Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross

Chapter 29

~NICO~

“Doyou know how far ahead the warehouse is?” My voice had gone gravel-deep, nothing but pure wolf.

“One point three miles,” said Gareth. “Pull over. They’ll already know we’re here. Let’s go on foot through the woods so we can circle to the back.”

Perfectly fine with that, I pulled over. I needed to shift anyway. There was no holding back the full beast now. He would have none of my chains as we stalked to the lair where they’d taken our mate.

“Is there another exit?” asked Mateo.

“No. They’d have to carry her on foot, which would be risky. We’d catch up to them before they got far.”

“Me and Nico would anyway,” he clarified with a snort.

“No,” said Henry, who rarely spoke. “We’d catch up faster than you, most likely.”

I remembered for a split second the moonwalk near the river earlier tonight when he blurred past us. I wondered what grims truly were and what they could do. But now wasn’t the time. I didn’t give a shit as long as they didn’t get in the way. And so far, all they’d been was completely honest and helpful so I wasn’t second guessing them.

I parked and pulled the emergency break. As we hopped out, I started stripping.

“Hey.” Mateo had stripped off his shirt and tossed it on the hood and was shoving off his boots. “Don’t kill anyone until we find out exactly what’s going on.”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? You’re trying to be the voice of reason? What if they had Evie?”

I got nothing but a spine-chilling growl in response.

“That’s what I thought.” I shoved off my jeans and boxer briefs, tossing them on the front seat. “Don’t worry. I’m only going to fuck him up a little bit at first. Unless they did something to Violet.” I popped my neck, getting ready for the shift. “Then he’s a dead man.”

Another growl in response as Mateo shifted. Bones broke and realigned until he was towering behind me.

I honestly didn’t believe Shane would harm Violet. He had to know what she meant to me. And even if she hadn’t been my mate, he’d never been violent toward another woman. He’d beat the shit out of plenty of guys in bars for fun, but he didn’t crave hurting women. At least, he hadn’t when we’d been best friends. Then again, I’d never seen that menacing glare that he’d directed at me in the Cauldron. He blamed me for leaving. How far would he go to make me pay for it?

With a flare of rage, I shifted, the painful rip through my skin a cathartic release that I craved as much as my next breath. My awareness of every sight and sound and smell heightened triple-fold. I huffed a misty breath into the cold night air, glancing down at the three grims watching us.

While Henry and Gareth observed all of this with perfect poise, Sean took a decided step backward, eyes widening. I almost smiled. He was lucky he wasn’t my prey. The wolf sometimes latched onto whatever nearby creature showed fear. But tonight, my target was very clear, even with my wolf driving my instincts.

“Follow me,” said Gareth, turning and blurring into the woods.

What the fuck?They could trace almost as fast as vampires?

Then I remembered how fast Henry moved when we chased Shane on the streets. He was obviously holding back even then. He could’ve caught Shane.

I turned my head toward him and bared my teeth, releasing an eerie growl.

What did that fucker do?

He smiled, tilting his head. “I can’t trace in front of humans. It’s part of our code.”

Gareth reappeared in a blink. “What the fuck are y’all waiting on?”

Right. I took off through the woods with Alpha at my side, my cousin’s fierce wolf shining from his golden eyes. Our size and speed allowed us to move as fast as the tracing grims.

Tracing. Unbelievable. I had no idea they could move like vampires. What else could they do? I had a feeling I was going to find out.

Find our woman.

My wolf was present in both mind and body.

We skirted the property, but I could hear the werewolves off to our right about a half a mile, moving around and barking orders. They were stalking away from the warehouse to the perimeter of the woods to try to stop us before we could get there. Once they saw us, they’d be shifting, too, and it would be a nasty, all-out brawl, which is exactly what I wanted right now.

My craving for violence reared up, needing to release the rage that had rooted itself in my soul the second I heard that Violet was gone. We maneuvered to the northern perimeter on the exact opposite side of the gravel road that led into the property.

Henry signaled for me to come alongside him, completely unaffected by my monstrous form, and then whispered to me, “You and Mateo go straight in from this side. We’ll go another quarter mile that way and come in from behind and sneak into the warehouse to get Violet. They won’t expect grims, and they won’t detect us.”

I glanced at him, unable to speak in this form, but I was wondering how the werewolves couldn’t detect them.

His dark eyes glinted under the half-moon. “We don’t smell like werewolves. Or vampires. But we can move as fast as them.”

And apparently, they were also telepathic and could read minds. With a nod, I crept straight toward the edge of the woods with Alpha right at my side, our beasts larger than the average werewolves.

