Killer Crescent by Leigh Kelsey

24

No.

No, no, fucking no. He couldn’t be dead, his neck couldn’t have snapped, it couldn’t.

I choked on a whine with every rasping breath, my wolf form useless as I twisted to get free. I didn’t have hands with which to climb, didn’t have any way to get free except uselessly struggling like I was.

The cord of luminous magic around my middle that kept me tethered, stopping my neck from snapping … it was fraying apart.

I threw my head back and howled, instinct and grief tearing out of my vocal chords in a melancholy cry.

He couldn’t be dead. He was Edison fucking Bray, the golden boy of the Bray line, one of the most powerful witches in our generation, and the most smug, infuriating, cocky prick I’d ever met. He was sharp, and darkly funny, and dangerous, and—

He was my mate. And he was dead.

I howled louder, my heart ripping out of my chest, and—something else swelled in my chest, too, something as effortless as breathing, a power that answered the summons of my howl. This was nothing like the power I’d dragged out of myself to get the dial to turn; my ears didn’t bleed, and my head didn’t pound. This poured out of me like a waterfall, like a storm, and only did damage to everything it came into contact with outside me. If anything, I felt stronger. Clearer. Like I’d been given a glass of cool water after weeks of thirst.

I took a deep inhale, and exhaled power. It didn’t matter that the tether around my middle winked out, because my own magic held me aloft. I was a dud, a failure of a witch, but there was no denying the immense power that disintegrated the nooses, turned the hex on the rotary phone to dust, and lowered me gradually, carefully to the ground like I was freaking Supergirl.

I had half an inkling that I was subconsciously controlling the magic with my mind, but it felt like a benevolent god lifted me gently to the ground, placing me within reach of Edison.

I took a rushed step towards my broken mate, but I paused at the sight of my huge paw on the ground. It was four times the size my paw had been when I’d shifted before, it was silver—not black—and it was glowing.

And … and we weren’t anywhere near the full moon.

What the hell was happening? Had I used magic, somehow, to force a shift? Huh. It looked like I’d found the dual-blood cheat codes. I’d contemplate everything about that later.

Now, I hurried over to my mate and collapsed to the grassy floor with a loud thud that set the trees quivering. Oops. I was still getting used to being fucking enormous. Was I bigger than Hugh would be as a wolf? I didn’t know what I’d done with my magic, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Edison, limp and unconscious on the ground.

Unconscious—

Wait. I tilted my huge head, pricking my ears. Yes, there was a heartbeat. And the faint, jagged sounds of his breathing.

I slumped forward with relief, my bristling fur settling back into place down my spine. He might have had broken bones, but he was alive. There was hope. I just had to get him out of here and to a doctor. He’d be fine. He’d be okay.

He had to be.

I leaned closer to lay my head on his chest, the only way I could assure him he’d be alright, but I paused at the trickle of scent clinging to him. No, clinging to the noose, and to the ropes still twisted around his body.

As a regular wolf, the trace had been too faint for my nose to pick out, but with magic supersizing me and my senses, my nose twitched. Something was familiar about the scent. There was magic there, remnants of the hex, and the signature of a witch I didn’t recognise, but there was … family.

I reared back with the realisation, a deep rumble in my chest making the leaves quake around us. Yes, there was no doubt at all. Whoever had strung these hexed nooses in the trees shared blood with me.

My own family was trying to murder me. They’d almost succeeded three times now. But harming Edison … that was going too far.

I was going to hunt them down, peel their skin from their bodies, and crush their bones to ash.

While they were still alive.

And if Edison didn’t survive … worse. My wrath would be so. Much. Worse.

The world had better watch its fucking back. Revel “Graves” Falcon was on the warpath.

* * *

Thankyou for picking up Killer Crescent - I hope you loved Rebel and her men! There is wayyy more blood, gore, murder, and steam coming in book two, Blood Wolf. It releases in Late Autumn 2021.

You can let me know you love the series by leaving a review of this book, and preordering the next one.

Thanks for the support you’ve shown Rebel so far—it means the absolute world to know how you love her twisted, psycho heart of gold as much as I do <3

Leigh