Devin's Mercy [Shifters of Mystery 4] by Lynn Hagen

stand
    here while the others fought. And Devin wasn’t taking any chances of
    being captured again.
    He would die before he allowed anyone to drag him back to
    Martin. When he looked up and saw Keegan, Devin also saw the pure
    black of evilness in the lycan’s eyes. It was eerie, but Devin wasn’t
    going to cower this time. He was going to fight.
    “Martin wants his pet back,” Keegan taunted.
    “And he sent his lackey?”

    Devin’s Mercy
    83
    Keegan laughed, the sound chilling Devin’s bones. “I see you’ve
    grown a backbone since shacking up like a whore with these men.
    Charles wants you back as well. He says he wasn’t done with you.”
    For one moment in space and time, Devin was hurled back into
    Charles’s grasp, feeling his claws digging into Devin’s skin, mauling
    him. Devin snapped his eyes to Keegan, feeling the cold brunt of
    anger rising in him. “Then he’ll have to settle for my dead body.”
    Keegan shrugged his furry shoulder. “I don’t think he’s too
    particular.”
    Devin could see the hate in the beta’s eyes and knew Keegan
    despised Charles as well, but not enough to leave Devin alone. In that
    moment, Devin wished beyond anything that Mercy was here. He
    wasn’t a fighter and knew Keegan would win in a hand-to-hand
    tussle.
    The others were fighting off the invaders, but no one was near
    enough to help him against the beta. Devin was on his own.
    He parroted Keegan’s moves, trying to keep the lycan at bay as he
    scrambled to come up with anything he could use to defend himself.
    There were power tools on the back porch, but Devin seriously
    doubted a drill motor would do him any good.
    And that’s when he saw the ax underneath the drill motor. Now all
    he had to do was get it, wield it, and hit his mark—easier said than
    done. Devin had never picked up an ax in his life. Inching closer to
    the porch, Devin dove for the ax and then rolled away in time before
    Keegan landed on him.
    “What are you going to do with that?” Keegan laughed. “The
    damn thing weighs more than you do.”
    Devin swung the ax outward, but Keegan jumped back, dodging
    the sharp blade easily. “Come on, pet. You can do better than that. Do
    you need me to show you how to kill with the damn thing?”
    So easy.
    So impossible.

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    Lynn Hagen
    The blade was so close to Keegan that Devin could see the lycan’s
    death, yet he couldn’t wield the tool he decided to turn into an
    instrument of death properly. In the back of his mind, he knew
    Keegan could easily take it from him.
    The beta was playing with him.
    Teasing him.
    Showing Devin how truly powerless he was.
    Devin gritted his teeth. Not today. No, today he was going to take
    back some of the power that had been stripped away from him. Today
    Devin was going to kill one of the men responsible for his beatings.
    And Keegan was going to die.
    He just had to figure out how to do it.
    Keegan surprised Devin by leaping forward. The move was so
    quick that Devin barely had time to raise the ax.
    But he did.
    And now Keegan’s body was impaled on the sharp blade.
    Devin fell backward, the beta following him down, his eyes
    glazed over.
    There was so much blood.
    Too much blood.
    Devin pushed Keegan off of him, crawling backward until his
    back hit the porch. He stared at the dead body in front of him,
    watching as Keegan’s blood slowly spilt from his body.
    He had killed the beta.
    Devin began to laugh. He laughed so hard that it turned into tears.
    He found himself lying on the ground—crying.

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    85

Chapter Nine
    “Mercy!”
    Mercy ignored Pat as he headed toward the steps. He had to make
    sure Devin was all right. They had come back to carnage in the
    backyard, and Mercy didn’t see Devin anywhere. He was worried out
    of his mind. There was so much blood in the backyard that Mercy felt
    queasy.
    The four of them had stopped and dropped the human teenagers
    off at a well-known friend’s house on their way back. Mercy knew