Page 19 of Aberrant Monsters
“Just make sure you don’t leave any evidence.”
He chuckled in a low, wicked timbre that raised gooseflesh over my skin.
I shook it off. “Stay hidden and let me draw out the bad guys.”
He slipped into the shadows, and I continued walking, hands tucked into my pockets, head down as if I had somewhere I needed to be. A petite lone woman, golden hair gleaming in the sparse lamplight, breath pluming in the cold night. Yeah, I made a delectable target.
Come on, fuckers.
Come out and get me.
A figure stepped out of an alley to my left, blocking my path. He wasn’t alone. Three more hulking males joined him.
A pack.
“Lost, little one?” the leader asked. His eyes flashed silver, reflecting the light from the lamppost.
Shifter.
Most certainly a rogue, because pack shifters steered clear of the city, preferring the rural lands around it. Also, pack shifters didn’t usually smell like cheap whiskey and death.
They spread out, surrounding me with their bulky forms wrapped in denim and leather.
“Look at her, so teeny and sweet,” one of the others said. “You know what happens to sweet little things like you who lose their way, don’t you?” He moved closer, nostrils flaring as he inhaled my scent. “Mmmm… So fucking fresh. Just like the tender one last month.”
His companion chuckled, the high-pitched sound identifying his breed as a hyena shifter.
“She was younger than you,” the leader continued. “Screamed a lot, but I liked it. It made the chase, the hunt, so much sweeter, and when I buried my cock in her and tore her—”
“The blood…” the other shifter said thickly. “Ah, that scent…”
“Ripe for fucking and feasting,” the third one growled. “You too. You too. We take now. We play now.”
He was digressing to the animal inside. Changing, ready to attack.
If I’d been alone right now, I’d have been shitting a brick. But then if I was alone, I’d have no reason to be here. My annoyance at being forced into this part of town warred with my need for justice for the poor female these bastards had hunted and killed.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention. Telarion’s rage and hunger vibrated at my solar plexus where our connection was housed.
I lifted my chin, taking in the faces of a different kind of monster. A kind who’d abuse and violate an innocent female.
Telarion would tear them to shreds and I’d feel no remorse. “You deserve what’s coming to you.” My tone was cool and emotionless.
The leader’s brows came down in a frown of bewilderment at my lack of fear. The confusion on his face lasted only a few moments before a shadow fell over me, spreading quickly over him and his companions.
The shifters were no longer looking at me. Their attention was on the form rising behind me like an avenging angel.
I could see him in my mind’s eye, a monstrous figure ready to strike like an instrument of death.
My lips curved in a wicked smile. “Goodbye, you evil fucks.”
I turned away as Telarion flew over me and attacked the group.
Screams, growls, the wet crunch of flesh and bone, and the sickening tear of flesh followed.
I kept walking and didn’t look back. Telarion would get his buffet after all, it seemed.
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