chapter 28

Bethany distracted him.

Caleb sensed his pack close by and in danger. This wasn’t good for either of them. The crazed man had hold of the woman’s hair again and was tugging at her like she was nothing more than a rag doll. He had to stay focused even with danger all around him. It was next to impossible.

The bear was obsessed with the she-wolf, convinced he needed her for his rebirth.

Seeing the rogue, he couldn’t help being grateful for his madness. If he hadn’t gone to find another female, it would have meant Caleb was too late to save his woman. Bethany would have drowned. He couldn’t even begin to stand it the thought of it.

“Do you really think you can overthrow me? I’m a fucking king. I’m better than all of you. No man, no weapon, no beast, none of you can stop me. None of you are worthy of stopping me. I am stronger than all of you.”

“Put the woman down,” Joe said.

“You consider yourself a bear of any real standing? You should be grateful to be alive right now.

You’re all going to regret getting in my way.” The bear snarled and Caleb watched as he started to turn. His claws, currently in the wolf female’s hair, extended. She tried to get away, pulling with all of her might, but the bear picked her up and threw her toward the lake. She landed with a splash.

He didn’t know if the woman could swim but for now, she was going to have to wait and just figure out how to stay above the water.

“Help!” Her desperate screams filled the air.

Great, she couldn’t swim.

He’d sensed her importance immediately, so he couldn’t let her die. Before he had a chance to even formulate a plan, the rogue bear shifted and fuck him, it was something monstrous. The bear had to be three times bigger than anything he’d ever seen.

“Did you have any great ideas?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, kill this motherfucker!” He didn’t think, charging at the bear, and he clearly took the son of a bitch by surprise as he fell back with a growl.

He needed to split his skin, allow his wolf to come barreling through. Taking the bear down should have given him time, only it didn’t, the bear threw him across the land, and he hit a tree, crashing to the ground.

Joe was next, shifting into his fur, allowing his bear to come out, but he was too slow.

They’d spent too long procrastinating about this.

Fuck. Double-fuck. Pouncing from his position, he attacked the bear, landing on his back, and he sank his teeth deep into his flesh.

Even the bear’s blood tasted bitter and acrid, as if he’d been burned from the inside out. There was nothing worth salvaging. He was pure evil. His entire body and twisted soul were disgusting, cruel, and just as he was about to slice across his neck, he was thrown again.

Caleb didn’t like being thrown. He certainly didn’t like feeling weak and against this rogue bastard, he was. He landed in the water and had to break the surface. The female was still struggling.

Rather than rush back out, seeing as Joe was quite happy to be thrown and punched, he wrapped his arms around the woman and started to tread toward land. She didn’t flail in his arms, and for that, he was thankful.

“I’ve got you,” he said.

She collapsed on the edge of the lake, panting. “Please, kill him.” “I will.”

Getting to his feet, he saw that Joe was out cold, and he gritted his teeth as the rogue threw him into the lake. Fuck.

The rogue laughed. “It’s time for him to be reborn. What do you think? You think he’s got it in him to do that?”

He hoped Joe woke up.

There weren’t a lot of choices for him. If he jumped in to save Joe, this woman’s life was pretty much over, or if he waited it out, Joe could drown. He didn’t like either option.

He didn’t go rushing to his friend.

As he stepped closer to the rogue, his enemy smiled. “I like you. We should be friends.”

“You took my woman.”

The rogue rolled his eyes. It was odd as he’d changed only his head into a human while the rest of his body was that of a bear. It was eerie.

“What made you this way?” he asked.

“You don’t like me?” The rogue laughed. “Of course, you don’t. No one likes power when it knocks them on their ass, and this, this is power. Not bad for someone who was once the lamest person in their pack.”

“You were weak?”

“I was the runt. I was the one who made everything. I was nothing more than a punching bag for them to beat the shit out of.”

He growled, the sound rumbling through his body. “I showed them. They all didn’t laugh when I showed them I’d poisoned them. I watched their bodies. The way they reacted.

Their stomachs all exploded, and I was the cause. They couldn’t make me do anything they wanted. The power.” He breathed in, closed his eyes. “That is heady. I got stronger.”

No, he didn’t get stronger. What happened was the bear went crazy. The man had killed his sleuth, and the bear had gone insane. He was a freak of nature.

“You’re going to die.”

He snorted. “You think I haven’t heard that before? I have. No one has been able to stop me.

They try and it’s all cute, but no one can stop me. When we’re done here, I’m going to fuck your mate and as I do, I’m going to rip her throat out.

I’m going to make her beg for you. I could let you live, tear you limb from limb, keep you alive, and fuck you up. I can do that, you know. Keep you alive. Make you beg for death.” He giggled.

This man had gone past mad.

Joe still hadn’t broken the surface.

“You’re weak,” the rogue said. “You think I don’t see what’s going on in that head of yours? I can. I know what you want to do.”

Gritting his teeth, he ran with speed and as he was midway through the air, he changed into his wolf. Landing on the bear, he sliced his hands down, but the bear had his arms in front of him.

He was like fucking metal.

Caleb took the impact as he was thrown once again, but he didn’t change back into his human form. He kept on going, attacking the bear, taking him by surprise with a slash here and there.

Each time, the bear came out of his trance and he was thrown around once again.

His wolf, each time he was thrown, got angrier. He’d never come against a rogue wolf, let alone a rogue shifter. Caleb had always been the strongest.

We can’t stop.

We’ve got to kill him.