Cass’s bellow shook me to my core.
Raw pain and anger rattled the foundation.
The literal foundation.
I braced as the ground beneath me shook.
“What the hell is that?” Poppy shouted. “Is…is thatCassander? Hey! What the fuck is going on out there?”
Naked or not. She didn’t give a shit.
All the mated men quickly averted their eyes as a furious and worried naked Poppy raced out of the bathroom, banging right into Megan as she rushed toward the bathroom. Poppy and Megan smacked foreheads, but they managed to keep their footing. Poppy started grabbing items from her, growling, “What the hell is happening? And why isn’t anyone going to help him? He sounds like he’s being fucking tortured!”
Theron looked directly into her eyes, uncaring that she was nude and just getting dressed. “Poppy, leave him alone right now.”
She shoved the dress over her head. “What?”
Those dark and dangerous eyes of his darkened even further, a blackness spreading over his eyes to his temples. He growled low and hard, “Let him be for now!”
All the other shifters in the room grunted and took a step back from wherever they stood as if they were physically shoved. They started to pull their dress shirts like they couldn’t breathe. Their faces started to turn red and blotchy.
“Alaric?” I whispered in alarm, rushing to him.
“Shh,” he choked, patting my hands away. He continued to pull at his shirt. “Okay… It’s okay.”
Poppy’s eyes narrowed, her gaze roaming the transforming shifter’s face. She hissed with forced calm, “I’ll do as you say, Theron. Now let your power go. You’re hurting them.”
Instantly, he let out a harsh breath.
The room quieted.
No more shifters suffocating on power. No more transforming kings. No more cries of a seer.
It all just stopped. Everyone just stopped.
Why?
Poppy glanced around in suspicion. “Anyone else hear that?”
As one, we all nodded.
Quiet…quiet laughter filled the air. It was all around and nowhere at once. It pushed and pulled at the senses.
I pulled at my ear, grouching, “Who the heck is that?”
“It’s him,” Rune rumbled on a deadly purr.
Mina spit, “The fucker is playing with us again.” She turned around in a circle and threw her arms out wide. “Are you watching us right now? Is thisalla game to you?”
A tingle up my spine. I mumbled, “Oh, shit.”
My head arched back as a tornado of power engulfed me, twisting and turning in the most pleasant sensation. I curled into it, allowing it to take hold of me from the inside out. Warm and cocooned, I groaned in satisfaction.
Then blares of voices. I couldn’t understand them, each like a foghorn to my brain, bashing against each other as everyone around me started screaming.
My head shook back and forth, trying to dislodge their voices, but they were too loud. Too loud as they crashed down upon me, one after the other. A brutal attack, again and again and again.
I opened my mouth wide and roared at them.
