Page 125 of Fangs and Fudge

Cross: They’re here.

Cross: Get to Shepard.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Vena gasped, and I thought it was because she’d seen the message from Cross.

Then a hand closed over my throat, and my world spun as MC lifted me off the ground and turned toward Shepard with me. I couldn’t see Shepard, only MC’s rage-twisted canine muzzle and Doc standing just behind him.

Doc moved as I dropped my phone and gripped the arm holding me up.

“No interference,” the old man yelled to Doc

I hit the arm holding me and gasped for air. His claws slowly broke the skin, and I felt the trickle of blood that ran down my neck.

A low growl sounded through the D.C. pack.

“You need to deal with this on your own, Shepard,” the old man said as a warning to everyone.

“Even though he’s killing her?” Vena shouted.

“Choose, Shepard,” MC said. “Everly or your ring?”

“Screw the rules!” Vena charged at MC, but before she could attack, the shed door burst open, and a blur streaked through. Vena was knocked aside.

Suddenly freed from MC’s grip, I staggered a step as he dropped to the ground, holding his muzzle.

Cross stood between us. His dark, vampire eyes flashed in fury. I waited for them to return to normal, but he was surrounded by men who began shifting into their wolf form at the mere sight of him.

Pants were shredded from their transformation, littering the floor with material.

Cross looked at Shepard. “They’re coming!”

The words barely left his mouth before more vampires flooded into the room.

Groaning, MC rolled to the side as wolves clashed with vampires. Growls, screaming, and shouting echoed in the shed that was becoming smaller by the second as vampires continued to arrive.

“Get them to safety,” Shepard said to Cross.

But there was nowhere to go. We were being pushed into a corner with no exit. It looked as though the other women were being cornered off as well.

Cross cut down any vampire that came near us and swatted any wolves who incorrectly assumed he was a threat.

“Get back to the fight,” Cross shouted after he smacked a wolf in the snout.

Doc ran for us in his human form with Sierra in tow. He placed her in our corner.

“You’re hurt,” I said when I saw blood seeping from his shoulder.

“Already healing,” he said.

“Then stay here until you’re fully healed,” Cross said. “I’ll tag in. If the girls come to harm, I will kill you myself.”

“Go,” Doc snarled at Cross as he pulled off his shirt and shifted into a wolf.

Cross was gone in an instant. He left a path of dead vampires in his wake.

It was like playing whack-a-mole, though. More vampires kept coming. There had to be three vampires for every one wolf. More than I would have guessed.

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