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that pack that turned me into this goddamn freak. And you, well, I could give a shit about your pelt at this point so long as I can still take his.”

The shot came so unexpectedly and so loud that Storm hadn’t even had a chance to jump out of the way like he’d done before. His body flew backward, like it was dead weight or something. He remained awake and aware, but he couldn’t move after landing on the hard concrete.

He heard John’s frantic screaming through the gag as both men gathered him up and put him in a truck, the tires squealing as they drove away with Storm’s mate.

* * * *

“We should’ve taken him, too. Could’ve gotten the pelt and sold it for more money. Do you have any idea how much a cougar pelt goes for?”

Hunted and on the Run

103

Tatum was getting really sick of the guy’s bitching, but he had to put up with it. Tatum still needed someone for backup, and there was no way he was driving this truck and leaving that werewolf back there unattended.

“We have one. Don’t be greedy. That kills more hunters than you think.” It also didn’t matter anyway because Tatum had Robert’s pelt as well. He got his revenge by killing Storm, and now he had the wolf from that pack he wanted destroyed lying in the back of the van they’d stolen. He had everything he needed.

For now. He would use Robert for however long he needed the man, and then when the time was right or he found he needed the money, he would wait for him to shift and skin him, too.

“We’re not even real hunters anymore. We’re one of them.”

“No, we’re different,” Tatum lied. He hated what he was. Being in this werewolf body and changing into that disgusting skin made him want to be sick. “We have more control than they do. Otherwise we would have killed civilians and eaten them already.”

Tatum would never tell the man about the time when he’d done just that. Best Robert didn’t know that for now.

Robert nodded. “Right, but we can’t tell other hunters.”

“Obviously. They wouldn’t understand. We can just use our new abilities and hunt down as many wolves as we can. We can even get in good with some of their packs now and lead other hunters to them.”

“That’s a good idea,” Robert said, finally coming around to the plan.

The werewolf that Robert had tied up with those bedsheets started fighting and squirming again. His yelling and screaming was really starting to get on Tatum’s nerves, and he was glad when Robert started kicking him in the stomach.

“Shut up, you fucking monster! You did this to yourself!”

That he did, and Tatum was going to send that pack a message for what they’d done to him, transforming him like this. He was going to have hours of fun with this one.

104

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Ten

Storm woke up with the world swimming around him, and red colored his vision.

That wasn’t the only color flashing in front of his eyes.

“He’s waking up!”

The sound of a man’s voice, a voice Storm did not recognize, sounded in his ears right before a bright light blinded him in his one good eye. He tried to close his eye and turn away, but there was something holding onto his neck, and some fingers came and forced his lids back open so that the light could stab him again.

“You’re lucky to be alive. Can you tell me your name?”

“What?”

“Your name. Tell me your name. Do you remember it?”

These questions were all way too clinical for Storm’s liking.

“No,” he lied, and the light vanished.

As his vision cleared, his worst nightmare was realized as he saw several men in uniform. Some were police, and others paramedics.

The lights on top of their vehicles flashed in reds and blues, and Storm’s stomach dropped when he was lifted onto a gurney.

“We’ll get you out of here. Don’t you worry. Don’t―hey!”

All of Storm’s strength came pounding back into him. He couldn’t go to a hospital, and he wasn’t about to be questioned by the police either. He had to get out of here. He had to find John!

“Stop him! Come back here!” the paramedic yelled. The poor guy had probably never seen anyone with a shotgun blast to their face and neck leap out of a gurney and start running for the woods before they could even get him into the ambulance.

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He half expected the cops to start shooting at him, but they held their fire. They were smart enough to realize that they didn’t want to kill a patient, no matter how deluded that patient likely was.

They were fast runners as they gave chase, though. Really fast.

Storm had trouble losing them until he finally made it into the trees.

He lost speed while trying to kick off his pants, but he got them off and was on all fours in the fastest transformation he’d ever managed. All while keeping enough of a distance to prevent the cops behind him from seeing the show.

He could still hear their feet clumsily crunching through the twigs and leaves and such. Storm sat down suddenly in a small clearing, and he faced the direction they were going to arrive in.

The two officers burst through the shrubs and smaller trees, just to skid to a halt at the sight of the cougar, sitting there, staring at them.

Storm was confident they wouldn’t put together who he was, despite the still missing eye and how bloody his face and chest was.

The one cop actually tried to stop so quickly that he ended up falling onto his ass.

Storm licked his lips as he stared at the officers. Their hands had gone to their guns, but they didn’t draw weapons.

Storm decided this was sufficient enough to keep them from following him, and he got up and calmly walked away.

He needed to get