Page 6 of Stolen Oath

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I should’ve been more worried about the humans still loitering around the store but selfishly I didn’t. If given a chance, they would be the first to grab pitchforks and burn me alive if they knew what I was. I wanted them safe, sure, but if it came between those I care about and them…Guess where my loyalties would be?

I was a witch, not one of their saints.

Without thinking, I reached over the counter and grabbed Dimitri’s arm, trying to yank him back. Emphasis on tried. A truck pulling on him wouldn’t have moved him an inch with the way he was poised to rip into the two dummies thinking they had safety in numbers.

However, much to my surprise, the moment my fingers made contact with his skin his whole demeanor changed. Tense muscles relaxed under my grip and he stepped sideways, placing himself directly between me and the two shifters yet he turned his head so I can see half of his face. They were no longer his priority, it was written all over his features. Neither the hyenas nor Char missed the subtle way he showed that I mattered to him. The look the two hyenas gave each other after his reaction confirmed it.

We were screwed.

Something inside me cracked, almost like a physical sensation of things rearranging themselves in my chest. Panic gripped me that I’d have to acknowledge it, so I had to do something to avoid thinking about it. Learning what we could from the shifters was far more important than what I felt when it came to the alpha.

It was.

Honest.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but we must close the store for the day!” I spoke as loud as I could, grumblings following my words. “They found a gas leak at a couple of stores down from here, so for your safety, we need to let the inspectors do their job.”

People were already rushing out the door, a couple of them still carrying whatever they were holding in their hands with them. I didn’t care. I just wanted all the humans away so that we can deal with the two shifters who dared to come to our store.

What was funny was the fact that my declaration took the hyenas by surprise long enough for almost all the humans to spill out of the store. Almost but not quite all, unfortunately.

“I think I’ll keep this one,” the one on the left, with the nightmarish grin said just as a middle-aged lady was rushing past him. Her shriek sent my heart into a gallop. “It makes us even, no? Three of you against the three of us.”

He yanked her between him and his buddy, jostling her messy bun, which leaned crookedly toward her left ear and the crystal ball I didn’t notice she had in her hand until it plunged toward the floor, shattering into a million pieces the moment it hit it. Wide, pale blue eyes met mine and I remembered her. She came to the store often for lavender incense and candles to help her sleep at night. She shared one day that her nightmares didn’t let her stay asleep longer than an hour or two. I had no idea why I found that important to remember, but it was.

Rage bubbled up, burning hot and heavy in my chest.

“Let the woman go.”

Both Dimitri and Char looked at me strangely when I spoke. It took a beat for my brain to register that what I heard was actually me speaking and not some entity that dropped in unannounced. My voice was much deeper, as if coming from a well, and carried a spine-chilling echo that brushed over my memories feather light and I forgot about it the second it was gone.

Finally, the gravity of the situation dawned on the two hyenas when the façade of their strengths became their weakness. All mockery washed off their faces with the realization that the hunters just became the prey because they bit off more than they could chew when they stepped in and threatened us.

“Ummm, Allie.” Char inched cautiously closer to me, her fingers hovering just out of reach above my shoulder. “We need to make sure the lady leaves first.”

My vision was sharpening on the two shifters while I struggled to keep the rage under control so it didn’t explode out of me in a wave of magic, which would destroy everything and hurt Char and the alpha in the process.

“Release the human, peasant swine. Don’t make me repeat myself.” Dimitri’s snarl forced the two to take a couple of steps back and dragging the woman along with them, the blonde on the right turning his head left and right in search of escape routes no doubt. “I will handle this one,malen’kaya ved’ma.”

If I wasn’t freaking out that I might kill innocent people I would’ve laughed at the swine insult. I had no control over my body or how he made me feel, but you could bet any amount of magic that I had control of my actions and what I can and cannot do. Hot or not, the alpha was off-limits, so he had no right to boss me around and tell me to let him handle things. It’s not like we were a couple or had any chance of becoming one any time soon.

For now,an annoying voice chirped in my head.

“Please!” The woman cried out for the first time, drawing me back to the moment, each of her tears like a hot poker in my brain. “Don’t hurt me…please.” Her sobs were gut-wrenching as she srunk into herself, her shoulders curling inward to better protect her now that only one of them had a hold on her.

There was more to the terror in her tone than the fear of the shifter who had her dangling from his grip like a bone. Whatever it was, that was the reason I held back from zapping the dumbasses because I didn’t want to scare her mora than she already was, as much as I wanted to tell Dimitri otherwise. The poor woman was traumatized long before the hyenas stepped into my store.

The hyena on the right shifted to his animal, his elongated head reaching the woman’s chest.

“Oh, dear Lord, please, I don’t want to die.” The lady bawled even harder, closing her eyes and shaking like a leaf. “This is not happening. Please, God, this is not happening.”

“I’m tired of this crap. I’ll grab the woman, you two deal with the bastards.” Char cocked her arm back, the one she held the glass jar full of purplish liquid with, and let the it fly through the air. It hit the floor between the shifters almost at the same spot where the crystal ball shattered. I tensed up like a spring waiting for whatever was about to happen.

Nothing happened for a moment.

Then the hyena on all fours shrieked so loud, I thought my ears started bleeding. His butt smacked into the shelf next to him and sent it tumbling into the rest of the displays. A cacophony of sounds followed for a long moment that stretched between us until it cut off abruptly and the only thing left was the panting of the shifted hyena.

A second later a nest of black snakes showed up, hypnotically curling around each other right in front of the human. Dozens of heads were snapping at the shifters simultaneously, surprisingly staying away from the woman but aiming their attacks at the shifters. Both males blenched like they’ve seen a ghost, their eyes bugging out with expressions of pure terror as they looked ready to get out of their own skins.