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Eric tugged on my arm. “Get away from the window.”
I shook him off. “It’s my territory, too. Let me look.”
But it was too late.
A rock was already heading directly toward the pane. It shattered the glass, sending me flying back into Eric, who caught me in his arms and tumbled us away from the window. Glass splashed over my back. I didn’t feel any stings, so I assumed I was safe from any cuts.
Physical injury wasn’t my first concern. I was more worried about Eric—and who could have possibly gotten past the electric gate guarding the property.
“Come out, Eric,” called a familiar feminine voice with sultry tones hiding under each syllable. “You and your trashy new mate.”
That got my blood boiling. I didn’t much care to be called trashy, nor did I find it cute that somebody would bemoan my mating with a man when it was none of her business. I was already dealing with that in Kiara.
I didn’t need it with anybody else. Especially not one of Eric’s ex-girlfriends, who had earned her badge in betrayal and heartache.
I stood up and cracked my knuckles. “Do me a favor, sweetie.”
Eric scrambled from the ground and grabbed my left wrist. “Don’t.”
I gaped at him. “After what she did, you don’t want me to fight her?”
“It’s not that.”
Another rock flew into the room, this one just about scratching my earlobe. If it had been another centimeter to the left, then it would have knocked me unconscious.
I yanked my wrist away from Eric. “Do you still love her?”
He snarled, “No.”
Laughter floated through the window, sinister in the way it appeared.
I glowered at the broken pane. “How did she find us?”
Eric tugged on my hand and pulled me toward the stairs. “No time. We need to block the door.”
“Isn’t it too late for that?” I argued, but he pulled me along with him despite my doubts.
Somehow, my feet kept up with him. My heart raced as we sprinted to the den and put our hands on the door at the same time. Magic coiled from my fingers into the wood. I whispered ancient rhymes from my father that I dared not recognize lest the words slip from me. I let that ancestral trance take over as I bowed my head and drove a ball of light through the wood.
This might cost me a lot later. But leaving us defenseless would be even more costly.
Nuance.
Teresa gasped and then grunted as she slammed against something hard. Maybe the ground or a tree. It was hard to say without my sight. That was what I had to give up to drive that cannonball of magic through the front yard. All I had to do was aim and be true to my heart.
If I could focus.
Warm hands rested on my shoulders. Eric. His touch prompted a fiery response that snapped my sight back into place like it had never left. I glanced at him, gaping like he was a saint recently returned from the grave.
He took my hand and stepped back. “I have to go out there and talk to her.”
I shook my head as undistinguishable growls and sounds slithered through the door. “I’m not letting you go alone.”
He held my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “Who said I’m alone?”
That was enough to drive my adrenaline through the roof. As my vision tunneled and my fingers burned with fresh magic, Eric opened the door and led me into the yard. We matched battle cries, yelling in near-perfect harmony as we flew into battle.
A brown wolf lunged at us as soon as we left the porch. Eric avoided her snapping jaws while pushing me behind him. I stumbled over the first step of the porch, landing hard on my bottom and feeling it rattle my spine. Pain didn’t mean anything to me when my sweetheart was in danger.
