Marcus and Silas were rolling around on the ground, their gigantic wolves trying to tear through each other’s throats.
I turned back to my sister, sheathing the knife on my thigh. “Ask me again after I kill your alpha.” I bolted for Latoya, arms outstretched to tackle her. Her arms enveloped me in a bear hug as we fell to the ground. She hissed as her arms wrapped around the silver of my new quiver’s strap.
I pushed up from her and punched her in the face, her head whipping to the side, cheek slamming against the cement. Then I raised another fist and punched again, blood spraying from her mouth. And when I raised my arm for a third time, I was thrown off my sister as the human below me vanished.
It was my first time seeing Latoya’s wolf, and she was breathtaking. Her orange eyes gleamed against her soft brown fur. A single lock of coiled hair hung behind her ear.
“Joey!”
I scanned the battle to answer Malik’s call, and my gaze passed over Grace as she and another wolf from the Blackwood Pack fought with the alpha female.
As pitiful as she’d looked in her human form, the luna’s wolf was a formidable creature. She towered over Grace and fought with a strength disguised as fanatic rage, but every snap of her jaw and swipe of her claws were calculated.
Malik ran up to me, blood dripping from his swords. He shoved a gun into my hands. “Fix it.”
I balked at him. “I can’t.”
“Youcan,” he stressed in a hurried voice. “You have one minute.” He looked at Latoya. “Is that who I think it is?”
I nodded. Realizing he couldn’t see me, I begged, “Please don’t—”
“Stop worrying about your fucking sister and start worrying about yourself.” He ran to Latoya, blades drawn as my blood ran cold.
I looked down at the gun but couldn’t focus. Each snarl from my sister, every grunt from Malik, made me flinch. Malik had trained to be a hunter before Latoya became a werewolf, and I knew he’d have no problem killing her.
“Joey!” he shouted.
Shit.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself, but a rogue changed his course to dive for me. I clenched my teeth as I put my weight on my injured leg for a spinning hook kick, throwing Greg’s knife as the wolf tried to recover from the blow.
The knife met its mark—right in the rogue’s neck. But he kept moving as blood squirted out of the wound.
“Any day now!”
Damn it, Malik.I held the gun with both of my hands, pleading for its cooperation, begging for it to listen to my words. Then, without knowing if the spell had worked, I aimed the gun at the rogue stumbling toward me and fired.
The wolf dropped to the ground, dead.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Malik cheered, then smiled at my sister. “I gotta go.” He swung his swords as if he were made of water, spinning them and rotating his feet with speed and precision.
He successfully compelled Latoya to inch back, out of harm’s way. But when she least expected it, he struck and sliced through her legs.
My sister yowled in pain as she dropped to the ground.
Malik hurried to me, snatching the gun from my hand. “She’s fine, Joey. Come on,” he growled, pulling at my arm.
I allowed him to lead me a few feet away, to where Marcus’s Hummer was parked by the lamppost.
“Do you need help?” he asked, glancing down at my leg.
For all my complaining about the man, there was no denying the fact that Malik and I worked well together. From the moment he shoved the gun in my hand, I knew what he intended to do… Because the rest of the rogues had arrived. I shook my head and began climbing onto the hood of the vehicle.
Malik charged ahead with the gun in his hand, firing at the rogues before they got any closer.
I pulled the arrows from my quiver and shot one after another, using my magic to do the most damage—tearing through hearts and lungs.
Wolves of the Blackwood Pack dashed forward, crashing into the rogues and adding claws and fangs to the onslaught of bullets and arrows.
