Page 34 of Their Promise

Shooting up to my feet, I stepped in front of Mason and glared at the man. “Apologize to her right now.”

He leered at me. “Well, hello, beautiful. I didn’t see you there.”

Mason growled and the man took a step back.

Drawing in a breath, I checked his scent … a dragon shifter.

“I know for a fact that my grandfather would have no qualms with me forcing you to your knees to apologize to that little girl and beg for my forgiveness. In fact, I bet if I called him right now, he’d tell Mason here to teach you some respect.”

“Say the word,” Mason growled and took a step forward, making the man take another step back.

“Your grandfather?” he asked with a scowl. His eyes darted to my hair, glowing with my anger, and widened. “P-Princess L-Liliana. I didn’t know you were back.”

“Apologize to her right now!” I snapped. My fury boiled over and my magic snapped out to strike his cheek, raising a welt.

People around us stopped to stare, shocked at my anger and order. A few had their phones out, but I didn’t care. Let them share the video of me teaching this male to respect those around him.

He stepped around us and stooped down to look at the girl. “I’m sorry, little one. I apologize for knocking you over.” Once he’d apologized, he ran away down the walkway.

“Coward,” Mason hissed.

The little girl smiled up at me. “Your hair is pretty.”

Taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and focusing on Mason’s nearby scent, I calmed down and resealed my rage. When I opened my eyes again, my hair was only slightly glowing. “Thank you.”

Her parents stepped forward tentatively, both bowing to me and averting their eyes.

“Have a nice day, Princess!” the little girl called as her parents ushered her away with fear in their eyes.

The necklace around my neck hummed and the next moment a black portal opened beside us.

“Get back!” Mason ordered me and shoved me in the chest, away from the portal as a giant boar-like creature charged out of it.

My feet slid along the tile from his push and I screamed his name as the boar slammed into him, the boar’s head level with his chest.

Ezio ran forward, grabbed me, and pushed me behind him, his cell phone up to his ear as he called for backup.

People screamed and fled in multiple directions away from the portal and the fight, but there wasn’t much escape except for them since the hallway was narrow, so most ran into a nearby store.

Mason’s muscles bulged in his legs as he pushed against the tile and the boar-demon’s head, trying to stop it. His jeans ripped around his quads as he took a warrior shift. His booted feet broke down through the tile at the force he was pushing with, and he finally stopped the boar-demon. The boar-demon turned, looked directly at me, and tried to charge away from Mason and towards me.

“No, you don’t!” Mason snarled.

Ezio shifted into his warrior form and growled at the demon-boar as he pushed against its head next to Mason.

Mason drew a sword from his back from a scabbard I hadn’t seen – how did he keep it hidden from me? – and sliced the boar-demon’s head off.

I exhaled in relief, but the relief was short-lived as two hellhounds jumped out of the portal and both immediately headed towards me. They were the size of a standard dog and covered in thick black quills that hurt to touch.

Shifting into my warrior form, including a tail, I used the tail to whip the two hellhounds away from me and back through theportal. I cringed at the pain from touching their porcupine-like quills with my tail.

Three more creatures, these ones large beasts with bull heads and humanoid bodies, stepped through. Their eyes fixated on me as soon as they stepped out.

“Why are they after me?” I gasped as one reached a large hand to try to grab me.

Mason sliced the distracted creature’s head off while Ezio fought the other one. “You’re clearly enticing to them just like me.”

“Flirting while you’re fighting? Quite the talent,” I teased as a familiar werewolf ran towards us.

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