AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Garou was right. He couldn’t afford to fight his other side, not with so much at stake. Baptiste closed his eyes and took deep breaths. The moonlight bathed his skin and tingled. The silver still burned, but he took that pain and shoved it aside. So what if it hurt? Many things hurt. Using that pain, overcoming it, made a person stronger.
In that moment, as the pain of it disappeared, it hit him. How could silver, a common metal, bind a god?
It can’t. It’s your own belief that’s holding you back.
Because he refused to accept.
No longer.
He huffed and pulled deep within, tugged at the primal part of him that he liked to keep separate, but which remained wound around the very core of him. Time to join them and stop pretending he wasn’t special.
I am the avatar of a god. It’s time I acted like one.
With that realization he tilted his face to the moon, the full glow enhancing his innate power. With his acceptance, change ripped through him. The sudden bulk broke the chains that he’d been foolish enough to believe could hold him. He roared as he finished shifting, sprouting course fur and sharp claws, but the best part? His senses magnified.
There were two scents that interested, one being that of the witch he hated, but the more important one? That of his mate, being chased and in danger.
He went on a loping run, his long stride eating up the forest floor as he raced for her. Through their bond, he felt her annoyance—not fear or pain. How like her. At the same time, he sensed her exertion as she fought off those that attacked.
Luckily, she’d not gone far, but managed to put herself in a precarious place. She stood on the edge of a ravine, the bottom of it a rough landing since the creek only ran high in the spring. Daphne danced on that dangerous edge, arms whipping out like vines to wrap around a snapping wolf and toss it into the forest, bending almost in half as another leapt for her throat. The wolf missed and would have plummeted, but she shot a hand to grab it and slow its fall.
Even in deadly danger, she tried to not kill, and he knew why.
Because she knows it’s my Pack.
At seeing how she thought of others before herself, he howled, a strident sound that startled the wolves into halting their attack. They whirled and stared as Baptiste stomped in their direction, seething and glaring, his displeasure clear.
Faced with an Alpha who was also part god, they bowed. Front legs folded. Bellies dipped to touch the earth. They crawled to him and whined, begging for his forgiveness.
He growled. Do not touch my mate.
They whimpered but obeyed, except for the same cocky bastard whose scent he’d identified before. That wolf dared to lift his head. Baptiste made an example of him. He grabbed the wolf by the scruff and threw him into the ravine.
The wolves remained plastered to the ground as he strode past them for his woman, who cocked her head and said, “Hey, Beast. About time you joined the party.”
His voice emerged in a low guttural growl, “Sorry I’m late.”
Her lips quirked. “At least you didn’t miss all the fun. Where’s Circe?”
“Being chased by our friends.”
“In that case, we should go help them. Care to lead the way?”
“Follow me.” As he began loping, Daphne kept pace by his side and the Pack fell in behind them.
In short order they found their friends holed up in a tree, the base of which had a dozen wolves pacing around it and another handful lying on the ground snuffling with sleep. The moment they scented Baptiste, the wolves whirled, but whatever snarl they started to emit got choked as they recognized him. Bodies hit the ground and crawled, the moon madness leaving them as their god-Alpha straightened out their minds.
Daphne paid the whining wolves no mind as she stepped through them to reach the base of the maple tree. She patted its trunk. “Thanks for keeping them safe.”
The branches quivered.
His mate glanced upward. “You can come down now.”
“We lost Circe!” Nelly grumbled. “She sent some of those mutant forest animals after us, and then next thing we knew, the wolves were on our asses, so we climbed.”
Clive grimaced as he hit the ground. “I actually ran out of magic. This place is remarkably bereft.”
“No shit,” Marissa huffed. “I’ve not been this weak since that time I went on a cruise and had to fend off a kraken attack.”
