Page 210 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

Cory and Uncle Helios had been right about everything.

“There you go. Not as stupid as I thought.”

“Then, let Adam go. He’s not Salonen by blood.”

“I’m not hurting the child if you follow my instructions. I’m simply using him to get you away from your sister and her warrior.”

“Then, let him go. You have me,” I prompted.

We’re not giving ourselves up. We’ve got pups to protect,Coyo snarled.

Of course, we’re not. We just need to get Adam away from her so we can destroy her.

“I’m not as stupid as my son. Once I have you, he can go. Until then, I’ll just use him to continue empowering the spells I’ve already cast.” She demonstrated by running the blade along his arm, causing Adam to cry out and blood to bead and stream down his arm and onto the rocks before her.

“STOP!” I screamed. “Don’t you fucking hurt him!”

“Oh, please. It’s just a little blood. Even a child will survive a little bloodletting.”

‘Luna. Prepare to take Adam and run!’Hugh’s mind-link was short and urgent.

‘Wait—’I didn’t get a chance to stop him because Hugh’s wolf roared and leapt from the side of the clearing toward Martha.

Martha dropped Adam and chanted something in another language, the blood she had drawn from Adam hissing on the stones and forming into a rune. I watched in horror as she pointed to Hugh’s wolf in mid-air and as if following her pointed finger, his body flew clear from one end of the clearing to the other, bones crunching when he hit a tree that made it look like itbroke his body in half. His wolf whimpered as his body dropped at an odd angle at the base of the tree.

Meanwhile, I ran toward Adam, who was trying to scramble toward me, his little hand covering the wound in his arm. I roared and shifted when Martha threw the dagger and it buried into his tiny little back.

I landed on all fours above my child, snarling protectively but unable to check to see if he was alright, because Martha pulled another dagger from somewhere on her back.

“Well, that was unfortunate. I didn’t mind the child and thought I might be able to train him better than I did Brandon after you were gone, but you’re right where I need you to be. Just stay still, and this will all be over soon.”

“Leave her alone!” Hugh coughed from where he was. He had shifted back to his human form. His back was clearly broken, and he was trying to crawl toward us.

“Hmmm. I thought you would have jumped on Alpha Cade’s dick to become a Luna again, but is Hugh’s sudden fierce protectiveness of his Luna a sign that he’s the one getting to fuck you now?” Martha sneered at me, briefly turning her ire on Hugh, and striding toward him.

Gross,Coyo muttered to me while trying to nudge Adam to see if he was conscious. My poor little guy whimpered and touched her snout lovingly.We need him to get out of the circle. Whatever she’s planning, she wants us in here.

Coyo continued to nudge Adam, making him move inch by slow inch toward the edge of the circle while Martha was distracted with Hugh. If I could shift back without her noticing, I could pick him up and run away with him, but shifting wasn’t an option. It was loud.

We couldn’t pick him up with our mouth. The jostling would make him cry out, and she would turn around. I didn’t want to watch as Martha grabbed Hugh by the hair and picked him upwith surprising strength, making him cry out as she jostled his broken bones, but I dared not take my eyes off her.

“You were a useless wolf as my son’s beta, and you’re useless now,” she snarled in his face.

“Fuck you,” Hugh hissed, and I saw movement before Martha hissed. Something flew toward the trees, but I couldn’t make out what it was from here.

“Ow, fucker!” she snarled, throwing him against the tree, this time impaling him against a broken branch protruding from the tree.

I only hoped, by the way his body went limp and no more whimpers were coming from him, that his death was instantaneous.

Unfortunately, Adam wasn’t out of the circle yet, and we refused to leave him there. Coyo snarled when Martha’s attention turned back to us. I was a little proud to see the slashes of Hugh’s claws were bleeding profusely under the now torn shirt on her chest. The giant, hideous cabochon she liked to wear was no longer hanging around her neck, and I sincerely hoped the hideous thing was lost in the woods for all eternity. She had once claimed it was an heirloom, but the thing gave me a bad vibe.

“I’ll get use out of his blood when we’re done.” Martha smiled at me, as if I should be proud his blood wouldn’t be allowed to go to waste. “I’ve been running low since I made the furnace take a shit, and the wine cellar explode.

I ground my teeth at the newfound knowledge that she was responsible for everything that went wrong this harvest, but I needed to stall, so, I did the only thing I could think of doing. I shifted back and hoped Martha enjoyed a good villain monologue.

“I don’t understand. Why are you serving Tezcatlipoca? He hates werewolves.”

“He kept me out of the Forsaken Plane.”

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