I winced and checked the cut on my leg. It wasn’t deep, but it burned like a bitch. Biting the inside of my cheeks, I ran behind a werewolf about to snap a hunter’s neck and pulled out my knife.
He howled in pain as I slit both of his Achilles tendons.
“You’ll heal,” I muttered, turning my gaze to the young hunter. “I saved your life and am asking you to walk away… or I’ll have to claim it for myself.”
The girl dipped her head in submission, her eyes wide.
I soon found Maya in the crowd. “Maya,” I called out. “You don’t owe me anything, but please, try and spare them.”
Her wolf eyes glowed with apology.
…How many hunters did I lose already?
I shook off the self-doubt and returned to impeding humans and werewolves from killing each other—but that had its consequences.
The werewolves avoided me, fearing their alpha’s revenge. But the hunters landed their blows. The jamming spell made me exhausted. And at that point, I couldn’t even tell where some of the blood was seeping from.
I’d stopped another werewolf and knocked out the hunter who refused to let her be, when dread whispered in my ear.
James and Malik had finally cornered Marcus—and he was smiling about it.
I prepared to rush toward them when a chain suddenly snaked around my neck.
I dropped my bow, my hands darting to the chain. My fingers wrapped around the cold silver, preventing it from restricting my airflow. The quiver fell as if someone had cut it off my back, and the tip of a knife rested above my belly button. My hands stilled.
“Go ahead, protégé,” Greg whispered in my ear. “Scream for your beast.”
How did I let him sneak up on me? “Go to hell, you old fuck.”
He pushed the knife into my skin, and a nervous cry escaped my lungs.
Marcus’s head shot up from where he’d been crouched down. His eyes darted over the humans and shifters until they finally found mine.
With his nose to the sky, Marcus howled louder than I’d ever heard a werewolf howl before. The cry vibrated through the ground. Shards of glass from the front doors danced as the floor quaked. Hunters covered their ears in pain. The werewolves all froze.
Marcus shifted to his human form in a flash, his skin glistening with blood. “Tell him to let her go,” he growled. His voice bounced off the buildings, resonating through the air.
James and Malik whirled around, their blades still pointed toward him.
Color drained from James’s face. “Greg, what are you doing?”
Greg yanked on the chain. “I’m pretty sure she’s the reason all the guns jammed, James. This little bitch has been playing both sides.”
Marcus’s entire body shook with fury. “What the fuck did you just call her?” He looked at James for the first time since his shift. “Tell him to let her go. Or I won’t just kill him. I’ll peel the flesh off his body and force it down his throat.”
Malik slowly lowered one of his swords, his back now vulnerable if Marcus struck. But his arm stayed stretched out behind him, as if he was warning Marcus to stay back for Marcus’s own protection. “She’s already subdued with your whip, Greg. Lower your damn knife,” he chided.
Greg shook his head, glancing around to ensure no one got too close to us. “We’re not going to let thethinginside her live, are we? It’s a disgrace to our kind—to all that we stand for.”
I’d clenched my teeth, trapping the startled sound before it escaped, but I couldn’t stop my hands from trembling against the restraints. My legs went weak. Each beat of my racing heart reverberated through my entire body.
Maya growled from somewhere to my left.
“Don’t,” Marcus ordered, voice like steel.
Greg chuckled, freezing my breath in my lungs as the tip of his knife tapped against my skin. “That’s right. Tell your dogs to back the hell up, or I gut James’s protégé like a damn fish.”
Marcus rolled his shoulders, trying to calm himself down. “Retreat,” he forced through gritted teeth.
