Page 61 of Sinful Shifters

Adar is so full of fury that he's going to burn himself apart. Everett and Lucian go slower, but they're summoning so much of their elements that the air around us chokes with magic. Water and wind fight for dominance in a battle that can't be won.

And Thale may keep his chin up as he throws his power out there, but I'm channeling with him. I can feel how he's tearing apart at the seams.

Beneath the surface of his brave face he's certain that this will be his last battle.

I can't let that happen. He's too precious to me. They all are, and they're willing to sacrifice everything for me. Which means that I have to fight for them too.

"I'm going to go into the battle," I tell him, shushing him before he can protest. "Someone has to get close to Teller. Have my back—I can do this, I know I can."

His eyes are troubled, but he nods in assent. "I believe you, Dear Heart. And I love you. Give him hell."

I shift into my wolf form and fight straight through, a singular target in my vision.

The guys cover me as I dodge attacks from the army and tear vampires apart. The humans in our midst are rarer now, but they've come well-armed. Teller has outfitted them with powerful gauntlets that they use to blast away their enemies. The power of their targeted blasts is able to tear holes through even werewolf flesh, and the wounds they leave behind aren't easily healed.

Ali is doing everything she can to protect our army from them, but she can't do it allwhiletrying to siphon magic from Teller. So I help her out, throwing elemental magic at the gauntlets and taking them apart. They seem especially vulnerable to a combination of water and air, especially with an edge of lightning crackling in the seams.

Once the weapons are disarmed, I go for the soldiers' throats and wrestle them to the ground, tearing them apart. It feels strange killing humans. It feels even stranger lighting them on fire or burying them beneath the earth.

Because now that I'm mated to all four of my guys, I can feel their magic all around me. Can channel it like it's nothing.

I've become a kind of mimic. A different creature altogether. Capable of slipping into someone else's skin.

It would scare me if it didn't feel so natural, as if I've done it thousands of times before.

If only I could remember where or when. I know that this is Fern's ability living on in me, but I don't know all the details. I'm like a newborn baby fumbling in the dark, only someone else has the light, and they haven't turned it on.

As I tap into more of my powers, though, I can see them. The bonds that are wrong. The pack members in the wrong pack. And the threads connecting Teller to Klaus and the wellspring, that shouldn't even exist.

Tearing through more vampires, I dig my feet into the ground and tamp into my omega powers. Looking around with sharp wolfish eyesight, I grab onto the stray threads and rewrite the packs.

I connect the River Park warriors to the right element—Earth, Wind, or Fire. Their flagging steps grow faster, their muscles pushed to the limits, as their bonds are rewritten.

Through them, I can see the alpha of the River Pack. She also doesn't fit quite right. But she's fighting very hard for her pack, holding Teller off from the wellspring.

I tell the guys,I'm going for her. The River Pack alpha.

Adar snarls.Teller is that way, in the middle of it all. So are Klaus and Eli.

But I won't be able to believe in myself if I turn tail and run now.

So I insist,I'm going to fight. I'm in this just as much as all of you, after all.

Then I whip my muzzle around to throw a ball of wind at my best friend, getting her attention.

We make eye contact, and she nods sharply, knowing what I want.

Just like she did once before, when we were fighting Eli, she throws a shield up around me.

With her help, I barrel straight through the fighting to the center of it all.

Chapter51

Rina

Imake it by the hair of my teeth.. Teller is only a few rings of warriors away, his vampire army at his back, Klaus and Eli directing them from the rear. Ali takes the shield off me and turns to face him, siphoning as much magic as she can.

"I can only hold him off for so long," she shouts to me from across the battlefield, her eyes and hair glowing white with the amount of magic she's channeling. "I'll do what I can."

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