Free Claiming Ana by Brynna Curry Page B

You’ve linked with that abomination. Disgusting. There is nothing that could save you. Not even your body. I pity you.”
    “Listen to me. There is a blood curse on your line. I can break it and set you both free. Howl can’t help what he is any more than you can stop hunting him.”
    “I don’t want to hear your crap anymore. You make me sick.”
    “I feel so sorry for you. You’re already dead, Van. You just haven’t figured it out yet.”
    A large black wolf filled the kitchen doorway. Sharp white fangs gleamed proudly in the moonlight.
    “Here’s our guest, now. Say goodbye, witch.”
    The wolf growled and lunged for his throat.
     
    * * * *
     
    “No! Run, Howl! Don’t die for me!”
    She’s alive. Thank God.
    Van slapped her. “Shut up, slut.” He pointed the gun at her chest and pulled the trigger.
    Howl watched as Ana’s body jolted with the force of the bullet. Her screams tore through his mind before she slumped over in the chair.
    Ana!
    “Too late, Raven. She’s dead.” The words barely rolled off Van’s tongue before Howl wrapped his maw around the man’s throat. The gun went flying out of reach.
    Burn in hell, Van! I ran to keep from hurting you, but tonight you die. I will taste your blood in my throat!
    Feeling the chain holding his rage and sorrow snap with finality, Howl clawed and gnashed at his cousin. Van’s fist plowed into Howl’s muzzle. Blood seeped with the blow. Fangs ripped through flesh as easily as silk. Coated with hot salty blood, claws tore deep into the meat of legs and arms.
    Howl heard Van’s inhuman screams of agony, but didn’t care. Each sound became nirvana to the wolf. Van rolled across the floor with Howl, through the door and into the back yard. Van shuddered and lay still. Overhead the ringed full moon shone a bloody red.
    Ana! The sound he made was gut wrenching grief, in any language, human or animal. Howl left his bloody victim lying in the back yard and padded to his mate. The wolf licked blood from her cheek, mourned as he laid his head in her lap. Ana could not die. He howled at the blood red moon. To save her he must change her. He had hoped to spare her this life. There was no other choice left for them. Change his love into the thing he loathed most, or let her die and live with the knowledge they could have stayed together.
    He pressed his ear to her chest. Her heart beats. Maybe it’s not too late. One sharp claw drew a path over her chest wound, which closed immediately. The shot had struck high on her shoulder, missing the vital organ by several inches. Howl placed his paws on the chair, licked her face.
    Oh, my Ana, come back to me. Pain wracked his body. His bones began breaking, reforming. Skin shifted, stretched. Paws became hands, feet. Black fur turned into hair and bare flesh. He transformed into man, under the full red moon at the feet of his love.
     
    * * * *
     
    Ana opened her eyes and looked down. Her chest was whole, unmarred. A human, naked Howl sat at her feet, head resting against her leg. He had found a way to break the curse on his own. She pulled him up off of the floor. “I thought you were gone forever. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
    “I thought I’d lost you, Ana.”
    “You had to break the curse yourself. When the blood moon rings three, and death is welcomed by she.” She stopped mid-sentence as the sound of a pistol being cocked erupted from behind him.
    “This isn’t over.” A bloodied and torn Van stood on the back steps. His recovered pistol aimed at Howl’s back. His eyes glowed with feral light. Van was shifting, turning. “So you broke the curse. Doesn’t matter. I will still kill you for turning me.”
    A shot rang out as he fired the gun. Howl shoved Ana to the floor out of the path. Van fell to his knees, blood blossoming across the front of his torn white shirt.
    “What the hell is going on here?” Cade called out from the open kitchen doorway. Ana watched him walk over to Van’s