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Bridget screamed.

I grabbed her arm. “As soon as he’s focused on me, run to Wren and get him inside.”

She nodded, horror and fear transforming her face.

“Hey!” I called out as I pulled my blade from my pocket. Its head swung back to me, and I held up my hand and sliced my palm, once, twice, making an X. I had the feral’s complete attention now that he could smell my blood. He stalked me.

“Back away slowly, Bridget.”

“He’ll kill you,” she whispered.

“Just get Wren inside, I’ll be okay. Trust me.” I had no idea if that was true. I had to get close to the beast if I was going to immobilize him, like within touching distance close, which gave me a fifty-fifty chance of getting out of this alive, but I wasn’t letting him hurt Wren.

Bridget backed away, moving silently along the edge of the keep, then sprinted to Wren, scooped him up, and ran for the door. Now it was just me and the drooling, feral beast closing in on me.

A child screamed, then started crying inside, and the feral turned that way, the hunger in his eyes increasing. If I failed, he would do everything he could to get inside, and even if they overpowered him, someone would get hurt. The females in there were vicious. They would fight to the death to protect their pups, but like me, they weren’t warriors. And now I was all that stood between them and this monster now.

I wouldn’t let anyone hurt them.

The feral roared, foam flying from its mouth—and then he charged.

My instincts told me to run. Instead, I planted my feet, and as his body smashed into mine, I slapped my hand against the center of his forehead as we went down, momentarily stopping him from taking a bite out of me. “In this spot, you will rot!” I screamed.

The feral froze, just like the demon had in the nightclub, and rolled to his side, unable to move. He stared up at me with fury in his crazed eyes. I didn’t waste time, not sure how long the spell would hold, and scrambled to my feet. I pulled my blade free, and stabbed it into the artery in his throat, then sliced across. His blood gushed out, spraying me. The feral twitched and went limp, bleeding out on the grass.

Panting, I straightened.

That’s when I saw Draven.

He stood on the other side of the yard, Asher and the other warriors behind him. And there was no missing the look of horror on their faces.

CHAPTER 35

Iris

Dirk ran for the keep, carrying Tammy, one of their females, her leg badly mauled. And a couple of his warriors tossed a second dead feral on the ground. There’d been two of them.

My gaze flew over to Draven. Gouges covered his chest, a vicious bite mark at his side, blood oozing out.

“Draven…” I started toward him.

He took a step back.

I froze, my heart seizing in my chest. “What do you think I’m going to do?” I whispered, but I already knew, didn’t I? He was looking at me like he didn’t know me, like the last few weeks had never happened.

His warriors dropped their gazes and hurried away, going into the keep.

“Draven?”

He planted his hands on his hips. “It’s okay,” he said, but I wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure, him or me.

“You’re hurt. Let me check your wounds,” I rasped.

His jaw worked. “You never told me you could do that. You overpowered him with your magic. He was frozen, helpless against you.”

I stayed where I was. If he took another step away from me, I didn’t think my heart could handle it. “It’s new.”

“Have you done that before? That spell?”