Boarlander Silverback (Boarlander Bears #3)(54)

She’d been so desperate to get off that desk job. Of course she would be the perfect candidate. She’d marched into this job with too little information and been fine with it. And who would miss her? Her mother was serving another ten years. Her father didn’t know she existed, and the only friends she had in the world were the shifters who would be destroyed by IESA.

Finn pulled a red plastic lighter from his back pocket and waved it between his forefinger and thumb, taunting her with her death. “I can’t be putting bullet holes in you. Forensics, you understand. I didn’t want it to be like this, but maybe I would feel worse if you hadn’t f*cked that shifter. They know. About the claiming mark, they know. They’ll arrest Kirk. Cage him with real monsters, or maybe he’ll be the first subject of the new shifter testing facility. Maybe he’ll be the beginning of the new Menagerie. You should know how completely you ruined his life before you take your last breath.”

“Why, Finn? Why are you a part of this?”

His lips twitched into a snarl. “Because my brother was part of the task force that came up here after the Ashe Crew. My brother!”

“Your brother is IESA?”

“Was,” he said, emphasizing the word by jamming the gun closer to her. “Was IESA. Now he’s in the belly of the dragon. Now he’s nothing but ash.”

“Because he was trying to annihilate an entire species, Finn. You can see that, right? They were defending themselves!”

“It’s you who doesn’t see, Holman. They’re just animals.” He shook his head, his eyes pooling with insanity as he backed out of the room. “We’re gods.”

She charged him, because what else could she do? He had a gun on her, sure, but it was that or death by fire and she couldn’t just stand here and watch him light her up.

Time slowed as she watched Finn lift his weapon higher, training it on her forehead. “Stop,” he screamed. Oh, he didn’t want to shoot her. This had to look real. It had to look like an attack from above. There was no room for bullets in IESA’s plan.

She tackled him and shoved him backward until they smashed against the wall. And she fought him like an injured animal. Clawing, hitting, kicking, fighting for her life, because that damned lighter in Finn’s grasp meant she would never see Kirk again. It meant she would never see her friends or Damon’s mountains again. It meant the elusive happiness she’d finally found here would be nothing more but a wisp of fresh breath at the end of a dark life. And more importantly than all of that, Kirk wouldn’t know the hell that was hunting him. IESA was rebuilding and was targeting Damon’s mountains again.

Her life would mean nothing, and her death would hurt the people she cared about the most. She wouldn’t be used like that. Not by Finn or anyone else.

Finn wrapped one hand around her throat, closing off her windpipe. He slammed her backward, and stars danced at the edges of Alison’s vision as she struggled and gasped for air.

The sound of shattering glass was deafening, and the moment slowed, frame by frame. Finn’s veins protruding from his red neck, his blue eyes bloodshot and psychotic, his teeth gritted as he strangled her, the red lighter held up in his other hand, tinkling glass blasting through the air, shining like razor-edged diamonds.

And then Finn was gone. He wasn’t there choking her anymore. He was flying sideways against the wall. The splintering of wood sounded as she dragged sweet oxygen into her burning lungs. A massive silverback was on Finn now, wailing on him, but Kirk didn’t know the danger. Couldn’t see it. Finn was trying desperately to light the fire. She scrambled toward them, but that damned flame flickered to life.

“Kirk!”

The silverback froze, powerful arm lifted mid-deathblow as the flame expanded on the gas tainted air.

Finn chuckled out a bone-chilling sound. “Worth it!” he yelled as Kirk rounded on Alison.

In an instant, the flame rolled outward with horrifying speed, and Alison grunted as Kirk’s body collided with hers. With one arm, he scooped her up so fast, her stomach dipped, and a few more jerky, powerful steps and he was diving for the shattered window he’d come through. When he landed on the grass, his giant clenched hand made a sickening splat in the soaked yard. Out here, the smell of lighter fluid was overwhelming, and she gripped harder around his neck as he bolted for the woods on three arms. An earth-shattering explosion blasted heat against her face, and she watched in horror as the cabin shot rolling flames toward them. It was coming too fast, would engulf them. She screamed as the fire licked at Kirk’s back, but he bunched his muscles and launched them upward. Something massive encircled her and Kirk, and they were sucked upward so hard, her breath was pushed straight out of her lungs with the force.

A deafening, prehistoric roar sounded as a massive blue dragon flapped his wings and clutched her and Kirk tighter in his claw as he aimed for the clouds. Below them, the explosion expanded and the heat from it stung her skin, but the flames didn’t touch them.

Struggling to pull in air, she looked up at the belly of the dragon that had saved her and Kirk. Damon.

She was being crushed against Kirk, and just as she thought she would pass out from their speed, Damon crested the lowlying clouds, arched his back against the forward motion and coasted on the wind. The relief at the lessened pressure was so intense, Alison rested her head against Kirk’s chest. She dragged in a deep, desperate breath and let off a sob on the exhale.