All werewolves were gargantuan beasts, but the alpha blood that ran through both our wolves made us bigger than the norm. And stronger. Shane would know this, him being the only alpha that I knew of amongst his pack now that I was gone.

Alpha’s growl rumbled like a tangible ripple in the woods, shivering into the wind, his electric yellow eyes mere slits as he spotted the men at the edge. But they hadn’t shifted. They were still in human form. What were they playing at? Didn’t they understand the threat at their door?

Fuckingcowards!

I agreed with my wolf.

Alpha and I shared a look of understanding. He seemed to feel the same way my wolf did, curling his lip at the men. I huffed out an angry breath before stalking forward on all fours.

As we exited the edge of the woods, I reared up onto my hind legs and walked forward, knowing my nearly ten-foot-tall stance would intimidate the fuck out of them. There were two men, unarmed, standing there and walking backward with hands up.

What the fuck were they doing? They weren’t shifting, and it pissed me off.

Kill them anyway.

Alpha’s rumbling growl reverberated with my own. I fell back to all fours and moved slowly forward, glaring at their puny human forms. Even as my wolf was ready to rake a claw out and slice them to ribbons, it hit me with blunt force. The fact that they hadn’t shifted was their surrender.

A human was no match for a werewolf. They knew it. And Shane also knew that I wouldn’t kill a man unless it was warranted. Right now, I wasn’t quite sure if it was warranted.

Of course, this could be some sort of stalling maneuver, to keep me placated while they tried to sneak Violet out another way.

Slit their throats. Gut them good.

It was hard to think clearly with him in my head. I almost listened to him.

With the enraging thought that they might be trying to escape with Violet out the back, I leaped over the men and charged toward the building. A few other werewolves sprinted out of my way when I reached the double garage and gouged through the corrugated steel to get inside. Alpha was right there with me, clawing and ripping away the metal like it was paper.

When I stormed inside, I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Violet stood next to Shane, holding onto his arm and wearing a Blood Moon jacket. His hand was apparently on her back. Something primal clicked inside me that wasn’t human. It was a lashing, red fury at my senses, roaring at this other man trying to take my mate.

Fucking kill him.

The reasoning man inside me was shoved behind bars as the beast took full control and charged toward his goal and target. To eliminate the competitor. To kill Shane.

Yes.

~VIOLET~

“Oh, fuuuck.”At the sound of huffing beasts outside the garage doors, I grabbed Shane’s arm to keep him near me so I could protect him. If I could calm Nico down long enough to explain what was going on before he got to him, then we’d be fine. Right?

Then the screeching rip of metal gave way to the deafening snarl of two seriously pissed-off werewolves leaping through the holes they’d created in the building. I knew which one was Nico right away, his electric green eyes so familiar.

I swallowed but had no saliva left in my mouth as I stared at Nico in werewolf form. There were no words to describe the sheer power and aggression pumping off his massive body, made of nothing but muscle and fur and sharp fucking teeth.

“My God,” I whispered.

I had no idea what he’d look like. I’d seen plenty of pictures in books and even videos on the SuperNet. But nothing had prepared me for seeing my boyfriend in beast form. Breathtaking didn’t quite cover it.

“Don’t shift!” shouted Shane as Rhett and some other guy were heaving breaths, canines extended.

But it didn’t matter. Nico’s beast narrowed his eyes on Shane, and I realized in that split second what he was seeing. Me, his woman, clinging to another alpha male. I suddenly released Shane and took a step forward. But it was too late.

Nico charged on all fours across the concrete slab, his finger-sized claws scratching and clacking on the surface as he came at full gallop.

“No!” I screamed, running forward. “Wait!”

He shoved me aside with the back of his paw, which sent me sliding across the floor till the sofa stopped me.

“Ow,” I hissed in pain. My hip would be bruised from that.

Shane shifted in a millisecond, the only way he could defend himself since it was obvious Nico planned to gut him no matter what.

“Are you okay?” Ty was there, helping me up.

I looked down at my scraped knee, growing angrier by the second.

Nico and Shane were going at each other, teeth snapping, claws slicing, bodies colliding and rolling across the warehouse to bang into the side of the building. Alpha had corralled the rest of the men into one corner, none of whom had shifted.

“These motherfuckers.” I huffed out an angry breath and hobbled toward the two idiots tearing each other to pieces.

“Uh, Violet, that might not be a good idea,” said Ty behind me.

“They wanna play rough? Fucking fine.”

