Page 29 of Shift of Destiny
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Chance pulled his dusty truck into the driveway behind Turn of the Cards, and shut off the engine. The streets had been uncharacteristically deserted, and it made him anxious to get someplace safe for the moment. The back-of-the-house lights were still blazing, but the loading dock was sealed tight. Fortunately, he knew the code.
“Moira?” He carefully moved his shoulder where she’d fallen asleep. His beast had contentedly napped the whole way down to town, too, but was now alert. “We’re here.”
She sat up slowly and rubbed her face. “Ow.” She touched her swollen nose and puffy eye with exploratory fingers. “Now I know what a mixed martial artist feels like after a fight. I don’t even want to see a mirror right now.”
“Let’s get inside. I’ll bring my first-aid kit.” He pulled his backpack from behind the seat and looked around the backyard. He’d hoped to see Shepherd’s reassuringly solid form, but it was awfully late.
“First, we call the sheriff, or whoever.” She slid to the passenger side to grab her backpack from the floor.
A blur of movement and the scent of death were all the warning he had. He dove on top of Moira, shielding her from the shower of glass as three hundred pounds of frothing-at-the-mouth gray wolf slammed into the truck’s driver-side window.
He felt a painful bite on his calf as the wolf tried to get in through the now-shattered window. The wolf lost its footing and slid back out. It jumped up on the truck’s hood.
Chance needed to protect his mate, and knew he might lose her once she saw what he really was.
She was one step ahead of him. “Shift. Now.” She started fumbling with the hem of his T-shirt.
“No need.” He stilled her hand with his own. “But I’m big. Stay on the floor. Hide.”
He opened his door as he reached for the shift and let the magic in his blood save his clothes. His human injuries melted away in the shift. It felt like it took forever, but he knew it was really under five seconds. The seat flattened alarmingly as his nearly eight hundred pounds of beast stressed its springs. He squeezed out of the open door and went on the hunt.
The wolf jumped off the truck and launched the psychic attack of a powerful alpha.Submit!
Chance’s beast let the order flow past him as he stalked silently around the side of the truck.Get bent, lapdog.
The wolf growled his frustration and pressed the psychic attack harder, because some alphas were stubborn that way. The sound of paws on gravel said the wolf was positioning himself next to Moira’s door.
Chance leapt up and over the truck to land in front of the big wolf. He struck with sharp claws, then followed up with a hard hit using his front paw, sending the wolf tumbling sideways, toward the loading dock.
Stay down, projected Chance,or die like Richie did.
What the fuck are you?Malevolent anger mixed with pissing fear in the wolf’s scent.I’ll demand Shifter Tribunal judgment. You killed my pack!
Good luck with that.Chance stalked closer, watching his prey.Your twisted blood bond killed your pack. I just buried them.Chance slowed and sniffed the rotting wolf. Without the stolen life essences, the alpha’s body was falling apart by the minute.You’re next.
Not if you want your mate to live.The thought was smug. He used an alpha half-shift to temporarily form guttural words.“Now!”
Chance heard the sound of a gun cocking and froze in mid step.
You can kill me, or save your mate, but not both.
Chance stayed still, scenting and listening, while watching the mangy gray wolf in front of him.
See? This is why I tell wolves that true mates make them weak. And mating with a short-lived human, when we live for centuries? Stupid.Pruhon rose and shook himself, dust and fur flying.
Familiar magic flared, but Pruhon didn’t seem to notice.
I’m leaving with my new recruits. You just stay here like a good...
“Fuck!” The male voice came from somewhere high and to the right, beyond the fence into the next yard. “The truck disappeared.”
Pruhon growled, then shouted. “Shoot where it was!”
Even as Chance leaped for Pruhon, a shot rang out and ricocheted off metal.
Chance got his massive jaws around the alpha’s front shoulder and bit hard. The wolf yelped and tried to push away, but he was no match for Chance’s teeth.
