Jake’s sister was tiny, but she had more fight in her than most men. If Shelly was here as my backup, I stood a damn good chance. She just better keep her fangs off my mate’s blood this time.
My wolf wouldn’t stand still any longer. My bones snapped and shifted, pushing against the confines of my skin. I didn’t know where Mary was, but I couldn’t hold back the shift any longer. I hoped she was out of paws’ reach. My teeth were bared, my animal in charge, and I wanted to spill blood.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mary
Getting yanked around by this blonde vampire was nothing new. Let’s hope that unlike last time I wouldn’t end up sliced open and bled over a dehydrated human raisin. Sure that time helped me save Amber’s life, but that didn’t mean it was a fun ride. Then another thought occurred to me. Shelly’s a vampire. I assumed she was on our side, but could we really be sure?
Please please please please PLEASE, don’t let the beheaded wolf from my drawing be Craig. Was Shelly here for the witches? No. She wouldn’t do that. Would she? I grabbed her leg. That element of surprise was the only thing that kept me there for the nanosecond before she shook me off.
“Hold on, witch. Let the grownups play for a bit. I’m not letting your puppy have all the fun.” Shelly’s voice was flat. She scared the crap out of me, but I reached for her anyway.
Shelly blurred into the clearing before my fingers could close to grab her. She popped her knuckles and walked up to pet Craig. He snapped his teeth at her, but despite the pat on the head she gave him they turned to face the Alakin Pack together. One by one, the Pack shifted into wolves. Shelly was the only human form amongst the wild animals that circled.
She kept talking to Craig between slashes of her nails through the furred sides of the wolves. “Thanks for charging your hotel party damage to the Paulson Pack. I’d hate to miss out on the opportunity to add to my fur collection. I hear grey wolf is all the rage this season.”
I covered my ears as a howl filled the air. Shelly’s hand pulled back from a member of the Pack with a large tail in her hand. Blood dripped down her long-sleeve tee. The wolf dragged its bloody stump on the ground for a moment, and reminded me of a worm ridden dog.
The blood stopped dripping from his rear with the dirt sticking to the wound. I thought they might stop the attack at that point, now that Shelly had distracted them. I willed them to run and get out of there, but Shelly broke the stalemate before anyone could come to their senses.
“One down…” She pointed her fingers, counting around the circle. “Looks like I have seven to go. Come on, Rover. Momma wants a new coat.”
The wolves pounced. I lost sight of Craig as the other wolves closed the circle and the whole group dissolved into one big ball of teeth, blood and noise.
I couldn’t do much other than watch. What powers did I have that I could use in battle? I could play with light strings. Whoopity-do. I crawled to the edge of the clearing. No one seemed to notice me from behind the large tree I held onto. If they did, they weren’t paying me any attention. The noise grew and I heard a horrible crunch. My fingers pulled at the rough bark. The howls of pain rose, but I couldn’t tell if any of them were Craig.
Craig and I weren’t Clan, but if we were mates…maybe I could feed my strength to him. A grey wolf flew from the clearing. Its head cracked into the tree next to me and leaves rained down as the entire base shook. Grey, not the yellow blond of Craig. I exhaled. It wasn’t Craig. Despite the blood that ran from its nose, the wolf began to stir. I felt something tickle my brain. Shelly was holding her own, but the numbers needed to go down if she and Craig were going to stand a chance. They moved so fast, it almost looked like there were even more of them. The wolf twitched at my feet.
“Stay down. Please stay down.”
Of course the wolf didn’t listen to me. It wasn’t like I could give the thing a Milkbone. Then I felt it again. That same push I gave Craig tingled at the top of my spine. Maybe I could push against this wolf too. I might not be able to keep him down, but maybe I could stall him from jumping back into the fight.
I felt his rage. He wasn’t the only one who was angry. This was one of the wolves who’d kidnapped Kari. This was a wolf that would kill Craig if given the chance. I rode that rage right into his brain. I followed his anger until I felt more than that one emotion. I latched on.
“I’ll fucking crush you.”
