Page 88 of Alpha Exile

Not so fast.Delphine tugshard,tightening the leash into a noose.

The mating bonds fall from my mind, leaving nothing behind but my own strength. A strength that falters with doubt and indecision for a brief moment.

Her will flows into that moment to consume mine.

My eyes land on Bastian, and I hear his hesitant voice in my head.Lance?

Then, with a snarl that's not of my own making, I rush towards him in a powerful attack.

Thirty-Six

Bastian

Scrambling back, I dodge and roll as Lance leaps towards me—and over me, landing in the sand on his massive white paws.

Now would be a good time for Delilah to finish healing Finn and come out swinging Gregor's dagger.

Unfortunately, instead of that happening, Lance swings his head towards me, lips peeled back, and snarls.

His blood drips into the sand, each drop sizzling as it lands.

Someone? Help?

Kieran responds grimly,On my way.

A moment later Lance leaps again.

"Oh, what a sight to see." Delphine sighs exaggeratedly as I dodge to one side, breath leaving my body as my flank hits the sand. "It's such a tragedy. Perhaps I'll put the Sex Stones into him—see what unbridled lust does with all that coiled strength."

She smiles, watching as I do my best to keep my front towards bothherand Lance, who's now getting flanked by a wary Kieran. Reaching into her satchel, she pulls out a set of glowing purple gemstones and calls out casually, "Make him bleed, so I can have him too."

I tense, watching Lance's body coil, prepared to dodge another attack as well.

Kieran tenses too, his gaze flicking from Delphine, to Lance, back to the tunnels, assessing the growing threat.

Lance snarls, his lips peeling further back, his body so tense that he looks like he might pop a blood vessel.

Then he races forward, gathering his haunches and leaping to attack—Delphine.

She looks shocked as she's brought down to the ground, his white fangs sinking into her neck, his claws shoving her shoulders down into the sand. I know Ifeelshocked, and I'm not even the one it's happening to.

Help me subdue her,Lance calls out, snarling around a mouthful of her neck.And grab those stones while you're at it.

Kieran says,You heard the man.

I race towards them, shifting to human form at the last moment. Shoving my fingers into the sand, I find the purple gemstones first, but the blue ones from earlier are hard to find. Delphine is struggling, howling and bucking just like Roarke did, while around us her magic whips up to a frenzy.

"Got them!" I pull the purple gemstones out and clutch them in my fist, watching as Kieran grabs Delphine's ankle in his jaw and shakes her like she's a ragdoll. "Now what?"

Get Delilah to bring the knife,Kieran says, just before Delphine kicks him in the head so hard that he's thrown. As he scrambles back to bite her other ankle, he adds,Hurry.

I'm not sure if the Spirit Eyes will stay with me in wolf form, so I hold them against my chest and pump my human legs as fast as I can, racing towards the tunnel's opening.

Winds whip around me with each step, and the ground seems to shift at my feet, not just because it's sand. I'm halfway to the tunnel when I go down, falling on my chest and nearly losing the stones. Jerking on my right ankle, I look down to find that a tendril of vine is snaked around it, cutting into my skin until I bleed.

Delphine howls, throwing Lance off her. She rises to her feet with black eyes, holding her hands up above her head. Kieran is barely able to keep his fangs in her ankle as she calls to her magic, and around us, every living and not-living thing seems to answer.

The earth rumbles, clouds gather in the sky, rain washes down in a sudden torrent, and the vine snaking around my ankle is joined by a dozen others.

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