Aria's POV
I froze, my brain unable to process the next course of action. But then, unannounced, the window exploded inward in a shower of glass.
A huge black wolf crashed through, landing between me and the assassins.
The wolf was massive, bigger than any I'd seen before, with dark fur and bright blue eyes that I recognized immediately.
Lucian. He'd jumped through a fifth-floor window to get to me.
The two assassins barely had time to react before Lucian attacked.
The first guy tried to punch him but Lucian dodged and his jaws clamped down on the guy's arm. There was a sickening crunch and the guy screamed.
The second assassin with the knife tried to stab Lucian in the side but Lucian twisted and the blade only caught his shoulder. Blood sprayed but Lucian didn't even slow down.
He released the first guy's arm and went for his throat instead. I had to look away.
The third assassin, the one who'd been in the hallway, burst through the broken door. He was already shifted into his wolf form and he was huge, almost as big as Lucian.
He went straight for Lucian's exposed back while Lucian was still dealing with the other two.
"Lucian, behind you!" I screamed.
Lucian spun around just in time but the impact of the other wolf's body sent them both crashing into the furniture. The coffee table shattered under their combined weight.
I needed to help him.
I grabbed the fallen silver knife from where the second assassin had dropped it. My hands burned where they touched the silver handle but I ignored it.
The second assassin was getting back up, one hand pressed to his bleeding side where Lucian had torn into him.
He saw me with the knife and smiled like he thought I wouldn't actually use it.
He was wrong.
When he lunged at me again, I didn't hesitate. I drove the silver knife straight into his chest.
His eyes went wide with shock and he looked down at the knife sticking out of his body like he couldn't believe what just happened.
He collapsed and didn't get back up.
I looked at my hands and they were shaking. I'd just killed someone. Actually killed someone.
There wasn't time to process it.
Lucian was still fighting the third assassin and they were destroying my hotel room. Claws and teeth and blood everywhere.
The hotel fire alarm started blaring and I could hear people screaming in the hallway.
We needed to get out of here before the human authorities showed up.
Lucian finally got the upper hand on the third wolf. He had him pinned against the wall by his throat and the guy was struggling but couldn't break free.
"Who sent you?" Lucian growled and his voice came out rough and scary even in human form. He'd shifted back at some point during the fight and was now standing there covered in blood and broken glass, completely naked and not caring at all.
"F…f**k you," the assassin choked out.
Lucian's hand tightened. "Wrong answer."
"Bella…Bella Caldwell," the guy gasped. "She paid us…to make sure…the Luna didn't make it…to the Council meeting."
"Who else knows about this?" Lucian demanded.
"Just us…and Alpha Marcus…he approved it…"
Lucian looked at me and I could see the question in his eyes. What did I want him to do with this guy?
Part of me wanted him to finish it, to kill this wolf who'd tried to murder me. But the logical part of my brain knew we needed him alive.
"Let him live," I said. "We can use him as a witness at the Council hearing."
Lucian looked like he wanted to argue but he nodded. He slammed the assassin's head against the wall hard enough to knock him out cold, then let him drop to the floor.
The hotel alarm was still going off and I could hear sirens in the distance. Human police were coming.
"We need to leave now," Lucian said. He grabbed a blanket from my destroyed bed and wrapped it around his waist, then bent down and hoisted the unconscious assassin over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. "Can you grab whatever you need? We're not coming back here."
"I'm fine," I said and looked around at my destroyed room. There was nothing here I couldn't replace anyway.
Lucian adjusted the unconscious wolf on his shoulder. "Stay close to me."
He grabbed my arm gently with his free hand and led me toward the door, stepping over the bodies of the other two assassins.
The first one Lucian had attacked was definitely dead. The second one I'd stabbed wasn't moving either.
We made it to the hallway and it was chaos. Hotel guests were running everywhere, some in their pajamas, all of them scared and confused.
A few people stared at Lucian carrying an unconscious man over his shoulder but in all the panic, no one stopped us.
Lucian pulled me close to his side and we moved fast toward the emergency stairs, trying to blend in with the crowd of people evacuating.
We were almost to the stairwell when someone called out.
"Stop right there!"
I turned and saw hotel security running toward us, along with what looked like the manager.
F**k.
"Sir, were you in room 507?" the manager asked, looking at Lucian's blanket-wrapped situation and the unconscious man on his shoulder with obvious suspicion. "We had reports of a disturbance—"
"Gas leak," Lucian said smoothly, not missing a beat. "The room had a gas leak and we barely made it out before everything started exploding. My brother here got knocked out by the fumes. You might want to evacuate this whole floor."
The manager's face went pale. "Gas leak? But we just had the lines inspected last month—"
"Well clearly something was missed," Lucian cut him off. "Now if you'll excuse us, I need to get my wife and my brother out of this building before anything else explodes."
He didn't wait for a response, just pulled me into the stairwell and we started running down the stairs as fast as we could with the extra weight.
"Your wife and your brother?" I said as we ran.
"It was the first thing I thought of," Lucian said and I could hear a hint of amusement in his voice despite everything. "You got a better cover story?"
"Not really, no."
We made it to the parking garage and Lucian led me to his car.
He dumped the unconscious assassin in the trunk, then somehow still had his keys even though he was basically naked under that blanket.
"How did you even—" I started.
"I keep a spare key in my wolf form," he explained as he unlocked the car. "Get in."
I got into the passenger seat and he got in on the driver's side, starting the car with hands that were still covered in blood.
We peeled out of the parking garage just as the first police cars were pulling up to the hotel entrance.