Page 50 of Feral

The door was open and there was my mate, eyes wide in terror as she discharged that weird gun at her masked attacker. He convulsed and fell at her feet. She whimpered, tears running down her face, as she stared at the assailant in obvious shock.

“Daphne,” I growled.

She jumped and I thought for certain she’d start screaming when she saw me, but she didn’t. Instead she whispered my name and reached out her arms for me. The look on her face, seeing me as a safe harbor, gave my heart a firm squeeze. I leapt toward her and wrapped her in my arms. She clung to me, and the rightness of having her so close, even under these circumstances, left a hollow ache deep inside of me.

“He had a knife,” she said, breathing in huge gulps of air. “And…and he tore one of my books! Can you believe that? Just stabbed his knife right into it, of course I shouldn’t have used to shield myself but who does that to abook?”

If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I would have dissolved into laughter at the deep indignation in her voice. But all I could think about was how she’d been so close to being killed. Then, when she pulled away from me, I saw the cut on her head, right above her eyebrow.

I couldn’t stifle the deep snarl and still the lass didn’t flinch from me.

“Yer bleedin’,” I said.

“I’m fine, it barely hurts. Fraser, we have to get off this train.”

It was at that moment that the train screeched around us and began to shudder to a stop. The unexpected movement knocked us both off our feet and onto one of the benches. Daphne landed in my lap, but this time there was nothing remotely arousing about it.

“They would only stop the train,” she breathed, “if they were getting off or more were getting on.”

“Let’s not wait to find out.”

She nodded and scrambled for her enormous tote bag.

“Can ya run with that on?”

“I’ll make it work.”

I huffed out a breath but didn’t see the point in wasting time arguing with her. I knew enough about Daphne at this point that she wasn’t going to leave her books behind.

Before we stepped out of the cabin, I slipped the glamour back into place; best not to cause any more of a panic.

She followed me out to the emergency exit, which had a small crowd around it already. An attendant was trying to keep people calm but the fact that the lights were still out, and now the train was stopped, had everyone understandably afraid. The scent of it was pungent, so much so that I nearly missed the sharp tang of the damn Goblin. I turned just in time to see the knife in his raised hand take aim for Daphne’s back. I pivoted and caught his wrist before he could drive blade into her soft flesh.

I turned my grip and felt his wrist pop. He stifled a cry and I was a hair’s breadth from taking the knife and gutting the bastard.

“Fraser, let him go,” Daphne urged. “We have to get out of here and killing someone isn’t going to make that easy.”

With one final twist to drive the pain home, I let him go.

“Run,” I growled, “because if I see you again, I will shred you with my bare hands.”

The Goblin spat out a curse and took off.

“Is there another way out?’ she asked.

By now the crowd had thickened considerably around the exit and I swore.

“Maybe near the back, there aren’t as many cabins down that way so people might not be there yet.”

We tore down the hallway and I was relieved to see that the exit wasn’t manned at all. It was a miscalculation that I realized too late. I reached it first and pushed the door open just as a large hand shoved me out onto the narrow platform. I just managed to hang onto the door so that I didn’t go tumbling arse over tea kettle onto the tracks.

Daphne screamed in shock and brandished her gun. She leveled it at the huge man and fired, only to have him bat her hand away at the last minute. The electrical charge went into the ceiling and the man seized Daphne by the upper arms.

Panic gripped my heart, and I kicked him in the ribs, using all of my strength. He groaned and thrust a dagger at me, the blade embedding itself into my side above my hip. But I couldn’t feel the pain. He was trying to drag Daphne away from the door when she delivered another swift kick, right to the man’s cock.

The man yelped and let her go, curling over as he clutched himself.

She darted outside to me just as I pulled the dagger free and let it clatter to the platform.

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