Merl just growled at her, like there were no human words vile enough for what he thought of her.
Jason just stared at him in shock. “What have you done, Merl?”
Merl huffed, and changed his tune, his voice becoming slightly whinny, “That’s not all of what happened, she’s got the facts wrong.”
“Lying sack of shit,” Shawna spat. “You killed Ralph. That’s all I need to know. It’s just a little extra pleasure for me that I get to take out a rapist in the name of revenge. Those are always my favorite.”
“What are you?” Merl snarled. “Ralph’s human piece of ass? You think you’re avenging some lost love? Since you know so much about wolves, you do realize if he gave a shit about you, he would have mated you.”
“I know how much he loved me.” Shawna’s voice cracked when she said it. “And now I’m going to show you how much I love him.”
She opened fire.
The first bullet struck Merl in the face. The bloody destruction would’ve killed a human, but she walked forward as he went down and fired in all the major points, head, heart, stomach, and groin.
Determined to do the job right, she emptied the rest of the magazine into his chest. He wasn’t going to heal up from that. Once the mag was empty, Shawna glared at Merl’s bloody body with the ringing of gunfire still vibrating in her ears.
It never felt as satisfying as she thought it should, but this time, at least she did right by Ralph. He’d been a good brother. She owed him this.
Two of the shifters behind Shawna lunged toward her. She fired the gun in her left hand. At the same time, she dropped the empty one in her right, before she went for the sawed-off shotgun strapped to her back. She shot both her would-be attackers in the legs with buckshot, knowing wounds like that would be easily survivable for shifters. It was only when vital organs were taken out repeatedly that silver bullets worked. These injuries wouldn’t cause any lasting damage, but they still went down screaming and cursing.
She turned so her back was to the wall and watched the men left standing. Jason hadn’t moved. The pack enforcer had just stood there and watched her kill Merl and maim his defenders, which was a very un-enforcer-like thing for Jason to do.
That was something.
“Okay.” She swiped her tongue over her bottom lip. “Now, I’m ready to leave. I’d like all of you boys to walk,” she glanced at the three on the floor, “or crawl toward the pool tables. I apologize for leaving a mess at your door. I usually clean up my own kills, but he was your mess to begin with.” Her gaze went to Jason. “Call Reddly before you decide to do your alpha’s bidding like these fools and hunt me down for taking out a pack mate. Merl was guilty as hell. I want to believe you have a sense of right and wrong. He killed someone I loved, and now it’s an even slate.”
“Maybe.” Jason kept his hands up. “But you know we can’t let you walk out of here.”
She lifted one of her guns pointedly. “You don’t have much choice in the matter.”
“If what you say is true, you’ll be fine, but our alpha will have to clear this before we let you go.”
“Oh, honey. Is that what you think? You’ll never get me to your alpha. I’ll shoot every single one of you to get out of here. No sweat.” She didn’t want to shoot Jason, he’d been a nice pup once, so she warned him, “I’ve been wolf hunting for over a decade, and I haven’t survived this long by making mistakes. I did your boys a favor by only shooting them in the legs. I don’t want to seriously hurt them or you, but I will.”
Shawna saw Jason narrow his eyes in concern. “Wolf hunting?”
“Every pack has a Merl. Or worse. I tend to even out the odds between my kind and yours by taking out your rabid doggies.”
He was silent for several heartbeats. “You leave it like this without speaking to our alpha, and we’ll have to come after you. I don’t want that, and you don’t either.”
Shawna tilted her head and questioned, “So, you’re going to hunt me for killing a rapist? For getting justice on a rabid asshole who murdered a good wolf to protect a human? Do you ever once use that doggy brain of yours and think that might be fucked up? That grabbing a woman and raping her might be a little wrong? Do you still have free thought, or did your alpha finally beat it out of you?”
“What are you talking about?” He frowned. “We don’t allow our wolves to rape humans.”
She snorted. “Sure, you don’t.”
“We don’t. Our alpha would have killed Merl himself if what you’re saying is true. This is not normal Nightwind behavior.”
Anger gripped Shawna. “Really, Jason?” She shoved her sawed off shotgun back into the holster on her back, freeing her hand, but kept ahold of her semi-automatic. She’d shoot anyone who moved toward her. She reached for the front of her jeans and unzipped them. Anger made her hands shake as she tore her jeans open and lifted up her tank top. She turned around, showing him her lower back. “Want to say that again?”
She stared at him over her shoulder, seeing Jason’s gaze drop to her exposed back and the skin just above her black thong undies. She knew what made him pale. Claw marks that deep never healed over well, especially on humans. His horrified gaze flew up to her face with unspoken knowing.
“He’d have to kill himself first. These are from your alpha.” She zipped her jeans and left her shirt un-tucked as she looked back to him. She pointed her semi-automatic at Jason. “Now I’m leaving. If anyone tries to stop me, I won’t be shooting legs anymore. I have no fight with you, now that Merl is taken care of, so don’t make me hurt you too. I just wanted Merl. Too bad he didn’t shift as requested. I was serious about wanting to mount his furry head on my mantel. It would have looked nice with the five other ones I have up there—the worst offenders. Now clear a path, enforcer. I’m done here. Keep your pack in line and I won’t ever breeze through your territory again.”
Jason was still frowning, but he didn’t move to stop her. “Everyone back away from her and do what she says.”
“She killed Merl,” one of them growled. “We just let were-hunters take us out now? We don’t fight back anymore?”
“I said back away and let her walk,” Jason snarled, glaring at the werewolf who’d spoken.
They walked or crawled toward the pool tables, all but Jason. He stood by his table, hands open, palms out, and silently watched her.
Shawna moved slowly; her gun trained so she could shoot anyone who came at her. She stepped back toward her coat and slowly reached for it. She tossed it over her arm. It would be a serious error in judgement to leave it. They’d use it to get her scent, instead of relying on memory alone, and losing them would be much more difficult. She didn’t make rookie mistakes like that twice. She also grabbed her discarded gun and backed toward the door.
“We’ll find you if you lied about Merl,” Jason warned.
“Yeah, but I’m not a liar. That’s not my way. Again, sorry about the mess on the floor. I tried to get him alone, but he practically lives at this bar. I have to be somewhere tomorrow, so I didn’t really have a choice.”