Page 28 of Witch Unbound
“Shit.”
“What?”
“Rune, it’s not Tor and Sloane clashing we need to worry about, it’s the vamp and shifter clash.”
His eyes flared in comprehension. “Oh, fuck.”
* * *
TOR
I duck into the summer house behind Sloane. The space at the bottom of the lawn is used by the Holm Pack teens as a chill area, but it’s empty right now as they’re forced to mingle and play social.
Sloane turns to face me and sighs, arms loose at her sides, non-confrontational. “I should have showered.”
“Yeah? You want to hide it?”
“No. I guess that’s why I didn’t. I care about her, Tor.”
I don’t want her to care. I want her to stay away. Cora is mine. I take a moment to calm the beast. This is my friend Sloane, after all.
“What happened, Sloane?”
Her eyes narrow. “You want details?”
I hadn’t meant it that way, but her defensive tone prods my beast. “Yeah, Slo, I want details.”
She smirks slightly. Not a sly smirk, more amused. “She fed me her blood and I made her come.”
Heat rushes to my head and a red haze threatens my vision. “You fed off her?”
Her eyes go wide at my tone but then she grits her teeth, and I can almost see her hackles rising. “I didn’t want to, but—”
“But what? You slipped and your fangs slid into her artery? I thought you cared about her. I brought you in here to clear the air, to set some ground rules, but you…” I’m lost for words, sickened that she’d abuse Cora’s trust in this way. “You’re lucky you’re not a guy, Slo, or you’d be flat on your ass right now.”
Her expression smooths out and she tips her head to the side. The motion is almost alien and mechanical, and when I look into her icy blue eyes, something else looks back out at me.
“You think you can take me, big guy?”
A scent blooms in the air, acrid and sharp. Vampire. My dire wolf surges to the surface and the world grows sharper. Fuck. This is a mistake I should have known not to make.
“You think you own her?” She walks toward me. “This fake mate bond you have. This enforced thing that you’ll break once the time is up. I saw what happened to Charlotte and what became of her when it ended. Cora deserves more than that. She deserves people who’ll love her forever.”
Her vampire scent blooms and smacks me in the face, filling my lungs with its toxicity. The beast inside me growls, vibrating my chest.
Vampire.
Attack.
Shit, shit. No. Sloane is a friend. I won’t hurt her.
She doesn’t have the same qualms. One moment she’s on the other side of the room, the next she’s in my face. I bare my teeth and growl at her before I can check myself.
She hisses at me, eye whites bleeding to crimson. “She doesn’t belong to you. She doesn’t belong to anyone.” Her voice is deeper, no longer her own.
Vampire.
I want to rip off her head. I want to hurt her. The vampire is everywhere, in my lungs, in my head, and my beast thrashes, insane, in a frenzy at this threat it isn’t allowed to eliminate.
