Chapter 10
Brendan
A horrible day just got a whole lot worse.
When I was in the middle of making love to Felicity, nothing else mattered. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. Every rational thought seemed to flee from my mind and was replaced with her.
Only her.
All her.
We missed out on so very much, and we were apart for so long that somehow, the idea that we’ve reunited only to be torn apart again seems unbearably horrible, and I know instantly that this isn’t something I’ll allow to happen.
Allison and Aaron are standing in the doorway to the kitchen. They’re just inside now. Who knows how long they’ve been standing in the hallway waiting for us to finish? If they were clever, they would have killed us while we were having sex. Waiting was stupid. Now they have my full attention, and I’m going to do anything – anything – to save Felicity.
I don’t wait to hear a long explanation about how wronged Allison thinks she is. I don’t stop and pause long enough to hear Aaron tell Felicity how he wishes she was already dead. Nope. Instead, I just shift and throw myself toward them, barreling directly at Allison. I land on her before she even has time to shift, before she even has time to fire. For fuck’s sake, she probably still has the safety on the gun. Either that, or the gun doesn’t even work.
I land on her, knocking her unconscious. She won’t be shifting anytime soon. I growl, turning my attention to Aar
on. I’m not surprised to find that the tiger has already shifted by the time I hit his sister. She might be blinded by love, but he’s not. Aaron is the kind of guy who comes to fights because he enjoys them – not because he feels the need to seek revenge.
I don’t know what the two of them were thinking or how they dreamed up this little scheme, but it doesn’t matter. He’s going to die, and it’s going to happen now.
Today.
Right now.
The tiger throws himself at me and I growl as I fall backwards. I land on my back with him on top of me. He practically hisses at me. Then he opens his mouth, preparing to go for the throat.
Fuck that.
I use my hinders to push him up and away from me. He falls back and hits his head on one of the fridges. I realize right away that I’m going to be spending a lot of time fixing up my kitchen once this entire thing this over, but that doesn’t matter. The fridge topples, but then rights itself. Part of me hopes it’ll fall over and land on him, pinning him. That would make things so much simpler than they are.
As it is, I dive at him again. This time, I’m on top, and I land on him. We wrestle, rolling over and over. We hit the counters and we knock one of the freestanding tables over. I don’t see Felicity in my peripheral vision, but that’s a good thing. I want her staying out of this fight. She’s a fox, and I love her to bits, but this isn’t a fight she needs to be a part of.
Besides, this fight is about so much more than anger. It’s about so much more than the bad date. This fight is revenge for what he did to Felicity. He tracked her down, hunted her, and scared her. He made her feel afraid. Aaron made her feel stupid and foolish, and Felicity should never have to feel those things.
He swipes at me with his paw, and he gets a good hit in. I’m going to have a few scratches when this thing is over: maybe even some serious bruising. I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m seeing red, and this fight needs to end.
Now.
We tumble a few more times, hitting and batting at each other. I can scent his anger and his frustration. It wafts throughout the room, but I know that my own anger is mixed right in there with it.
Finally, I seem to get in control of myself and my body, and I toss the tiger to the center of the now-destroyed kitchen floor. We’re both covered in flour and baking spices. I think I might even have some frosting on me. I pin him to the floor with my paws. He’s on his back, and this is it. There’s no getting out of this one.
I hope Felicity’s not looking right now. She doesn’t need to see this guy die. Aaron’s eyes meet my own, and he looks at me with anger blazing. He wants to kill me, I realize, and even if I let him live, this thing isn’t going to be over. It’ll never be over, I realize, because the problem isn’t that I have Felicity. The problem is that Aaron doesn’t. Maybe his little dating app adventures had less to do with me and Allison and more to do with his own obsession. I don’t know.
I roar so loud that the building shakes, and then I do it.
I end it.
The tiger is finished.
I step back when I realize he’s no longer breathing, and I back up. Then I shift back to my human form and look around. Where is she? She has to be here.
“Felicity?” I try to cry out, but the word comes out hoarse. I manage to choke it out, but my throat hurts. My body hurts. Everything hurts. I’m more injured than I realized, apparently. I’m bleeding from just about everywhere, and a quick glance down reveals a criss-cross pattern of scratches and cuts.
I realize that even if I hadn’t killed Aaron, he might not have survived the fight. If he was half as injured as I am, he would have required serious medical care. That’s when I realize that I’m going to require serious medical care. I need to find Felicity, and then I need to go to the clinic.