Across The Line. Amy Lee Burgess

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ out the open door and flung into space, his spine crushed.

      “What does it feel like to fuck a murderer?” I wondered. Alannah’s face went black with absolute rage.

      She rushed me with a wild, banshee scream and I let her come close enough so I could grab her arm and flip her over my shoulder. It was all leverage. My damn instructor had been right.

      She hit the stone floor hard and for a moment didn’t move or make a sound.

      Fuck. I’d killed her. She’d cracked her skull open on the goddamn stone. No. Screw this. She could be Alpha. No problem. I didn’t want to kill anyone else. How did it feel to kill someone? Cold, dark. Like the end of the world was a bullet and I was the one who pulled the trigger.

      “You fucking bitch. You broke my back,” Alannah screamed into the dead silence. Her eyes were full of shock and malice. “I’m paralyzed and it’s all your fault.”

      “You’re not fucking paralyzed,” I yelled at her. I could see her arms and feet moving. “You wouldn’t be able to yell so damn loud if you were paralyzed. Get up, you baby. Unless you’re done? Are you done? Am I the next Alpha?”

      “The fucking pack votes, you don’t get to say who’s next,” she whined.

      “Fine. Then tell me I won the fight and get the fuck up. Or do you need help?” I extended my hand and she spat at it. She had to move her neck to do it. Paralyzed, my ass.

      “Fifteen second rule, Alannah. You lose even if you don’t say uncle,” Ryan said from the sidelines. He snatched the twenty from Sean’s fingers triumphantly.

      “Bugger off, Kelly.” Alannah rolled into a slumped sitting position and gingerly touched the back of her head. “I’m bleeding,” she announced and held up her red-smeared fingers.

      “What the hell do you want? A choir to sing you sleep with lullabies?” I grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. She tried to kick me in the shin, the bitch, so I socked her in the jaw.

      She flung herself at me and Colm waded in to grab her around the waist. He was laughing. Murphy pressed against my back, one hand on my shoulder, but didn’t hold me back, just let me know he was there. He was laughing too.

      “Where the hell did you learn those moves? They were frigging awesome.” His mouth was so close to my ear, I shivered.

      “After Nate Carver, I swore I’d never be defenseless in this form ever again,” I answered and his laughter stopped. “I took a self-defense course at the YMCA in Boston.”

      I turned around so I could look at him and the guilt on his face made me wince.

      “Came in handy, didn’t it?” I tried to make him smile, but he was having none of it.

      * * * *

      We left shortly after. People spilled out of the castle and down the steps to follow us to the car, most of them reaching out to touch me and tell me how bad ass I was. I wished they’d all drop dead.

      “Are you mad?” I asked after fifteen straight minutes of silence as we headed back to Dublin. The rain beat down in a steady rhythm—ticking against the roof and windshield until I wanted to scream. Late afternoon traffic clogged the road. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to driving on the wrong side.

      Murphy gave me a glance, as if inviting me to clarify.

      “That I took a self-defense class?” I said. “You haven’t said one word since I told you I did.”

      Murphy’s mouth thinned. “I’m angry you felt you had to. Angry I wasn’t there to beat the shit out of Nate Carver myself. Angry I didn’t listen when you insisted Bethany hadn’t hitched to an abortion clinic. I’m angry about a lot of things, Stanzie.”

      I scrunched down in the seat and tried to make myself as small as possible.

      “Did you really think for one minute I’d let your wolf face the pack alone today?” He flung me a look of betrayal. His fingers were so tight around the steering wheel they were bleached bone white.

      “No. Your wolf’s always been there for mine,” I whispered.

      “My wolf,” he ground out. “But not me. Not in this form. I’m never there for you when you need me, am I?”

      I swallowed and tasted blood. My jaw ached like a bitch.

      “Answer me,” he said with a snarl.

      “What am I supposed to say? You did what you thought was best. Your intentions are always—”

      “Don’t give me any crap about my intentions. You think I’m not there for you. You think I won’t be when you need me.” He slammed his palm into the steering wheel and I winced. I was petrified we’d crash.

      “Tell me what you think, Stanzie!” Murphy struck the wheel again.

      “I think you’d better calm down before you wreck us.” I dug my fingers into the upholstery of the seat.

      “Don’t be so fucking paranoid,” he suggested, but didn’t yell or slam the wheel again.

      “Look, all I did was take one class. One six-week class so if I ever got cornered again by someone bigger than me, I wouldn’t need my wolf to get me out of there.” A sob hitched in my chest. “Is that so bad?”

      “I never should have left you alone that day. You could’ve made those calls from the car with me. I’m so, so sorry, Stanzie.” He took a deep breath, fighting for control.

      “It’s not your fault,” I said. “I’m the one who ran off without a cell phone, without telling Jossie where I was going. And, anyway, it’s over. The bad guy’s dead. Didn’t you hear Alannah? My wolf ripped his throat out.”

      Murphy winced. “You handled yourself well today.”

      “Bullshit. I let her goad me into a fight.”

      “And she respects you a hell of lot more now than she ever did. You won’t hear her mouth flapping anymore.”

      “Oh joy.” I stared out at the wet Irish countryside. It was an alien landscape far from home.

      “We brawl in this pack,” Murphy told me. “I thought you knew that.”

      “I may be a member, but I don’t like settling disagreements with my fists. And I don’t like it when other people do it, either.”

      “There hasn’t been a good fight in this pack in months.” Murphy gave a small laugh. “You were in the last one too, as I recall.”

      “You weren’t there.” I could have slapped myself. His smile dried up and his mouth got small and tense.

      “That’s becoming a running theme with me, isn’t it?” he asked.

      “I only meant you didn’t see it. I wasn’t in the fight, I just brought an end to it. Paddy and Declan were the ones fighting.”

      I СКАЧАТЬ