Kill him.
Logan rolled them over again and pounded Beast’s jaw, caught the titan’s fist in his own and crushed his hand.
“Logan!” He could barely hear a woman’s voice through the red fog that was seeping through his mind.
Someone touched him now, pulled at him. He didn’t like touch. Logan yanked away so he could bash Troy’s face in. He wasn’t called in unless they’d taken innocent human life. He was justice. This asshole had killed. Troy wasn’t able to control his animal, so Logan would control it for him, six feet under.
“Logan, stop!”
This was a good fight. Troy was an even match. Surprising. His alpha said he was middle of the crew dominant, but he’d been wrong. Troy was strong and dominant as hell, unbreakable…almost. Troy’s face twisted up like the big cat that was inside of him, his teeth growing longer. White tiger or orange? One would show blood better. Kill him.
Troy was going to shift. Finally. Logan’s bear knew the drill, no shifting until the target did. It had to be a fair fight so he could keep his sanity longer.
“Beast, don’t Change!” someone screamed. Beautiful scream. She sounded scared as her claws scrabbled at his back.
Beast? No, this was Troy. Troy, Troy, Troy. Right? The man under him morphed. He changed to a scar-faced man with short blond hair and gold eyes. Lion eyes, not a tiger’s. Not Troy’s eyes.
“Logan, please.” Winter. His Winter. Not cold like winter, but warm. Warm Winter. Winter of Nowhere.
The bear was right there, scratching at his skin, but Logan had to stop him. Logan took a hit to the stomach and doubled over, flung himself off Beast. Not a threat to humans, not a target. Just another broken shifter like himself.
When he coughed hard, blood sprinkled the arena dirt under him. Beast had gotten in some good lung shots. He wasn’t in a jungle anymore, but the horse stables. Dustin was yelling at Beast, who was subdued now, looking as confused as Logan felt. Emma was heaving breath, pacing along the fence line. And Winter—beautiful Winter—was kneeling beside him, her hand gentle on his back as he coughed his lungs up.
He should be ashamed, but she didn’t berate him. She was chanting, “It’s okay. It’s okay,” offering him salvation with her words.
Her hand felt so good, petting him along his spine, with the grain of his fur if he was shifted right now. His head throbbed, stomach throbbed…dick throbbed. He wanted to bury himself in her again and feel better for a few minutes, but he remembered where he was and what he’d done. The marks from their first pairing were still deep and red on her arm.
Logan struggled up and away because the bear was too damn close to her. She wasn’t safe enough.
She wasn’t letting him away, though. She chased him all the way to the fence and cornered him, trapping him until he couldn’t escape, and then she wrapped her arms around his back as if he wasn’t a waste of space. As if he was worth something. Her lips brushed his skin over and over, right over his heart. What was she doing? It felt good, but she made no sense. She should be running. He could smell the fur of her animal, could smell her terror, yet here she was clinging to him.
“I want to be good enough,” he muttered hoarsely, mindlessly. Don’t do that to her. Don’t give her hope.
“You are.”
What she said made him angry. Logan struggled out of her grip and glared in shock at her. “You’ve lost your mind. Yell at me, Winter. Where is your anger?”
“Logan,” Emma murmured.
She and Dustin were approaching now, herding him, but he wasn’t some fucking sheep. “Stay back!”
Beast snarled from twenty yards away, but fuck it. Winter needed to hear this.
“I keep waiting for you to yell at me for what I did to you, Winter. You let me get away with something unforgiveable! I don’t fucking get it! It’s not okay. Nothing is okay, so stop telling me that. Don’t be that girl who doesn’t call people out on their shit. Don’t be weak.”
Winter looked so hurt. It was in the tears that rimmed her eyes. He hated himself.
“Maybe it takes a strong person to care about someone despite their monstrous faults,” she gritted out as she strode past him, bumping his shoulder hard.
“I’m calling the police!” one of the handlers called from where he and the others were crowded in a loose group. He had a phone up to his ear. Shit.
The others drifted past him, making their way to the parking lot.
“Way to go, douchebag,” Emma muttered.
Logan expected Dustin to make some smart remark as he meandered past rubbing his shoulder. He didn’t, though. He kept his eyes averted, neck exposed, and murmured, “Thanks for that back there.”
Logan huffed a breath and hooked his hands on his waist as he looked up at the blue sky above. He might have started off with good intentions on saving Dustin from Beast, but he’d ended it in psycho-land, flashing back to a kill. If they knew that, they would shun him from the D-Team, or whatever they were calling themselves. Something about that thought made his stomach hurt worse than the punches he’d taken to the gut.
He’d never cared about belonging before, so what was wrong with him now? Clearly, more desperation on his bear’s part to save himself.
Beast glared at him from where he leaned on the fence, his face all bloody and bruised to hell. Logan spat red in the dirt and muttered, “Sorry, man.” Then turned and made his way behind the others toward his busted-up truck.