Page 69 of Wolf Bane
ChapterSeventeen
Tyler’s shocked, barking laugh was apparently not the response she wanted.
I mean, having been on the receiving end of it more than once due to dumbassery in my teen years, I couldn’t blame her for being annoyed.Daniel, however, took it far more personally.
Tyler didn’t have time to move out of the way before Daniel was on him, fully shifted.His teeth clamped around Tyler’s throat as they went down, Tyler snarling and shifting as they fell.
Justin cried out, scrambling back.“Tyler!No!Stop!Landry, help him!”He screamed as Eliza activated the collar, sending him back to his knees.
I had a moment—too many moments—of paralysis, not sure who to go to first.Not parsing the chaos unraveling around me.Eliza, my brain finally decided, kicking in when my body wanted to just turn to stone and hide.She’s the center of the storm.Stop her.She was fixated on Daniel, her thumb pressing on the damn button to Justin’s collar, letting me get far closer than she would have otherwise.I took a step, then another, then shoved myself into motion, leaping at her in a rugby tackle I’d tried and failed in high school.Apparently, coming into my abilities as whatever I was had really upped my game because I was able to grab her around the middle and take her to the ground without getting in my own way.She shrieked, the control skittering out of her hand.Daniel’s snarls became panicked, claws scrambling on the concrete floor.I prayed Tyler could hold him because there was no way I’d be able to fight him off.Not while I was still weak from injuries.Not while I was in low key panic mode.
Eliza being unable to shift, lacking were abilities, made it easier for me to restrain her but also made me feel disgusting.I was stronger, faster, and honestly deadlier if it came down to it.
And that notion bloomed into an exciting and awful realization.
I was deadlier.
I had power over her.
And I didn’t know how to feel about that.I froze.And it was enough of a stumbling block for her to get control of the grapple, just for a moment, and roll me off to one side.
Daniel was on me in a heartbeat, his heavy weight crushing against my ribs.Justin cried out, Eliza having gotten hold of the damn control once more.
“No,” I gasped, seeing the dark blur of Tyler out of the corner of my eye.“Justin!Get?—”
Daniel’s jaws on my throat were a warning, a threat.Hard enough to make me choke, not hard enough to break skin.
Yet.
Eliza scrambled to her feet, panting, her breath a high whine with each exhale.“Stop,” she shrieked.“Stop it!”
Daniel held still for just a half a heartbeat then decided not to obey his other half after all.
The piercing pain in my throat was worse than the bite on my arm.Doctor-brain kicked in and scrolled vivid visuals of the structures his teeth were crushing.Carnassial teeth gripped and tore at my skin while his canines held me in place.My scream came out as a high-pitched whine, melting into something animal as I shifted, twisting and thrashing in Daniel’s grasp.
It wasn’t enough to make him let go, but his surprise loosened his grasp just enough for me to suck in a wet, burning breath.My hands—my claws now—sank into his back as oxygen flooded my bloodstream.I was dizzy with it, this rush not only of life-saving air but the fact I was strong now, stronger than I had been moments before.I was able to pull Daniel off of me, throw him to the side even as I bled.Wobbling only a little, I got to my knees, then to my feet.Crouching, I moved towards Daniel.Everything in the room had become so much background noise.The hiss of Justin’s panicked breathing, the staccato pulses racing from four different bodies.
But all of my attention, all of my energy, was aimed at Daniel with his bloody maw and raised hackles.Huge, bigger than Ethan in wolf form, Daniel was pale gray and black, eyes blazing amber as he waited.His own pulse was strong, fast as a wolf’s would be but the stink of fear, of shocked pain, rising from him gave me a spike of pleasure.
The part of me that wasn’t wallowing inwolfwas horrified.
The rest of me though… Maybe a small sliver of that could understand why people like Daniel reveled in being were.Why they felt better-than.
Daniel bucked under my grasp, thrashing his head side to side seeking purchase, somewhere to sink those curved canines and tear.
“No,” I rasped, mouth changed just enough to soundwrongto my ears.But to feelrightas my body struggled to complete the change.“No, you don’t get to do that.”
“Landry,” Justin cried out.“Don’t!”
Tyler’s hand—fully human—on my arm wasn’t pulling me away but he exerted enough pressure to make me pause.“Don’t,” he echoed Justin.“Don’t…”
Daniel couldn’t smirk, not in wolf form, but God I could feel him wanting to.Tyler moved closer, leaning into my field of vision.He was bloody but I couldn’t tell if it was his or not.Bruises were already blooming on his face and arms.A livid paw print was taking shape on his shoulder, huge and red with burst capillaries.“Landry, no.”
The thing inside me shuddered, angry.Hungry almost.
Protective.
Swallowing hard, hard enough that my throat clicked, I nodded.“Can we put him in the cage downstairs?”I asked Tyler roughly.“Maybe her too?”
