Page 145 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
Teddy’s wild eyes met mine, and I pulled her to my chest while Pietro crouched in front of us, slowly putting on a pair of work gloves before he grabbed my elbow.
Pietro glared at me. Heat radiated from the black orbs of his eyes.
I didn’t understand, or didn’t want to understand.
He was our traitor. After my parents had shown him kindness after his father’s betrayal, he chose the same route.
“Let’s go.” His canines pulled out as his eyes darkened.
Anger burned within me. I shrugged him off me, guiding Teddy behind me so I could leap on top of the messenger as he approached me again. With the strength of my attack, Pietro landed on his back with a forceful breath pushing fromhis lungs. I pressed the iron net against his face and pried his lips apart to shove it in his mouth.
His screams did nothing but drive me further into my primal instincts, where all I knew was violence. I relished in the scent of his burning skin, wanting to watch the iron mar every inch of his flesh.
“You will release us at once,” I said, my voice low but lethal with the power surging inside me.
Just as he bowed his head, I felt a rod press against my back. Before I could turn, an electric shock wracked through my body while every muscle in my body tensed. On an involuntary scream, I fell to the ground, where my body continued to pulse with a current that zapped through every nerve ending.
As quickly as the pain had wrecked me, it subsided. Growling, I pushed up to my feet, that still felt wobbly, only to stop when I saw two human males holding Teddy by her arms, with one pushing a black rod against her stomach.
I shook out my tingling hands, taking in the scent of Teddy’s fear and the tears she held back. I growled again, pacing in front of them as I tried to find where to attack. Given the right opportunity, I’d end these males who threatened my mate and the babes she housed in her belly.
“Come closer, and we’ll tase her,” one of the males said, pushing the rod harder against Teddy. His grip tightened when she tried to inch to the side, away from the rod. “She’ll survive like you did, but your kid might not.”
I saw the way her eyes narrowed and the way her lips pursed as she positioned her body to strike. I narrowed my own eyes at the weapon held to her stomach and shook my head. Understanding what I meant, her posture deflated. It made my need to protectflare stronger, the need to kill even more violent.
When Pietro gripped my elbow this time, I let him guide us away from the tear while I kept a watchful eye on the males surrounding Teddy. I studied them, the way they held themselves and walked, looking for weaknesses I could expose. Truly, their greatest weakness wasn’t the fragility of being human but in believing they could try to terrorize my family and get away with it.
Covered in layers of snow, Colina Verde no longer looked like the place I’d once considered my home. Although it wasn’t the place that had made it home, but Teddy who had done that.
We left the town behind, crossing into the forest that bordered Colina Verde. When Teddy stumbled, her hands and knees sinking into the deep snow, I lunged, uncaring of the way the iron net ripped into my flesh. I gripped one male by his throat and tossed him against a tree that grew tall and thick. Bone crunched at the impact when the tree cracked where the male slammed into it. The second male was in my hand, and I bared my teeth while I gripped the rod in my unused hand. Although the net burned my palm where I held the weapon, I kept it firmly in my grip.
When I released the second male, I snapped his neck with a quick twist, and he fell to the thick snow.
“We’re wasting time,” Pietro said, his tone far too calm.
I turned to him, rage pulsing through my veins and filling my vision. That fury climbed through my throat where it sat heavy on my tongue when I found him holding my mate with her back pressed to his chest and one hand around her throat with the other holding a dagger to her stomach.
A scrape bled across her lips while a pink bump sat on herleft cheek where I was certain a bruise would form. Both injuries would cost him more than simply his life.
He’d hurt my mate. The fury that took me made my blood heat. I steadied myself so that I could see through the haze of my anger. When Teddy narrowed her eyes this time, I readied myself to finish her assault. With swift precision, she stomped on his foot, quickly spinning out of his hold to kick his knees with the heel of her right boot.
With the net draped over me, I tackled him to the ground. Pain shot through me. Despite the growing fatigue from the iron, I fought him, pressing the net against him while I wrestled him for his dagger. When he punched my stomach, that same pain ran through me, making me nauseous.
Teddy came beside us and punched her foot against the side of his face, making blood and spit shoot from his mouth. When she kicked him again, his body slackened, and once I took the dagger from him, I looked down to find blood soaking through my fighting leathers.
I pressed a hand to it, taking a second to inspect the stab wound before I started to strip the iron net off me.
Before I could free myself from the net, another sharp pain flamed across my lower back. I arched away, trying to get to Teddy and shield her against this new attack while another human male prowled around me.
Fire flickered before it erupted around us, the flames licking over the bloody snow. When it blazed closer to Teddy’s face, grazing across her hand and arm, she rushed back. Her breathing quickened along with the beat of her heart. Her fear claimed me, making me call to my snow magic, knowing there was nothing there to answer my request. Instead, I moved in front of her as if I could shield her from this unnatural fire.
On a grunt, Pietro stood, his black eyes rimmed with the same orange and red of the fire.
With one hand hugging my stomach where Pietro had stabbed me, I forced my legs to move toward him, that pain in my back intensifying with each jerky motion.
“Why?” I licked my suddenly dry lips and shook my head. “You murdered children.”
He hadn’t simply betrayed me but also the people of my kingdom. He’d harmed my mate and endangered my babes. To what end?
