Free Without Mercy by Belinda Boring Page A

darting toward Jasmine. He held a crazed look and I
needed his focus away from her.
    “Don’t assume to know what I want.” He spat
out, spittle flying from his lips.
    My mind raced. Where had I told Mason I
would meet him? Mentally cringing, I remembered our last words
together. “You don’t need to come with us every time we leave
the house. There’s no threat. We’ll be back soon.” My
intentions had been to quickly grab something from the local
convenience store and head home but sensing someone following, I’d
made the rather stupid decision of drawing him out. Searching out
somewhere private where no one could see a confrontation if I had
to change. I wanted to laugh because my brilliant plan had clearly
bitten us in the butt. I hadn’t saved us at all. We were now
trapped between freedom and a madman with a gun.
    Sometimes being a werewolf is an amazing
experience, but in moments like this, my cockiness astounded even
me. I should have rushed back to Mason and let him and the pack
deal with this. That’s what has been drilled into me since birth.
It doesn’t guarantee I always listen though.
    I mentally crossed my fingers as I assessed
the situation. Hopefully, this would be another case of me escaping
by the skin of my teeth with no harm done.
    Jasmine’s soft whimper drove home the
seriousness of the moment. I knew she was scared and I needed to
get her out of here. The gun made me nervous but I didn’t care
about my safety. She was more important and my mind kicked into
hyper drive, thinking strategy.
    I took in Gary’s expression and noticed the
trickle of sweat rolling down the sides of his cheek. The man may
have nerves of steel when it came to handling weapons, but he
wasn’t as unaffected as he let on. Judging by the slight tick in
his right eye and the way he kept licking his lips, he was nervous
and I could use that to my advantage.
    My brain scrambled for what I knew of him.
Mason asked Gary last summer to help with the home renovations he
planned. Even though they had little in common, something about the
human endeared him to the Alpha and started including Gary in Pack
activities.
    How he’d over looked this major character
flaw was anybody’s guess. Werewolves live and breathe violence but
no one’s radar went off with Gary. I suppose it meant the saying
was true – it’s always the quiet ones.
    I wonder what triggered him. Something had
pushed him over the edge and made him lose control. I wasn’t sure
how to handle the situation because causing Gary to freak out would
make him fire the gun. If I launched myself at him, my werewolf
strength might overpower him and knock him out. Or I could be
patient and see if talking my way out this helped. Either choice
was a gamble. Right now he called all the shots and that left very
little wiggle room for me to act.
    There’s two sure fire ways to get a response
out of a man – turn him on or piss him off and judging by how my
pack brothers carried on, I figured turning him on would be the
easiest way to resolve this.
    The idea was I’d batter my eyelids, toss in
a pouty smile, and flirt the gun right out of his grip. I knew the
effect I had on men when I turned on the charm, the way they became
putty in my hand. People joked how Mason governed the Pack with an
iron fist but all I had to do was crook my little finger and he’d
come running. I would need all my confidence to pull this off
because the very thought I’d have to touch him made my skin crawl.
My stomach tossed about as I offered a silent prayer. Here’s hoping
it didn’t have to go that far.
    Men respond to a third thing, my wolf
growled as she paced beneath the surface. Violence.
    She craved to be let loose so she could
pounce on Gary and eliminate him. She was blood thirsty and
enraged, and I struggled to control the feral energy she gave off.
I needed to keep her restrained because there wasn’t a chance in
hell he’d survive her attack.
    I took in a deep breath,