Page 42 of Mated
Far ahead, the high pitched yowls of another large cat trickles back on the wind. Every hair on my body rises and my teeth bare.
“T?” Caine’s voice is muffled, and fading quickly as a trace of true skin hunger makes me salivate.
The fucker is on my land.Mine.The cat inside me howls in agreement, forcing my second form faster until the world blurs. I sail over another shallow ditch and skid on the dry leaves along the other side. My head whips up and down the bank, scenting and sorting the fragrances of Silver Rock now mixed with an almost foul chemical odor. I sneeze.
Something heavy and hot barrels into me with a wash of red light.
Caine and I roll along the bank in a mess of his human limbs and my fur. I snap my teeth an inch from his shoulder, but come up short as his blood scents the air in a wash of spice and citrus. I pull back, scuttling away.
Did I—
He groans amidst the pine needles, one hand already reaching to pull a stocky tranquilizer style dart from his skin. The little needle glints in the light through the trees as he comes up on his knees to stand, anger written in his features. He tosses it to the side and turns to me. His eyes widen. “T!”
I drop low and something whistles overhead to embed in a nearby tree trunk. The tufted end of the little barb tells me all I need to know.
Another dart.
How many of those fucking things do they have?
Whirling, I take in the shadowy figure of a large man with almost dead black eyes. Behind him, Daisy’s wolf form is a blur as she battles a familiar expanse of tawny rosettes.
The man raises the rifle again, aiming for Caine.
I do the only thing I can think of.
I leap over the distance, sinking my teeth into his arm and wrenching. His blood fills my mouth like sludge. I fall back, hacking. His blood cloys and sticks on my tongue, bitter and rancid to my heightened palate.
Wrong.
The stock of his gun slams into my temple, dropping me to the forest floor with the force of a fucking tank as he takes off like a bullet into the trees.
I shake my head hard as my ears ring.
A snarl twists the air and there is an audible pop. Daisy’s howl rips through me and I scramble to my feet as the fucking earth continues to sway with every move I make.
Her russet form hobbles across from me, front foreleg raised and limp. The rogue shifter darts in again, his teeth bared.
I leap, crashing into his side and sending us both rolling into the leaves.
The faint scent of chemicals rise from him again. It burns my nose.
His front paws press into my chest and scratch down, trying to find purchase despite my fur. I latch my teeth onto the side of his skull and grind them together. He never makes a sound.
The cat twists from my grip, wrenching and leaving thick clumps of tawny fur between my teeth.
I stalk him, lowering my body between my shoulder blades. He swipes out with a paw. It narrowly misses the side of my head. I pounce and sink teeth into the thick muscle of his neck before wrenching us both over.
Blood trickles into my maw, hot and thick. But just as wrong as the man’s.
I pull back.
The cat twists over me, his head dipping and snaring the sensitive skin of my underbelly. He clamps down and pain tears through my middle. I roar.
My paws press into him, heaving and scratching at his lean form.
“Shit.”
My head whips over as Ruin, Gage, Lilah, and Horan barrel through the trees. Both vampires hiss audibly, dropping into a defensive stance. Gage’s hands are wreathed in emerald fire, and Horan’s sword is aloft in his grasp.
