Running With The Pack: Big Easy Shifters: Book Four by Knox, Abby (best book club books TXT) 📗

his beast nearly began to growl. He summoned every fiber of restraint he could. First, he saw Gavin sitting in a chair, kicking and snarling at some invisible force holding him still. More alarmingly, Manny stood next to Chastity, who was helplessly rooted to another chair. Bobby could see no visible ropes holding them in place, so there was obviously some dark magic going on here. Manny was holding a pistol in his hand, angling it down Chastity’s hairline and toward the back of her skull.

Manny was speechifying in true Disney villain fashion. He was talking about the purity of the wolf race.

What the hell is going on here?

“Gavin, man, your mind has been poisoned by the DuChamp clan,” he heard Manny saying. “Just because they own your friend Boudreaux doesn’t mean we all have to fall in line. I’m surprised your clan is so agreeable to mixing the blood of the wolves with humans, let alone another species of shifter.”

So. Manny’s got some weird blood purity fixation.

While watching their scene play out, Bobby had been holding himself back tenuously. The emotions and the alcohol, and now terror at this voodoo-practicing lunatic, were all working against his self-control. He needed just the right moment to strike.

And then, he made the mistake of locking eyes with Chas.

Terror gripped poor Chas as Manny traced lines around her face with the barrel of his handgun, like a psychopath. Truth be told, Bobby hadn’t much cared for that chick’s behavior the other night, sloppy drunk and dancing on his bar. And he didn’t much like the idea of her hooking up casually with one of his best buddies. But they would deal with that later. For now, Bobby’s first priority was disabling Manny.

Bobby was ready to lay waste to this asshole.

Manny’s back was to him, and so was Gavin’s. But Chastity’s whole demeanor changed when she saw the wolf emerge from the back of the shop. She smiled. Manny saw the change in her face and turned.

That’s when Bobby lost the element of surprise. Manny’s eyes narrowed as the wolf bounded at him, and then he did the unthinkable. Pointed his .32 semi-automatic and fired.

Chas screamed. Gavin howled as he watched the wolf’s body jerk at the bullet’s impact.

But it wasn’t Bobby who was shot.

It was Pen.

Chapter Seven

Pen

She knew Bobby had signaled her to stay in the back and not to wolf out again.

But to hell with that plan. All her wolf senses were firing in full flight-or-fight mode. Pen never backed down from a fight before, and she wasn’t about to start now.

When she inched around the corner behind Bobby, she saw in a split second that Chas was smiling up at Bobby. Who could blame her? Pen imagined that Chas was relieved, no doubt, that the cavalry had arrived.

Pen wolfed out without a second thought and dove with all her might at Manny.

The shot rang out. Bobby and Pen both hit Manny at full force and knocked him to the floor. The gun went skittering. Bobby loomed over top of Manny, whose eyes now were wide and filled with terror. Pen fell to the floor, howling in pain.

She tried to catch Bobby’s eye to let him know she was OK. But it didn’t matter if she had not been hit at all. She saw the primal rage in her wolf friend. His massive canine jaw was locked onto Manny’s neck like a rabid dog.

Manny screamed and struggled. Doubtless, he was trying to shift into his full wolf as well, to make it a fair fight. But Bobby had him, and he was not going to let go. Manny was helpless. A bleeding Pen ran at Bobby and tried to nudge him off of Manny. It was enough; they could restrain him until they called the police. But even at her most vigorous effort, she bounced right off of Bobby’s massive body. She was already weak from all the shifting back and forth; she had no power over him as a wolf.

Pen shifted back into human form and felt the side of her face, felt the blood dripping. The pain was blinding, and the blood was surging from her ear.

“I’m OK, Bobby! Let go!” she cried, but it was too late.

Bobby instinctively jerked Manny’s neck in his grip, as a wolf does with its prey, and at that moment, everyone in the room heard the snap. Manny exhaled his last.

Chapter Eight

Bobby

Bobby, now in human form, stood over Manny’s lifeless body. Manny’s blood was all over his face and down his chest.

This was bad.

Things were supposed to go way different today. He should be in Pen’s bed right now or heading out of town to let her live her life. Instead, he had allowed the wolf to dominate, and now someone was dead.

Again.

“Bobby?”

He looked up and turned. Pen was standing behind him in the long tee-shirt down to her thighs, looking sexy as hell, even with a minor flesh wound, but there was just one problem. She was staring at him in horror.

“Bobby, are you OK?”

And then, Bobby did what he did best. He panicked and ran away.

And knowing he was leaving behind an injured Pen, he hated himself all the more. Because the wound had occurred while she was in wolf form, it would heal quickly. Didn’t change the fact that he was an asshole.

He could never go back now.

He would have to leave New Orleans for good and let Pen move on without him.

It was for the best.

Chapter Nine

Pen

Gavin and Chas were freed of the spell as soon as Manny’s soul left his body. Chas sat with Pen in the back office and applied first aid to her ear while Gavin went to fetch more clothes and supplies from his apartment up the street. Chas explained to her what was going on, why they hadn’t been able to move. Manny had trapped them with a voodoo binding spell and was planning to murder Chas because she was a feline