Chapter 169


    “If you think a gun is going to slow me down, then you clearly have no idea who you’re dealing with,” I


    say, even daring to take a step forward. “So what is this? You going to mug me or something? Buddy,


    you picked the wrong man to follow into a dark alley”


    I start forward, letting my ws slip down, but keeping my hands concealed at my side so they’re


    obscured by the darkness because I still don’t know if I’m dealing with a human or a wolf.


    I’ve maybe taken four steps when they sho ot, putting a couple of bullets into my chest. It hurts like hel


    l, yeah, but it’s not going to ki ll me, and right now, the only thing it’s doing is piss ing me off.


    However, I take another few steps, and then I stumble as the pain hits me, and I smell the sickly acidic


    scent of my flesh melting and burning like it’s been exposed to acid.


    Fu c k


    The bullets are silver.


    Worse, they’re coated in wolfsbane.


    N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive ? material.


    I’ve got maybe seconds before my wolf starts forcing the change to heal me-the only way I’m going to


    survive this


    I reach down and p the emergency alert on my smartwatch so William and the rest of my guys will


    get the SOS, then turn and start staggering toward the parking lot.


    I barely get three steps when I’m on my knees, and my muscles are shifting, bones snapping and


    rearranging, but I fight it, knowing if I sumb to the change here alone with a chest full of silver


    wolfsbane bullets, I’ll be vulnerable.


    The bas tard who shot me strolls over and grabs a handful of my hair, wrenching my head back


    I catch a glimpse of half his face, but don’t recognize him, giving me no clue who might have sent him,


    what pack he might be


    from.


    He smiles down at me cruelly.


    “This is what happens when you gain too much power, Alpha Rathborn. Someone will always be


    waiting in the shadows to steal it


    from you!


    So that’s what this was about?


    This b stard thinks he can take on the power of three Alphas contained within me?


    Despite the pain, I grin up at him.


    “You just signed your own death warrant.”


    He looks taken aback for a second.


    But a second is all he gets, because there’s a growl in the darkness, and then a huge wolfes


    streaking out of the shadows, leaping up and hitting the guy straight in the chest, taking him to the


    ground.


    Two other wolves follow, and then the guy is screaming as he’s being torn to pieces.


    Hands grab at me, and William’s worried face is thest thing I see before the pain gets too much and


    everything goes woozy as shift violently, the silver bullets and wolfsbane pumping through my system


    making it more painful than it’s ever been before.


    I pass out to the sound of my enemy’sst gurgling scream before his life is snatched from him.