Taken by the Beast by Natasha Knight Page B

their guns are loaded with the anti-shift drug, but it’s only saline. However, if the girl gets hit, the impact will cause injury or worse. There’s a car waiting for you with fresh clothes and some supplies just north of the front gates, about a mile’s walk along the road. I’d suggest keeping to the woods until you get there, though. Keys are in the ignition; it’s a black Range Rover, tinted windows. You’re down to twelve minutes now before the drug will wear off completely.”
    “Why are you doing this? Helping us?”
    “Because they are misinformed,” he said. “I only ask one thing,” he continued.
    “What’s that?”
    “Kill Phillip.”
    “Slowly and with pleasure.”
    “Hang your head when they come in; the drug will usually knock you out when first administered,” Eric said, walking to the door.
    Elijah looked after him. “Eric,” he said.
    Eric turned.
    “I hope for your sake this isn’t some trick.”
    “No tricks up my sleeve,” Eric said, lifting his arms as if to prove the point. He walked out the door and the guards returned.
    Elijah narrowed his eyes, letting his body hang in the restraints. The men took up their posts at the door. As soon as the doors closed behind Eric, one of them men mumbled something and the other one laughed. Elijah wondered about Eric Maddox, wondered about why he was helping him. He stored the thought that Marcus and Collin might still be alive in the back of his mind. Hope swelled inside him, but Kayla was his first priority. He needed to get to her before Phillip hurt her. Although Eric had said she’d be safe, that they needed her, he didn’t trust that Phillip wouldn’t think of some way to torture her. She would be helpless to defend herself.
    Closing his eyes, he concentrated his senses. If he listened hard, he could just make out her breath. Phillip’s voice came over it, a mumble, some laughter. She was frightened. No, scared as hell.
    He opened his eyes, but kept his body limp. His muscles tingled, that familiar sensation just before the quick pain of shifting flooded him. He welcomed it today, needed it to come fast. He needed to get to Kayla.
    After the sharp pain, his thick paws broke through the restraints. He would have roared, but he needed the element of surprise.
    “Crap!” one of the guards called out, but Elijah quieted him quickly and while the other guard fumbled with his gun, Elijah’s jaws closed around his throat, killing him almost instantly.
    The door opened and another guard entered, weapon drawn, but apparently hadn’t expected what he found. Elijah pounced on him, this time unable to contain his roar as he tore into the man’s flesh. He felt violent, alive, and attacked the next two who came his way, any bullets that were fired missing him as he moved too quickly for human eyes. Keeping his senses around him, he followed her scent through the corridor and down the stairs. The door behind which he knew she was opened and a rain of bullets flew past him. One hit, throwing him down for a moment, then a second.
    “Kill him!” came Phillip’s voice.
    What the guards and Phillip didn’t know though was that they were the ones about to die. He attacked the guards with a violence worse than what he’d done upstairs, remembering their hands on Kayla, touching her, hurting her. His roar shook the place and when the guards were dead, he entered the room, shifting to his human form as a terrified Kayla watched.
    Phillip held a gun to her head. His hand shook and Elijah smelled his fear.
    “Piss yourself, Phillip?” he asked, stalking closer.
    “Stay where you are or she dies.”
    “You’re right about someone dying, but it’s not going to be her.”
    “I mean it, Elijah.” Phillip’s voice trembled and Elijah hesitated to take a chance with Kayla there. But he wanted to kill Phillip with his bare human hands. Still faster than the average human, Elijah lunged over to Kayla and threw the older man into the counter behind