His voice chased me around the inside of his head. He was hate and anger, and nothing good. It was horrible in there.
It was a pain in my soul to know beings like this existed. I didn’t want him to anymore. I wanted him to stay on the ground and bleed out. That part of me that could grab inside a person’s soul sank its claws in this wolf. I slashed at his evil words. I pulled them from his skull and siphoned them out. I kept grabbing and grabbing more and more and…then the connection snapped.
Pain. I had grabbed the tree so hard, the pads of my fingers had rubbed raw. Complaining about bloody hands seemed a bit petty when I looked by my feet.
I made the wolf stop alright. His head was crushed. His skull looked like it had hit the wrong side of a steamroller. Skin began to replace the fur. Then the animal was a human wearing a grey unitard. Jake was right. The head was the last thing to change. But even in human form, it was still a mash of blood and hair and goo. I wasn’t defenseless. I could do this. I could help! Now. Who’s next?
Wolves were everywhere. Reaching out to find the hate and anger among a group wasn’t as easy as I hoped. They were all pretty pissed off. Shelly stood in the middle beating the wolves bare-handed. She raked her nails across the backs of some, and came to the defense of others. Were they multiplying? Or had I miscounted before?
I took a step closer to the fight. If I could get closer, maybe I could latch on easier. A tawny beige wolf moved from the fight and growled at me. His golden eyes were the same ones I looked into last night. Craig didn’t want me to get in the middle of this. I had to tell him I could help.
I pointed at the mess I made of the man at my feet, but before I could get a single word out the wolf that stood at the Alpha’s side, the first one to change, charged. Teeth bared, the wolf clamped down on Craig’s shoulder. Craig’s light coat turned red as the blood soaked through. I couldn’t just stand here.
With his teeth still deep in my man, the wolf made the mistake of looking up at me. I grabbed hold of that stare and zeroed in. His hate, his fierceness, was no match for a pissed off witch ready to protect her man. Craig was scared I would fry his brain. Let’s see if this bastard with my mate’s shoulder between his teeth would pop and crackle like a big piece of bacon.
Eyes are the windows to the soul, and I followed the hate into this wolf’s head. He enjoyed the way it felt when his teeth sank into flesh. The ass enjoyed the pain he knew he was causing. I was deep inside his brain. I couldn’t help wandering for a second, and I saw more than just what he was thinking. I saw who he was. And it only pissed me off more. He hated Craig, he hated the vampires, and he was ready to take down anything that got in his way. Me included.
I screamed at him inside his skull, at the hell he wanted to bring down on everyone around him. I felt the blood boil up this time. I couldn’t stop the rush. I was doing damage inside his brain and the werewolf healing was trying to correct it. His body pumped more and more blood towards his head. Let it come. I wouldn’t let him heal.
“What the fuck are you?”
He was scared now. Good. He deserved everything I gave him. I felt the magic in his blood as it began to pool at the top of his neck. He howled at me in his mind.
He threatened me.
“Wait until I heal up. I’ll rip off your skin next.”
He thought he could heal what I was doing to him? He thought wrong. I stopped keeping all that blood out and let it inside his head…all at once.
Snap.
I felt something wet against me. I looked down and it looked like I had gotten into a food fight and lost. Bits of pink slime were all over my clothes. I wiped at my face and felt something abrasive. Tiny slivers of…was that bone?
The now headless body slumped off of Craig with a thud.
“Did she just make his head explode?” Shelly grabbed the hind leg of one of the wolves and whipped it around and around. The wolf flew through the air and skidded to a halt at my feet. “Do it again, you beautiful witchy woman. For a human, that was pretty badass.”
The wolf looked at me with fear in its eyes. It whimpered. There was something familiar about this one. The wolf shifted. Unlike the Alakin Pack wolves and their nifty suits this one was a lot more naked. Amber’s dad scrambled on his hands and feet until he got hold of the ground beneath him.
“Mr. Paulson?”
