Page 105 of Corbin
She hadn’t been the best example of a mother, but she didn’t deserve to be shredded by a pack of lunatic shifters.
Sharp fingers of worry clawed at Elianna.
Where was number five?
Not that she wanted one more wolf shifter to take on, but shedidwant every one of them here, far from Nico.
“Come on little cub,” the bald one with tattoos all the way around his neck taunted in English with a Spanish accent.
“Who is leader?” she demanded while she tried to think her way out of this alive. She began to doubt the possibility unless some guardian angel hanging around wanted to perform a miracle.
Nope. No flutter of wings.
Elianna had been taking care of herself for a long time. This was no different.
The wolves looked at each other, then at her with confusion.
Stressed, she had reverted to Russian.
She repeated the question, but in English this time so they would understand her.
“Me. Call me Varga. I am in charge,” bald guy replied, laughing as he pretended to introduce himself.
Looking past their baggy pants and nylon jackets, she could see that they were skinny, dangerously thin. Also, she had oneto two inches in height on these guys, but hungry shifters of any size turned into vicious killing machines.
She’d bet their lack of muscle was due to drugs and not to going hungry.
Regardless of their size, they had soulless eyes that glowed more yellow than the amber color she’d have expected.
Plus, there were four.
“We are good guys. We give you chance to do this easy way, bitch,” Varga said without a bit of sympathy in his tone.
Lies. Always lies from men.
The pack began easing forward.
She sidestepped to the left.
They smiled, clearly happy to herd her toward the stacked barrels. She wasn’t as fluid as a wolf at jumping high, so they could reach the top of the barrels ahead of her. She had only one choice and that was brute strength.
She fisted her hands to hide any tremors and asked, “Why kill woman?”
Varga shrugged. “We like to kill. She deserved it. Consider her death service for community.”
“She harmed no one,” Elianna countered.
He sneered. “She was slut, which I would not hold against her, but she refused wolf shifter. She was whore for humans.” He spit on the ground. “Worse than slut.”
Elianna said, “Mistake to kill that one. She was under Romanov Kamchatka alpha protection.” That might be a complete lie, but Elianna had always wondered why Alexandre Romanov had never sent a bear shifter to demand her mother declare herself to their clan and king.
She’d asked her mother about his clan once and received no answer, only a sharp warning that Elianna avoid asking questions about that clan or their alpha.
Elianna had done as her mother asked.
Just look where that had landed both of them.
The half circle her attackers formed pulled closer every second.
