Page 9 of A Killer Crescent Valentine

“I’m coming down. Dean, come up and see what else you can find. Slasher, you might want to move unless you want my boot in your face.”

“But it’s such a pretty view from down here,” he crooned.

I wiggled that pretty view, a grin on my face.

“Get down here you two,” Dean ordered.

I glanced down, and when Slasher began to descend, I stashed my knife and climbed after him, jumping when I was close enough—and beaming when Hugh caught me, exactly like I knew he would. I snuggled into his arms, kissing the side of his neck, pulling his scent into my lungs. I was so fucking lucky to have these men.

Hugh’s chest vibrated with a low rumble so close to a purr that my eyelids fluttered.

“Stop canoodling,” Brannigan said suddenly, his voice stern in a way that shot worry into my chest. “I can hear something.”

“Who says canoodling?” Edison laughed, his hand finding my waist when Hugh set my feet on the ground.

Dean was already halfway up the tree, Slasher less interested in his pretty view than he’d been in mine.

“What can you hear?” I asked Brannigan, crossing the twig-covered ground to his side.

“That!” Edison yelled, magic charging across the ground in a streak so hot that I worried my eyebrows would burn off. “Come on!” he shouted at us, launching into a run.

I didn’t see the Cupid, but I trusted my mate, so I burst into a run, my belly full of fluttery excitement.

We were about to catch our quarry.

CHAPTER 6

Ileapt over the trunk of a fallen tree and landed on four massive, crimson paws, magic shivering over my skin. My teeth parted in a big, wolfy grin as I gave chase, pursuing the Cupid who I could now see charging through the trees ahead of me, white wings dragging behind them as they fled.

Edison ran behind me, slower on two legs than I was on four, but he threw magic past my body, getting so close to the Cupid that they screeched and veered off course. That screech was… animal. Not human at all. I revised my internal picture of a naked winged dude into a winged… what? Cat? Mole rat? I had no clue. They were big enough to be a large dog or a very small wolf, but I couldn’t make out anything except white wings from this distance.

“Stop!” Brannigan yelled, panic sharp in his voice. “Stop! Don’t hurt them!”

Dean, at the back of our group, growled so loudly and deeply that I knew he was in wolf form. I wanted to know the same thing—why was Brannigan calling off our hunt when our prey was right there? A few more minutes and I’d have them. I put on an extra burst of speed, the buzz and thrill of the hunt in my blood, encouraging me.

“Rebel!” Brannigan shouted.

Okay, fine. I wouldn’t kill the Cupid, I’d just pin them to the ground while Brannigan explained why we needed to stop. Compromise.

I skidded around a tree when the Cupid flapped their wings and shot left. Dirt sprayed as I dug my claws into the ground, right on their heels, so close that vanilla custard scent coated my tongue, burnt by acrid fear. Good. They should be scared. I was big and deadly and pissed all the way off that they’d stolen my knife.

I put on an extra burst of speed when the trees fell away, open sky visible above a clearing—and a roar of frustration rattled my throat when the Cupid kicked off the ground hard, pumping their wings. They flew too fast for me to catch them.

Fuck!

I shifted back quickly, patting myself on the back for such a clean, rapid shift,1 and whirled on Brannigan when he and Slasher skidded into the clearing.

“Why did you tell me to stop?” I demanded, scanning the woods as Hugh, Dean, and Edison found us. All here. All safe. Thank fuck.

“I know that scent,” Brannigan replied, not even winded. Rude. His eyes were frantic though, his skin a little ashen. “I haven’t come across it in years.”

Dean shifted in a rush, jerking forward with blazing whiskey eyes.

“The Cupid is a wolf,” Brannigan said quickly, “from a long-extinct species. All the family lines died; their whole species were wiped out.”

Dean froze, his anger fizzling out.

“A rare wolf?” I asked, trying to shove down the buzzing need to hunt.

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