Page 111 of Shifters Awakening

Mentally, I reached for Emma, pushing every ounce of strength I had left toward her. “Shift!”

“I’m trying!” she screamed, shaking so hard a cup turned over, spilling a dark red brew over the edge of the table and down the legs. “He’s in my head!”

Olivia leaped into the room and dropped her hand onto my shoulder, and I delved her, dragging her magic into me to share with Emma too. Torbin stopped beside me and pressed his bear nose to my side.

“Use our powers, Emma!” I roared, gritting my teeth to keep from shattering into a million pieces as more and more power funneled through me.

Emma’s eyes widened. Her eyebrows furrowed as she focused on us. A moment later, a tornado exploded in the room, swirling around us, scattering color everywhere,buffeting her hair. She yanked hard on the cuffs, breaking the chains.

She leaped onto the table, shifting to a Kodiak bear in a blink, splintering the table beneath her. Her roar echoed in the chamber, and she charged toward Acheron as the last raven disappeared into him.

Acheron jumped to the side but couldn’t avoid her completely, and she knocked him to the side. He climbed to his feet and pressed a bloody palm toward her.

She changed to a cheetah and leaped onto his back, a cobra and bit his foot, and a black rhino, charging into him and easily tossing Acheron into the farthest wall. The mage landed with a crunch, but he climbed to his feet once more.

He charged toward the metal tube beside the table where he’d bound Emma.

Behind us, a panther’s scream cut through the tumult, and Marcus leaped onto Torbin’s back. I hissed as I prepared to attack the traitor, but Olivia squeezed my shoulder.

“He’s on our side,” she howled.

Marcus’s yellow eyes burned brightly as he added his magic to ours.

Kill him. Kill him.

Our thoughts pulsed together, through me, and into Emma.

“Now, Emma!” I yelled, barely able to maintain the funnel the amount of magic moving through me. I groaned, gritting my teeth, and heat moved through my bones.

Flynn and Jasper darted into the bunker, trailing a horde of Acheron’s shifters behind them. They yapped, the cacophony of panic clear.

“We’re running out of time!” I yelled.

Emma crouched down, pressing her hands to the floor.

Acheron whirled toward me with his hand outstretched, his face a mirror of my own. “No!”

Balefire slammed into my chest, and I dropped to my knees as all the others exploded backward in the bunker, the link between us now broken.

I’m sorry, Emma. I’m not strong enough.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

emma

Now, Emma!

Logan’s roar echoed in my head, breaking through the last of the magical restraints keeping my magic from me. When I had reached for him, my mate’s alpha strength and the combination of all the alphas had flooded me, almost drowning me, and my fingers had uncoiled as multimorph power had engulfed me once more.

I crouched and pressed my hands to the ground drawing primal strength into me, and every bit of power from the alphas who had stood by my side since the beginning.

I will save you all!

Then I spun toward the spot where I knew our enemy stood, ready to rip him into a million pieces and protect the clans I now led.

“No!” Acheron yelled. He flung his hand toward Logan, and a stream of bright white shot out of his palm.

Logan dropped to his knees, his eyes bulging as balefire slammed into his chest, burned through him, and crashed into the concrete wall behind him.I’m sorry, Emma. I’m not strong enough.

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