Page 36 of Blade's Battle
The second Anna ran off, his wolf raged and not a few claw marks against his soul but a full-on shredding. She was the one who calmed him, soothed him, centered him, and Blade would have chased her. The idea of chasing down his female and making her submit was suddenly quite appealing thanks to his wolf. Fortunately, the guards had held him back, kept him from going after her, kept him from pushing her too hard. She’d been through too much over the past few months, and he would take his time with her, no matter what his wolf wanted.
Of course, all that rage and need to dominate coming from his wolf had to go somewhere, which is how he’d ended up in a shouting match with three of Liam’s guards. Blade was fighting his wolf and the two shifters holding him back from a third, splitting his focus and leaving him vulnerable to all.
Now he was pacing between the three guards in the middle of the compound. They hadn’t been able to force him back to the cabin. He refused to be any farther from Anna. She’d walked away, on the arm of their alpha, tohishouse. The very thought of another male touching her fueled Blade’s rage.
When the wind shifted and Blade picked up another scent he didn’t recognize coming from the house, he was ready to attack the guards. They wouldn’t let him enter the house, and they refused to get Liam. This was not his pack, these were not his brothers. But they had his Anna inside and Blade would not leave without her.
A dark-haired, dark-eyed shifter emerged, locked eyes with Blade and started walking his way.
“Keep back, Ramirez.” Griff, one of Blade’s guards, blocked the shifter’s path.
“This is Damien’s scout?” Ramirez asked.
“You know it is.” Griff was clearly not pleased as Ramirez pressed forward.
“We are all allies here. I have information for him from my alpha, nothing more.”
Griff exchanged looks with Daaven, Blade’s other guard, as he drew close to Blade. “It’s up to you, Scout. This is Ramirez, the doctor from Drake’s pack. He’s here to treat our shifters. If you touch him, we will put you down. Is that understood?”
“Let him through,” Blade said, pushing his wolf down as he scented the air again. Neither Blade nor his wolf liked the male’s scent. It was off somehow, holding a bitterness that Blade didn’t trust. Blade straightened his spine and waited for the weasel of a shifter to approach.
“You killed two of our shifters guarding a prisoner and two on patrol,” Ramirez said. “A human female who developed the virus that’s killing our kind.”
Griff and Daaven exchanged looks. Ramirez had wanted them to hear, and no doubt Drake’s shifter would spread the rumor throughout Liam’s camp as quickly as he could.
“She doesn’t work for the WSSO,” Blade said loudly, trying to undo or at least contain some of the damage Ramirez was doing. If the shifter riled this pack enough, Anna might never make it out alive. “And I didn’t kill two shifters guarding a prisoner. I killed two rapists abusing her. Or is rape considered an acceptable practice in your treatment of prisoners?”
“Our prisoners are well-cared for. I treat them for any injuries.”
“I’ve seen the bruising and claw marks from the beatings and torture she endured. You and your pack treated her worse than any animal.”
“We treated her no worse than humans treat us. I worked with Tess, remember? I know what the WSSO did to her, the torture she endured and ultimately how they destroyed her ability to shift. She was one of the lucky ones. She’s still alive, though useless as a shifter now.”
Tess was far from useless, even before the healing abilities she gained through blood-bonding with Damien healed some of the damage the virus had done to her. She could shift again, though it was very painful and hard for her. Blade wasn’t going to share that personal information with Ramirez. This shifter was as bad as the WSSO, and Blade wouldn’t give him any information for Drake to use against Blade’s pack.
“You and Drake should be focusing on how to stop the WSSO instead of torturing a human who knows nothing about them.”
“Drake knows what he’s doing. And when we get her back, he’ll move forward with the next phase of his plan.”
Plan? What plan?Damien had never mentioned a formal plan, though Drake working on his own was nothing new. “You’re not getting her back,” Blade growled. Sometimes it paid to let his wolf out a bit, to get his message across.
Ravirez pitched his ears toward the house. “You could be right. Hear that, Scout. Sounds like your female is getting to know Liam quite well. You might have to strain to hear it from there, as she’s more of a moaner than a screamer from the sound of it.”
Bones started popping and sliding beneath Blade’s skin. His wolf was loose, and he couldn’t reign him in if he wanted to. Blade didn’t care that he was outnumbered and in the middle of another pack. The thought of what Liam was doing up there with Anna had him too enraged to think straight. Despite the warnings Griff and Daaven shouted at him, Blade shifted. Then the guards and Ravirez shifted as well.
Jaws dripping with drool, eyes burning with rage, Blade sprang toward Ravirez, only to jump over him and head straight for the house. Two black wolves lunged out of nowhere, tackling him to the ground. His claws sliced outward, catching one wolf in the leg as another bit Blade’s wolf in his bad shoulder. The pain shot through him with blazing heat, but he ignored it when he heard Anna’s cry. That cry, full of fear, ripped through him sharper than any claw, sending Blade’s wolf into a frenzy that Blade could not contain.
Four wolves were on him now, biting at his legs, trying to bring him down. Somewhere in the distance, he heard Ravirez laugh, but that shifter wasn’t worth the energy it would take to gut him. Blade needed to get past these guards, to get to Anna.
“Let me go!” Anna screamed.
The smell of Anna’s fear intertwined with the scent of the males trying to bring him down, the males who were keeping him from her. A huge paw slammed into the center of Blade’s back, forcing him down and leaving him prone. The energy coming off the wolf sizzled with a charge Blade had never gone up against before. The alpha, the one who’d taken his female from him, would end him if he didn’t submit. Blade’s wolf growled and snarled, twisting his body as he tried to throw the alpha off.
Sharp teeth clamped down on Blade’s throat, breaking the skin and drawing blood. The teeth sank into the outer layer of fur and skin and had yet to crush his throat. Blade knew he should submit, but his wolf wouldn’t allow him.
Then Anna’s scent perfumed the air around him, drowning out all others, even the angry scent of the alpha about to end him. A hand slowly glided through his fur, down the length of his back, calming his wolf enough that he stopped thrashing. Another touch, this one at the back of his head, so close to the jaws of the alpha, but unafraid as she stroked the side of his snout. Slowly, Blade’s wolf began to relax until finally, the pressure around his throat eased.
“Come back to me, Blade,” the angel’s voice said. His wolf followed, forgetting all else as he fell into a casual gait toward the voice. More touches from his female, enough to make him want to lie down at her feet, to tell her it was okay to approach and no longer hide in the shadows that hid her from him.
