AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Die. Die. Die. Die. Die.
Once our mate was safe, I was going to take my time killing him. I was going to take pleasure from it.
I fired up the bank and he was there, apparently exhausted from the chase. Now he’d know who he’d awoken. Me. A monster.
The male prey still had our mate over his shoulder though. So instead of unleashing my normal instincts of slicing and ripping, I opted for a battering shoulder barge, hammering him backward into the brush. Our mate might be harmed, but not badly.
He folded under my force, being knocked flat into a bed of twigs and leaves. Our mate flew up in the air and I lay flat to catch her fall. Her tiny body flopped onto my back, and I carefully slid her onto the ground. I moved forward and nudged her with my snout, licking her cheek with the tip of my tongue, checking she was okay. A whine escaped me when her chest rose and fell with a shallow breath.
Then I turned my attentions to the prey who’d started this whole thing in the first place. Oh, how I’d savor his flesh—
The ground was empty. He’d somehow recovered from my attack.
He was gone.
And our mate was not moving.
Still not moving.
What was wrong with her?I roared into the night air.
Jaxon
All hell was breaking loose over by the pool.
I couldn’t see it at first, from my position just round the corner at the patio bar, but something disastrous had to be happening. Causing pitched screams, shouts and batters of furniture as partygoers fled, stampeding and stumbling in distress. This was no booze-sparked shoving match or even a full-on brawl. Neither would’ve caused my NN Lupines to react with the horror I sensed in their voices.
The DJ’s music cut abruptly, and there was a cry for help and a loud splash. More screams. Then a growl that was neither wolf nor vampire grumbled through the airwaves. Something was on the rampage.
Mandy, who had been trying her best to paw at me, to entice me for the past ten minutes, against my irritated protests, must’ve glimpsed something. She jerked backwards, her smile reforming into a mask of terror as she clunked her glass on the counter and began running toward the side of the house, presumably to leave the party. Her chardonnay-guzzling sidekicks raced after her. But it was Mandy that surely had the fastest sprint in high heels the world had ever seen.
And then I saw why. I turned to find the biggest grizzly in existence, thundering its way across the lawn, guests of all breeds desperately trying to escape its path, flinging themselves onto the ground, cringing as it flew by, roaring, tearing up the grass with its enormous claws.
Thatwas Aaron in beast form? Holy. Fuck.
Why the hell had he shifted though? Here, at a party where everything had been going great. And, more importantly, where the hell was Ceci?
The bear—though its size was closer to bull elephant than bear—raced its way towards the wooded area of the coven house’s grounds, crunching trees like toothpicks under its gargantuan body as it disappeared among the greenery.
It had been a good thirty minutes, but I’d last seen Aaron heading inside with Ceci. And Aaron and his bear wouldn’t have left our mate without good reason.
I scanned the chaos, but Ceci was nowhere to be seen. I raised my nose, searching for her scent. It was there, faint, but there. Her unique smell, drenched in distress.
Osric came running toward me, his normal ice cool composure replaced by the flush of fear. There was even a tremble to his words as he planted a firm palm on my shoulder, gasping, “Jax, old boy, time to become a wolf. Go, get after him!” He squeezed my shoulder hard, his eyes showing a sincerity I’d not seen from the prince before. “And for goodness’ sake, whatever you do, don’t try to fight him.”
Fuck. I looked around, everyone was visibly shaken. Xander too, his cocky demeanor had melted away as he flailed his arms up, shouting at me, “You’re the one with four legs, aren’t you? Get your ass in gear, Pup.” His hand shook as he pointed toward the woods the bear had disappeared into. “He could be after Ceci. Where is she!?”
Before I had a chance to respond, Ceci’s friend Vesta and her boyfriend, Finnian, came rushing from the direction of the lake. “Ceci never met me. At the bar,” she said, her forehead beaded with sweat.
“Aaron’s bear might be going after her, wherever she is. I’m heading now.” I pulled off my shirt.
“I’ll keep your scent hanging in the air, as a trail we can follow. We’ll be right behind you,” Finnian said. He was cornerback for the Stallions, and I knew him fairly well. He was a good guy, an elemental with powerful wind magic.
So, taking a deep breath, my exhale more than a little shaky, I finished removing my clothes as Finnian covered Vesta’s eyes, looking slightly awkward as I stripped.
Then I began my shift.
In order to chase after a monster several times my size.
