Page 96 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

All the Velesians were deadly in their own way. The ailuranthropes—usually just called ailurans or panthers—weren’t the biggest. Both ursanthropes—bear shifters—and lycanthropes—wolf shifters—were larger than them, but the ailurans were the fastest, and their feline bodies allowed more flexibility in a fight.

I’d never actually seen Bastian fight, but I had no doubt he would be vicious. And he was no doubt very pissed off at us right now.

Vail shoved me behind him but didn’t draw the sword strapped across his back. Instead, his hand hovered near the large dagger on his hip. He understood the situation just as well as I did. We were on Velesian land without permission. If we killed one of them . . . the fragile alliance between our people would shatter.

And it would be all our fault.

“I can explain.” I stepped around Vail with my hands held out to my sides and dodged his hand when he tried to make a grab for me. The panther’s ears flattened back against his head before releasing a high-pitched snarl, and Vail pulled his dagger free. “Let’s just calm down,” I said frantically. “This is all just a misunders?—”

Bastian let out a startled cry as a large, white wolf plowed into his side. The ailuran went flying, his body slamming into a thick tree trunk with a resoundingcrack. Several green vines immediately shot forward, clearly thinking they had just found their next meal. They wrapped around the unconscious beast as the bark down the center of the trunk started to split apart, revealing a dark, cavernous mouth.

“Damn it, Rynn!” I hissed and lunged forward to cut the panther free. Vail joined me a second later, and between the two of us, we managed to free and drag Bastian a safe distance away from the apparently carnivorous tree. I eyed the othertrees suspiciously but couldn’t tell if they shared the same food tastes.

Fucking Velesian forests.

Bastian wouldn’t be unconscious for long. Velesians healed the slowest out of all the Moon Blessed, but they could still heal from just about anything, and unlike the Moroi, they didn’t need spells or blood to do it. We needed to figure out a plan to fix this mess. Fast.

“Change back.” I glared at the white wolf, whose back was higher than my waistline. Granted, I wasn’t that tall, but Rynn’s wolf form was massive. She exhaled sharply before turning away from me, a clear dismissal, and I fought the urge to strangle her.

I’d had everything under control before she’d decided to come barreling in. Mostly under control. Well, I’d possibly had things under control.

It wasn’t like we could just leave. Bastian would wake up any minute now, and he would absolutely track us. It was hard enough to avoid the Velesians when they didn’t know about our presence. We had zero chance of outrunning Bastian in these woods. Not to mention he would report this to Cade, and then we’d have the might of the Alpha Pack falling down on us.

Rynn’s involvement only further complicated things.

“Fuck, I wish Kieran were here,” I muttered and rubbed my face. Kier had a real talent for smoothing things over.

“It’s good he’s not,” a deep voice drawled. Vail and I whirled around, Rynn somehow already between us and the enormous man who had managed to sneak up on us.

“We like Kieran,” another voice rasped from behind us, forcing us to turn so we could keep both Velesians in our sights. “It’d be a shame to have to kill him along with you.”

Rynn had been eying the first man warily, but she full-on growled at the second, aggression radiating off her. He cockedhis head in a very wolflike gesture, a bright sheen rolling over his crystal blue eyes.

“Ryker,” I said evenly to the man Rynn was snarling at in a way I’d never seen her do to anyone before. Then my gaze slid to the larger man. “Cade.”

I didn’t know Ryker all that well, but Cade I’d met fairly regularly, since he spoke for all the Velesians. He was quite possibly the only person I’d ever met who towered over Vail. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had to twist his ridiculously broad frame just to fit through doorways. Usually, his light brown eyes were calm, sometimes even welcoming if he was in a particularly good mood.

Today, they were cold and predatory.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Samara,” Cade said in a chillingly calm voice. “And you definitely shouldn’t have attacked Bastian after that shit you pulled at the human settlement.”

Guess that answered the question of whether Bastian had tattled on us to Cade. I never doubted he would, just hoped that maybe he hadn’t had time to do it yet.

“We had our reasons.” I glanced at the panther and then back at Cade. “You know me, and you know Vail. Trust that we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our relationship with the Velesians, and definitely not with the Alpha Pack.”

“If you wanted our trust, you shouldn’t have kicked Bastian out of your lands.” He shrugged. “And definitely shouldn’t have snuck into ours. Your pretty face and words aren’t going to get you out of this one.”

“Think carefully about what you say next.” Vail slid the long, curved dagger free from his hip.

Cade smiled. “Looks like we might get that fight we’ve been spoiling for all these years after all.” He took a step forward, a blade similar to Vail’s appearing in his right handbefore a raspy growl sounded from Ryker as tension bled through the air.

“STOP!” Rynn barked, her chest still heaving from shifting to her human form. “They’re here at my invitation.” She raised her chin high, exuding authority despite standing there naked while surrounded by males who towered over her. “As a member of the Alpha Pack, it is within my right to invite others into our territory. Bastian was interfering, and I was merely putting him in his place.”

“Funny.” Cade gave Rynn a flat look. “Only a couple of hours ago, you were telling me to take my pack and shove it up my ass.”

“You must have misheard on account of your thick skull.”

What in the actual fuck had gotten into my mild-tempered friend?

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