Page 110 of Feral

“I’m no jealous!”

“Oh really?” I stood up and clenched my fists. “You don’t even want him next to me.”

“Fraser, get a hold of yerself,” Liam said.

Fraser leapt to his feet with a loud snarl and got in my face. I should’ve been afraid; he was twice my size and his tail had gone still, his fur rippling over his back. But I was too angry by now. How dare he tell me I can’t be near him, can’t help him through this, demand to take Liam and then beangryat me because I followed his rules.

“You,” I poked him in the chest, “need to make up your damn mind about me, Fraser MacDonald. Do you want me in this with you or not? Because this back and forth shit is really starting to piss me off!”

“Yer gonna do this right now?” Liam asked.

“I thought we had an understanding last night,” I continued. “And this morning, you areonce againputting up walls. It’s not fair to jerk me around like this.”

“I’m doing it to keep ya safe!”

“I think that ship has sailed,” Liam said, raising his hands.

I glanced around Fraser to see six or so men and women in dark suits with guns pointed at us. Though I didn’t know every field agent at the Archive, I knew from the kind of guns they were currently wielding that these agents weren’t on our side.

I let Fraser step in front of me, a low growl rumbling from his chest. The Stinger was at full charge. I could do a small jolt twice or a large one once. Considering a large one could put a man into cardiac arrest, I chose two small ones and adjusted the settings.

“How nice of the two of you to come here so we can get you out of the way before tomorrow,” said one of the men.

“Ya have no right to be on these lands,” Liam said, his voice deeper than I’d ever heard it.

“Easy,” Fraser whispered to him.

Oh god, this must remind Liam about how he got shot.

“Who’s your friend behind you, Werewolf?” asked the male agent. “Come out and play.”

My insides churned and spun with nerves, but on the outside, my hands were steady, my mind clear. I didn’t know if it was a side effect of the gloves or just the fact that I’d already faced attacks. But whatever the reason I wasn’t so much scared as angry at their words, their arrogance, their selfishness when it came to this artifact. They didn’t care what it did to Fraser’s clan, or the rest of the world.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” said the woman, “or we’ll have to start shooting.”

“If you insist,” I said, and darted out from behind Fraser.

Without even stopping to think, I shot the Stinger at the woman in the front. Her body convulsed and she went down. I swung the Stinger to the next man and shot him as well. He shook, but only went down on his knees, having been much bigger than the woman.

Then all hell broke loose.

Liam drew a sword, of all things, from his cane and lunged forward with a howling snarl I’d never heard from him before. Fraser roared to life and sprang at a woman who was now aiming her gun at me. He couldn’t reach her before she got a shot off. It wasn’t a bullet that launched from the gun, but electricity, very similar to what the Stinger expelled. The force of the bolt threw Fraser back and he collapsed.

Everything slowed; sound, sight. Everything but the small rise and fall of Fraser’s chest, reassuring me that he was still alive. The anger I’d felt before was a trickle, a mere drop compared to the torrent that was pounding through my veins in that moment. I’d never experienced the sensation of ‘seeing red’ before, but I did now. The rage that embraced me like a lover was an oddly clear space, every decision simple.

They had dared to hurt Fraser,my mate, and they would pay for it.

I lunged forward with a yell and punched the woman in the stomach. She doubled over, eyes bugging out of her face. Then I back handed her, followed by a swift kick to her knee. I heard the pop and her scream of pain, but somehow it didn’t register through the fury coursing through me.

Strong arms encircled me from behind but were gone just as quick. There was a crash of furniture behind me, and a chorus of snarls and shrieks. I pivoted to the left and jumped onto the back of a man who had just fired a shot at Liam. Without even stopping to think, I scrapped my fingernails down his cheek and then wound my forearm around to his throat and squeezed. He batted at my arm, desperate to get air. But I held on until he fell onto the floor.

When I climbed off him I spun around, looking for the next attacker only to find the room in complete disarray. The few pieces of furniture in the room were completely destroyed. Men and women were lying on the floor groaning in pain or not moving at all. In the back of my mind, I hoped they were still alive but it was hard to think of such things when my fists ached to punch something.

“Daphne,” Liam said.

I turned to him and bared my teeth. He jerked back, wary of me. When I finally took in the fear and apprehension in his eyes, the way he held himself at the ready as if he might need to subdue me, that’s when I remembered the drawback of the gloves.

I tore them off my hands and stuffed them in my pockets.

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