Wearing pants for the very first time in my adult life, I climb up on Boots’s back as Merrick gets on behind me. After saying goodbye to Noah and Jenny, Merrick has remained completely silent. He’s clearly wrapped up in his own thoughts, and I wish he’d talk to me. Noah’s proclamation has returned now that we’re enjoying some silence, and I’m desperate for a conversational shift.
Something, anything to pull me from the what-ifs.
Ferris eats a piece of dried meat as he rides beside us, and MacKenna rides just ahead.
We take the path out of town, the horses’ hooves clicking against the stone bridge as we crest it. The second we reach the top, though, Merrick pulls Boots to a stop. MacKenna growls and my heart drops when I get a look at what’s waiting for us. Half a dozen of the king’s soldiers glare back at us with carnal sneers.
Blades in hand, a single look at them makes their intentions quite clear. My stomach churns with nerves, adrenaline pushing through my system.
“Fuck,” Merrick snarls.
“I’ll go speak with them,” Ferris offers.
“No, let me.” I try to wiggle out of the seat, but Merrick’s arm banded around my waist keeps me firmly in place.
“They will kill you, Beta.”
“No, they won’t. The king needs me alive, remember?”
He doesn’t speak right away, his eyes flashing a bright gold then returning to their normal shade. Shit, he’s starting to lose it.
“Let me down, Merrick. Come with me, but we need to do something.”
He urges Boots forward, and Ferris falls into step behind us on his horse. MacKenna moves to walk directly between us, his lips pulled back in a snarl.
With every step taking us closer, I get a better look at the two men leading this capture/kill party. At least, that’s what the king used to call them when he wanted one person alive and the rest—less so.
Unfortunately, I don’t recognize them. Though, given my history at the castle, that may not actually be such a bad thing.
“Princess,” the man in front greets. “I have orders to take you back to the king.”
“You can try,” Merrick taunts.
He releases me, so I climb down, and then he follows, standing right beside me as we remain a few yards away from the soldiers. “You’re not taking me anywhere,” I tell them. “I do not belong to the kingdom of Aurum anymore.”
“You belong to your father, girl. You and your husband,” another man sneers.
The first man glares over his shoulder at him then replaces his cool façade as he shifts his gaze back to me. “With all due respect, Princess, you are currently on Aurum lands. As such, the king has the right to take possession of anyone at any time.”
“You’re not touching her,” Merrick growls as he steps ahead of me, placing himself between me and the soldiers.
The man in front slides his sword from its sheathe. “I fear we must insist.”
Merrick turns back to Boots and rips his blade free. Ferris jumps down, his own blade drawn. MacKenna snarls and stalks forward—a beast ready to devour.
“It’s two men and their pet against seven,” the guard replies. “You do not stand a chance.”
“This is your final warning,” Ferris growls. “Before we rip you to pieces.”
The guard looks over his shoulder. “Take her.”
They charge. Merrick shoves me backward, and I fall to the ground. His steel meets that of the guards’ as they fight. Ferris lets out a loud growl and throws himself at the nearest guards. They charge Merrick and his uncle, clearly confident that they have outmatched us.
MacKenna moves like a predator. He tears, shreds, growls, and dodges blades at every turn.
Two men notice me at the back.
They start toward me. I turn to sprint back toward the village, but with sickening terror, I realize somehow we were flanked. Four more guards stand on the other side. No way back, no way across.
“Kiya!” Merrick roars.
I whirl as a blade is shoved into Ferris’s gut. “No!” Grief and terror fight for control over my emotions, but neither stand a chance because, at that moment, Merrick’s beast explodes out of him in a mess of teeth, claws, and fur. It’s even more violent a shift than the morning in the village, and the sight of him contorting that way makes my stomach roll.
The men stop fighting, scrambling back quickly. But Merrick’s monster does not give them a chance to retreat. He attacks, ripping the head off the main guard with his massive jaws. He whirls around and slashes out, gutting another.
An arm bands around my waist and rips me back. I kick and try to scream, but a sweaty hand is clamped over my mouth.
They drag me back, pulling me farther and farther away from Merrick. But he’s too fast.
He charges toward me. The guards not holding me try to fight him off, but just like their seven fallen brethren, Merrick’s beast absolutely decimates them. Something cool presses against my throat.
“Move and I kill her. Do you understand me, beast?” Pain stings where the blade bites into my flesh.
“Let him,” I tell Merrick. “Do not let this asshole get away with what they did to Ferris.”
The blade is pressed in farther and then—it’s gone.
I’m shoved forward to the ground, my forehead slamming into the stone of the bridge. Head pounding, I scramble back and get to my feet. Something warm and sticky drips down my face, blurring my vision, but I can still make out a man wearing amethyst robes standing just behind the guard who is currently on his knees.
“You’d better finish it,” Noah says, tone calm and collected.
Merrick’s beast steps forward. The guard stares up at him, tears in his eyes, but he doesn’t speak. And then—with a sickening crunch as Merrick’s beast crushes the man’s throat with his jaws—it’s over.
Noah drops his hand and steps forward but stops when Merrick’s beast lets out a low warning growl. “I can help your uncle,” he says, reaching into his robe to withdraw a salve that looks suspiciously like the antidote for wolfsbane.
“Let him,” I tell Merrick’s beast. “He’s a friend.”
Merrick’s beast drops his head but watches carefully as Noah makes his way over to Ferris. I follow, falling to my knees beside him. Behind me, the beast remains, ever watching.
MacKenna turns toward us, his white fur covered in bright red blood.
Taking Ferris’s hand in mine, I try to hide my fear when Noah lifts his shirt and gives me a look at the massive gaping wound.
“Not too bad,” Ferris chokes out.
“Hold still,” Noah orders. “This is not going to be pleasant.” After uncorking the vial, he pours it into the open wound.
Ferris arches up off the ground, face reddening. I squeeze his hand.
Noah holds his hand over the open wound and closes his eyes. Color snaps around his fingertips, and I’m helpless to look away, a moth drawn to the flame of his power. It’s incredible, this show of magic.
But what I find even more incredible than that is the way Ferris’s flesh tightly knits back together, leaving behind crusted blood as the only evidence he was ever wounded.
He takes a deep breath when Noah drops his hand.
“Thank you.”
“Of course. Wolfsbane coated blades.” Noah shakes his head. “Would have killed you in seconds. They are truly terrified.’
“Or simply sadistic,” I snap back as I release Ferris’s hand and stand. Merrick’s uncle gets to his feet, and together we take in the carnage littering the bridge.
“Do not worry about the bodies, we will take care of them.” Noah turns his head to the sky. “Rain tonight will wash away the blood.”
“Your people will not tell the king what they saw?”
“Even if they were to have witnessed the fight and change, no. They certainly will tell the king of a group of his soldiers being slaughtered by an unknown animal on the bridge.” He turns to Merrick’s beast and studies him closely. “The one and only time I have seen this creature up close, he nearly ripped my throat out.”
“Kiya calms him,” Ferris explains as he wipes the blade of his sword on a cloak of the fallen. “Likely the mate bond.”
“Interesting.” Noah turns to me. “You had better get going so I can run screaming back to the village.”
“How did you even hear us if they didn’t?”
He grins. “Magic.”