Page 35 of Fae Divided
Adam’s hand planted in the center of his chest. “Easy, Reed.”
The ghost of a smirk curled Daimhín’s lips, the smug expression doing nothing to detract from his unearthly allure. “Bring me the female,” he ordered Grayson, eyes on James.
“I don’t have her,” the Alpha replied with notable calm, hands shoved into his pockets.
Daimhín whirled and struck, fingers wrapping around Grayson’s throat and lifting him off the ground. The Fae seemed to grow in breadth and height, towering over him. “Explain.”
Grayson encircled the pureblood’s wrist with both hands, trying to relieve the pressure of two-hundred and eighty pounds of pure muscle dangling by a neck. But the fingertips hanging onto Daimhín’s forearm were blunt, as were his teeth. Dark brown irises regarded the Sídhe without a hint of yellow or trepidation. He didn’t struggle to escape the potential death-grip.
Did Tucker’s littermate want to die?
“I do not. Harm. Females.” Grayson’s chin jutted in the first sign of challenge since his master’s arrival.
“It has been several thousand years since the evolution of your race from simple forest beasts, and yet,” Daimhín said, throwing the large Ferwyn fifteen feet across the ground with a negligent toss, “you’re still ruled by animal instincts.”
Grayson got slowly to his feet, black claws extended, canines long and sharp. Gray fur bristling on his neck and arms.
Daimhín ignored the insubordinate Alpha, rolling the sleeve of his pinstriped shirt to the elbow.
“Lay your hands on me and die.” James pushed through thickening fangs, knowing what was coming.
“You will do whatever I wish willingly,” Daimhín said, nodding at Adam, “or the iron in those cuffs will allow your lesser clanmate to restrain you.”
Heightened anticipation rippled through the bond with Samuel. Fear—for him—flowed in a turbulent wake from Sarah.
Daimhín offered his wrist. “Or I can force you with a single spoken word and have you thank me for it afterward. Choose, wolf. Dignity or denial?”
James bared his teeth and held his ground.
A flash of movement hit his peripheral vision.
“Neither, asshole.” Grayson slammed into the haughty Fae, tackling him to the rough stone driveway.
“Eit laich,”Daimhín shouted, sending the Ferwyn flying.
“Shit,” Adam yelled and went for his sword.
Unsure if the outcast shifter was a friend or a foe, James tore the chain connecting the handcuffs apart and then drove the heel of his palm into the underside of Adam’s chin. The male’s head snapped back violently. Surprise lit his eyes and was abruptly extinguished—knocked out cold. He wouldn’t stay down long.
Daimhín had made it to his feet; arm outstretched toward a flailing Grayson, his tapered fingers curling inward as though squeezing a tennis ball. The Fae’s spell pinned the Alpha to the ground, his face turning a mottled crimson.
James swept Adam’s tulwar from the unconscious warrior’s lax grip, the shackles still enclosing his wrists, preventing the conversion to wolf. Pitting a sword against Sídhe magic was like bringing a knife to a gunfight, but maybe he could divert Daimhín’s attention from the choking Ferwyn before it was too late.
A stream of white-hot flames struck the Elven Lord in the gut at the same time a huge gray bounded to Grayson’s unmoving form. The wolf took a defensive stance in front of the fallen Alpha, saliva dripping from lips pulled back in a feral snarl.
The cavalry had arrived—Sarah had better not be with them.
Chapter 15
“I’m going withyou,” Sarah said.
“No, you’re not.” Samuel pulled on gloves and added another sinister-looking dagger to the holster on his thick leather boot. “You promised to stay with the truck.”
“I lied.” Sarah chambered a round in her Beretta M9A3 and then used the decocking lever on the slide. Pointing the muzzle down with her trigger-finger on the bronze-colored frame, she checked that the extra 17-round magazines on her belt were stored bullets-forward for a quick reload. “It was the only way you’d let me come.”
“You’re not a trained warrior, Sarah.”
“I’m not incompetent either, you and James made sure of it. I can handle a gun better than most humans.”
