Gwen shoved McNelly off her. “Let the kid go. This is between you and me.”

“‘This is between you and me,’ “McNelly imitated back to her in a high-pitched voice. “You’re fucking pathetic. Just like the girl. She might as well get used to it now. Might as well realize she’ll always be a mixed-breed loser.” McNelly stepped in closer. “Alone and helpless…and a freak.”

And that’s when Gwen popped her in the mouth, the She-wolf stumbling to the side as her Pack came at Gwen.

Gwen unleashed her claws and lashed out, swiping at anything that got close to her, trying to work her way over to Kristan.

Someone grabbed her from behind, and Gwen lifted up her legs and kicked out at one of the wolves in front of her, sending him flying back. Then she brought her legs back down, keeping her knees tight. Her feet slammed into the femurs of whoever held her and she heard a scream of pain as bones in both legs broke and the wolf released her. More wolves came at her, so she dashed up onto the tables and shelves, knocking things off them as the wolves tried to get hold of her. She kept going until she landed in front of Kristan. That’s when she pulled out her razor and flicked it open.

She cut the face of the wolf holding Kristan and yanked the girl away.

She saw the open window that the wolves must have come in through and she pushed Kristan up on the table beneath it. “Go! Now!” Gwen yelled, spinning back around and lashing out with the razor, slicing someone’s hand and someone else’s jaw.

McNelly came at her again, catching the hand that held Gwen’s razor. She twisted Gwen’s arm, all that brute strength nearly tearing Gwen’s arm from the socket. And while she held her, Gwen desperately reaching out for something, anything, she could use as a weapon, another male came at her. He took the razor from her hand and held it in front of her face.

“Wanna know how this feels, bitch?” Gwen already knew. She’d gotten the damn thing from the person who’d used it on her during a street fight.

He raised the blade over her and Gwen felt something under her hand. A pair of scissors.

Gripping them tight, she swung them out as the razor came down toward her face. But she was falling, the grip on her other arm suddenly gone. She landed flat on her back and saw the big arms of Lock reaching out.

But the razor was already in motion and the blade cut across his forearm.

Uh-oh was the last thing Gwen could think before Lock’s boar-rage snapped and unleashed on every wolf in that room.

Blayne pushed past the crowd standing at the doorway and flew down the steps, Sissy, Ronnie, and Sissy’s cousin right behind her. As she neared the last door down the hallway, she heard a roar that she now knew. Lock’s roar. She pushed past Mitch and Bren, yanking her arm out of Mitch’s grip when he tried to pull her back.But she ended up stopping at the doorway anyway as a human body spiraled across the room.

Lock lumbered after it, still in his human form, but for the first time since she’d met him she could see the hump between his shoulders. It had grown and was now a mass of muscle that only intensified his already incredible strength. And all that strength was slamming into the wolf trying to pick himself up off the floor.

Four-inch claws dragged across the wolf, tearing off flesh and hair and clothes. Then hands rammed into the wolf’s back, with an untold amount of pressure pushing against his ribs. The wolf screamed and sobbed, unable to fight off the boar-rage raining down on him, but he’d gone after the wrong girl, hadn’t he? He’d gone after Gwen.

Gwen flipped onto her hands and knees. The scissors she’d been about to use and had dropped had been picked up by McNelly. She was charging toward Lock’s back, hoping to protect the male Lock had pinned to the floor.

Fangs unleashing, Gwen charged McNelly, but Blayne rammed into McNelly first, shoving her into the opposite wall. The scissors skittered away and Gwen picked them up, letting out a breath. Another She-wolf stood next to her, but she knew this one.

“I hear sirens,” Dee-Ann said. “Someone must have panicked and called the cops.”

Gwen nodded.

“Sissy’s gonna grab her friend Dez. She’s a cop and here somewhere. She’ll control things as long as she can, but we need to—”

“I know.”

Dee-Ann leaned down a bit to get a better look at her. “You want me to handle Lock for ya, darlin’?”

Gwen didn’t even know why the She-wolf was asking that. “No.” She handed over the scissors. “But you deal with the wolves.”

Gwen moved up behind Lock. He was crouching on the wolf’s back, one claw dug into what was left of the back of the wolf’s skull, the other pawing his exposed and torn flesh. He was breathing hard, the air pounding out of him as he fought not to shift and finish the job. She could see his muscles rippling as he fought the change, fought that last step that would turn this into a moment of regret for him. He had too many of those, she knew. She wouldn’t let these McNelly fuckers hang him up with any more.

She pressed against his back, let him feel her weight on him before she pressed her mouth to his ear. “Let him go, Lock.”

His muscles rippled again, she felt them moving against her own. She kissed his ear, nuzzled the side of his head. “I just want you to take me home. Keep me safe.”

Slowly, the bear stood, stepping off the battered mass beneath him. One blood-covered hand reached out for her, claws still unleashed—and Gwen took it, gripped it tight. He pulled her into his side, his arm tight around her.