Claws // Colby Brock

💫16 💫

I snapped instantly. "You didn't seem so annoyed by my mouth yesterday."

He smiled and this time, he was the one who didn't respond. The smile was enough — teasing and smug that he'd gotten the response he wanted.

"Are you done flirting?" asked Mike. "Sam's been waiting to speak."

Both of us turned our attention to Sam, who looked like he was about to throw hands at Mike for whatever reason. But he regained his composure and awkwardly shuffled for his phone in his pocket, unlocking it and chucking it the short distance to Colby. He caught it easily, of course.

And sighed. "Really?"

I peered across the space between us to see a news article about strange attacks happening at the beach at night — people going missing, that sort of thing. I didn't think it was a big deal despite knowing about vampires, as there was always someone law enforcement would end up blaming and condemning, but Colby looked utterly frustrated by it.

"They didn't learn their lesson," Sam muttered through a heavy breath. "We can't let them off easy this time, we've gotta kill them."

"We didn't let them off easy last time, they escaped before we could even think to kill them," Colby grumbled.

I decided to rein in my attitude and speak in a light, questioning voice, no matter how annoyed I was no one was explaining to me — the supposed newcomer in their eyes — what they were talking about. "Who is it?"

Sam opened his mouth to speak, but Colby cut him off in a sharp tone. "The bastards who changed Kat without her permission."

I turned to Katrina, frowning, and she gave me a little smile. "Yeah, this wasn't my choice. It's a long story."

"Could I hear it?" I asked.

"What's your opinion of me?"

I frowned. "Why does that matter?"

"Because if you like her, knowing the full story behind these guys will piss you off and you'll be too unpredictable to bring with us," Mike replied simply, giving me a look. "Trust me, they're assholes, but the less you know for now, the better."

Going into a fight where I didn't know what was going on was fairly normal for me, coming from a pack, but I didn't want this to be like that. If they truly wanted me to join the clan, nothing could remind me of back then. So, in a moment of clarity, I looked at Colby. He was in the middle of handing Sam's phone back to him but when he caught my gaze, he saw the question in my eyes.

He hesitated for a few moments, then looked at Kat. "Tell her."

"What if she-"

"Tell her," he snarled, cutting Mike off.

Mike started muttering something about how terrible an idea it was, while Katrina drew in a breath in preparation. She leaned toward me and in turn, I twisted toward her.

"I came into this group the same way as Devyn, Tara and Cassie. These guys have been friends since before they met us — well, Devyn's always been with Corey but for the other three of us, it's actually somewhat new. When I met these guys, I was human and had met Sam. We were dating, but we weren't that far along in our relationship yet.

"One night he took me to the beach with Colby, Corey and Devyn, but something went wrong with the job the rest of the clan were on, so the three of them had to leave. That left just me and Sam.

"It was going kinda well and nothing bad happened until one of the guys who'd escaped from the job found us. Knowing Sam was a part of the clan, he almost killed him, and the only way to save him was to get involved, so I did. I didn't know what was going on, I didn't even know vampires existed, I just tried to pull the guy off and he ended up realising I was human.

"It was his sick way of torturing Sam, to turn me instead of kill me. I was forced into the whole thing. All the pain of the change..."

She shook her head.

"Everything was different after that. I didn't and still don't blame Sam for what happened, but at the time, I was frightened. I broke up with him and even after Devyn and Tara came to bring me into the group, we just never restarted our relationship. It was short anyway and we're good as friends."

I turned toward Sam for his reaction to everything. He was nodding, no sign of distress or anger in his features. He was content with being just friends with Katrina, as she genuinely seemed to be, too. I'd never seen a healthy break up like that in my life.

Maybe Kian and I had greeted each other politely and there hadn't been bad blood necessarily, but that was because I didn't hold grudges and he didn't think he'd done anything wrong back then. The initial break up had been awful, brutal.

Regardless of how content they both seemed, this guy had ruined what could have flourished into a beautiful relationship for them. I could see the chemistry they had and imagining them together was easy. But life fucked with shit all the time.

"So, not only did this guy change your entire life by basically killing you," I started, summarising, "but he also broke up you and Sam?" My jaw was ticking at the thought, the very rage Mike had mentioned before beginning to rise up.

"Amira, we don't need you fucking this up. This guy's a flight risk. If you attack too early, he and most of his new clan will disappear before we get a chance to kill them," Mike pointed out sternly, narrowing his eyes across the room.

"I get that," I snapped, "but what makes them so special? Why are they able to escape when everyone else you guys encounter gets killed?"

Colby sighed. "One of their group is as strong as me."

"So?"

"So, Aiden understands that any of his crew besides that woman are expendable, whilst none of mine are. He'll send her right at us with his entire force by her side, and if she gets just one of us, we'll retreat. I won't accept casualties."

"Sweet," I muttered sarcastically, crossing my arms and glaring at my own lap. I didn't like this. Tactics were annoying. I'd rather just jump into battle and say fuck it, than have to consider what we would need to do and actually stick to it. I was driven by instinct and my temper, not my mind.

"You're gonna have to let us put a leash on you" — I snapped my attention to Colby — "otherwise you aren't coming with us."

I reached over to flick him right on his temple, though he hardly reacted to it. "Ass. You haven't made it clear what their 'strategy' is. Do they flee, or do they throw everything they've got?"

Mike pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's the thing, there's no way to know which course of action they'll take."

"So they're unpredictable, huh? Have you ever considered that unpredictable matches unpredictable?"

"We can't afford any losses," Kevin reminded me gently, his normal demeanour replaced by a serious, agitated posture.

"Just consider it," I growled at them, rising to my feet. "You've seen what I'm capable of, and for fuck's sake I'm basically a dog. I'm loyal. So if you need me to protect any of you, I'm there probably already doing it."

Mike frowned. "You're not completely wrong, there is something different this time."

"Yeah, you have me."

"Do we?"

I twisted my upper body to look at Colby, whose head was titled up to stare back. There was something about his tone that was different to usual, and I sensed the alternative meaning easily.

"Do we have you?"

This was no ordinary question, but luckily I had an answer for him. A simple one. "Yes. You have me."

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