McNelly came at her again, catching the hand that held Gwen’s razor. She twisted Gwen’s arm, all that brute strength nearly tearing Gwen’s arm from the socket. And while she held her, Gwen desperately reaching out for something, anything, she could use as a weapon, another male came at her. He took the razor from her hand and held it in front of her face.
“Wanna know how this feels, bitch?” Gwen already knew. She’d gotten the damn thing from the person who’d used it on her during a street fight.
He raised the blade over her and Gwen felt something under her hand. A pair of scissors.
Gripping them tight, she swung them out as the razor came down toward her face. But she was falling, the grip on her other arm suddenly gone. She landed flat on her back and saw the big arms of Lock reaching out. But the razor was already in motion and the blade cut across his forearm.
Uh-oh was the last thing Gwen could think before Lock’s boar-rage snapped and unleashed on every wolf in that room.
Blayne pushed past the crowd standing at the doorway and flew down the steps, Sissy, Ronnie, and Sissy’s cousin right behind her. As she neared the last door down the hallway, she heard a roar that she now knew. Lock’s roar. She pushed past Mitch and Bren, yanking her arm out of Mitch’s grip when he tried to pull her back. But she ended up stopping at the doorway anyway as a human body spiraled across the room.
Lock lumbered after it, still in his human form, but for the first time since she’d met him she could see the hump between his shoulders. It had grown and was now a mass of muscle that only intensified his already incredible strength. And all that strength was slamming into the wolf trying to pick himself up off the floor.
Four-inch claws dragged across the wolf, tearing off flesh and hair and clothes. Then hands rammed into the wolf’s back, with an untold amount of pressure pushing against his ribs. The wolf screamed and sobbed, unable to fight off the boar-rage raining down on him, but he’d gone after the wrong girl, hadn’t he? He’d gone after Gwen.
Gwen flipped onto her hands and knees. The scissors she’d been about to use and had dropped had been picked up by McNelly. She was charging toward Lock’s back, hoping to protect the male Lock had pinned to the floor.
Fangs unleashing, Gwen charged McNelly, but Blayne rammed into McNelly first, shoving her into the opposite wall. The scissors skittered away and Gwen picked them up, letting out a breath. Another She-wolf stood next to her, but she knew this one.
“I hear sirens,” Dee-Ann said. “Someone must have panicked and called the cops.”
Gwen nodded.
“Sissy’s gonna grab her friend Dez. She’s a cop and here somewhere. She’ll control things as long as she can, but we need to—”
“I know.”
Dee-Ann leaned down a bit to get a better look at her. “You want me to handle Lock for ya, darlin’?”
Gwen didn’t even know why the She-wolf was asking that. “No.” She handed over the scissors. “But you deal with the wolves.”
Gwen moved up behind Lock. He was crouching on the wolf’s back, one claw dug into what was left of the back of the wolf’s skull, the other pawing his exposed and torn flesh. He was breathing hard, the air pounding out of him as he fought not to shift and finish the job. She could see his muscles rippling as he fought the change, fought that last step that would turn this into a moment of regret for him. He had too many of those, she knew. She wouldn’t let these McNelly fuckers hang him up with any more.
She pressed against his back, let him feel her weight on him before she pressed her mouth to his ear. “Let him go, Lock.”
His muscles rippled again, she felt them moving against her own. She kissed his ear, nuzzled the side of his head. “I just want you to take me home. Keep me safe.”
Slowly, the bear stood, stepping off the battered mass beneath him. One blood-covered hand reached out for her, claws still unleashed—and Gwen took it, gripped it tight. He pulled her into his side, his arm tight around her.
“Gwenie? Maybe you should—”
At the sound of Mitch’s worried voice, her big brother still trying to protect her, Lock’s head snapped around, his gaze latching on to the crowd of concerned shifters blocking the doorway. He roared and Mitch shoved Bren forward. “Take him!”
“You bastard!” Bren shouted at his brother.
Lock roared again and everyone took off running, bolting up the hallway and back to the club. Once they were gone, Lock’s arms went tight around Gwen and he lifted her up, lumbering out after the retreating shifters and carrying her home.
CHAPTER 26
Lock snapped awake and found himself naked in bed. Normally nothing to get worried over except he had no idea how he got there.
“You’re awake. Good.”
He looked over at the doorway and Gwen stood there wearing one of his T-shirts, her arms crossed over her chest.
Sitting up slowly, he studied her close until he nearly begged, “Please tell me I didn’t hurt you.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
“But I scared you?”
“No.”
“Not even a little?”
Gwen shook her head. “No.”
“Oh.”
“You did terrify everyone else, though.”
Lock’s shoulders dropped a bit but he couldn’t help it. “Oh.”
“Do you even remember what happened?”
Sort of. Or maybe not. It was all a jumble right now, which only meant he’d really lost it. Boar-rage lost it.
“I don’t—” Lock shrugged. “Bits and pieces.”
“Well, no one’s dead. If that’s got you worried.”
It did, and he let out a relieved breath.
“Although at least one will need massive reconstructive surgery.”
Shit.
“Lock—”
“It’s all right.” He stretched his shoulders out, the flesh between his blades sore, which meant his grizzly hump had grown while he was still human. Rare and not good. “Really. It’s all right. And I can understand if you’re not comfortable staying here tonight.” He looked up at her. “Or if you want some space or…if you…if you…why are you getting naked?”
Not that he minded, but still. Shouldn’t she be trying to ease her way out the door or keeping a healthy distance between them instead of pulling off the T-shirt and crawling onto the bed?
“Why am I getting naked? Did you really just ask me that?”
“I did, but only because—” Lock closed his eyes, his entire body trembling as Gwen’s skin brushed against his own. So much soft skin on such a lethal feline was making him crazy. He swallowed and tried again. “I’d understand if you feel…uh…” Oh, God. She’s purring. “A little scared about what happened earlier.”
“I don’t feel scared. I’m actually kind of turned on.” She licked his ear with the tip of her tongue. “Does that make me a kinky girl?”
“No, no. Of course not. It’s just—” His eyes crossed as she dragged her nails across the mass of sore and ultrasensitive muscles between his shoulder blades.
“It’s just what, Lock?” she purred into his ear. “Because if there’s one thing we both know, baby, is that the one person who was safe in that room was me. I know you’ll never hurt me. I know you’ll always protect me. And I know I’ll never stop loving you.”
Did she know that was all he needed to hear? All he needed to know?
Wanting to show her, he turned fast, his hands digging into Gwen’s hair and tilting her head back before he ruthlessly took her mouth with his own.
No one’s hands had ever felt so good on her before. The way Lock stroked her, petted her, his hands gentle but firm.