Page 34 of Ethereal Shifters

“No.” Rhodes is firm, and the same answer echoes from them all. Well, we are in shit. It’s only seven of them, though, and that should be easy for us to beat.

Alpha Dickhead steps forward in his grey suit. “Gwenieve. We knew it would only be a short amount of time before you’d take it too far again, but to take sweet Annie from us? Her death is not acceptable, and learning you are working for the Vian makes you a traitor. You have been charged with Annie’s disappearance and suspected murder. No Rite of Freedom will save you from this now. The Gods might be angry, but I have to put the people of Starlight City first…and you are a Vian traitor. I should have expected it, when even your mother was recorded to have been caught working with the Vian, right before you ran away.” What? “Your death is not something I will enjoy, and I am sorry for the pain your life has given you. We don’t want another rite where you could ask a God to kill more of our people, and it has been decided by me that you will die tonight.”

“Is that how you’re spinning it?” I arch an eyebrow. “You know as well as I do that I didn’t hurt Annie, and I didn’t ask the Mortal God to do anything. Annie is family to me, and youneed to ask Georgina what she has done with her. I have a feeling Annie will turn up the second you’ve killed me.”

Alpha Paavo just smirks. He’s won this. “Your death is not up for discussion. I am your alpha and you will die.”

Finnegan laughs low. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not going to get anywhere near her.”

“I can’t die.” I shrug my shoulders. “I just come back.”

“We’ll see this time. My new guards are very good at carrying out my sentencing, and they have not failed me yet.” There’s something in his tone, in his eyes, that makes me nervous. “Kill the others, leave her last, and then rip her apart. I want to see if she can come back from death when her heart is a thousand miles away from her brain.”

The seven behind him step forward as one, like trained robots. “This should be easy enough.” Finn cracks his fingers. “You can watch this time, my mate.”

Finnegan and Aleksander move together, Rhodes and Hollis stay at my side, but I want to fight with them. “Nexus.” I reach for her. “These are our mates. We need to fight with them, please. I don’t know why you’re hurting. You won’t speak to me. But I need you.” She doesn’t come out. Fine, I’ll do this on my own. I reach into my rucksack at my back and pull out my Nex dagger from the clip. I let it slide from my hand, and I throw it straight into the air. It embeds into the arm of the guard in the middle. He doesn’t even flinch, and he carries on climbing the steps towards Finnegan and Aleksander. My Nex dagger slips out of his shoulder and flies back into my hand. “That was creepy.”

The middle one, who is bleeding from his arm, gets to Finn and punches him. The world spins for me as Finnegan blasts through into the air. “Finn!” I scream. Finnegan slams through one of the academy windows and disappears. I turn to run afterhim, but Rhodes grabs my arm and stops me. “How are they that strong?”

Alek has shifted right before my eyes when I turn back. His dark hair is almost white, well, silver, and his skin has drained of all colour. His nails have turned as black as mine. An animalistic roar echoes out of his chest as he grabs one of the guards and lifts him into the air. Another one punches his ribcage, and Alek barely flinches. Black magic, like ink, spreads out of his hands down the man, who screams as he doesn’t let go. The ink seems to settle into his skin like it’s travelling through his blood and ripping him apart from the inside. I don’t know what to say. “Since when could he do that?”

Hollis is running up the steps. “I’ll get Finnegan; get her to a car and run!”

Rhodes tries to pull me to the car, but I push his hand away. “We need to fight with him!”

“Alek can handle them,” Rhodes tells me.

What? We can’t leave him. “No, he can’t, and Finnegan is hurt. I’m not leaving. Why would you make me?”

“Your Nexus won’t even come out!” Rhodes shakes his head. “I need to keep you safe. Come on. Don’t make this difficult.”

“I am not running from my mates.” I pull my hand from his. An ear-splitting bang echoes in the air, and I slam my hands on my ears to cover them as a wave of smoke washes over us, nearly knocking me off my feet. When it stops, I stand straight and see nothing but fire. Fire so high it is touching the sky in the distance and the west side of the city, and one of the towers of Starlight City is fully on fire. Alarms are blaring off from the academy, from the city too, and it is an alarm that I’ve heard before but is different somehow. What does it mean?

I can’t see the alpha or Alek in the smoke, but I hear him. “Come back, you need to protect me! Vian are flooding the city in thousands! Protect your alpha!”

Chapter

Seventeen

Starlight City is falling. I can’t breathe through the smoke as I watch the city begin to scream, and those screams reach my ears as our alpha shouts for his guards to save him, to gethimout… He isn’t going to defend the people down there. He is going to let them be drained and die. No, he can’t do this! Rhodes is reaching for me as I turn and run to Alek, who’s standing still like a statue in the smoke, blood all over his hands and clothes, dead guards at his feet. I step over them to get to him and pause.

“Hello,” he purrs. I look straight up into his Nexus, and it’s like looking right into Aleksander’s soul. I want to ask what is standing between us—I want to know what is holding him back—but I don’t. This isn’t the right time. His clothes are ripped, his shirt is half hanging off, and my breath hitches when I see scars. Black scars all over his chest and shoulders. Alek grips my chin, angling my face up and away. “I took them for you.” His eyes are blood red. Anyone else would be terrified, but not me. Not with him. Not with any of my mates because they are mine. Aleksander is mine.

“Hello, mate,” I whisper back. “What are they?” He doesn’t tell me, just as secretive as usual. “The Vian are attacking our city and killing innocent people. We need to help them.”

“And we will, but I want to meet her again. Let her out to play.” His voice is like velvet, sliding over me, and my Nexus perks up. Oh, now you want to come out?Horny bitch.

I clear my throat. “Maybe we should go play with the Vian first, and then afterwards, we can do this.”

I hiss at the nails scratched across my mind—she doesn’t want to help them. I don’t know how to feel about that, about how okay she is with a city full of innocents dying while we could help. Rhodes is waiting as Alek’s Nexus leans down, kissing my cheek before he walks around me, goes up to one of the parked cars, opens the door, and yanks out a ranger onto the ground. The normal ranger yelps but soon goes quiet when Aleksander growls. Two more rangers lift their guns and shoot him. “ALEK!”

My shout is pointless because the bullets bounce off Alek, and Rhodes lifts his hand, sending the bullets back into the chests of the rangers who shot them. “You didn’t have to kill them.”

Rhodes takes my hand. “They would have shot us next. They work for the alpha.” Alek speeds off in his stolen car, and I turn to the academy, knowing I need to get to Finnegan, but I could also do a lot to help at the battlefront. Rhodes makes the decision for me by leading me down the steps, over the bodies, with a tug of his hand. There is one more car left, and I’m surprised to see Howard in the driver’s seat. “Finnegan is awake and getting weapons with Hollis. He will be fine.” I’m relieved, but something tells me to go and check myself. How does Rhodes know that already? I shake the feeling away and trust him.

“What are you doing?” I ask Howard as he opens the door for us to get in. Rhodes looks at me like he is asking if I trust Howardenough to go with him, and I nod. We can trust Howard, he is too kind and sweet to be anything but on our side.

Howard starts the engine. “I saw what happened, and I saw the alpha run away. I might not be strong, but I am a ranger, and I am going to the front to fight, like we all should do.”

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