Page 83 of The Daughters of Nyx

The bear didn’t attack with any kind of training—instead, it tore into Jay’s team member with a brutality I would have expected from a wild beast and not a shifter at all. Nothing about it screamed trained soldier.

Whoever ran this operation was doing so with a brutality and cunning I wouldn’t have expected. The bear acted as if it

had been living in captivity its whole life and was finally let free. Perhaps it had.

I growled and leapt at its back, tearing into the muscle at its shoulders. The bear roared and swung around to dislodge me, but I was a born Alpha. The strength that came with that title coursed through me as I tightened my jaw around the back of the bear’s throat.

Another shifter slammed into my side, tearing me away from the bear. I rolled and came up stumbling, shaking my head.

I sniffed, and smelt wolf. A grey beta paced between me and the bear, who tore apart Jay’s shifter with ease. I didn’t have eyes on the panther, and I had a feeling she was somewhere in the trees, waiting to strike.

The beta snarled, and that was all the warning I got before it struck. I leapt into the air as he did and we tumbled to the ground in a mess of limbs, snarling and snapping at one another. The beta slashed his claws into my side, going deep enough to almost cause damage, but I leapt off him with a yip.

We circled one another, and from the corner of my eye, I spied the panther as she leapt from a high branch and onto the back of the bear. Her smaller jaw snapped into the side of the bear’s throat and shoulder and then she was gone, a black streak as she fled into the forest, leaving the bear to stumble and roar. She was going to wear him out, use up as much of his energy as she could. It was smart—if it worked.

I turned my attention back to the beta as he attacked. Jaws snapped at my throat, and I let him get close enough to throw him down. I slammed my paws into his chest and felt his ribs

crack. He swiped out with a whimper, claws outstretched, but I ducked the lazy attack and hovered over his head.

Dark eyes met mine, almost pleadingly.

Under other circumstances, I might have questioned it. I might have contacted our lead commander at the base and gave her my suspicions about the shifters.

But Ivy’s life was at risk because these fuckers sided with the wrong person. And I would not let her suffer for that.

I tore out the beta’s throat and looked away before the light in his eyes dimmed.

Maybe there was something we could do for the others, if there were any living the way I suspected.

But I was too late for this one.

I shifted, letting the wolf crawl back beneath my skin. But with Ivy still in danger, I felt him pacing back and forth in my mind, ready to take over when allowed to. My hands tightened into fists as one of the fuckers who’d taken Ivy appeared before me. I slammed into him, taking him to the ground. I wrapped one arm around his neck and used the other to snap his head to the side, hearing the distinctcrackof his spine breaking. I released him and rose to my feet.

He wasn’t my first kill, nor would he be my last. Not in my position, and certainly not with Ivy as my mate. I would do anything to protect her, even if it meant slaughtering all those who’d taken her.

I found the damned mages in the middle of fighting unmasked idiots, magic surrounding the front yard like a heavy blanket. I wrapped my arms around the throat of a woman and snapped her neck, not once looking at her as she dropped to the ground.

“We should keep one alive for questioning,” Adrian muttered, lowering his mask. “Maeve could get a lot from them.”

Grey had the ability to read memories through blood. I didn’t know much about it, but I’d be willing to cart one of these fuckers off for her to feed on.

A bear of a male stalked towards us with his lips curled up in a snarl. He was taller than me by a couple of inches, but I would be faster. He definitely wasn’t shifter, though; by scent, he seemed to be some kind of demon hybrid, one that stunk of sulphur and hellhounds.

With a growl, I met him half way and swung my fist into his already crooked jaw. His head snapped to the side, blood beading from a cut on his lip, but his eyes flashed red and he pounced, dragging me to the upturned earth.

The fucker was heavy, but I let myself fall into a half-shift and raked my claws down his side, cutting deep enough that I felt the bones of his chest crack.

Howling in pain, he rolled off me. As he clambered to his feet, I jumped to mine and let the shift take over. My jaws sunk into his thick neck and tore at the ligaments and muscle. Demon blood filled my mouth, the taste disgusting, but I made sure not to swallow. The wolf shook his head twice, tearing the fucker’s head from its oversized body.

The shift back almost hurt, doing it so quick, but I stumbled to my feet.

I needed to keep a clear head if I wanted to help.

A lithe, Fae woman crept up to Archer, a bloody knife raised to his back. If anyone was going to kill the pain in the ass mage, it was going to be me.

She was slow, uncertain, as she raised her hand. I captured her wrist and tightened my hand into a fist, crushing the bones of her arm before throwing her to the ground.

“Kingsley,” I snapped. “Check her before I throw her in with Grey.”

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