Becoming The Chief: Origin Novel, Book 1.5 (Phoenix Crew) by Miri Stone

Author:Miri Stone [Stone, Miri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: www.booksbymiristone.com
Published: 2019-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

The blast of the icy waters helped clear much of the drunken haze from my head, but a dark rage was still gripping my soul. I felt off. Perhaps Nick had gotten in a harder hit than I’d realized. Or perhaps the shock of seeing my childhood friend after all these years made it feel as though death himself had risen to wave a cocky hello. Either way, I was looking down on my human body as if from a great distance.

I’ll handle this, Bear snarled.

I watched as he dragged Nick out of the water and threw him down on the bank in a chokehold between his legs. Brock, still in his animal form, waited at the water’s edge, The Irish Twins flanking him on either side. Thank the gods Sara and the cubs were nowhere to be seen. I didn’t want them to see whatever came next.

Bear snarled at the fledging crew and they yielded, bodies swaying with tension, as they backed off to the forest’s edge while my attention drifted back to the man thrashing about in my arms.

What are you doing, Bear? He can’t breathe. Stop.

But my voice sounded weak as a leaf being tossed about on the wind.

What do you care, Human? Bear growled, as cold and heartless as I’d ever heard him. Haven’t you cursed this man who abandoned you a hundred thousand times in your head as you tried to drink yourself into a stupor? Don’t tell me you believe his sob story? Are you gonna let him waltz back into your life so he can tear your heart out, just when it was starting to mend? I can’t let that happen, Ryan. I won’t.

Bear was right. The crew didn’t make a move to stop me. This was alpha business. It was my duty to put down the dangerous rogues, wasn’t it? Nick’s face contorted, claws busting out from his fingernails as he scrambled for purchase while my thoughts wandered as though through a fog. Sure, I hated the man for leaving me, but I didn’t want him dead, did I?

So what’s it going to be, Ryan? Bear spat out, drawing the man closer so I had to look into his petrified eyes. Even as I saw the terror, I was forced to see something else too.

Acceptance. And deep, deep relief. Nick was ready to die.

But was I ready to let him go?

Do we put the sad bastard out of his misery?

No, I said with a sigh.

My dark rage didn’t stem from a need for vengeance. Nor a sense of duty. It was fueled by the fact that I needed this man. When he’d stepped out from the shadows on that clifftop above so I could see that he was real flesh and bones, not just another imagined specter from my past, I’d felt relief just knowing that my oldest friend was still alive in this world. Still fighting.

Fuuuuck. Blood welled and ran down my forearms, snapping me out of my stupor. Bear, I need him.

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