Page 45 of The Wolf's Appetite
The creature screamed, the sound making the air vibrate. Witches kept chanting all around us, white magic flooding the room, but it did nothing to slow the fucker down.
The others were on the Leandrean then—Sebastian and Kane, Odhran and Cian, Ren and Luca. Adryan still chuckled, the sound deep and penetrating through the Leandrean’s screams. My Da slammed his full weight into the fucker’s side.
Kane tore into its leg with his claws.
Cian took the other almost all the way to the bone.
And even more vampires and Lycans joined the fray.
We ripped and stabbed, but the bastard kept fighting, swinging those black claws, kicking hard enough to send a Guard member through the wall.
Its eyes were gone, but it was grinning—a wet, horrifying sight that split its face. “Next time, I’ll feast on the females,” it hissed. “So sweet, their flesh.”
I drove forward with everything I had, my claws punching through his chest and curling into the hard bone of his spine. With a twist, I ripped him open, the sound wet and final. Black blood poured out in ropes, splattering on everyone near, and pooling at our feet.
But even dying, laying as its body twitched and its life faded away, it laughed. “We areinyou now, wolf. We?—”
My jaws closed over his throat, and I ripped it out, tossing his trachea across the room until it slammed into the wall with a wetthwop.
The room went still as we watched his body spasm several more times before he let out his final breath and lay still, his dark magic bleeding out in threads of smoke and dissipating into the ceiling.
I looked at all the males, and I saw the same thing in each of their expressions, knew if I wasn’t in my wolf's form they’d see the same thing in mine.
We needed to get to our mates. IneededAisling.
28
LENNOX
I’d been taken to Aisling right away. She’d been moved to the lower levels with the other females, my mate’s wounds grave.
The Leandrean hadn’t just sliced into her; it had poison-tipped claws which had infected Aisling. The other females had minor wounds, all being treated now, but Aisling had taken the brunt of the injuries.
My girl had been so brave, so strong.
I was by her side in seconds, hating to see her like this. It was painful. Her skin was pale, lips bloodless, and the wound along her side was uncovered and blackened around the edges. Healers attended to her, but their low voices carried worry laced in their words.
The witches flooded in a second later, each female being attended to just to ensure they were truly okay.Several came over to Aisling, speaking softly and in their unique language only they understood.
I felt my wolf rise again. Hell, I didn’t even care that I was nude, having shifted right after the fight and coming straight to my mate.
“Lennox.” The voice was quiet, but it cut through my panic like a blade.
I looked up and saw the old witch–the one who’d silenced my wolf after I’d been injured. I had no anger for her. My mind was too wrapped up in making sure my mate made it through okay.
Someone handed me a robe, and I donned it as if I were just moving through the motions.
The old witch moved slowly, her wrinkle-lined face unreadable, her eyes ancient and knowing.
“Please,” I croaked out. “Please help her,” I breathed. I begged, pleaded with my words and expression. “I canna lose her.”
“All will be well, wolf warrior. Be at ease,” she said, her voice calm but threaded with something heavier. “This was always going to happen, Lennox. Your wolf, the mating, the internal fight and struggle… and now the ending. You and I were written into each other’s paths long before either of us came into existence.”
I didn’t know what she saw in my face, but her soft smile eased me slightly.
“I took him toprotect you. This was never about keeping you apart—it was about bringing you together.”
I knew why she did what she did, but it was still hard to wrap my mind around it all. I was a jumbled mess of fear for Aisling, dreading what it all meant with the Leandrean and how this would affect all of us in the long run.
