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It was the same side that bore three long claw marks that almost took out his eye. A memento from two decades ago when he’d first encountered the Beast.
The liger’s sharp yellow eyes sparked like flames, wild with hatred and rage.
With a thunderous roar that tore from the deepest well of his soul, booming out from his entire body, he shot off the ground, tearing free of his restraints, sending the Dark soldiers who held him flying back.
He shot through the air toward his target, leading with fangs and claws. Chains broke; ropes snapped. People screamed and scattered, the Queen’s Commander barking orders.
But Zai barely noticed the pandemonium that broke out around him. He focused only on the deadliest predator he’d ever encountered set on ripping his head from his shoulders.
He flicked the whip before dropping into a crouch. The deep gash he inflicted upon the liger’s chest didn’t faze the Beast at all, didn’t slow the momentum of his flying leap.
And just when the Beast would have landed on top of Zai, his front claws gouging holes into his chest, his fangs striking deep into his throat, Zai rolled to his back with legs tucked to his chest and pushed with all his might into the Beast’s belly, flipping him head over claws behind him.
The liger twisted in the air, landing easily on his paws, as Zai bounced back on his feet, both males facing off once more.
While the liger immediately tensed for another attack, Zai became aware of the Queen’s soldiers fanning out to surround them, of bows being drawn and arrows notched. Ashlu might want to keep the liger alive for information, but push came to shove, she’d end him without hesitation.
So, Zai took the decision out of her hands.
When the liger leapt at him again, instead of avoiding the impact, he embraced it. He wrapped his arms around the Beast as the liger’s fangs sank into the meat of his shoulder. They rolled together on the ground, the liger trying to tear him apart, him trying to block the attacks while steering them both toward the edge of the plateau.
The crowd had scattered, giving them wide berth. The soldiers didn’t know where to aim; they were so tangled together there was no telling where the Beast began and Zai ended.
When he got within three feet of the drop, he pulled back just enough to gain more distance to build momentum. Then, with a roar of his own, he used all of his strength to tackle the Beast, head tucked low, shoulders braced.
He headbutted the liger directly in the vulnerable arch beneath his chest, his momentum pushing both of them over the edge of the plateau.
He wrapped all of his limbs tightly around the liger as they fell together down the steep side of the mountain, rolling and twisting to blunt the force of impact.
But it was a long,longway down.
When they finally hit bottom, their bodies were still twisted together, the liger’s emaciated but still substantial mass on top of Zai.
The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the liger’s lips drawing back in a savage snarl, revealing those long canines as thick around as Zai’s wrist.
If this was his end, he thought, it would be a fitting one.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Sin’s body was no longer flesh and bones, but a twisted mass of undilutedpain.
Between the open wounds, the whip-slashed hide, and fractured bones (though he didn’t think any were broken—cats always landed on their feet, after all), there wasn’t a part of him that didn’t throb with agony.
But even so, as badly beaten as he was, he willed himself to focus on the Dark Hunter trapped beneath him.
This was it. Time to end one of his most hated foes.
A Hunter. His torturer.
The very same who led the Blood Moon Queen’s annual hunts. The one who’d taken the only thing Sin had loved in the whole of his existence.
Kill him now!
Kill! Kill! Kill!the feral animal in him raged.
He leaned closer, though even this bit of movement cost him dearly, his entire body protesting the stretch of abused muscles.
He fought through the pain to open his jaws wide, the dagger tips of his canines digging into the Hunter’s throat, breaking skin. And then—
