Page 30 of Snowed in with the Vampire Prince

Pierce

The moment the sun set completely behind the horizon, the spell containing me collapsed into nothingness. I didn’t waste any time. The one instance where I had gotten through to James, where his mind had opened back up to me, had been enough for me to get a lock on his location. I could sense where he was now.

I began to book it at top speed down the mountain.

Vampires can move extraordinarily fast. For the average human witnessing us at top speed, it would seem like magic to them, like we’ve simply manifested out of thin air.

I made it to the werewolves less than five minutes after the sun had set, pausing at the treeline and assessing the situation.

The entire pack was in a circular clearing at the bottom of a hill: eleven wolves, the Alpha, one warlock, and James. They’d built a truly massive roaring orange bonfire for the occasion, like something that witches from legend might dance around. The wolves were in as few clothes as possible, and most of them were seated on logs that had been converted into benches.

The Alpha was standing before them, still half-naked. James stood beside him, still fully clothed. Luckily for the wolves, he looked to be unharmed. His eyes searched the clearing, and though his mind was mostly closed to me, the blood bond still told me that he was searching for something to use as a weapon with which to clobber the Alpha over the head.

Of course he was.

His eyes landed on me, standing there between the trees, and they widened. He looked away quickly before anyone could notice. Just like that, all the walls came down between us.

Are you okay? I demanded.

I’m fine, he told me, his instinctive joy at my nearness so overwhelming through the telepathic link that it almost—but not quite—brought tears to my eyes. He added, Don’t kill anyone. Please.

I didn’t want to lie to him, so I didn’t reply.

I darted out and stopped right behind the Alpha. I moved so fast that, to everyone else watching, it probably looked like I had just teleported. I reached out my hands to grab him by the head and break his neck—which wouldn’t have killed him since wolves heal insanely fast—but the Alpha seemed to sense my presence. He moved at the last moment, dropping himself into an acrobatic tumble to get out of my way.

Inwardly, I cursed myself that I couldn’t deny James anything. I should have torn out the Alpha’s heart and been done with it.

The Alpha sprang up a half-second later, way faster than a human would have been able to move, and he turned to face me. A snarl of fury tore out of his throat when he saw me.

“Vampire,” he spat. Like it was a dirty word.

“Wolf,” I greeted him, my tone matching his exactly.

We glared at each other for a split second. Then I launched myself at him.

I was too fast; he couldn’t escape me. I struck out with a savage blow to his jaw that would have taken his head clean off if he’d been a human. Again, I found myself going for the hurt instead of the kill because that’s what James had asked me to do.

He returned the blow without missing a beat, even though he should have been seeing little cartoon birdies around his head.

I dodged out of the way, then got behind him again.

He whirled to face me, his eyes flashing bright yellow. When he swiped at me, his hands had become claws.

I jumped back, avoiding having my midsection shredded by less than an inch. My shirt wasn’t so lucky. With a tearing sound it came open, and cold night air swirled around the exposed flesh of my torso.

The other wolves were slower on the uptake but still loyal to their Alpha. They rose and moved quickly to form a loose circle around me, cutting off my escape routes. Worse, James was behind us, still stuck in the makeshift fighting ring. There was every chance we’d hurt him by mistake just because he was standing so close.

The warlock crept forward as well, but he kept well behind the wolves, amber light beginning to dance between his fingertips.

I lunged forward and shoved the Alpha onto his smug werewolf ass.

He landed on the ground and slid five feet on the packed earth. One of the braver wolves, a dark-haired, broad-shouldered man, darted forward and tried to hit me, ready to protect his Alpha.

He wasn’t as fast as the Alpha and not even half as talented of a fighter. I grabbed his arm and swung behind him, moving like a dancer, and prepared to break his elbow at the joint.

The wolf tried to jerk his arm away, but it was no use.

The warlock threw his spell at me, and I shoved the dark-haired male werewolf I was holding in the way of it, using him as a shield. He went rigid, like all his muscles had turned to stone. The spell had been some sort of paralytic enchantment, and he was now helpless in my hands.

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