Page 25 of Red Marked

That’s when the call goes up in two short bursts.

I’m on my feet in an instant. My hands are halfway to claws before I can stop them.

It’s just one male.

I can breathe easy; only I don’t.

I stand there in the dark with my heart racing and force my claws to pull back. I’m breathing heavily. I should let Scarlet and the others handle it. They’re more than capable.

I could lie back down and leave it be, but I can’t.

I push the reeds aside and step out into the dark, my heart still pounding.

I need to go and see for myself. It’s not like I’m going to be able to sleep anyway.

Better to fly out there for nothing and double-check that all is in order. Once he’s dead, I’ll come back.

I will.

I take four running steps and let the shift take me, and I’m over the trees and turning for the ravine before the reeds have stopped swinging.

Flint

I fly into the ravine low and fast, wings tucked tight. Two screeches split the air off the ledge above me as I turn down the narrow ravine.

I’ve been spotted.

I somehow knew this would be the case. I had a feeling they ambushed males coming around the bend.

I force myself to slow down…to look in control. I don’t want to look like a threat. I need them to see me.

To see my lack of red markings.

They come off the rock in pairs, one high, one low, herding me toward the center of the gorge the way hunters flush game toward a blind. At first, I let them do it. I comply, making sure they know I’m willing. I force myself to slow down further. Then one comes at me, claws out.

She screeches, sounding fucked off.

Crap!

I swerve hard for open air above the ravine, and three of them are already there, wings spread, blocking the climb before I’ve covered half the distance. I drop back down and try to run the length of the gorge instead. The far end is already sealed with four bodies stacked wingtip to wingtip across the gap.

They know this ravine far better than I do. Every angle I try, they’ve already closed off, like they’ve run this exact maneuver a hundred times before tonight.

How do I show them I’m not a threat without getting my ass handed to me?

I’m so much stronger than each of them, but I won’t put claws or fire on a female, so I block instead. I take a few hits. I try to punch a gap between two of them near the wall and get raked across the ribs for it. I try again, lower down, and get slammed sideways into rock.

They’re good, better than good. There are ten of them, maybe more, and one of me, and they fight like they’ve trained together their whole lives.

I can’t retaliate.

I won’t.

Even if I did, I’d injure a few and then get killed anyway.

A wing catches me broadside and drives me into the ravine wall. I bounce off it into open air, and before I can right myself, another hit sends me down hard. Wall, then rock, then the ground rushes up, and I take the impact on all four legs, absorbing it through my knees so I don’t go down completely.

Blood runs warm down my foreleg from a slash I didn’t feel. My back stings where I was opened up between my shoulder blades. Neither wound is deep enough to matter, not with what’s circling me now.