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Steele approached Maddock. “I wonder if she could hurt a reaper. They never fight one another. We have always wondered why they never kill each other in combat.”
Maddock shook his head. “Irrelevant. She has their poison and no animal. She needs to be put down.”
Raine’s eyes flared. “It was obvious you were going to kill her. She didn’t turn. Some fledglings take weeks to connect with their animal.”
Maddock spit on the ground in disgust. “We will resume the trial.”
Steele stepped in front of Maddock. His shadow form emerged, every bit as large and intimidating as that of the wolf clan leader.
“She has defended herself in this fight. You, on the other hand, have been trying to kill her, not give her animal a chance to emerge. Your shadow is biased against her. Relinquish her to the cougar clan for testing.”
Maddock’s form rippled like smoke over the water. “Are you here to challenge me, Steele?”
Steele growled. “I have no desire to lead your clan, but I will fight you for the woman. If she means nothing to you, then give her to me.”
Maddock’s body solidified. His human voice returned. “You feel she has monetary value?”
Steele resumed his human form. “It’s a possibility we should discuss.”
Dannika’s shoulders vibrated with anger. The retort died on her lips when Raine caught her attention. His presence calmed her and pissed her off, but the hand signals he made were unmistakable.I won’t let anything happen to you.
She was curious where he learned sign language. How had he known she could understand it?
Her first instinct was to tell him to go to hell, but he wasn’t the reason she was in this predicament.
Steele turned to Dannika. “Who were your parents?”
Dannika resumed her human form. “No idea.”
Steele raised an eyebrow. “You don’t remember them?”
“Nope. They left me in a box in front of the hospital. My social worker suspects my mother was a teenager, hiding her pregnancy. She left a note.”
“What did the note say?”
“Dannika is special. Take good care of her.”
Steele narrowed his eyes. “Special?”
Dannika huffed. “Every mother thinks her child is special. Considering she abandoned me hours after my birth, I wouldn’t read too much into it.”
Steele turned to Raine. “I think we need to investigate Dannika’s heritage. She needs time to connect with her animal, but I would like to know how she inflicted a reaper wound. Perhaps it’s something we can use in the upcoming war.”
Maddock’s eyes roamed over her. His disgust was replaced with something else. Something scarier. “Perhaps I was too hasty in my evaluation. We will wait to see if her animal emerges. In the meantime, Raine will investigate her and she will help him.”
Raine nodded. “We will determine her origins.”
Maddock walked away from the ring of men, but stopped before leaving the field. He turned to Dannika. “The reason for your existence will be uncovered. If you are not a shadow shifter, you are a stain upon us. One that I will personally eradicate.”
CHAPTER7
Raine shifted his stance, drawing Maddock’s attention. “Dannika is my responsibility. She is my fledgling.”
Maddock’s eyes turned black as his body rippled with dark mist before resuming his human form. “You have never taken a fledgling before. You’ve had many opportunities. Why her? Why now?”
Raine kept his features stoic while his body raged with anger. His emotions were chaotic and protective. He’d never had a fledgling, so he assumed it was a primal instinct. “I never intended to take a fledgling. The reaper cut me, and my blood ended up in Dannika’s wound. Regardless of the circumstances, she is mine.”
His body calmed as he admitted the truth.
