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running on old green-eyed jealousy. Hateration to the core. And we don't have
time for it."
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"Put the gun down, Sasha. He might be your lay, but you don't need to get your
pretty self shot in the head over a man who ain't even man enough to stay and
face the music. This been brewing in the clan for a long time, but look at
him where is he? Gone? Gonna let a female take the weight?" Bob's gaze
hardened and the threat in his voice tightened it. "Put down the gun."
"Yes ..." a deep voice said from behind the group. "Put down the gun."
Instant voice recognition made her cock the shotgun up to the sky and turn
just in time to see Bob pivot and release four off-balanced shots when Bear
Shadow rushed him. The huge black wolf that moved in a blur scattered the
group, but also froze Sasha's heart. He'd spoken while in wolf form, something
only the predators could do. He was also much larger than he should have been.
The only thing that gave her hope during the ensu-ing chaos was that Hunter
hadn't actually attacked but simply backed down anyone testing his authority.
Yet before the group could settle down, she saw mil-liseconds happen in slow
motion. Hunter's back was turned toward a swath of night shadows. A huge
predator barreled through it. Hunter ducked, missing the first as-sault, and
then stood on hind legs for a moment before van-ishing into the shadows to
emerge again for an attack. Several alphas raised weapons, aimed, and fired.
Another wolf came through the same shadow at the wrong trajectory. ... It
wasn't as large as Hunter ... it was silver-coated and majestic. It was hit.
Rounds fractured the night and she knew that this was the perfect excuse for
Hunter and his grandfather to be re-moved from the pack once and for all. From
the corner of her eye she saw Bear Shadow try to yank down Bob's arm to keep
him from hitting Hunter, and she spun on Lion Shadow and shot his rifle out of
his hand. The message was clear: She'd blow them away if they even blinked
wrong. But she had to get to Hunter the men behind her couldn't be trusted.
They had to pull Silver Hawk to safety; he'd been badly wounded and his age
didn't help matters.
The only way was to get pack mentality to take prece-dence over mob mentality.
They had to work as a cohe-sive unit or the huge beast that was on Hunter
would soon prevail and then would attack them.
"Stay in human form!" Sasha shouted. "Weapons up on the predator only! You hit
our man and you lose an amulet! There's no telling how many are already here,
and that's our only way back!"
It took only a second for the information and threat to register. They'd been
lucky once going through the Shadow lands with no amulet bearer to keep them
from being snatched beyond demon doors and they all seemed to know that had
more to do with the beasts' probable feeding frenzy than divine intervention.
If they left Hunter ass-out, or hit him with a shell, it was clear that she'd
leave the lot of them without a way to safely get back to whatever larger pack
they hailed from.
Positioning quickly around the fray as the beast roared, lunged, and missed
Hunter again, Sasha motioned to Bear Shadow to tend to Silver Hawk. "Staunch
his wounds. Take cover!" The old man was bleeding to death, her heart was in
bloodied sections within her chest, ripped apart by what she knew was
happening but couldn't stop.
An abandoned truck from the garage whirred past her head, made airborne by the
frustrated beast. Down on her belly she flattened herself to the ground as the
enraged creature followed Hunter; then she quickly rolled onto her back and
fired three successive shells, catching it in the gut.
Rolling away fast, she avoided the rain of entrails and the thud of the huge
monster that crashed to the ground. It was down but not dead. Shadows on the
ground held their fire. She couldn't tell if they did so to keep from hitting
her, or to let the mortally injured thing do what they so badly wanted to
do let it rip her face off before they went in and finished the job.
Sasha popped up at the same time the yellow-eyed beast staggered up. Out of
shells, she turned to run as it smiled. But it snatched her leg so fast and
with such force that it almost felt like her hip was being yanked out of the
socket. Then, its grip slowly eased at the same time a sickening crunch-gush
sound filled her ears. She looked up just in time to see Hunter in semiwolf
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form raise the truck axle over his head while standing upright, and then drive
it down into the back of the beast's skull.
He jumped off the creature beneath him, threw his head back, and howled, and
then transformed into his hu-man shape.
Sasha scrambled up, limping, and headed to Silver Hawk's side with Hunter.
Bear Shadow had covered the old man's body with his own to protect him from
flying artillery and debris after stuffing his shirt into a chest wound and
tying a tourniquet around his wounded leg.
"He's still breathing," Sasha said, trying to instill hope. "He's lost a lot
of blood, but if we can get him to Doc ..."
"How? Take him bloody and broken through demon-infested Shadow lands? And if
we got him to Doc, then what? He's not human! They'll fucking dissect him in a
human military base hospital!" Hunter was on his hands and knees beside the
only father he'd ever known, about to cover the near-fatal injuries with his
own hands and pulled back.
Sasha's hands replaced his. There was no need to say it; the infection was
rampant within Hunter's system and the effect on the old man was beyond
anyone's guess. The rest of the alphas saw that, too, but for the moment, no
one was willing to tempt Hunter's ability to reason. Right now, and over this
one dear, blessed old man, it was clear that Hunter would take a pack
brother's life.
"We arrest the bleeding as much as possible, and yes, we take the whole squad
here through the Shadow lands to the safe house in New Orleans where there are
medical supplies for battlefield conditions. Ammo. Food. Water. Clarissa can
do the basics she's in-field certified as a trauma medic, if you don't trust
the NORAD facility and we have communications there, so we can chopper Doc in
under stat conditions. The house has a flat roof, Hunter." She looked up into
his eyes. "We'll get him through the pathways whole, we're on a mission going
in armed and extremely dangerous. One pack, one family."
Hunter stood and looked around the group, uncon-vinced. A shirt hit him in the
chest. A found pair of boots dropped with a thud by his feet. He caught a pair
of pants that were slung in his direction.
Lion Shadow made a fist and crossed his chest with his forearm. The rest of
the Shadows present did as well.
"One pack, one family," Hunter said, and threw his head back and howled.
Chapter 16 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]