TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 304

CHAPTER 233: FIFTEEN SECONDS

EMBER’S POV

Maurice is already on his feet and heading down the hallway toward the storage room, pulling the key from his pocket as he goes.

I hear the padlock rattle, hear him wrenching the door open, hear Gale’s panicked voice – “What the fuck is happening? What’s going on out there?” – and Maurice telling him to shut up and hold still while he works on the chains.

I press myself against the wall beside the front door, heart slamming, counting. Fifteen. That’s what Maurice said. Fifteen seconds before the next volley.

Twelve. Eleven. Ten.

From the back of the house, the screen door creaks. Queenie is making her move.

The car is only twenty feet from the steps.

A

The plan is simple: Reach the glovebox. Get the gun. Take the shot. We can survive this.

Nine. Eight.

Then, the sound. It’s not a car door slamming. It’s a scream – Queenie’s scream cut short by a heavy, muffled thud.

My stomach drops. Of course, Harrison covered the back.

Five seconds.

Five seconds until the next volley of arrows turns this house into a pincushion.

I have two choices: jump through the side window and disappear into the woods alone, or run straight into

the kill zone for my friend.

There isn’t actually a choice.

I explode through the kitchen, past the cold tea on the counter, and kick the back door open.

The Alaskan air bites every inch of exposed skin, but my eyes are already scanning the layout.

Queenie is pinned against the car by a man the size of a mountain. The passenger door hangs open – she almost made it – but the gun is lying on the frozen ground between the tyres and the steps.

Black metal on white ice. Three feet away.

I dive for it.

As I leave my feet, I hear it. The sharp twang of a crossbow from the treeline.

I reach inward, tearing at the walls inside my mind.

CHAPTER 24h

‘Sapphic

My wolf answers with a feral snarl. A surge of heat floods my veins, and for a fraction of a second, the world slows.

Sapphire’s instincts hijack my muscles.

Instead of diving straight, I contort my spine, twisting mid–air just as a silver–tipped bolt punches through the space where my neck was a millisecond ago, burying itself deep into the car door.

I hit the frozen dirt hard, but I use the momentum. I kick my heel against the heavy car door, slamming it shut on the giant’s leg.

He roars, his grip on Queenie loosening just enough.

My fingers close around the biting cold grip of the pistol. I roll into a crouch, levelling the weapon with both hands. I don’t aim for centre mass – he’s wearing Kevlar. I aim for the joint.

I fire.

The recoil jolts my shoulders. The bullet shatters his collarbone. He drops Queenie completely, staggering backwards with a howl of agony.

“Inside!” I grab Queenie by her jacket and shove her up the steps. “Move, move, MOVE!”

We scramble back through the door, but the cost of saving her hits instantly. The house is already lost.

Glass breaking and heavy boots coming from every direction. Two soldiers stand between us and the

front hallway. Two more pour in from the side room.

Think, Ember!

I throw a wild, snapping elbow into the jaw of the first man, feeling teeth crack under my bone.

Sapphire snarls in my chest, driving me forward. I sweep my leg, trying to break his balance, raising the

gun to fire again

But there are too many.

A heavy boot kicks the back of my knee, dropping me. Hands the size of cinderblocks grab me from

behind.

A soldier from the side room wrenches my arms back, twisting the weapon away so violently my shoulder

pops.

I thrash, kicking and biting, but another man grabs my hair, slamming me down to my knees.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify