“Lexi, I thank you kindly for feeding my boys and me,” Axton said in a conversational tone from across the kitchen island. “I don’t think we’ll be needing your services anymore tonight.”
Some of the men around him made strange whooping sounds, as if excited for her to leave. Weird.
“Sounds good. Thank you all for being such a fun crowd, and I wish you big luck on your upcoming wedding.”
Axton dropped his head and huffed a laugh, and when he lifted his chin again, his eyes looked lighter, more mercury silver than gray. “I ain’t the marrying kind, but I thank you for the well-wishes.”
“Oh.” She frowned, utterly baffled. “But you said this was a bachelor party.”
“Well…” He looked at the men gathering around him. “We’re a bunch of bachelors, and this is a party.”
“More like a war party, though,” one of the shorter men said. His dark eyes had lightened to a caramel brown that seemed to glow, and now Lexi’s fine hairs were rising all over her body.
“Great,” she said, ducking her gaze and pretending she didn’t see the changes happening here. These men weren’t human. This was some kind of crew function that she’d unknowingly been hired to serve.
She grabbed the pile of tips from the counter and folded the bills into her pocket, then shouldered her tote she’d brought with her. Half of her things were still on the counter, but fuck it. She could come back for them later. Right now, all she wanted to do was get out of here.
“Bloodrunner whore.” A tall man with tattoos all over his neck spat on the floor right where she was about to step.
Lexi gasped and stumbled over the puddle of spittle. Clutching her tote bag tightly, she walked faster toward the door. She had a set of good knives, and she would use them if pushed. When she cast a glance over her shoulder, all the men with matching, feral smiles were following her slowly.
Oh God, she just needed to get to her Jeep. Lexi threw open the door and bolted across the porch, past the bubbling hot tub, and down the steep stairs as fast as she could. It was dark out, but the lights from the house illuminated the clearing in gold, and the moon above was almost full, casting the surrounding woods in an eerie blue.
Jogging across the lawn toward the corner of the house, she pulled out her biggest knife and her cell phone. Heart galloping in her chest, she dialed Ryder with shaking fingers.
Axton appeared at her side like an apparition, blurring as he ripped the phone from her hand and chucked it at a tree. It shattered into a thousand pieces against the bark, and on reflex, Lexi slashed with her blade, catching him down the arm.
Axton hissed in pain and held his bleeding arm, but as he looked down at the red streaming through his fingers, he smiled, like he found her amusing. And now his eyes were churning such a light gray, they were almost white.
“Get away from me,” she demanded, holding out the blade. Damn her hand as it shook!
Axton’s grin turned wolfish as he held his hands up in surrender and let her pass.
Adrenaline pumping through her, Lexi backed toward the gravel parking spot she’d left her Jeep. Some instinct deep inside of her screamed, don’t give him your back!
But this view was terrifying. Axton’s men were following her slowly, too gracefully, all of their eyes glowing in the dark like monsters. They were spreading out slowly, the ends of the line curving toward her, herding her.
When Lexi’s shoes hit the line of gravel, she turned to sprint for her Jeep, but what she saw made no sense. Her Wrangler was laying on its side, wheels pointed directly at her.
No. No, no, no, that was her escape!
“We’ll let you keep your little knife,” Axton said in a voice that was too low and growly now. “We’ll even give you a two-minute head start. Makes the chase more fun that way.”
“W-what chase?”
“My pack needs to hunt. We’re predators,” Axton explained, canting his head like an animal. “You understand?”
“Please. I just want to go home.”
One of the men wrenched his voice up an octave and repeated, “Please!”
“Please let me go home,” another taunted her.
Axton pointed through the woods with a bloody finger. “That way is the main road. Reach the asphalt, and we’ll let you live.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Probably wise. Werewolves aren’t known for their trustworthiness, but what choice do you have?”
Behind him, bones snapped and men hunched over. Snarling, growling beasts burst from his pack one-by one, each twice the size of a regular wolf with bloodlust glowing in their eyes.
Lexi couldn’t breathe from the terror that settled into her chest. She backed up, shaking her head in denial. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t!
Her back hit the undercarriage of her jeep, and she whimpered, clutching her knife in a white-knuckled grip.
Axton’s face was elongating, his frost-colored eyes locked on her as his bones broke and his muscles reshaped gruesomely. And right before he morphed into a black-furred wolf, he fell to his hands and knees and snarled out, “Run, little bunny.”
With a gasp of horror, she bolted around the Jeep and looked around the back of the house for their cars. They had to drive here, right? But even if she spent the time to find them, would the keys be inside? Probably not, and then she would’ve wasted her two-minute head start.
She didn’t have time for the tears that blurred her vision as she sprinted for the dirt road that would lead her to safety. Tears would slow her down, and she needed to keep her head, not fall apart right now.