My claws sank into the trunk. I propelled myself forward, dodging branches while keeping my eye on the cougar. He jumped onto a thick bough and slunk along the edge. Quicker than I thought possible, he sprang to the right and landed on the tree branch next to me. His lithe body was concealed by foliage, but my fox sight could make out his shape darting around the trunk.
I knew where he was going.
Eyeing the high branch of a tree directly across from him, I scrambled up and onto a bough facing it, my back legs vibrating with force as I sprinted down the narrow offshoot.
The cougar pushed off from his branch, aiming for the one before me.
My paws left the bark, and I soared through the air.
We collided with a crash, our snarls breaking the silence of the night. His back hit the hard ground first, and he let out a yowl as his back legs came up and pitched me off him. I skidded across dirt and leaves before catching my balance and hurling myself at him. He was bigger than me, but only just. I was an abnormally large fox—I took after my mother, who came from a long line of large canine Shifters.
And I’d fought worse than the likes of him.
I swiped at his nose, my claws connecting with skin and dragging until blood seeped beneath his eye. With a high-pitched scream, he reared up on his back legs and slammed a paw into my side, then lurched for my head with his jaw opened wide.
He was strong, but I was quicker. I slipped from his grasp, ignoring the pain shooting up my left side, and tore at his hind leg with my teeth. With an ironclad grip, I shook my head until he collapsed, his vicious shriek ringing in my ears. The salty tang of blood coated my tongue as I bit down harder. Then something sharp sliced through the back of my neck and down my shoulder.
I released him with a yelp and stumbled backward on all fours. That one felt deep. Breathing through the pain and flexing my right paw to make sure nothing was severely damaged, I barely had enough time to guard against his next attack.
He slammed into me and angled his teeth toward my neck. I knocked him back with another swipe to the eye. When he moved to go up on his hind legs again, I used his precarious balance to dive into his unprotected midsection and fling him to the ground.
All I could see was that young woman’s face. All I could hear was her shallow breaths, her gurgled cries. The vision of that arrow flying and lodging into her throat replayed over and over in my mind.
My sharp claws dug into the cougar’s flesh. I ripped skin and muscle from his shoulder, chunks of fur and blood blinding me in my rage.
It was sometimes easier, being in this animal form. Instinct took over, letting me follow my emotions instead of listening to the rational part of my brain. Hunt, protect, defend, kill. If someone hurt what I called mine, they paid the price in blood. That was how these primal urges worked.
And I could see it so clearly. My jaw wrapped around his neck, tearing his throat from his body, claiming my victory. My vengeance.
In the blink of an eye, the cougar shifted with a whimper.
My paws rested atop a pale man covered in dirt and blood, both mine and his. Light brown eyes filled with pain stared up at me, sharpening into resolve as he waited for me to take his life.
His human life.
I let out a growl as I forced my claws to retract and called back my human form. Delicate hands replaced red fur as I circled my fingers around his neck and kept his body pinned to the forest floor.
“Thisis mercy,” I hissed, leaning down so my blonde hair fell over my shoulder and spilled onto his chest. “And it’s the last time I’ll give it to you.”
Lifting the back of his head, I slammed it into the ground. His eyes fluttered shut as he passed out.
7
Thorne
Fading daylight darkened the grounds as I stared out the window of Reaux Mansion. In the distance, I could barely see the waves of the Avonige Ocean lapping against the shore and the towering palm trees that marked the edge of our property.
I’d lived here my whole life. Ran across those beaches a thousand times, often with Galen at my side. Took countless girls to gaze under those stars—withoutGalen, for once. All while being groomed to one day take over as Lord Reaux, Regent Lord of the North Territory of Mysthelm.
That title had become mine four years ago when I turned twenty-eight, after my father fled our home and was never heard from again.
The same year my wife left this world.
One by choice, one by force.
This mansion, this property, this entireterritorywas under my charge…and yet, I’d never felt further from home. That was what happened when a bastard of a father abandoned his family and duty without a backward glance.
“Daddy? Will you read me a story?”
