Page 19 of Guardians of the Assassins
He roared again, please when the fools fell over themselves to put distance between them, the bastards terrified to even shiftas he stalked toward them, the click of his claws against the floor loud in the room.
“She is the Queen of theLoup Garouand outside your territory. She is the next in succession to Mount Olympus. She’s the fucking granddaughter to the gods.” His throat rasped with each word, his beast making speech difficult, a skill he’d perfected through years of practice. As he neared the alphas, he grabbed the edges of the solid oak bench, easily flipping the eight-foot table across the room, where it shattered like so much kindling.
When the alphas trembled, he gave a toothy smile, the smell of fear like perfume, and he inhaled deeply at the delicious scent. “So whatever bullshit you’re trying to pull, knock it off, or I will end you. Do you understand?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
ASCHER
Holy shit!
Morgan could only gape at the way Caedmon went all alpha over the assholes. He just seemed to burst out of his skin, his beast fully formed, like he couldn’t be contained in his human body a second longer.
And he was massive!
The last time she’d seen him shift, he’d been fighting for their lives in the underground caves. Seeing him here, in broad daylight, was another matter entirely.
He was…beautiful.
He wasn’t like the others of his kind—he was bigger, his body bulkier. There was no deformity or rot anywhere, the slightest taint gone like it had never been. A touch of fire and brimstone lingered in the air, like the doors of hell had been thrown wide open.
The ultimate warrior.
When they first met, there had been something broken about him that made her want to fix whatever had hurt him. While his time in hell might have changed him, it had also forged him into something much stronger.
Analpha werewolf.
A very possessive, protective alpha werewolf.
His overreaction baffled her.
While the alphas were annoying as fuck, they weren’t in physical danger.
Not really.
His actions were worrisome, and her stomach clutched at the thought that his hold on his creature might be slipping.
No!
He’d come too far and they’d worked too hard to bring him back from the brink to lose him now.
If she couldn’t figure out how to rein in his rage, they were going to have some explaining to do when all the alphas turned up dead.
As much as she didn’t want to let the assholes off the hook for the way they’d treated her, killing them was a bit of an extreme. “Caedmon…”
Ryder grabbed her arm when she took a step toward the massiveloup garou. When she glanced at him over her shoulder, his amber eyes were glowing. What shocked her was his wolf appeared calm, his eyes locked on Caedmon instead of her.
She recognized that nearly constipated look, and her eyes narrowed. It almost looked like the fuckers were communicating somehow.
She huffed with annoyance and glared at the both of them, tired of not being included once again. Then her eyes caught on Caedmon when he turned away from tormenting the alphas. The intensity of his yellow gaze made her still, and it had nothing to do with the nine-foot predator locking his sights on her.
No, there was something so fierce about his gaze that she froze to the spot, her skin feeling too tight. He wasn’t out of control, and she saw no signs of the insatiable rage she’d expected.
Which only confused her more.
She absently rubbed her arm, something about his look making her skin prickle, and she repressed as shiver, an awareness of him filtering through her mind.
His face softened as he stared down at her, his temper melting away, leaving behind intelligent eyes that saw too much. There was something expectant in his yellow gaze, a combination of excitement and hope when she didn’t flinch and tremble in fear.
