Page 21 of There's No Place Like Oz

Chapter 15

His head hit the stone wall, and I squeezed his windpipe until his face started turning purple.

Good. So he needs to breathe.He wasn’t some inhuman doll like the others. I took that as my confirmation to clamp down harder. He clawed at my arm with dagger sharp nails that effortlessly tore through skin, but I didn’t give a fuck.

I could smell it. I could smell it on him, I could smell it on her, I could smell everything he’d fucking done, and I wasn’t going to let it slide. “I’ll fucking kill you.” All I could see was red. My blood boiled so hot, I hoped my contact would burn his fucking flesh.

I’d tracked them here as quickly as I could, delayed by nearly losing the scent amidst the rain soaked ferns of the woods, but I was determined to find her before she’d become a feast for some monster. For her to be snatched right in front of me, and I wasn’t able to stop it… I wouldn’t let that stand. My only respite was that she was still alive, but I couldn’t forgive myself for such egregious failure.

“Tobias!” She shouted from behind me. “It’s okay!”

Okay? It’s not o-fucking-kay.I pulled him from the wall and slammed his head back into the rocks. I loosened my grip only long enough to let him take a single breath.

“Did he hurt you?” I forced myself to ask the question despite the absolute rage and adrenaline coursing through me. As much as I wanted to protect her, I also wasn’t going to be one of the many men who took her voice. Still, I was going to keep him pinned until she told me otherwise. And I’d break his neck without hesitation if my assumptions were correct.

“No. No, it’s okay, Tobias.” Her voice was soft and pleading. I loosened my hold a touch. “I’m okay. He wasn’t going to eat me after all.”

“After all?” And I tightened it again. I glanced back at her, while his fight was fading with the lack of oxygen. She shook her head rapidly.

“He eats munchkins and—” Another shake. “That’s not the point. He’s like Crowe and Talos, Tobias. He’s just trying to break his curse.”

I nodded to her in understanding, then I released him so suddenly, he had no chance of finding his footing without ending up a crumpled mess on the floor. I glared down at him as he choked air back into his lungs and rubbed his neck.

“Holy fuck, you’re strong,” he managed through a coughing fit. The tattoos, the piercings, the muscles—He was completely her type. Of course she would defend him. As much as I adored Dorothy, it wasn’t the first time her judge of character was horribly misguided. I wanted to trust her, but her choices in men were frustrating at best, and traumatizing at their worst. “I was completely overpowered. How the hell…” Disbelief dripped from every word, while his catlike eyes were wide. “You’re lucky that damn witch took my power—”

“Leon.” She interrupted him with a stern look. He stopped speaking immediately.Strange.

He cleared his throat when he finally managed to stop coughing. “What I meant to say was I’m so happy to know that this little firecracker has such a big, strong protector.” The bullshit of the statement wasn’t lost on me. “My mate should only have strong men around her.”

“Yourwhat?” That red filled my sight again, and I hoisted him back upright by his neck. Though this time, he didn’t fight me on it. Dorothy looked just as confused.

“Show him your mark, Dorothy.” The grin on his lips was abhorrent. I contemplated pounding his head into the wall until it disappeared.

“What’s he talking about?”

Dorothy blinked repeatedly, “I don’t know.” She squeaked in that way that told me she absolutely knew. I could hear her heart rate pick up. I could sense her growing anxiety. I couldn’t understand why she would even try to hide something from me. It was my job to read her emotions.

And then it dawned on me. Was that spike due to this bastard, or wasIthe one flaring her anxiety right now?

I eased off my grip on Leon, and that heart beat slowed a touch. She dropped her gaze with embarrassment.

Leon glanced between us, then he addressed me once more. “You’re a dog shifter, and you can’t sense her mating bond? It’s strange enough that you can overpower a lion, but how are your senses that broken?”

“I’m a what?” I shook my head, certain I’d misheard him, but also knowing my ears were too good for any such mistake.

“A dog shifter.” Leon repeated while his body language was that of someone completely taken aback. “A beast man? A wolf in a man’s clothing? What witch cursed you to the point you don’t even recognize your own kind?” He squinted, inspecting me in disbelief. His strong hand fell on my shoulder, then he leaned in and sniffed me along the neck. I remained still, too stunned to react or protest. He nudged my ear forward. “Eloise of the North. The stench of her magic is hard to mistake, and that mark, even more so.” He spoke definitively then added with the utmost contempt. “To think they call her a good witch. I suppose if you rob your cursed puppets of their memory, it makes it easier to keep a clean reputation. Vile bitch.”

“What do you mean I’m a shifter?” I repeated the title, not caring about some witches or their grudges. Though the word sounded wrong on my lips. “I think you’re mistaken. I’m from the human world…”

“The human world?” Leon scrunched his nose. “She banished you to an entirely different dimension? That’s brutal.”

“No.” Dorothy stepped in to explain when words were failing me. “Tobias was my dog back home. It wasn’t until we arrived here that he ended up trapped in this body.”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Do I have to spell this out for you when it’s your own damn body?” Leon balked as he looked back and forth between us as though we were completely insane. “So you were banished to the‘human world’where you were trapped in animal form, then when you returned to Oz, you ended up in your true form.” Not a question but an explanation. Leon threw up his hands as both of us stared at him dumbstruck. “Look, I’m a Lion Shifter and I’m an Alpha. I know what fellow shifters smell like. The Witches of Oz have been running about unchecked for a long, long time, so it doesn’t totally surprise me that you were a victim without even knowing it. But no matter what your body looks like,as a shifter,” he emphasized heavily, “your beast lives inside you when you’re a man, and your humanity lives inside you when you’re a beast. If anything, the way you nearly strangled me to save this girl tells me that your beast still very much lives in you.”

I remained still, shocked, and paralyzed.

A shifter. A dog shifter? If what he was saying was true, this form here had always been myself. Even if we found the Wizard and he broke everyone’s curses and sent us home, I would still be able to exist like this.

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