Page 88 of Catch a Tiger

The raven was fast, bringing out another blade to sink it into Vix’s ribs, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Rolling to the side gave Vix the leverage to knock the blade out of the raven’s hand and they moved together in a dance that was almost entertaining enough she forgot why she’d even wanted to kill her.

Blades flashed as they attacked and blocked, using the furniture – the house, anything was fair game as the assassin flitted in and out of this reality. Every time stars clung to her, Vix stared at the spot she’d left, waiting until the right moment, luring her deeper and deeper into her trap.

There.

Claws dug deep before the raven could understand Vix hadalwaysknown where she was, but she’d been a decent opponent so she summoned her own raven’s blade and pressed it to the assassin’s throat, ready to slash quickly and painlessly when a violent roar had her entire body freezing, echoing through the house and rattling her brain.

The raven stared at Vix’s blade in confusion. “Where did you get that?”

“It’smine.” The fury she felt when she saw the doubt in those red eyes – doubt that Vix couldbelong, it overrode whatever sanity she had left and she dug the edge of the blade in deep so she could cut the head from the body.

Just in case.

Impossibly strong hands grabbed her wrists and yanked her off the raven. “Don’t kill her,” the alpha snarled, his command sinking into her skin like knives. “Youagreednot to.”

Goodness, his commandhurt, but she could still ignore it if she really wanted to bleed for her freedom.

“Drop the blade, Vix.”

That stupid fucking raven smirked at her and Vix lost it.

Oh, she’d drop the fucking blade all right.

Ripping her wrist from the alpha’s, she ignored the sound of bones breaking and threw that fucking blade right at the raven’s pretty red eye and watched it sink in deep. To her credit, the raven just yanked it out and glared at Vix, but she didn’t react to the blinding pain.

“What did I tell you about killing people in my house?” the alpha snarled, his hand suddenly around her neck.

Then he slammed her into the floor, a massive force above her that was just too fucking strong.

“Ididn’tkill her and I dropped the blade just like you told me to,” Vix snarled back, shoving him off her, but it only dislodged him for a second before he pressed her harder into the floor. “Even if I had killed her, she has no collective. She belongs tono one,which you so conveniently left out.”

Furious golden eyes glared down at her and she bared her teeth at him, digging her claws into his arms when he didn’t ease up.

“What would anoutsiderknow?” Vix hissed, her entire body ready tomoveat a moment’s notice. “You think you can command me? Howdareyou when you’re the one who broke your precious rules first.”

It was like talking to a rock, because he leaned in, nearly pressing his nose to hers as he growled a warning she couldn’t be bothered to care about and her fox didn’t give a flying fuck about either.

“Valentina.” The alpha’s attention fixed on the raven, but he still wouldn’t let her up. “Explain.”

Blood ran down the raven’s face from her eye, but it didn’t seem to bother her. “She’s not wrong. I belong to my partner, but no collective.”

Vix narrowed her eyes, trying to decide what that meant. “Where is your partner then, one-eyed raven?”

The one he’d called Valentina didn’t verbally respond to the jab, but her hand tightened on the hilt of Vix’s blade. “She’s with her mate on another job. I came here to guard the witch. From you.”

So, her partner wasn’t the witch and that meant there was no one in this house that held Valentina’s loyalty, unless…

“Are you contracted by the alpha?” It didn’t really matter what for as long as she was.

“No, I’m not.” Valentina smiled slightly and examined Vix’s blade. “I think I’ll keep this.”

She was going to rip that raven’s eye from her skull so it could never be healed, and then she’d steal all her blades before sinking them into flesh.

“Let go of me,” she growled at Samuel. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re making a mistake. So, let gobefore I make you.”

They glared at each other for a long moment—centuries even.

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