They don’t know that they don’t need to kill me. The power is up for grabs now that one of my mates is dead, but they don’t know Liam is my mate, and I’m not going to enlighten them.
Before I can reply to his ridiculous claim, a thunderous roar echoes through the forest, and the shifters surrounding us bristle with agitation. I glance up and smile sadly. Hunter is about to descend on us, but it’s too late to save Liam.
“What the fuck is that?” one of them asks, looking skyward, and I feel a deadly smile cross my lips.
“That is your worst nightmare,” I tell them as Hunter crashes through the trees, splintering wood and sending branches flying. He lands and sprays a burst of fire at the fleeing shifters. Two of them disintegrate on the spot as Micah leaps from Hunter and aims his crossbow at another, shooting him through the back. He grunts and falls to the snow, spread eagle and very dead, an arrow piercing his heart just like my mate.
Three down, eleven more to go. Those eleven have found cover behind trees, though, and they start to fire back. Hunter ambles forward and puts himself between me and the line of fire, bullets pinging harmlessly off his dragon scales. My wolf and tiger leap forward and attack, dodging bullets and arrows. The two shifters they target abandon their weapons and shift. Two wolves take their place as Brodie and Gryffin lunge at them, their teeth and claws digging into fur. I hear another gunshot and then a grunt, and I look over to find Micah has been hit. A bullet hole in his arm causes blood to run down his bicep, and he drops the crossbow before snatching a gun out of his hip holster with his left hand and firing.
Seeing his blood triggers something feral inside me. My magic explodes out of me, and I shift into my hydra form. All eight heads roar with anger as I push past Hunter, who is chomping down on a screaming man. Brodie and Gryffin have both taken care of the shifters they were fighting, leaving eight alive, including the man who killed Liam and their lion leader.
Their mouths drop open in shock as they stare up at me. “What the fuck is that?” the one who killed Liam asks, and the lion starts to back up.
“A fucking hydra. Run,” he replies and starts to turn, but my hydra isn’t letting them get away. After making sure our mates are out of range, each head focuses on one of the remaining combatants. We inhale and breathe out, a plume of green vapor encasing the assholes who dared to attack us. They start to scream and claw at their faces and chests as they inhale the acidic haze. I watch, horrified and slightly awed, as their skin starts to melt, exposing bone and tissue until the remaining eight shifters are nothing but bloody mounds of goo staining the snow. The silence in the clearing is deafening, the only sound from Hunter’s dragon’s heavy breathing.
“Holy fuck,” Brodie, who must have shifted back into his human form, mutters with a small amount of fear, but I also hear the pride as well. “Our mate is spectacular.” I turn my back on the gruesome sight, and one of my heads ducks down to nudge Brodie. He absently scratches it between the eyebrow ridges, unable to drag his attention from the carnage, but to my relief, there’s no fear, he’s just distracted.
Another one of my heads nudges Liam, a mournful wail escaping its mouth. It grabs hold of the arrow shaft in Liam’s chest and yanks it out, tossing it to the side before licking the wound. All of my guys have shifted now, and they gather around their fallen bond mate. Hunter’s eyes are haunted, and his hand is shaking.
“We didn’t see them,” he murmurs. “They were hidden in the treetops.”
Gryffin clamps a hand on his shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “We didn’t even scent them until it was too late. They must have been using a charm to conceal themselves.” He tries to reassure the dragon, but it isn’t working.
I hate seeing them like this, but a feeling of inner peace washes over me, and I know everything will be okay. My hydra makes me see the truth. It concedes control to me, and I shift back into my human form. I rush over to them as Liam suddenly changes and gasps for breath.
“Holy fuck, he’s alive!” Micah shouts as I stumble over to Liam’s side and throw myself at him.
“Their mate bond… Her hydra bite gave him the ability to regenerate from death.” Gem appears from the trees, looking haggard and broken. “Thank fuck, because I couldn’t make it here to save him. I felt him die, and I couldn’t do anything.”
My lips press against Liam’s, and despite him looking a little disoriented, he kisses me back. The rest of the guys fall to their knees and surround us in a group hug, laughing and crying at the fact that their bond mate is still with us.
I pull back and check him over, poking my finger through the hole in his uniform that should have protected him from the projectile. The wound is gone, and there is nothing but smooth skin.
“Fuck, that hurt,” he mutters as Hunter gets up and nudges one of the shifters Gryffin or Brodie killed. He squats down and digs through his pockets, pulling out a small rock then holding it out for us to see, a look of distaste on his face.
“Runes are etched into it. It must be why we couldn’t hear or sense them and why it penetrated your uniform, which should have protected you from projectiles. I’m not sure if they are witch or fae runes, but this is no longer just an internal shifter problem. They are getting assistance from other kingdoms.”
Brodie helps Liam to his feet as Gryffin does the same thing to me.
“Thank goodness it was Liam who was hit. If it had been Gryffin or Brodie, then they would bedead, dead,” Micah says, looking around the clearing at all the dead shifters. “I’m going to guess this was a welcome party from Zalfari. It’s the only option. No one else knew we were coming here.” He looks at Gem for confirmation.
“Yes. When I did a fly over of the village, it was basically deserted. I saw a couple of people moving between dwellings, but not as many as there should be for the middle of the day.”
My mind is stuck on Micah’s comment. He’s right. If it was one of the others, then there would be no resurrection or regeneration. They would be cold corpses lying in the snow. My hydra screams inside me, and my body explodes into that form once more. The guys stumble backwards out of the way so they aren’t crushed underfoot.
“Hey, Colbie, easy. Liam’s alive, He’s fine. You need to calm down.” Brodie talks to me like I’m an injured creature about to lash out, and he isn’t wrong. Five of my heads duck down and strike, biting into the shoulders and necks of the five men who don’t have my mating bite yet. They shout out in surprise and pain as my hydra mate bonds them. Even if it isn’t reciprocated yet, they will be safe from any future attacks. The rush of blood explodes across my taste buds, each of them a distinctive flavor as my side of the mate bond locks into place. A wave of heat rushes through me as my heads release their prey, and I shift back into my human form. I shake with need as I sink to my hands and knees and gasp for air, the cold snow melting beneath my overheated hands.
“Oh shit, Colbie.” Liam gapes at his bond mates, who all look at me like I’m prey they want to devour. “You’ve initiated the bonding heat with all of them.”
ChapterTwenty-Five
Colbie
Before I can say anything or apologize, Brodie leaps toward me and scoops me up in his arms, running away from the carnage and deeper into the forest.
I hear shouts behind us, but they die away the farther Brodie runs.
“I’m sorry. This isn’t how I wanted to do this, but my wolf is feral,” he says as he comes to a stop and slides me down his body before pushing me back against a tree. Brodie kisses me like I’m the air he needs to breathe. His chest heaves as he strips my confining clothes from my body, tossing my boots to the side. My core aches, and I have no complaints as I find myself suddenly naked, the tree bark scratching my back and ass as Brodie drops to his knees and runs his tongue through my soaked slit.
