My Alpha Gave Me to His Impotent Uncle novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: The Maul

Gunnar was out of bed before the voice finished.

"Stay here," he said.

"The kids are upstairs."

"I know where the kids are."

He opened the door to the kitchen.

Flashlight beams were cutting across it. Three men, maybe four, in dark jackets and ski masks.

One was already on the stairs.

I didn't stay.

The splitting maul was leaning by the woodbox, where I'd left it after kindling.

I picked it up.

Gunnar stepped into the kitchen in nothing but his jeans.

The man at the back door swung his light into his face.

"Hey, gelding," he said. "Go back to bed."

Gunnar didn't answer him.

The air in the kitchen went heavy, then heavier, until my ears popped.

Then his back split.

I'd seen wolves shift my whole life. Pups at sixteen, fast and clumsy, all elbows.

This wasn't like that.

It was watching a wave stand up.

Seams tore. Bones went long. Pale fur poured down over his shoulders.

The wolf that stood in the middle of the kitchen was bigger than the table.

Silver, almost white, with gold eyes.

The man with the flashlight dropped it.

The wolf went through him and through the back door, and both of them landed in the yard.

I ran for the stairs.

The one on the stairs was at the top already, at the girls' door, with his hand on the knob.

Under the mask, on the side of his neck, there was a tattoo of a wolf's head.

I knew that neck. I'd watched it laugh at a pickle jar.

"Get away from that door," I said.

He turned around and saw a woman in a flannel shirt with a maul.

He laughed.

I swung.

Not the blade. The flat back of the head, into the side of his knee, the way you'd split a round of pine.

Something cracked.

He went down the stairs a lot faster than he'd come up.

At the bottom, a howl came in through the broken door.

It went into my spine and every bone in my body answered it.

The men in the kitchen stopped fighting and ran.

I heard trucks start at the bottom of the drive. No lights. Gravel spraying.

The tall one dragged himself out the door after them, swearing, holding his knee.

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