I turned and looked at her and shesmiled. “Thanks for saving us. If we get split up, meet at San Juan Island.”
I could feel her pride through the packbonds. She was proud to see me off on my own doing well but also worried forme. Always worried.
I just smiled. “You’re welcome, Mom. I’llsee you at the island.”
My mom would no doubt drive the truckwith my dad, and Jaxon and I would follow with Avery in the Range Rover. I wasmidway through walking to the truck when an emptiness pulled at my pack bonds.It brought anger and relief with it. Karl just died. That was three, whichmeant Aunt Emma was going to be okay. I walked like a zombie past the back ofthe truck. I just wanted to get out of here. I wanted to be done with this day.
As I got to the front of the truck, I sawMason asleep in the cab. I chuckled silently to myself and looked around for mymate. Maybe he went to help Jaxon with Avery.
The fog had fully lifted now and I walkedback through the thick brush, which had been flattened and plowed over. Castingmy gaze to the left and right I didn’t see anyone.
“Gav?” I called out as I reached thebroken-down house. I decided to feel for him through the matebond and that’swhen I froze. My hands shook with adrenaline as I realized Gavin had clampedthe bond closed but still a small sliver was coming through and it reeked offear. I inhaled deeply, letting my bear filter through the scents and when Ismelled Mukesh, a growl tore from my throat. My worst nightmare had come true.The Skin Walker had my mate.
Chapter Eight
I RAN BLINDLY.
“GAVIN!” I shouted, running away from thehouse, away from the camp, and straight into the thick woods. I shouted hisname again and again until my voice was raw.
My bear wanted to shift but I kept her atbay. I needed to think, to speak, to hold onto my sanity. Mukesh had my mateand he’d come at the worst possible time. My pack was weak, distracted, broken.
I know Mama had said that it wasn’t mydestiny to kill the Skin Walker but I had to think she wasn’t seeing correctly.She must have missed something because I was very much going to kill thisbastard.
“Nahuel!” I shouted, trying to call outto anyone I could think of.
I blasted past the trees and they toreinto my arms as I ran. Inhaling deeply, I was relieved and slightly terrifiedthat the smell of my mate was getting stronger. I knew that if he was dead Iwould have felt it, like a fish being cut open, but he could be mortallyinjured and I wouldn’t know. He was blocking me from feeling his pain.
A howl rose up at my back and Irecognized it.
“Mom!” I shouted into the woods behindme.
She must have heard my cries all the wayfrom the camp. The sun was high in the sky at this early morning hour andshafts of light filtered through the trees. When I ran through two thick pinetrees, I broke out into a clearing and that’s where I found them.
Mukesh was standing facing me, in hishuman form, naked but for a small animal skin covering his manhood. His bodywas streaked with dirt and war paint and he smelled like death. But my eyesbarely saw him; it was Gavin I was staring at. My mate was in his wolf formrolled onto his back and contorted at an odd angle. Frozen like a statue. Hismuzzle a grimace of pain.
“My son isn’t being very cooperative. ButI’ll break him soon enough,” Mukesh explained. Clearly not surprised norbothered that I was here.
I seethed, fur rolling onto my arms.“He’s not your son. You’re a sperm donor,” I said through gritted teeth. Itwould take me too long to shift and I might be faster in my human form. If Icould just get to Gavin, I might be able to use my witch magic to breakwhatever hold he had on him.
Mukesh smiled, revealing red-stained teeth.Blood.Whose, I didn’t know. “Oh, you are just the feistiest female I’veever met.”
The pleasure in his tone sickened me. Butbefore I could reply, a twig snapped behind me and I turned to see my mom’swhite wolf streaking through the air. She came out of nowhere and Mukesh wasn’tready. All he could do was raise an arm to cover his throat as my mom’s sharpjaws sank right into the flesh of his forearm.
I grinned. “No. She’s the feistiestfemale you will ever meet.”
As if they had perfectly timed it, Nahuelstepped out of the woods behind Mukesh. His hair was now fully white, not oneblack strand, and he looked like a sixty-year-old man with a bed of wrinklesaround each eye. His chest had long, deep gashes on it and now I knew whoseblood that was in the Skin Walker’s mouth.
Mukesh roared and threw my mother off ofhim as his body contorted with a shift. As much as I wanted to rush him and riphis head off, I needed to get to Gavin. More howls rose up behind me and I knewmy mother had called my dad. He would be on his way with over a dozen of ourmost dominant wolves. The time to end Mukesh was now.
Gavin whimpered and I moved forward,dropping to one knee as the Skin Walker turned into a large and menacing lion.He was an instant shifter, like I had never seen before. He could flicker hisanimal shapes within seconds. If there was a zoo cage between us I wouldn’tcare, but standing before a large cat with nothing between you was terrifying. Ifroze, half crouched with one hand out to touch my mate’s wolf. My magic wasflowing up my spine and down my left arm, ready to throw a spell if needed. Icould see out of my peripherals that my mom was on all fours now and Nahuel hadshifted to his jaguar. They had Mukesh surrounded, but he didn’t seem worried aboutthe odds. His amber eyes were on me as his tongue came out to lick his lips.
I heard footsteps off to the side butdidn’t dare move. I should have shifted to my bear earlier, dammit. If helunged for me, I was done for. I could throw a stun spell but I wasn’t surewhat that would do to someone as powerful as him. He crouched and I flinched …then he jumped.
Everything happened so fast I couldbarely track it. I brought my arm up to stun him just as I saw Nahuel trying tolunge for his ankle and get to him in time. My mother was too far away. I heldmy breath at the spell built up in my palm and that’s when a streak of blackcaught my eye. My father’s large wolf crashed into the side of Mukesh’s lion,which was now inches from my face, and I heard the Walker’s ribs crack fromwhere I stood. They both hit the ground with a thud and tangled into a snarlingmass of teeth. Nahuel leapt forward and grabbed Mukesh’s foot and that’s when Istarted my shift.
Helping Gavin would have to wait. I wasgoing to kill this bastard. My father’s dominants surrounded him and a thrillwent through me. We were going to do this. We were totally going to wipe thisscumbag off of the face of the earth. I noticed my mom come up beside me justas I landed on all four paws. My father and Nahuel had Mukesh pinned. With a roar,I lunged forward ready to land on his chest and smash him to bits but while Iwas in midair, he shifted. His large lion form disappeared and featherssprouted as he shifted to a blackbird. The same blackbird from my vision.Nahuel and my father both fell backward, now that the tension they had beenpulling on had left. I crashed into the ground, unable to change my trajectoryso quickly, and that damn Skin Walker took to the skies. Even his bird criesseemed to mock me. He got away. I stood there for a moment just staring at theblue skies in shock. I had him! My father’s pack was here to help me tear himapart and he got away!
My mate’s moans tore my attention awayfrom the missed opportunity and I began shifting back to human. Gavin seemed tobe rousing now and I was hoping there was nothing seriously wrong with him.Maybe the spell broke when Mukesh flew off and the distance between them grew.I needed a break. I could use a little reprieve from the universe shitting onme today.
