They entered the clearing from every side. Hunter’s huge brindled wolf was flanked by two ginger-haired canines and one gray—my entire pack united at last. From the other direction, Wolfie and his mate soared forward ahead of an even larger number of furry marauders, their feet moving so quickly that pads barely touched the ground.
Without conscious thought, I reached out with the pack sense to greet them. But the only tether I found was the one linking me to Hunter. Every other thread of the tangled cat’s cradle that had recently bound our small clan together had since disintegrated into the warm summer night.
Still, the glowing strand linking me to my mate remained, and I couldn’t resist brushing the lightest finger across our tantalizing connection. In response, my mate immediately turned his head to meet my gaze with eyes that glowed pale gold in the returning moonlight.
Thank you for coming, I told him, not sure he’d hear the words but knowing my mate would at least see the welcome in my eyes.
Thank you for calling me, he answered, his reply clear and warm within my mind.
The simple sentence was a soothing balm plastering over the aching hole in my gut, and my hunched shoulders settled down from around my ears for the first time since I’d cast Hunter out of our shared hotel room thirty-six hours earlier. My relief was almost tangible.
But there wasn’t time for further honeyed words because Quill didn’t give up easily. I smelled bananas—a preemptive strike against Hunter’s uber-alpha abilities—and then the air around me was abruptly consumed by dense black smoke.
Coughing, I stumbled with watering eyes toward where I thought Lia and Savannah might have been located. It was impossible to see the girls through the haze, but I was able to use my bond with Hunter as a guideline to orient me in the abrupt pitch darkness. Just a few more steps this way....
Then hairs abruptly stood erect on my arms as Quill transformed far too close to my exhausted human body. His wolf was invisible amidst the fumes, but I could tell my enemy was present as easily as I could tell that Hunter was still racing toward me. The former’s hunger and anger were a palpable presence now, and I knew without being told that Quill had one intention and one intention alone—to eat at least one halfie heart before he fled the field of battle this night.
No! I screamed within my own mind. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—let my opponent leap atop the girls we’d all converged upon this clearing to protect.
So, despite the fact that my adversary now boasted sharp teeth and claws to back up his claims, I stepped boldly in front of him. “You’ll have to go through me first,” I whispered harshly. I couldn’t muster any impressive volume due to a smoke-tightened throat, but I was pretty sure grimness would get the message across.
My enemy didn’t appear at all chastened though. Instead, he continued to stalk closer until I could see his wolf easily through the man-made fog. The huge dark shape was so near, in fact, that I could have reached out and patted his tremendous head.
Not that I wanted to. Not when Quill appeared to be elated at the opportunity to snare me instead of the weaker teenagers.
I could feel the SSS member’s hot breath on my bare shin when he halted, opening his mouth into a lupine snarl wrought with anticipation. Hard animal eyes bored into mine and I found myself unable to move. My chest tightened and my vision tunneled, even my heart slowing its beat in the face of Quill’s silent compulsion.
So this is what death looks like.
And then a huge brindled wolf was flying through the air toward my opponent. Hunter didn’t bother with a warning blow, simply landed atop the other beast’s back and crunched down with iron jaws. Immediately, Quill shuddered, legs losing their ability to hold him upright as his spine snapped. Life fled his dark eyes in an instant.
Rather than letting his deceased prey go, though, Hunter instead fell to the ground with his enemy’s ruff still firmly clamped between his teeth. Then the uber-alpha shook his head so vigorously that blood splattered through the air and landed on my cheek.
I didn’t look away as my mate tore into the shifter who had killed innocent women and who had tried to do the same to me and my friends. For long moments, the uber-alpha growled and ripped and battered, not stopping until Quill had become an unrecognizable lump of meat and fur splayed across the wet ground.
My mate was a beast. He was wild and rough and barbaric.
And utterly glorious.
I could hardly take my eyes away from Hunter’s welcome form long enough to peer out through the thinning fog. But I had to check on the rest of my pack, and especially on the teenage girls who had so recently been lying atop twin sacrificial altars in preparation for losing their hearts.
Because there was still that final uninjured SSS male to deal with. Savannah had taken down one captor with a pencil to the eye, Hunter had made short work of the other, but Mick was still unaccounted for.
I hoped that with so many shifters rushing to our aid, Lia and Savannah would have been safe from the final shifter’s aggression. But I wouldn’t believe it until I saw the girls with my own eyes. So I wrenched my gaze away from Hunter’s depredations with an effort and scanned the clearing.
The first form I was able to pick out through the clearing smoke was Ginger, the trouble twin resembling nothing so much as an avenging goddess as she stood two-legged and naked beneath the moon. Her brother was still in fur form at her feet, while Glen surged upward into humanity even as he caught my eye. In response to my questioning gaze, my steadfast beta stepped aside as soon as his transformation was complete, allowing me to take in the huddle of female limbs on the ground behind him.
I caught my breath. No! We’d been too late. I’d been too late.
But then Lia moved, the knife in her right hand slicing through the final rope binding her friend in place. And the two girls rose arm in arm, stiff and a little wary but also clearly giddy with relief. They bounced and hugged with the resilience of youth, wide smiles opening their faces as they realized they were encircled by friends instead of enemies at last.
Just as I was now being encircled by Hunter’s strong arms. He was flecked with guts and goo, but I didn’t care. I squeezed him so hard I thought I might break a rib, and he hugged me back with equal vigor.
For the first time in days, my muscles relaxed and my wolf released her wary stance. We’d succeeded. We’d survived.
And with Hunter in my arms, I was finally home.