He turned as he stood up. I knew it wasn’t good to stare at a fine naked ass when you were seriously involved. It was even less proper when it was your bestie’s Dad, but
damn.
It’s not like I’m related to the guy.
“Shelly, you threw
me
,” Alpha Paulson yelled, “You knew it was me. What if she had blown my head off like that?”
“You killed the one I’d stared pulling apart. You got blood on his tail. Quit ruining my fun and I won’t throw you to the witch.” Shelly had three tails sticking into the belt loops of her black skinny jeans. Only Shelly could make a tutu of death look cute.
Alpha Paulson turned back to me. I nearly swallowed my tongue. He was a big man everywhere. He cupped himself with his hands, and my face burned.
“Um, I’ll just shift back now.” He went to head back into battle, but there was no battle anymore. There weren’t combatants, only bodies.
“No need, old man. We got it.” Doc Trevor pulled a shirt over his head and tossed some clothes to his Alpha. “Put some clothes on before you get your ass handed to you by a certain blond wolf. Quit showing your dick to his mate.”
Amber’s dad grumbled as he got dressed. “It’s not like it’s standing at attention.”
Great. Now I knew what his penis looked like. I could never have breakfast with the Paulson Pack again. Eating sausage with a straight face would be impossible.
Even knowing what covered me, and the odor that was beginning to ripen, the thought of breakfast still made my stomach gurgle.
“Trust me, if it were standing at attention, she wouldn’t be able to handle it. Mary, you should see—” Shelly was cut off by a loud growl.
Craig dimmed the sound when I turned to him. “You’ll give a guy a complex if you don’t roll your tongue back in your mouth.”
I jumped on him. “You’re alive.”
He held me close and it took me a good few seconds to realize he was also naked. The heavy pulse of his cock bobbing between my legs let me know he realized it too.
Shelly didn’t seem as excited to tell me about Craig’s penis. “Would you put that away? We are entertaining prisoners.”
“You should put me down. We’re both a bit messy.” I grimaced thinking about what I must look like, and I didn’t want to think about what it was that slid below my ear.
“You were a warrior.” His smile turned predatory. “And all the brains made your shirt really damp.”
“Stop struggling. They are having a moment, and the fact that they are both covered in blood is really hot,” Shelly was being charming again. “So quit making that gurgling noise and interrupting, or I will crush your windpipe.”
Shelly had a stiletto boot on the throat of a man in a grey jumpsuit, while she held the neck of a woman in matching gear against a tree. By the awful sounds coming from his throat I could tell she was rocking back and forth over his windpipe. “But your son’s penis has no manners.”
“I have no son here.” The man would have said more, but Shelly silenced him with the shiny tip on her heel.
Even in our not-at-all sexy situation, feeling Craig’s cock sliding beneath me…yeah I wiped some drool from the corner of my mouth.
Craig slipped on the pair of pants Doc handed him and we all walked towards the prisoners. People who turned into dogs wanted to sell me for food. Although with what I wiped off my arm, I did resemble something that should be pattied and put on a grill.
Shelly’s captives coughed and sucked in oxygen as she stepped back from them. They didn’t look like they were going to run. Which was smart if they wanted to keep their bodies intact. The fact that they eyed me with almost as much fear as the others after my little brain bender was nice.
Craig’s arm slipped around my waist. Leaning into him helped. I was exhausted. He was soft for me, but his voice was hard as he addressed his parents. “I’ll take the other witches and the wolves you were just going to abandon anyway. We’ll all go. I have no desire to kill you, but if you come near my Mary again, we won’t spare you.”
The woman sputtered. She was pissed. I thought about going for her cerebellum, but I couldn’t stomach any more brain matter on my body.
“She is a prize. She walks with our kind. If we don’t take her, another harvest will. She has been called for.” It was a good thing I was tired. Craig’s mom was making me reconsider more carnage.
“Who called for her?” Shelly looked ready to take over for me and apply that vicious stiletto when the suicidal woman began to laugh. Not just a giggle or a chuckle but a full out belly laugh. Threatened stabbing by stiletto was apparently humorous.