The fighting stopped, and all eyes turned to him.
With a sneer, Thrall looked right at Daemon, who had a lifeless, half-shifted guy hanging in the air by the throat while his arm was jacked back to deliver a punch. “First of all, that one’s already dead. Second of all,the fuck man? We were doing recon only.” With a displeased snort, he planted his hands on his jean-clad hips and shook his head, giving Daemon his most disparaging look. In the next blink, everyone was fighting again. Two of the Biters broke from trying to take down Daemon and turned on him.
“Hey!” Thrall boomed, ducking a punch. The two attackers didn’t stop, forcing Thrall to lurch back as he held up his hands and admonished, “You morons are giving me no choice but to defend myself!” He side-stepped a lunging wolf and simultaneously threw a punch that hit the beast hard and sent it flying. “You get that, right?”
Two more shifters abandoned attacking Daemon and came for him. And he got it. He really did. Currently, there were threebodies at Daemon’s feet, and he wasn’t even in wolf form. These shifters didn’t want anything to do with Daemon. Hell, even he could feel the sheer menace radiating from his pack-mate. But still. It was offensive that none of these fucks considered him a threat. Catching the next fist that aimed for his face, Thrall glared at the owner, “You know I’m just as skilled as he is!” Jerking his chin toward Daemon, his eyes slid that way too. He thought he’d find Daemon coming to help deal with the four shifters currently surrounding him, but nope. Daemon was currently slow stalking the woman who’d been accosted. She looked terrified and was slowly backing away from Daemon, and if Thrall had been given the opportunity, he would have told her that retreating from Daemon would be seen by Daemon’s wolf, Demon, as running, and one ought not run from a monster wolf, but Thrall didn’t get the chance. All four shifters attacked in unison, and he went down in a pile under them with a bellowed, “Really, D!”
***
Daemon couldn’t take his eyes off the woman in front of him. Absently, he heard Thrall being taken down behind him, butDemon refused to be distracted. Besides, if Thrall couldn’t handle the four pitiful shifters currently dog-piling him, then he wasn’t good enough to be the Allegiance Beta. A position that had originally gone to Daemon but had just as quickly been stripped away when Koe realized there was no hope of controlling Daemon or his wolf. Daemon didn’t mind. Hell, he’d been relieved. He didn’t like the responsibilities that came with the title. Lead Enforcer suited him and Demon much better. Being an Enforcer afforded him the opportunity to shirk protocols, much like he was doing now. He was supposed to be watching this so-called pack from cover; instead, he was standing before the woman who was slowly backing away from him, wondering how he was going to introduce himself after the carnage he’d just left behind him. He should be asking her if she was ok. He should be telling her that he wasn’t going to hurt her so that the look of fear would disappear from her beautiful face. But he couldn’t speak. Mouth dry as the Sahara, he could only try to get close, wordlessly offering his body as protection. No male would get near her again. No one would touch her so disgracefully as that fuck just had.
Her back hit a tree, and a little gasp left her as she realized she was trapped.
Angling his head to the side, Daemon quickly closed the last few steps between them, nostrils flaring as he drank in her myriad of scents and sifted through them. The fear he’d smelled on her earlier when the other male held her had now shifted to terror. Because of him. He was an outsider, an enemy. She probably assumed he was here to kill Biters…well, hewas, and he just had, but not her. She wasn’t a Biter. Koe said destroying Bragga and his Biters was the plan, and part of that plan was sparing Jury’s sister because, like Jury, this woman was basically a hostage. And hostages needing rescuing, right?
Behind him, feral sounds were exploding from Thrall, and it made him grin. He hadn’t gifted Thrall the heart of the battle in ages. Typically, Daemon was the one to charge headlong into war. He preferred it; he enjoyed it. But seeing this female locked in place while he’d battled had drawn him from the fun. Demon didn’t like the worried look on her pretty face. His wolf didn’t want her thinking anything bad was going to happen to her. Butnow, with her cornered up against a tree, all Daemon could do was dip his eyes to her throat. No mate mark. Good. Hands itching to reach up and smooth the hair off her shoulders so he could make sure he was seeing right, Daemon fisted and unfisted his hands. The female glanced quickly to the side like she was thinking about running, and before he could stop himself, he growled a lethal-sounding, “Don’t!”
