Free Fangs of Anarchy - Forbidden Alpha (Part 2) Girl Most Lycan: A Werewolf Vampire Shifter Romance by Dakota Cassidy Page B

Gannon’s corpse.
    She couldn’t let him do this. Why was he doing this? “Let me
go, Liam, or I’ll shift and tear your throat out!”
    Liam’s lips were suddenly at her neck, his hands tightening
as he held them behind her back. “But probably not before I drain you. Don’t
make me do that, Claire. Please. I like you. The crew likes you. Hadley likes
you. Irish would probably make me swallow a gallon of holy water for it, and he
said to protect you at all costs. I’m just doing my job as his right hand—don’t
screw that up, okay?”
    Claire didn’t have time to process Liam’s words, or
comprehend that they were laced with Irish’s desire to protect her. Raw fear—so
real, so bone-deep—cut through her like a knife at what Irish was about to do.
    Irish was going to take the blame for her and they would
make Claire watch as they killed him.
    Her stomach heaved just as everyone began to file out of the
library, Irish moving in front of Courtland willingly, while the Dogs
sandwiched them. Her mind raced. Panic began to shut her brain down, but she
fought the haze and tried to think while Liam held her in his grasp.
    The roar of motorcycle engines gunning drifted to her ears,
spiking her anxiety.
    And then an idea hit her out of the blue.
    Never let it be said that when she’d played Pilgrim Number
One in her fifth-grade play, she damn well didn’t deserve an Oscar for her
amazing ability to portray a woman shucking corn. Because surely phrases like “uncanny”
and “eerily true to life” had been used when referring to her performance.

 
 

Chapter
Seven
    She went limp in Liam’s grasp, falling back against him
until she felt him push her upward for support, hooking his hands under her
armpits.
    “Claire? Are you all right? Claire? ”
    She slammed her eyes shut and trusted he’d fully catch her,
letting herself go completely boneless.
    When his arms went around her, she let her head loll to the
right, mentally patting herself on the back for faking a good old-fashioned
faint.
    Liam tapped her face with a gloved hand. “Claire? Claire!”
    She kept her body slack and her eyes closed while he felt
for a pulse.
    Liam grunted, muttering, “Jesus Christ,” before he scooped
her up and carried her out of the library behind everyone else.
    The second they hit the bottom of the library steps, Claire
made a break for it, popping up in Liam’s arms and launching herself to the
ground, stumbling when she hit a patch of ice, and skidding into her car before
getting her footing.
    She heard Liam cuss, felt the pound of his feet on the
snow-covered ground in her bones as she began to shift, focusing on the crunch
of morphing muscle and changing flesh. At the very least, she knew she could
outrun him or, if nothing else, get a good head start.
    Her clothing seemingly melted away from her body, falling to
the ground as her paws formed. She threw her body forward at the waist and her
legs became haunches. The feel of the icy snow beneath her feet brought with it
a burst of exhilaration.
    She might not love the hunt and even less the kill, but she
loved the freedom she experienced in shift. The salty wind blowing in from the
ocean swept over her fur, ruffling it as it began to sprout in thick patches
over her body. She gained speed, sprinting for the woods and listening for the
sound of the Dogs’ motorcycles.
    Claire drove her nose to the forest floor, blocking out Liam
bellowing her name, intent on locating the scent of Gannon’s body. If Irish
truly had buried him, he could be in a million places, but if she could get to
Gannon before that pack of sweaty mongrels, she could prevent them from finding
him.
    Maybe. She was only so fast.
    Her thoughts flew to the old campgrounds, covered in white
pine, as the roar of the Dogs’ engines grew, carried on the frosty wind. It was as likely a spot as any—plenty of places to hide a
body.
    Her sniff was frantic, her muzzle scraping the ground as she
flew over the