Free LIAM (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 2) by Shannon Mayer Page A

rules. You’ll belong to me, you will be my property. I will take responsibility for you.” She shoved him and he stumbled past the alley opening as he struggled to gain his balance.
    I reached out from the shadows and grabbed his one flailing arm. I yanked him into the alley with me, not thinking much about anything but doing as I’d told her I would. I would protect her from her own kind and everything else that came her way. I snapped his arm up behind his back, spun him to the ground, and slammed his face into the concrete. I put a knee into the center of his back and kept the sharp angle of his arm twisted high. “I think you should listen to her.”
    “Who the fuck do you think you are?” He took a big sniff. “Fucking piece of dog shit wolf. I’m going to skin you alive and eat your balls for breakfast.” I grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head back, then smashed it into the ground.
    “Now, that isn’t very polite, is it? Play nice.” I slapped the back of his head, which pushed his nose into the concrete again. He howled, and I glanced over my shoulder. “What do you want to do with him?” Below me the ogre twisted and tried to buck me off which forced me to look away from her for a moment. When I looked back, she was striding forward, a grim look on her face, one I’d seen more than once on an ogre. She was in fight mode. Shit.
    She pulled the knife I’d given her from her waistband in a single smooth motion that told me she knew how to use it. Flipping the handle around, she had it angled downward for a deadly blow. For just a moment, I thought I’d judged her wrong. That the blade would come at me.
    With a wicked thrust, she drove the knife through the back of the male ogre’s head. He jerked once, twice, and then was still. Breathing hard, she crouched beside me and held out her hand. “My name is Mai.”
    I took her hand. “Liam.” Even though I had already introduced myself, it felt right. “And the kid over there is Levi.”
    Levi didn’t even move, he was still sound asleep despite the scuffle. I shook my head. I shouldn’t have been surprised, we’d been running on adrenaline and not much else since we left home. With Mai’s help, I dragged the dead ogre to the closest dumpster and shoved his body in. We dropped the lid with a slam.
    “That won’t buy us much time,” she said. “A few hours at most.”
    “We won’t need that much time to . . .” I stared at her face, seeing the indecision there. “What?”
    She tucked the knife back into her belt. “I can’t leave yet. I have to go back to my apartment first.”
    “If what I overheard is right, that’s not a good idea. We have to go now and use the time we have on our side.”
    Mai drew a breath. “My son’s ashes are there. I can’t leave without him. Surely you can understand that?”
    I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, thinking it through. “How long?”
    “My place is in Redmond, about an hour by transit.”
    “What about a cab? That would be faster.” There had to be a way to speed this up.
    “No, they’re watching the cabs. Apparently there were a few supernaturals that infiltrated using cabs last week.”
    That would be Rylee again. Damn it. I nodded. “Okay. I’m coming with you.”
    “No, you stink to high heaven like an alpha wolf. They’ll pick up on you in no time. You can’t come with me. I have to go alone.”
    “I could go with her,” Levi said, finally joining the conversation, cautiously, like he wasn’t sure he was welcome. “I don’t smell, do I?”
    Her eyes shot to him. “Are you a supernatural?”
    He held out his hand and water pooled in his palm, the same as the night before. His voice held more than a little pride to it as he spoke. “Elemental.”
    Slowly she nodded even while I struggled not to strangle Levi. Against an ogre, he had no chance. No shot. She drew a big sniff of his hair, making it ruffle toward her nose. “He doesn’t smell like