Page 60 of Damien’s Mate

Titan shrugged. “He never says.”

When they got outside the cabin, Damien forgot about ghostly dragon boys and world-walking. You could hear the snarls and angry leopard screams echoing through the woods. “Uh-oh,” Titan rumbled. “Not good.”

He broke into a run, Damien limping behind him.

By the time they got down to the house it had already gotten ugly. Remy and Brock were locked together, a flurry of fur, claws and teeth.

And blood.

Damien said to Titan, “Shouldn’t you stop them?”

“I’m not sure I can without hurting them.”

“More than they’re hurting each other?”

He’d seen the shifters get into brawls before, even bleed each other. They didn’t seem to take it too seriously—it seemed like it was a way for their animals to let off steam.

This was different.

Colt banged out of the house, Lila behind him. Colt slid to a stop when he saw the fight, twitching. He growled. Damien knew the twins were protective of each other, and if Brock started really trying to hurt Remy, all bets were off.

The wolf and the snow leopard had separated briefly, snarling, but now they attacked each other again.

“Shit,” Colt said, running his hand through his hair. “Where the fuck is Brandon?” Damien knew the alpha had a certain amount of control over Remy, if not Brock, and could de-escalate the situation.

“He and Kitty went shopping,” Lila said.

Callie and Jaeda came racing down the hill from the other side, where Callie’s private retreat was. Jaeda looked furious and scared. Her body started to shimmer and morph, but she seemed to be having trouble Changing.

Callie glanced at her. “Oh, shit,” she muttered. “Colt, stop them!”

Colt opened his mouth, then closed it again. Shaking his head, he shucked off his clothes and went leopard, pacing around trying to get an opening into the fight.

Titan muttered a curse too, and turned bear.

Brock’s wolf saw the others converging on him and went berserk, lunging at Remy with crazy in his eyes. Colt’s leopard lost it and went for Brock.

Then Remy tried to turn owl—but it looked to Damien like something glitched, because he stopped halfway. Damien winced at the sound of bones breaking and re-breaking as Remy’s body tried to settle into a form.

Jaeda was briefly human again, yelling, “Stop it! Stop it!” before her body started to dissolve into blobby Jell-O.

Brock’s jaws closed on Remy, somewhere near where his neck should have been. Titan waded in and slapped the wolf aside.

Jaeda turned into a wolf and ran toward Brock, howling. On the way she turned suddenly into a leopard, sprouted wings, and then her back feet turned to talons and she stumbled.

Brock turned and tried to go for Remy once more, until Colt cannoned into him, tearing at him. This whole thing was turning into a bloodbath. Damien had to fucking do something, and there was only one thing he could figure to do.

Tranquilizer gun.

Moving as fast as he could, he ran for the house.

Chapter 24

Damien only got as far as the porch steps before Lila came out of the house, trank rifle in hand.

“I see you’re already on it,” he said. “You a good shot?”

“Good enough,” she said. “You get Jaeda.”