The grizzly and Beast’s massive lion looked like they were trying to murder each other.
The twin roars of the Blackwing dragons rattled the mountains and shook the floor under her feet.
Kane’s Mountains were full of unrest.
And all of this was her fault.
Chapter Nine
The roar hadn’t been for Kiera. Beast had released the bellow he knew would call the other animals to him. It was a challenge to the D-Team, because right now, he needed to bleed something, and he would kill himself before he drew another drop from Kiera again. The claiming mark had been hard enough.
He needed the wolves, the panther, but most of all, he needed Logan’s grizzly. No one had ever been a match like that psychotic ex-mercenary. His animal was an even fight for Beast—broken and empty and only sated by blood.
His world felt like it was collapsing inward as he’d smashed through the front picture window in desperation to engage with the others.
Pregnant. Kiera was his dream girl, perfectly broken into the exact jagged shape that matched his rough edges, and now she was pregnant? God, how badly had he wanted cubs? How desperate had he become to have even one? He’d obsessed over his failures, and here was his match, his mate, his potential everything, so unlike any of his pride females. She was enough for him, more than enough, but a cub? Justin had the claim. The Tarian Pride had fucking dibs on that baby, and on Kiera, too.
His claiming mark stood for nothing because that little life in her belly would change into a lion someday.
He’d had hope for a minute! For one blinding moment, he’d convinced himself he could be okay because he wanted to devote his life to making sure Kiera was okay. He wanted to be stronger for her, and it had been so potently life-altering to feel like he had a purpose again.
He’d been a damn caged animal, released into the gorgeous wild, and then shoved into a dark cage and chains again. How could hope hurt this fucking badly?
Make me forget this pain!
Logan was ready for him, his eyes glowing silver as he charged.
A flash of relief washed through him in the instant before he and Logan connected. This was where he belonged—in violence. He could forget everything here. This was his reset. Pain blasted through him as Logan got a claw down his ribs, but Beast was already countering, sinking his teeth into Logan’s neck. The roaring and snarling of battle was deafening. No room for inconvenient thoughts of heartbreak here. Just survival.
Dustin was on his back, teeth in his hip, but he wasn’t dominant enough to make any real move, so Beast let him chew on him to keep his grip on Logan. Fucking wolf was annoying, though. Winter had both claws in him now, and her teeth pierced his back. Fuck! They were serious tonight.
Beast swung to the side and ducked out of Logan’s swatting range. Emma had her teeth sunk into the muscular hump on the brown bear’s back, completely locked onto him. The D-Team were trying to split them up and distract them, but it wouldn’t work. Not tonight. Logan shook her hard. Beast tried to get back to Logan, but Dustin blocked him, zigzagging back and forth, snarling, snapping his teeth. Fucking move!
A dragon roar shook the ground beneath his paws, and another followed immediately. Well, shhhit, he’d only meant to call the D-Team’s animals. He had to hurry. Rowan would let them brawl, but Kane would split them up, and Beast wasn’t ready to go back to hurting on the inside again yet.
He snarled and rounded on Winter, but he was bigger than her by three times. She backed off quick with a hiss. Smart panther.
Beast charged Logan again after he shook off Emma, and Dustin couldn’t stop him this time.
Someone was yelling now. Familiar. Pretty voice. A voice that distracted him and got him a claw to the belly. Logan would gut him if he wasn’t careful.
“Beast, stop!”
Fuck Logan, he could feel Beast’s claws, feel his teeth, feel his wrath. This was for the fuckers who took everything. Fucking lions. Why was he born to this godforsaken shifter animal? A lineage of killers and barbarians bred generation to generation to annihilate each other, just so they could put their dicks in females.
“Beast!” Beautiful. Beautiful shriek. It was a song he wanted to listen to, and he rounded on her.
She stood there, wrapped in his sheet, skin pale and so perfect, the swell of her little belly pushing against the linens, her hair wild in the wind, tears streaming down her cheeks. Over the scent of blood and anger, he could make out his own smell on her. So thoroughly claimed. But it didn’t count.
Now, the pain on his insides matched his outsides as Logan tackled him. Fucking bear stole the beauty from his line of sight. Too heavy. Claws down his back. Fuck you, Logan.
There was fire now. He could smell it, but he didn’t give a single shit what the dragons did because Logan had opened himself up, and they would be too late. The grizzly had given him just enough room to twist and reach his soft underbelly.
Now Winter was screaming, too. She’d Changed back too late to change his mind, though. The lion had him. The bloodlust had him.
He sank his teeth into Logan, but didn’t get his jaw locked before the massive bear was knocked off of him and into a tree. Furious, Beast righted himself and glared into the green, prehistoric eyes of the demon dragon himself, The Darkness.
Smoke billowed from his nostrils, and his face was so close, Beast could count his teeth behind his snarled, black-scaled lips. His head was the size of Beast’s trailer. Anger boiling in his veins, Beast opened his mouth and roared at the monster.
Two clicks of a fire starter sounded, and the scent of fire accelerant filled Beast’s senses. Kane reared his long neck back and spewed a line of fire into the air, illuminating the night. Ashes rained down on the trailer park.