Page 9

He was boulder-like and could probably crush my bones with minimal effort. The sight of his blood should’ve repulsed me. I didn’t dare take my eyes off him, and it allowed me to see the way he drank in the sight of me. If only my hands were free, I could at least pull my hair over my breasts, but the man holding my arms behind my back was unrelenting.

I purposely pitched forward, straining my shoulders, forcing the man to loosen his grip. My hands and knees hit the dirt, and I did the most logical thing I could think of.

I laughed.

Loud and uncontrolled, it rang through the open space. Confusion drifted into the atmosphere as I lifted my head to look at the men around me. “Six of you against one naked me. Well then, who’s first?” I asked. I’m sure they scented my fear, but my hateful glare cut through the man I’d struck. “How about you, ugly?”

With a roar, he came at me, lifting me from the ground with enough fervor to strain my shoulders again. I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood. No matter what they did to me, I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of my cries. I’d been victim to one of their kind once before. I’d cried out, I’d fought. And for what?

It was clear I was somehow in their territory, so I had the short end of the stick in this situation anyway.

The man yanked me against him, one hand cupping my ass, the other pulling my head back by my hair. My scalp screamed, and I snarled at him, making sure he saw my fangs.

Stay calm, Aura. Stay calm. Stay calm.

I didn’t need the wolf in me showing itself. Not now.

As he lowered his face to mine, I built up momentum, and when he was close enough, I whipped my head forward. My forehead crashed into his nose with a satisfying crack. He roared and released me, only for me to be yanked into someone else’s arms. “What the hells is this?” the lycan asked, his hand shifting to the sapphire against my bicep.

My heart dropped. “Don’t—” I started to say.

Then a voice cut through the commotion like a lightning strike. “Enough!”

The command reverberated in my mind. Enough. Every nerve in my body was as curious as it was intimidated, but I was angled away from the speaker.

The newcomer’s sonorous tone was calm and unassuming as he spoke again. “Release her.”

Unprepared for the shove, I managed to catch myself on my hands, but my face promptly crashed into the dirt. Laughter scraped across my skin before ending as abruptly as it had begun. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, my eyes traveling from bare feet, up loose-fitting trousers, to a ridged abdomen intersected with numerous scars. His brown skin seemed to gleam in the moonlight, the scars carving across his left pectoral and over a broad shoulder.

Before I could get a proper look at his face, he was hauling me up by my arm. A knot in my throat forced me to swallow, but I maintained his intrusive stare with all the bravery I could muster.

“Whose blood are you covered in?” he growled.

My eyes flicked down my body. There was blood smearing my leg, and of course my hands were coated. But I figured it had been from slashing his packmate.

My focus snapped back up to his face. He rolled his eyes and squeezed my arm tighter. “All over your face and neck, bloodsucker.”

My free hand flew to my neck, meeting the presumable blood—crusted in some places, sticky in others. My breath faltered, heart threatening to pound out of my chest. Whose blood was it? I couldn’t remember anything. I made the mistake of taking a deep breath to calm myself, but the sting of anger in my nose made me step back.

In turn, the lycan tugged harder and I winced. Immediately, his grip slackened. “You all are dismissed.”

I quirked a brow. His stare was still on me, but clearly, he wasn’t talking to me.

The other men mumbled as they dispersed. “What are you going to do with her, Beta?” one of the shifters asked.

“I’m going to question her.”

“She was in our territory. Blatantly violating⁠—”

“I know,” the beta interrupted.

“She deserves punishment!”

“I know.” A muscle ticked in his square jaw just above the close trim of his beard. His amber eyes were still on me, but he spoke again to the brawny lycan. “What punishment do you have in mind, Caleb?”

“I say we fuck her bloody then rip her murderous heart out for all the wrongs her kind has done.”

An insincere smile curved the beta’s full lips. “What do you say, intruder? Does that align with your brand of justice?”