Page 97 of Savage Blood
Her ragged gasp and the fear searing her gaze had warm satisfaction surging through my veins. As I opened my mouth wide to chomp on her throat, my saliva dripping onto her, the moonlight revealed a flash of silver in her grasp.
Where the hell did Marissa stash a dagger in her painted-on dress?
The fleeting thought passed as my jaws headed for her throat while her hand arched toward my torso. She wouldn’t be able to stab me before I sank my teeth into her flesh.
“No!” Fane’s fury erupted through the air as he dashed for us and snatched the knife from Marissa.
Strong arms wrapped around my middle to jerk me off the female shifter.
What the ever-loving hell?
As someone dragged me from Marissa, adrenaline pumping through my bloodstream, I fought the powerful arms and plunged my teeth into her leg. Her scream rang through the atmosphere, and the coppery, briny tang of blood spilled over my tongue.
Before I could rip her limb clean off, I was lifted into the air, presumably by Saint. He and Fane were probably the only ones brave enough to get between my prey and me. A growl tore from my mouth, but I couldn’t break Saint’s hold in this form.
I shifted back to human, Saint cursing behind me as I tried to elbow him off.
“Just calm down, Tate.” His hold tightened, crushing me to his chest.
Now that Fane had secured the dagger, his attention jerked to us. Seeing me naked in another man’s arms triggered his primal instincts, his feral side, and hesnapped.
“Get your fucking hands off her, Grimstone.”
Fane yanked me free, wrenched his black t-shirt off, and shoved it over my head to cover my bare body.
Marissa trembled on the ground, gripping her shredded leg and pouting like a spoiled brat. “Look what you did to me! You psycho.”
I dragged the back of my hand across my lips to wipe off her blood, though I probably just smeared it around. “I’d rather be a psycho than a coward who needs a silver dagger to win.”
She knew silver wouldn’t hurt me as much as it would hurt other shifters, but a few stab wounds would have slowed me down.
“I was only helping, Fane,” Saint said in a rough voice as his own animal side surfaced.
Angry heat throbbed from the demon shifter as he moved toward the other male. “I allow you to be around Tate.”
Oh, heallowedit? I was pretty sure I could make my own fucking decisions about who I spent time with.
Not the point, Tate.
I shook the thoughts off and marched toward the two alpha males as they faced off, silver eyes burning into a blue and a golden-brown one.
“I’m her fated mate, Maverick.” Saint bared his teeth. “I’ll be around her if I want. And I don’t intend to leave her once she’s healed, either, despite what you might believe.”
My lungs emptied with a whoosh as those words settled in the air like toxic smoke.
That was the wrong thing to say.
Fane’s irises smoldered and turned bloodred, like hellfire had taken them over. Slick black talons slid from his fingertips, and the jagged tattoos slashing across his arms and torso twitched, his beast scraping at the barrier.
“Make no mistake, Grimstone. Tate is mine.” He bumped his hard chest into Saint’s. “You will never come close to having what I have with her. She. Is.Mine. Always.”
Goose bumps prickled my skin as thick, choking tension filled the night around us. Little animals scurried through the underbrush to get away from the two apex predators on the verge of a death battle. Fane stood a few inches taller, and he was broader than Saint, but the alpha of Blackwater Falls showed no signs of backing down.
“You guys are being ridiculous,” I shouted, my hands trembling. “Back away from each other.”
This confrontation was not some little spat. The pressure had been building around Saint and Fane for weeks. Fane wanted me to heal, but deep down, he wasnotokay with watching someone else touch me, care for me, and share my bed.
It ate him up and tore his insides apart. And it was all coming to a head. He’d reached his breaking point.
