Every nerve in my body fired at once.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
My arms locked around Selena, crushing her against my chest. “Move!” I shouted, the word ripping from my throat. “Move! They’ve found us!”
Raven’s massive wings unfurled with a sound like a sail catching a gale, silver scales flashing as they spread wide enough to blot out the canopy. Her haunches coiled and she launched skyward with a force that slammed me back against the ridge of scales behind me. Wind screamed past my face. My stomach dropped as the ground fell away beneath us—ten feet, twenty, fifty—the bayou shrinking into a patchwork of dark water and twisted trees.
Lucien and Darius shot up on either side, flanking Raven like fighter jets escorting a bomber. Lucien moved with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for a vampire without wings—whatever Anton had given him, it was working. Darius cut through the air beside him, his dark form barely more than a blur against the pale sky.
I twisted and looked down.
The shape stood at the edge of the clearing where we’d been seconds ago. Still. Motionless. Those burning red eyes tracked us as we climbed, the dark head tilting slightly, watching ourascent the way a predator watches prey it’s already decided not to chase.
My blood chilled.
It looked like a wolf. Massive and black, its outline rippling against the shadows of the bayou like it was woven from them. Angelo could shift into a black wolf. So could Costin. But something about this creature felt different—older, wronger, like the darkness around it wasn’t shadow but something the thing was generating on its own.
It didn’t lunge. Didn’t give chase. Just watched.
That bothered me more than if it had attacked.
An enemy that charges, you can fight. An enemy that watches—that stands in the open and lets you see it, lets you know it found you, and still doesn’t move—that enemy is delivering a message.
We know where you are. We’ll come when we’re ready.
Selena’s fingers dug into my forearm. She’d seen it too. When I looked down at her, her face was pale but her eyes were hard. Not afraid. Furious.
That made two of us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Selena
What the hell was that thing?
I craned my neck, peering past Rocco’s shoulder as the bayou shrank beneath us. The dark shape hadn’t moved. It stood at the edge of the clearing, those burning red eyes locked on us like two embers refusing to die. I waited for it to transform—to sprout wings, shift into a bat, launch itself into the sky after us.
It didn’t. It just stared.
A sick, crawling sensation slithered down my spine. I could have sworn the thing was smiling.
Maybe it was a wolf shifter. Someone working for Angelo or Costin—a scout sent to track our movements and report back. It wasn’t Trystan. He was a white wolf, unmistakable even at a distance. This creature was something else. Something that wanted us to know it was there.
I tore my gaze away. Staring at it any longer felt like giving it exactly what it wanted.
Wind rushed over me in a roaring wall, nothing like the gentle currents I’d felt when I was in bat form. This was raw andrelentless—tearing at my clothes, stinging my eyes, stealing the breath from my lungs before I could catch it. My hair whipped behind me in the wind. I winced, knowing damn well it was slapping Rocco square in the face. He didn’t complain.
He tightened his arms around my waist, solid and unwavering, pressing my back against his hard chest as if he was afraid I would fall. I smiled at his protectiveness. Something I never thought would happen. I was his mate. Not his rejected mate.
I pressed my knees hard against Raven’s broad back, gripping the ridge of scales in front of me. Beneath my thighs, I could feel the immense power of her—every muscle rolling and contracting with each beat of her wings. She was enormous. Mac truck enormous. Her wingspan stretched so wide I couldn’t see the tips from where I sat, and every downstroke sent a shockwave of air rushing past us that rattled my teeth.
She was a fortress with wings. I didn’t know if Costin or Angelo—or whatever that thing in the bayou had been—could keep up with her. I hoped to God they couldn’t.
Lucien and Darius flanked us on either side, two dark figures cutting through the sky. Lucien's body was angled forward like a blade slicing through the wind, whatever was in that vial Anton gave him keeping him locked in pace with Raven's wingbeats. Darius flew beside him with an effortless grace that made it look easy.
Good. We needed them close. If something came at us from any direction, they were our first line of defense. Splitting up, even by a few hundred yards, was how people got picked off.
Rocco’s lips brushed my ear, his voice low enough that the wind nearly swallowed it. “Are you okay?”
