Page 50 of Primal Bonds

Jace curled his lip. Like the wolf would let him leave alive anyway. Go fuck yourself.

Corban gathered his muscles and leapt. Jace rose to meet him and they collided with a crash that would’ve broken the bones of any creature who wasn’t a fada.

And damn, it hurt. Jace’s breath left his lungs. Pain ripped through his almost-healed knife wounds. Suha wasn’t going to be happy.

Then he stopped thinking and went for Corban’s jugular. The wolf jerked right, but Jace got a mouthful of fur and blood.

Corban went for Jace’s throat, silent and deadly. Meanwhile, the cougar had somehow slipped past Jace and was snapping at his hind legs.

Two against one wasn’t fair, but then Corban had always fought dirty, even back when they’d been cubs and he was several years older and nearly twice Jace’s weight.

But Jace wasn’t a cub anymore—and he’d learned some dirty tricks of his own.

He slashed at the cougar’s face with a hind leg, claws extended. She yelped and jumped back. Jace dodged Corban as he lunged a second time for Jace’s throat. He slid past the wolf and then turned and sank his teeth into Corban’s hind leg.

His jaguar’s long, curved canines were powerful enough to pierce a skull. He sliced through muscle above the hock and crunched against bone.

The wolf’s furious snarl split the night. He struck wildly at Jace, biting whatever he could reach—Jace’s face, his shoulder.

Jace released Corban’s leg to go for a killing bite to the neck, only to have the cougar leap on his back. Sharp canines sliced into his nape. He ignored the pain to slam her against the bridge’s metal railing. She released his nape and fell to the wooden planks, unconscious.

Jace turned toward Corban, but the coward was racing off as fast as he could on three legs. Jace looked after him, chest heaving, itching to chase him down but knowing it wasn’t worth it. From the amount of blood he’d left behind, Corban wouldn’t try anything else tonight.

Meanwhile, Jace had Evie and Kyler to protect, and on top of that, he was bleeding from several places himself.

He hissed a cat’s version of a curse after the wolf’s retreating figure and turned to the cougar. Adric would want to question her.

Shifting back to man, he tapped his quartz. The alpha answered immediately; Evie must have gotten through to him. “On my way,” he said over the muted roar of a motorcycle.

“We’ve got a situation here.” Jace explained what had happened.

When he got to Corban, the alpha snarled. “I knew the bastard wasn’t dead—that would be too fucking simple. I want to talk to that female. I don’t care how you do it, but make sure she doesn’t leave.”

“That’s what I thought. But your cousin—what if he goes after Evie and her brother? He knows I was there.”

Jace didn’t have to spell it out. They both knew Corban wouldn’t give a damn if innocents got hurt, especially humans.

“Fuck. What the hell were you doing there, anyway? No, don’t answer that. You can explain when I get there.”

“I’ll meet you at Evie’s house. I’ll bring the cougar with me.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Adric ended the connection.

The cougar’s eyelids fluttered. Jace knelt on the bridge to check her for injuries. Other than a gash on her head, she was all right. In fact, his injuries were worse.

He wrapped his hand around her quartz; lightly, but she felt it all right. She tensed and opened her eyes, her upper lip twitching in an attempt at a snarl.

“Shift,” he ordered. “Now.”

She growled weakly.

“Maybe I’m not being clear. You don’t have a choice.” He tightened his grip on her pendant.

She jerked in pain. Deep within, he sensed its panicked vibrations, echoing its wearer’s terror. You didn’t touch anyone’s quartz without their permission, and even then, only a close relation or a lover could wrap a hand around it without causing a deep, visceral discomfort.

He was being a bastard, but he didn’t fucking care. The fada who’d kidnapped Marjani had smashed her quartz to bits. This woman might not have been part of that, but she’d attacked Jace for no reason other than Corban’s say-so. Worse, she was a threat to Evie and Kyler.

The cougar whimpered. He let up on the pressure but kept the quartz in his palm. “Shift.”

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