Maybe we’re going to come out of this mostly unscathed…
But then another wave surges out of the trees. More shadowed figures. More wolves. Too many supernaturals everywhere. The ground trembles beneath their weight, and the space feels suddenly too small, too fragile to hold the storm pouring into it.
The warmth returns. Though it’s not as potent as earlier. Maybe I can control it, and using it won’t be so bad.
…but what if I can’t?
I know you’re scared, but whatever is inside us, I think we need it,my wolf says as she charges for another opponent.
Not yet,I force out.Not unless I have no other choice.
Our surroundings are a battlefield of snarls and screams, but for a moment, I force myself to see more than just the blur of enemies.
I have a real family here. People who are fighting to the death for…me. I may not ever know why Mom kept me from this place, but I’m sure as hell glad I found my way here.
Cade’s snarl is a comforting sound that makes merealize he’s much closer to me than at the start of the attack. His presence helps put my attention back on what’s most important right now—staying alive and watching each other’s backs.
He’s a storm at my side, his wolf cutting through enemies with terrifying grace. He doesn’t falter, doesn’t hesitate. But I see the way his gaze keeps flicking toward me, protective and worried, as if he’s checking every heartbeat that I’m still here and fighting.
While I might not be as fast as my family, I can still do this.
Well, Wolf can.
She follows Cade’s movements, picking off those who try to pass by him. A fact that not only protects our mate’s back, but also keeps the fight away from Iris. Her emergency fanny pack might be saving her ass right now, but her mace and glitter will only last so long.
Wolf continues to take down other shifters, but even she doesn’t have endless energy.
I sense her steps getting slower and her breathing becoming ragged from the exertion.Let’s shift back, I tell her.Give yourself a break, and I’ll take on some of the others.
Most of the wolves are gunning for Cade anyway, but there are vamps mixed in. I should—hopefully—be fast enough to handle some of them in my human form. Unless Liz’s been taking it easy on me this whole time, and I’m about to learn the hard way.
Just a little while longer,Wolf pants, lunging low for the underbelly of a gray wolf. Her claws sink in, crimson spraying, but she’s too slow to dodge the counter. Bloodspatters across her muzzle, blinding and slowing her further.
I know what we should do next, but that’s when the obvious, stupid problem hits me.
I’ll have no clothes.
If I shift back, I’ll be standing naked in the middle of a battlefield.Naked. With Cade near and in front of everyone.
He’ll lose his mind, and I can’t let him be distracted, increasing his chances of being taken down.
Wolf snarls in my head. I’ve got this.
But for every ragged inhale she manages, a claw or a bite drives her farther back, inch by inch, and away from Cade. He doesn’t notice yet—he’s buried under his own storm of enemies—but the distance between us gnaws at my chest.
The others are holding their own, but the waves don’t stop. They keep coming, more and more, until I feel like we’re drowning under their weight.
Helplessness begins to claw at me harder than any opponent we’re currently facing.
We’re going to be overrun,I realize, terror choking me.We can’t win. Not like this.
I reach for it then—that heat, that dangerous hum I’ve been doing my best to shove down since last night. I don’t understand what it is, not really. But it had to have something to do with the reason I killed a man using nothing more than a chair leg, and right now it’s the only option we have left, being this outnumbered.
Please,I beg myself.If it means saving them, I’ll risk it. Just show up.
But the warmth is gone. No matter how hard I grasp for it, no matter how wild my fear gets, it’s nowhere.
Because you’re not you,Wolf snarls, dragging us through another claw strike that rakes across our flank.We have to shift back.
