Page 194 of The Demon's Pet

With a loud creak, it fell back due to his weight and landed in the rubble with a crash, sending dust into the air.

Bran let out a growl as he rolled to his feet, looking shaken.

“You don’t obey my commands,” he said, panting. “You have unbelievable strength. What are you, Cleo?”

I saw fear glimmering in his icy gray irises, and I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad.

“I’m not your mate,” I spat back at him. “That’s all I know.” Then I lunged, picking up speed and bolting over the ground, opening my jaws to grab him by the scruff again.

He dodged, rolling to the side, and I jumped on him, fighting to keep him down. He jerked his scruff out of my reach and used his back paws to kick me off, hard.

I went flying backward and landed in the rubble, rolling a couple times before I stopped.

He leaped up, and I had just a second to see his huge wolf body soaring over me, teeth flashing, drool flying. I dodged, quicker than any wolf should be able to, and ran to the side, making a circle to come back to where he was.

He ran as well, and we circled each other, planning our next attack.

If I wanted to win, I needed to get his neck to the ground and keep it there until I earned his submission.

Suddenly, he skidded to a halt and put his head in the air, making a high-pitched noise that made my eardrums scream in agony.

I howled and darted to the side, stopping to cover my ears with my paws.

What the fuck was that?

He used the opening to pounce on me, and I felt his jaws close around my scruff. I tried to shake him off, but my ears were still ringing from the sound.

“My alpha power,” he growled against his closed teeth, which were painfully cutting into me. “I can use it again. Don’t test me, Cleo.”

I struggled, still disoriented. But this couldn’t be the end of it.

I kicked at him with my back legs, but he still didn’t let go, and then the sound started again. He could make it without even opening his mouth.

I screamed this time, feeling like my ears were bleeding, and Bran stopped the sound.

“Give up, Cleo. This is the strength of an alpha.”

He’s killing us. I’ll do what I have to, my inner demon warned.

Then heat flooded me, overwhelming me as flames from somewhere within me burst out and covered my body, hissing and crackling against Bran’s mouth.

He let out a shriek of pain and jumped back, then rolled on the ground to put out the fire burning his pelt and face.

He continued to shriek as the fire burned, but no amount of rolling would put it out.

“Hellfire,” I heard Gabe say. “I thought so.”

I had no idea what that meant.

Bran was still burning, the silver parts of his fur growing smaller as the blackened, burned, fire-edged parts spread. “Make it stop, Cleo. Just make it stop!”

My wolf was still covered in flames, and as I looked down at my paws, I could see that the fire wasn’t damaging me in any way. I could make out the perfect dark outline of my claws beneath the flames.

I stepped forward, fire crackling over me.

Bran began to scream again, batting at the parts of him that were still burning.

“Do you submit?” I growled, furious for my friends who were still frozen. Furious at Bran for using cheap tricks like that howl. My ears were still ringing.

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