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That’s what they say, right? When you’re in over your head and you don’t know whether to stand your ground and fight or take off like a dog in the night, time seems to slow and thenwham! It catches up so quickly, you hardly know what’s happening.
Only I do. I just can’t stop it.
At the last second, I decide to bolt back toward Muncie. With five wolves chasing me, it’s better to get lost in the urban city than risk them running me down in the woods surrounding the base of Accalia. Dashing up the mountain is out, too. I’d never make it, and while Ryker would sense unfamiliar shifters once they crossed into his territory, even he wouldn’t be able to stop them before they reach me.
I turn on my heel, and the shifters react.
I don’t see them shift, but they must have because it’s a claw-tipped hand that grabs onto my shoulder, trying to stop me from running. The points go from the front of my shoulder to the back, tearing my t-shirt and my skin. I gasp, but the slight pain spurs me to find some way to escape.
It doesn’t work. I’d barely taken another step when a pair of human hands grab onto my upper arms, pulling me back until I’m slammed up against a bare chest.
I struggle. He shifts his hold. One hand clutches my throat, his other arm wrapped around my middle. His hold is unbreakable.
I’m caught.
The shifter behind me has a bruising grip on my arms. Dragging me like I’m a rag doll, he spins me around so that I’m facing one of his pals.
This male ishuge. With closely cropped brown hair and a ginormous linebacker-type build, he’s also naked. Of course he is. When shifters go from skin to fur, our human clothes don’t survive. When we shift back, we’re completely nude until we pull clothes on again. In a pack, nudity isn’t a big deal for that very reason. Unless sexual attraction is involved, it doesn’t mean anything.
Even so, I keep my gaze on his face. Considering his expression is one of disgust, his golden eyes dark with loathing, I probably would’ve been better off looking at his dick.
“What are you doing?” It comes out like a squeak. “Let me go!”
“No. You’re an abomination,” he sneers, flexing his fingers so I can see that his nails are pointed claws. “Too dangerous to be allowed to live.”
“Why?” It’s a gasp. I’m showing weakness in front of these shifters, but I don’t care. “I didn’t do anything to you.”
“Not us, maybe. But we heard what you did at Oak Valley. Got proof. If you broke one bond, you can break a hundred. I worked hard to make my mate choose me. I’m not going to let you take her away from me. I’ll gut you first, then the whole shifter community won’t have to worry about a silver-eyed freak ruining our lives.”
The shifter at my back tightens his grip on my throat. He’s just about choking me, but I manage to focus on the brute in front of me. I search for his bond. It’s one of the shaky ones, but now that I’m sensing it, I can tell that he’s not the one who has his doubts. The mate he forced into choosing him is.
I’ve come across that too many times with my abilities. A mate must choose, but sometimes the choice isn’t freely made. He forced her mate him, and he’s come all this way to kill me so that I can’t break his bond.
I don’t know this prick. Never met him before in my life, and odds are that I never would’ve come across him or his mate. And, yet, he still came here with murder on his mind. Plus, he brought back-up.
And there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop him.
Worse, he mentioned Oak Valley. He called me a silver-eyed freak.
That means—
“You… you know Peyton.”
He doesn’t deny it. “You should’ve kept your hands to yourself. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to do this.”
You don’t have to do this.
This time, I can’t get out the words. There’s no point. He’s made up his mind, and just like I’ve been afraid of my whole life, my “gifts” will be the death of me.
Black spots form at the edge of my vision. The shifter at my back is squeezing me tighter, holding me in the perfect position that the bigger male can gut me like he threatened. I try to suck in my belly when he looms closer, anything to avoid his claws, but it’s hopeless.
I’m stuck.
The last thought I have is of Aleks. Of how much I love him, and how much it’s going to destroy him when he finds out that I’ve been slaughtered by my own kind.
As if I conjured him in my final moments, I swear I feel the icy breeze of his powerful aura keeping me company. I revel in it, feeling like I’m not alone even as the big shifter rears back his arm, ready to slash at me with his claws.
He never touches me.