The female inhaled again and pressed her shoulders tighter into the tree, her shoulders hunching like she was trying to shrink into herself. Daemon didn’t like that. He didn’t like that she was trying to hide from him. The problem was that Demon was too close to the surface, and if Daemon tried to say anything else, it’d just come out sounding feral as hell.
Eyes lowered, the female canted her head, exposing her throat in a show of submission.
Whatever good intentions Daemon had were smashed by Demon in that instant. Before Daemon could even try to rein him in, Demon lunged. In a move too fast to stop, he had the womanpulled up hard against him, wicked incisors sunk deep into the tender flesh of her throat as she screamed a pain-filled sound.
Demon had just marked her! The uncontrollable beast had claimed her as theirs!
Chapter 12
Mouth dripping with decadent blood, Daemon eased back from the woman he’d just bitten and licked his lips. Fuck, she tasted good. Too good! He wanted to taste all of her, and now that she bore his mark it was his right. Chest rattling a satisfied rumble, he was floating in a cloudy haze of lust and possessiveness. Hanging just on the periphery was some small awareness that he was supposed to acknowledge, but Demon wouldn’t permit it to push through. Demon was as close to taking over as he could be without forcing an all-out shift to their animal form, and Daemon didn’t care because they were drunk on the female in front of them.
Ours!Demon hissed. Inhaling the female’s scent, Daemon was just as pleased as his wolf. “Ours!” Daemon agreed aloud.
Behind him, he heard Thrall bellow, “Jesus fucking Christ!”
Turning just his head, he gave Thrall a moment's worth of attention. Maybe that’s what he was supposed to be paying attention to. Maybe he was supposed to remember to make surethat Thrall didn’t perish under the pile of Enforcers Daemon had left for him.
Eyes taking in the scene, Daemon smirked at Thrall stepping over crumpled bodies and making his way toward Daemon with an intense look of fury on his face. Normally, it’d be funny, but Demon wasn’t having it. Rearing up, the wolf lunged for the surface, and Daemon was barely able to hold him back. Demon didn’t want Thrall or any male near their female.
Thrall froze in place and held up his hands, brows spearing down in irritation as he snarled, “Are you fucking retarded?”
That had the growl rattling Daemon’s chest, transitioning from one of pleasure to one of warning.
“You can’t just mark her, D. She’s not open for the taking. That’s not why we’re fucking here! You can’t just claim her as one of ours!”
No!Daemon agreed silently.She’s not ours. Aloud, he snarled, “Mine!”
With an eye roll, Thrall threw his hands up. “You just claimed a Biter. You get that right? A Biter. An enemy!”Leaning to the side, he eyed the woman up and down. “Man, she fucking looks like Jury. It’s probably her sister!” Thrall raged, “You think Koe’s gonna be okay with you claiming Jury’s sister like this? Without protocol, without asking,” he gestured toward the silent woman, “without her goddamn consent?” Lifting both hands to fist his hair, Thrall leaned forward to shake his head at Daemon, “You’ve seen the way he fucking looks at Jury, right?” Dropping his hands, he started pacing, “I mean I’m not blind…am I?” He stopped to shoot Daemon a look. “You have to have seen the way he looks at her.”
Daemon was watching Thrall curiously. It was hard to follow the flow of words coming from his mouth because Demon was still mostly in control. Plus, he honestly didn’t give a shit about anything Thrall was saying. He’d stopped listening the second Thrall had called them retarded.
Rude!
Annoyed that Thrall was still talking, Demon was contemplating throat punching him when a scent hit him that hadDemon instantly tensing before he immediately released the reins of control to Daemon and recoiled as fast as he could.
Tensing hard, Daemon’s senses went on high alert the moment Demon recoiled. Demon had never retreated…not ever! For him to do so as quickly as he just did had Daemon’s stomach clenching as an unknown emotion seized him. Was he actually experiencing fear?
What the fuck?!
Jerking a hand up, palm side out, he held it in Thrall’s face so that the fucker would shut the hell up and let Daemon focus. All senses going on high alert, Daemon turned slowly. There were no sounds of more enemies approaching, and the shifters they’d just fought were still on the ground. Inhaling, Daemon froze once he discovered the scent that had scared Demon off. The second he realized what it was, his eyes landed on the small female they’d just marked. She was standing with her arms wrapped around herself defensively, chin tucked low, with her neck wound bleeding onto the collar of her shirt. But it wasn’t the scent of her blood that had chased Demon off. It was the scent of her tears.
