Chasing The Night: Big Easy Shifters: Book Three, Knox, Abby [book series to read .TXT] 📗

registered that the black wolf was injured, the snarling creature began to shift back to its human form. Fur melted into the shape of a naked human female, blood dripping from the side of her face. Chastity fought with all her might to get free, her instincts getting close to overwhelming her magical restraints. She had to help Pen right away.

Despite her injury, Pen shouted at the white wolf. “I’m okay, Bobby! Let go!”

It became clear that Pen was trying to get Bobby to let go of Manny before he killed the man, but Pen could not overpower him in her weakened state.

The white wolf seemed to instinctively jerk Manny’s neck in the grip of his jaw, as a wolf does with its prey, and at that moment everyone in the room heard the snap. Manny’s body went limp. He was dead.

The gag in Chastity’s mouth muffled her scream of terror, revulsion, shock, and relief. There were so many heightened emotions flooding her she couldn’t choose one and began to feel such a surge of adrenaline she thought she might pass out. If only she could be rid of this godforsaken voodoo curse keeping her pinned to the chair. She strained, but it was a little too much force. Her body was sent flying out of the chair and collapsing onto the floor. She was free.

Holy shit, how did I get free? Quickly, she removed the gag from her mouth and moved toward Gavin, but in the next moment, all the hairs on her body stood on end. All of Chastity’s feline instincts inside told her not to move another muscle. Don’t go near them.

She looked carefully, and in the dark, she could see that the white wolf’s fangs were bared, and he was emitting a steady growl of warning. He wasn’t staring at her, however. He was staring down at Pen and the blond wolf that was Gavin, who was standing between her and the white wolf.

Gavin must have sprung free from his restraints at the same time that Chastity had, and was bounding toward the dead body on the floor. The two wolves were in a standoff.

Pen tried to talk some sense into her pack mates. “You don’t have to do this, boys. Gavin, I know you wanted to kill him yourself for tying up your girl and threatening her, but what’s done is done. Bobby, get a hold of yourself. I know you smell a cat in here, but we’re just going to all have to get used to it. We’re all one clan now, like it or not. And now we have a dead body to deal with.”

The white wolf backed away from its prey and shifted. The pale fur seemed to dissipate like a mist, revealing the man Chastity recognized as Ash’s best man, Bobby.

Bobby, now in human form, stood over Manny’s lifeless body. Manny’s blood was all over his face and down his chest.

The blond wolf circled and sat at Chastity’s feet. She reached down and buried her hands in the soft fur at its neck.

“Baby?”

It was Pen who had spoken. All of Chastity’s instincts now compelled her to go and help Pen cover herself. But the majestic red-haired woman before her didn’t seem all that self-conscious. Nor should she, Chastity thought, she had the countenance and stature of the goddess Athena, despite a serious wound that continued to drip blood onto the floor.

Pen was staring at Bobby in concern. “Bobby, are you okay?”

But instead of answering her, Bobby turned and ran away.

Chastity was flabbergasted. Why would a pack mate turn and run away like that, knowing one of his best friends was injured? Panthers had their issues, but they would never, ever abandon a pack mate.

Chastity looked down as she felt something change in the temperature of the wolf at her feet. She lifted her hand, and the fur began to darken toward brown. The blond wolf’s limbs lengthened and bulged until the strange half-canine/half-human form stood erect before finally assuming his human form in a surge of glittering mist before her eyes.

Gavin grabbed her up in his arms and drove a forceful, searing kiss against her mouth. They were safe, and she felt all of Gavin’s pain and regret at putting her in danger. He didn’t need to say it; she felt it in the way he possessed her mouth, in the grasping of his large hands that squeezed her against him so tight she gasped for breath.

“It’s not your fault,” she whispered.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, barely holding back a sob.

“Gavin, we have to get Pen to the hospital,” Chastity said, cupping his face as if that would help him focus on the matter at hand.

“I’ll be fine,” Pen said. “We heal quickly.”

She watched the towering female pull one of the larger men’s T-shirts from the rack and pull it on over her head just as casually as if she were in her own home and had not just witnessed a killing of a fellow wolf shifter.

If it had been a panther killed in battle, even in self-defense, the entire clan would have to gather and plan. There would be a massive funeral, a traditional procession with a brass band and a second line that would stop traffic for miles, and a public burial followed by a ritual hunting in which everyone would sacrifice their kill in honor of the dead. The wolves, it seemed, merely had to “deal with a dead body.”

“What happens now?” Chastity asked weakly, her knees giving out. She would have fallen flat on the floor had Gavin not been there.

Gavin replied, “We call Lucy and she helps us burn the body, and she casts a spell to disappear him.”

Chastity stiffened. “Seems over the top to use magic even after burning the man’s body.”

Pen spoke as she dabbed at the wound in her head with a towel. “The bleeding’s stopped. Anyway, we have to completely disappear him from memory. It’ll be like he never existed. No police,