The lead hunter’s voice sliced through the dark. “Take them all down.”
The command was met with swift movement, the hunters advancing withmilitary precision, their footfalls eerily silent. Their weapons pulsed with energy, glowing nets crackling, ready to ensnare their prey.
Raven’s pulse thundered in her ears asthe first strike came—one of the hunters lunged, aiming a net at Vector’s head. He dodgedunnaturally fast, pivoting as the golden strands of the netcrackled and burned through the airwhere he had just been.
Shattering glass erupted around themas Talon and the other Guardians finally appeared. They arrived like a tidal wave of destruction to engage the attackers, the sound ofweapons clashing, and grunts of exertion,filling the store.Displays toppled, shattered glass and diamonds scattered across the floor like an ocean of fallen stars.
The woman who’d been helping them screamed. A handful of people were crawling along the floor, desperate to escape, while others huddled against counters, frozen in terror.
A guard to Vector’s left took down one hunter witha precise strike to the throat, spinning just in time to block another attacker’s blade with his forearm guard.
Vector moved withdeadly grace, his fist slamming into the masked jaw of one of the hunters. The force sent the mancrashing backward into a glass case, the impact sending more shards raining to the floor.
Three more hunters ran into the battle, fresh weapons at their sides. One of them zeroed in on Raven, his intent clear.
“Raven, go!” Vector’s voiceroared above the chaos.
She dropped all the way to the floor as ordered, her hands and knees landing on sharp fragments of broken glass. Pain lanced through her palms, but she barely felt it through the haze of adrenaline.Crawling toward the exit, she tried to block out the destruction around her.
Then—a hand seized her ankle.
She gasped, twisting to see one of the hunterslooming over her, his grip vise-tight, yanking her back toward him.
“No!”
Before the hunter could lift her,Vector was there.
Withferal speed, he caught the man by the throat andslammed him against the nearest wallso hard the drywall cracked.The hunter struggled, kicking, but Vector was relentless.His emerald eyes burned ashis free hand shifted,scales rippling over his knuckles just before heplunged his claws into the man’s chest.
The hunter choked on a gasp, eyes going wide in terror.
Vector leaned in, his voice a growl. “You touched what’s mine.”
With a finalsickening crunch, he flung the man aside, letting his lifeless body collapse onto the glass-strewn floor.
Raven stared, breathless. Her heartslammed against her ribs, but it wasn’t just from fear. Scales? Claws? Was she hallucinating?
She looked again. Vector’s hand was covered in blood, but it was normal.
Human.
Vector turned to her,his pupils blown wide, his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths.He’d never truly feared anything in his life, until now, until he turned to find Raven’s stunned face looking at him like he was a monster.
Fuck. Would she reject him now? Hate him for lying to her? For hiding the truth? He’d hoped to have her legally bound to him in human marriage before he was forced to confess his sins.
The hunters had ruined everything. They’d threatened his mate.
His magic crackled around him; an unseen force that made the very air feel charged.
“You have to keep going,” he urged, his voicehoarse but commanding.
“I don’t want to leave you!” she blurted out,her body betraying her mind.
Relief coursed through him as his fingers brushed over her cheek—a touch too gentle for the chaos raging around them. “I’ll find you,” he swore.“Now go.”
Talon was suddenly there,grabbing Raven’s wrist and dragging her toward the emergency exitas the fight raged behind them.
The last thing she saw before Talon shoved her through the door wasVector, standing amidst the destruction, his eyes burning with primal fury. With fire.
