairs fast. Behind her she heard thirty some odd wolves start to growl. Whether her pack mates realized it or not, Michael Kane had just ordered another fatality. Her mate’s face was firm and stoic.
“You’re teaching them how to behave.”
“Someone had to.”
Chapter Seven
Michael snuck out the back door of Cole’s former residence, hoping Scarlett was too distracted to notice. She was cooking when she should be resting, but since he’d gotten the impression that cooking for her was a Zen thing, he was doing his best not to pull out his inner caveman and order her to bed.
She’d made the rest of the pack, who had killed Joe—he was sure of it even without them telling him they did—a giant pot of gumbo, which they had devoured. For him, she whipped up something else. He wasn’t sure what but it smelled like meat.
When he’d asked where to go, Todd had pointed him in the right direction and had even offered to run the errand for him. That would have defeated the purpose. He was buying some wine to share with Scarlett and call him old fashioned, but he wanted to do it himself.
He couldn’t believe how hot it still was outside. Did the humidity or heat never let up in New Orleans? Wiping the sweat off his brow, he waited a moment for traffic to pass before crossing the street. Todd had said if he walked three more blocks and took a right he’d find a grocery store that sold wine.
You have a lot of energy considering you haven’t eaten today.
Michael laughed. Remembering his wolf’s earlier remark he couldn’t help but quip back. Now who sounds like my mother? But seriously, we’re going to eat, shortly.
You think Cole didn’t have any wine in the house?
I wanted to buy this for her.
His wolf rolled his eyes. It must be one of those human things.
Michael caught the scent in the air two seconds before his wolf growled. Shifters.
And not ones he knew.
That meant that they were from Zack’s camp. Michael’s eyes turned wolf and he crouched down to the ground letting his shifter senses take over without giving up his human form. It was the first lesson his father taught him. Know your enemy. If you didn’t it was the last mistake you made.
Considering his own sons had been trying to eliminate him for almost thirty-five years, it was a good bet that his father knew something about staying alive.
There were at least ten of them but he couldn’t see them. Moving fast, he saw the grocery store in the distance. It would have to serve as a safe haven until he could get some help. Three wolves were a piece of cake, even five he could handle, but ten was more than he was capable of defeating.
Without another thought, he took off running in the direction of the store. As a shifter, he was fastest in his wolf form, which he couldn’t shift into for fear of being spotted by people who shouldn’t know wolf-shifters existed, but he was still faster than a regular human on two feet as well.
Shift.
His wolf didn’t like the inactivity. He wanted in on the battle. As a human, Michael could manage most of the time to keep his fight impulses in check. Three more scents hit him as he got closer to the store.
Damn.
He swung around and did a quick head count. That was thirteen and they had him surrounded. He wasn’t getting into that store.
Raising an eyebrow, he inwardly shrugged. It looked as if despite his best efforts he was going to engage in a fight he could not win. Just a few days ago, he would have seen it as an honorable way out of a life spent caring for his friends and family.
Now all he could think about was his tiny mate alone in her kitchen waiting for him to come back. He’d promised to take care of her and more than anything else he wanted to love her too. Blinking, he reminded himself he’d had one morning and one night. The universe had blessed him that way. He’d gotten to hold her, to smell her warm aroma when he’d gone to sleep and opened his eyes. That was more than he’d expected to get.
They hadn’t mated, not sexually, and she might not have the compulsion to follow him to the next life right away. That was best. She deserved to live a long, full life. Gods knew he had gotten to have one.
“Which one of you is Zack?”
Unless Zack hadn’t bothered to show up himself. That wouldn’t surprise him. Men who used and abused women were cowards themselves. Otherwise, they wouldn’t pick on people smaller than themselves.
“I’m Zach.”
Well, Michael had to give him credit for coming. At least he was one step up from total slime. He was just the insect swimming around in the slime. Short for a man in his human form, he was only for five foot five inches tall, with brown hair and glasses.
Michael raised an eyebrow. It was unusual for a shifter to wear glasses. Maybe Zack had spent too much time partaking of the products given to him by Joe.
It didn’t matter. It was likely that Michael wouldn’t survive this encounter, but before he left this world he was taking Zack with him.
The thought dawned on him that maybe that wasn’t enough.
“Tell me something, Zach, which members of your crew was my mate forced to service in order to stay alive?”
Zack laughed, it was a cold hard sound devoid of any emotion. “Oh yes, I heard you were mated to one of our latent females. Fate must hate you. For the record, both Justin,”
Zack nodded to a shifter standing to the left of Michael. “And I have sampled your mate’s treats.”
So Justin was dead too. That was fine. Justin was going down first. With a growl, Michael shifted into his wolf form and leapt on Justin. The other shifter never had time to shift as Michael gave into every instinct he’d ever had and tore the man who dared to defile his mate to pieces.
The other wolves around him growled but nobody moved in time. In two bites Michael had Justin’s neck ripped from his body. He could taste his blood in his mouth and he had to admit it felt fantastic. Or at least it did to his wolf side. If the man side of Michael were in control, he wouldn’t be so happy with the sensation.
Growling, he dropped the now dead man and turned his attention to Zack. Three of the others shifted, however, before they could get in his way, he leapt onto Zack going straight for his jugular.
Mid-bite, Zack shifted into a tall grey and brown wolf. Growling, Zack foamed at the mouth. Michael lunged forward with only one thought in his mind: kill.
Zack was no pushover. For the first time since he’d arrived in New Orleans, Michael had a challenge. Zack didn’t let him advance without tearing back. Behind him, Michael was distantly aware that Todd, Barge and Seamus’ scents wafted over the group. He heard growls and wolves howling in the background.
It didn’t matter. Michael only had eyes for Zack. He’d had tough opponents before having grown up fighting Cullen and his father. It was good thing; it meant that he was never afraid of working hard to win.
His father always went for the kill, stopping only just before he ended Michael’s life.
In his mind’s eye, he could see it now. It was Kendrick’s favorite move and unless you had personally endured it, you never saw it coming.
Leaping forward, Michael went up on two feet, keeping his front two paws in the air.
With his claws extended, he swiped at Zack’s face as he pushed his whole body weight onto Zack’s face. The problem with the move was that you got bit on your stomach, which Michael had anticipated. It hurt and he refused to whimper as he focused on the next part of the fight. Kicking up with his back feet. he kept his front paw around Zack’s neck.