“And me,” Rhys said.
She sensed the three of them willingly taking energy into themselves, absorbing it.
As she stared, their eyes began to glow—silver for Ezra, gold for Rhys, and a brilliant dark light in Tej’s eyes. Yet that was all that happened. They didn’t shift or transform, their bodies remaining the same.
She bared her teeth in frustration. “The power I’m giving you isn’t enough. I need more to make your transformation complete. But what?”
“You…” Ezra rumbled. He glanced between her and the gibbous moon overhead. “You complete the moon.”
“When you’re with us,” Rhys growled, “it’s always full.”
“Always powerful,” Tej said.
She looked up at the moon, missing its tiny sliver as it waned. Yet she was there, too, in that dark crescent, illuminating what was in shadow. That connection she’d felt whenever the moon was full, its power and potency that always resonated in her body when it was full…she didn’t need its fullness now. It was in her. It strengthened her. She took that brightness and guided it into them.
They hunched over, gathering into themselves. Their bodies lengthened, shifted, grew broad and even more powerful as thick hair covered their muscles. Unlike when they had transformed beneath the full moon, this seemed intentional, a purposeful shifting from man to wolf.
They stretched tall, and their hands elongated into claws while their feet grew longer. White fangs sprouted in their mouths, which turned into muzzles. They growled and snarled as their bodies changed.
How potent to see, and formidable, this deliberate choice to embrace all that they were, the wildness and the ferocity and the strength that came from themselves.
Within moments, they had fully transformed into their wolfish forms. They towered over her, part of the forest and yet distinct.
Tipping their heads back, they howled into the night.
Every hair lifted on the backs of Jessica’s arms. The nerves spreading through her were lit by unseen charges. She’d helped guide this power into them, and yet she was still abundant with its force and energy, as though they fed each other with their strength.
“I didn’t think it possible,” Ezra rumbled in his rough wolf voice. “I’d heard?—”
He tilted his head.
“More are coming,” Tej snarled.
Ezra glanced at her.
“Let’s hunt the hunters,” she said.
13
They had only run about a dozen yards before four Guardians appeared. Reaching for their guns, the men glared at her, as if angry that she’d had the temerity to escape. They wanted her cowed and frightened, but she faced them with her chin tipped up. Light on the balls of her toes, she readied for combat. She could face them. Her fear had no place here.
She kept herself still. The impressions of indistinct dark shapes moved between the trees. Fast and lethal. She wouldn’t let herself look at them, and kept her focus on the Guardians closing in on her.
One of the Guardians yelped as he was suddenly dragged into the night by a shadow. There was a cry of terror before it went abruptly silent.
Another Guardian was pulled up high into a tree. His scream, too, was cut short.
The third assailant started toward her. Another dark shape raced past him with superhuman speed. There was a cry, a gurgle, and then he sank to the ground as blood sprayed from his throat.
One Guardian remained. A rustling sound came from overhead. He looked up with wide eyes before one of the shadowed forms dropped down from a tree. The shape landed directly on top of him.
Tej, eyes gleaming, body coiled, crouched atop the Guardian’s splayed body.
Ezra and Rhys reappeared from the depths of the forest. Panting, forms heaving, the three wolves gave her quick, assessing looks through their glowing eyes.
“I’m untouched,” she said, “on your account. Now,” she added, “shall we get the rest of those bastards?”
They growled their assent. The four of them ran, the wolves careful to keep pace with her despite her slower speed. She sensed the ground beneath her stockinged feet, but it only added to her strength, as though she fed from the earth below and the moon above.
