Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
The air around the Leandrean rippled with a type of magic I’d never felt before. It shouldn’t have been able to get close to the estate let alone inside. Wards layered by the witches were supposed to hold against anything. But this wasn’t a breach. This was a jump.
The Leandrean had jumped through space and time, reappearing miles away from where it had been–with us–in seconds. This wasn’t a Leandrean ability. And whatever this creature conjured, it was old, corrupted magic that had done something it shouldn’t have been able to accomplish.
The Leandrean swayed back and forth, grinning from ear-to-ear as it faced off with all of us motherfuckers.
“This one is mine,” I said in my head, knowing the other Lycans could hear me, knowing that I shouldn’t have been selfish with wanting this bastard for myself. All our mates and children had been compromised. It was a fucking miracle no one had died. But Aisling had been hurt.
I didn’t know what this creature’s goal had been–getting to our females, testing to see if it could break through the magic and wards… or something more sinister. We may never know.
I should have been smarter and not reacted emotionally. But I was too far gone. I lunged. The Leandrean swung for me, claws slicing the air, but I was faster—my wolf back in my muscles, in my marrow, guiding every savage movement.
I slammed into him hard enough to hear ribs crack, my teeth sinking deep into the juncture of his neck and shoulder. The taste was foul—acid and rot—but I bit harder until cartilage gave way and I tore a massive chunk of him out.
He shrieked, grabbing at my scruff, and we went down together in a crash. I heard shouts and roars, growls and warnings from my brethren, but I was too in the moment to focus on anything else. The smell of metal being drawn and the sounds of guns being cocked told me the fighting was still happening even though I’d taken charge.
His claws raked across my ribs, but I barely felt the pain over the roar in my head.
A vampire snarled and dug its claws into the Leandrean’s eye sockets. Adryan. I looked into my crazy uncle’s eyes, saw him grin, and then he was laughing hysterically as black blood sprayed across me from where the asshole’s eyes used to be.
The creature screamed, the sound making the air vibrate. Witches kept chanting all around us, white magic flooding the room, but it did nothing to slow the fucker down.
The others were on the Leandrean then—Sebastian and Kane, Odhran and Cian, Ren and Luca. Adryan still chuckled, the sound deep and penetrating through the Leandrean’s screams. My Da slammed his full weight into the fucker’s side.
Kane tore into its leg with his claws.
Cian took the other almost all the way to the bone.
And even more vampires and Lycans joined the fray.
We ripped and stabbed, but the bastard kept fighting, swinging those black claws, kicking hard enough to send a Guard member through the wall.
Its eyes were gone, but it was grinning—a wet, horrifying sight that split its face. “Next time, I’ll feast on the females,” it hissed. “So sweet, their flesh.”
I drove forward with everything I had, my claws punching through his chest and curling into the hard bone of his spine. With a twist, I ripped him open, the sound wet and final. Black blood poured out in ropes, splattering on everyone near, and pooling at our feet.
But even dying, laying as its body twitched and its life faded away, it laughed. “We are in you now, wolf. We—”
My jaws closed over his throat, and I ripped it out, tossing his trachea across the room until it slammed into the wall with a wet thwop.
The room went still as we watched his body spasm several more times before he let out his final breath and lay still, his dark magic bleeding out in threads of smoke and dissipating into the ceiling.
I looked at all the males, and I saw the same thing in each of their expressions, knew if I wasn’t in my wolf's form they’d see the same thing in mine.
We needed to get to our mates. I needed Aisling.
28
LENNOX
I’d been taken to Aisling right away. She’d been moved to the lower levels with the other females, my mate’s wounds grave.
The Leandrean hadn’t just sliced into her; it had poison-tipped claws which had infected Aisling. The other females had minor wounds, all being treated now, but Aisling had taken the brunt of the injuries.
My girl had been so brave, so strong.
I was by her side in seconds, hating to see her like this. It was painful. Her skin was pale, lips bloodless, and the wound along her side was uncovered and blackened around the edges. Healers attended to her, but their low voices carried worry laced in their words.