A Little Left to Give (Forgotten Series #8)

Chapter Three

I pressed hand to my belly, it was cramping but my eyes were on the male crouching beside me, blood coating his mouth and down his neck. My heartbeat pounded in my head, throbbing in my neck as I started at him.

He killed him.

Brandt had found me, caught me, and now he was dead. The male who had tormented hundreds, if not thousands, of shifters, attacked packs, ate humans, raped, pillaged, murdered, was dead. It was so... easy. The male had taken his throat, had ripped it out and now Brandt was dead. My eyes fell onto where his large body was pale and still on the forest floor.

Dead.

I kept expecting him to wake up, to move, to breathe, but he lay there, still and unmoving. Dead. Just like that. No fight, no challenge, simply gone, his throat torn out. He was dead

I could barely hear Luiz and another cramp in my belly had me wincing. Fucking thing, stupid fucking thing. It had started cramping and that's what had Brandt catching me. I couldn't keep running, I had fallen, and he decided to end the chase. I could still feel the terror in my veins as he had straddled my body, undoing his jeans.

He had smelled of sweat, booze, and the sourness of evil.

But now he was dead.

"Ezekiel, is that really you?" Luiz's words filtered into my head and I blinked at the hulking male who crouched beside me, his flat green eyes starting at my brother, a low growl rattling his chest. He was large, heavily muscled, scarred too. There was one on his face, from his forehead to his cheek, skipping over his eye. I tried to see Ezekiel in his form. It had been years since I had last seen him. Over ten years for sure. "Madre luna... it has to be."

I shifted, trying to sit up a bit more and his hand snapped out. I flinched but he didn't touch me, his hand hovered firmly, as if he were silently telling me not to move. His dominance was strong and I hesitated. "What the fuck happened?" Luiz seemed to be at a loss and his eyes landed on me. "Julieta..."

I swallowed hard and winced. "Brandt came after me." It was all I could say.

"You should have wait-"

"He came after me, Luiz. Kreegan was fucking dead and he came after me. There was no waiting!" I hissed the words out, my hand pressing harder to my belly as the baby shifted and I felt another cramp. "Do you think I wouldn't have wanted to wait? That I wanted to be chased all over when I'm fucking like this?" I gestured to my belly, agitation filling me up. "He came after me, Luiz. I had no choice!" She knew her brother was scared, he did his best to protect her, always had, but this wasn't her fault.

"But what happened?" He gestured and I closed my eyes slightly, swallowing hard.

"He got me down and now... he's dead." I opened my eyes again and looked at the large male. He hadn't taken his eyes off Luiz despite the growling that had stopped slightly. Even that hand he had held up to stop me, stayed in the air. He barely moved, barely twitched. He was breathing but everything was focused on Luiz.

"Dead..." Luiz seemed to look around as if seeing everything, truly seeing everything, for the first time. "Fuck! That's not-This isn't how this was supposed to go!" He was agitated, it thrummed in his words and his body and the male started to growl again, a dangerous and dominating sound. I could hear it telling Luiz to back off.

I understood Luiz's agitation though. We were going to lure Brandt out, have Luiz kill him, and then take over the illegal rogue pack so the females could get out. That was the entire plan but now... now it was fucked but I couldn't bring myself to care. Brandt was dead and I was glad for it.

"Look, if you're Ezekiel Ruiz or not, it doesn't matter. You just killed Brandt Antone, you now control the illegal rogue pack he ran." The words were sharp. "I was hoping to take that position so I could get Julieta to safety and save the other females before tearing down the pack and getting the hunters to arrest them all." It had been a good plan, except nothing was ever fucking fair. You never got what you wanted, fate would always decide to fuck with you in the worst possible way.