I might be tired, but the fury in my blood snapped my magic to attention with blinding speed. When those two idiots tumbled apart, I reached out with my telekinesis and lifted the old car on blocks and tossed it through the air to slide into Nico, shoving and pinning him to the wall. He snuffed and looked down at the car in wolfie confusion.

Shane was getting ready to leap over the car, so I latched onto the wall-sized toolbox and yanked it from the wall, bolts and all, then waved my hand, sending it to knock into Shane’s chest and shove him to the opposite wall. The toolbox creaked and fell onto its side, partly blocking Shane.

I limped forward and pointed at both of them. “Not another fucking move, you jackasses.”

Total silence in the room except for the heaving pants of Nico and Shane.

When Nico’s gaze swept past me to Shane, he started to growl. I lobbed a sphere of TK to knock his head back against the warehouse wall, which echoed with a loud clang. Hard-ass head, that man.

“I said, stop it, Nico.”

He shook his head as I marched, hobbled rather, over to him in the most dignified way possible with my knee scratched up and bleeding.

“I have had a seriously shitty night, and I need you to listen to me.”

For the first time since he’d ripped his way into the warehouse and charged Shane, he looked at me. His ears fell as he snuffed the air, his gaze sweeping to my leg. No doubt taking in the injuries he caused me when he bulldozed his way in here.

Hands on my hips, I sighed and stared up at him. I’d never imagined seeing a remorseful werewolf, but I was looking at one.

“Stop this, Nico. I’m safe. Just shift back so we can talk.”

I wondered if he even understood me, because his gaze kept flitting beyond me to Shane, then to Alpha and the others in the corner, then to…wait, was that Henry and Sean? And who was that other guy? Wait a second. A hazy memory tried to emerge, but I’d deal with that later.

“Nico, please.” I stepped closer and dropped my voice to a soothing tone rather than the biting one I was using at first. “Shift back, baby. I’m fine.”

After a few seconds more, he tilted his head down, chin close to his chest, and shifted back. It took all of three seconds, but the snapping noise of bones breaking and realigning was not pretty.

I winced at the pain evident in his expression before he smoothed it away when he looked at me. He went to push the car back, but probably should’ve done that before he shifted. I lifted a hand to move it with my TK, struggling now that I was nearly zapped out with my magic, but then the car lifted in the air and fell back three feet off to the side.

When I turned my head over my shoulder, the three grims were watching casually. I wasn’t sure which one used TK to move the car, but for a second I was stunned stupid. I had no idea grims had that level of telekinetic power. Then I felt strong hands on my shoulders.

Nico skated his hands down my waist, noticed the gash in my dress. He cupped my face, staring angrily at the cut near my hairline. His hands were shaking as he took inventory of my entire body, and I was sure he was on the verge of wanting to shift back.

“Before you go all nuts again, let me say that my injuries were accidental. And my knee is scratched because of you.”

Well, that took some wind out of his sails. His anger morphed into pain. I felt a twinge of guilt, but I needed to shift his emotions away from rage as quickly as possible. He jerked me into his arms, crushing me to his body. His naked body.

If we didn’t have an audience and I wasn’t beat to hell, I’d be able to appreciate it a bit more.

“Are you okay?” he mumbled into my hair, voice rusty with emotion.

“Yes. I’m completely fine.” Except for the bumps and bruises these brutes had put on me, that was.

“What did they do to you?”

Fuck, he was back to ragey again.

“Nothing that I didn’t want to give.”

He flinched, his arms tightening around me.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Nico. Not sex or anything. It was the tattoos.” I pushed back enough to press my hand over his heart where the spelled tattoo of the Celtic tree was. “They want the same thing you want.” I smoothed my palm in a circle over the tattoo, over his heart. “Peace.”

He swallowed hard, letting me ease out of his embrace a little. Like maybe six inches. I took hold of his hand.

“Come on. You need to have a civil conversation with Shane. If possible.”

When I turned, everyone was watching our exchange. Including a very nude Mateo and Shane. Not that I didn’t enjoy the show because, holy wow, were they beautiful male specimens, but it was a little jarring to say the least.

“Whoa. Can y’all—?”

Suddenly, Nico spun me back around and pressed my head to his chest before barking, “Go put some fucking pants on.”

“With what?” asked Mateo, or Alpha rather, that smug lilt in his voice.

“Here,” came the voice of the teenager I’d gotten to know in the past few hours, the one who’d haunted my man for far too long.

“Ty?” whispered Nico, staring over my shoulder, his heart so evidently in his throat.

Hearing the rasp of denim against skin behind me, I took Nico’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go talk.”

Nico swallowed hard, glancing back down at me, then he laced our fingers and tugged me close, leading the way.