Page 19 of Sinful Shifters

Submission is for the men who have earned it.

Or in my case, gods.

Behind me, Ali throws up a wall of water that turns into ice. I can smell sea salt and rosemary as she does so, and know that my sweet Everett is with us somehow. He's lent her his powers to help me escape.

Just as we're getting close to the river, I feel a presence at my back. My hackles raise. Tearing through one last vamp, I spin around to face my enemy—and pause, frozen with uncertainty.

Teller has caught wind of our escape. Standing uphill from us, he raises his arms and summons his power. As his eyes turn white and he faces down my friend, I feel a jolt of terror for her.

At the same time, Klaus shifts into his horrifying red wolf and aims his dark eyes at her. Ali is consumed with fighting Teller, who throws a bold of lightning in her direction—a bolt that she stops with a shield, her eyes glowing white, the air around us and ground beneath our feet scented like magic.

She has Teller. Now is my chance to get revenge against the madman who tried to rape me.

I rush Klaus, stopping his attack with sheer force of will. Our wolves collide and I grunt with pain. Even in my new wolf form, he's bigger and more powerful than me.

And as the snapping of his jaws near my neck makes clear, he's willing to wound me to keep me.

So I rely on my smarts, getting under him to rake at his belly. Blood pours from the wounds, and he howls in pain, falling to the grass. I make sure he's well and truly wounded before I slip away.

As I do so, I barely dodge a whip of white fire that races towards me from Teller's hands. The grass where I was standing scorches black.

Ali screams, "Run! We'll come back for them later!"

I don't have to be told twice. Teller is rising off the ground, his neatly pressed military uniform flattened against his body as he summons so much power that it warps the space around him. Ali runs towards the giant shields that separate us from our homeland, and I run with her, trusting that she has a plan.

Though it burns me to leave Klaus behind, knowing he'll heal and survive, at least I made my mark. And wewillcome back for them. That's a promise I make to myself.

Revenge will come later. For now, we race to the shields.

The closer we get, the more I feel their power. Blood tinges the air where our warriors have tried, and failed, to get through. On the other side of the shields, our remaining warriors and allies fight an army of vampires.

We're trapped between two walls of power, sure to die between one or the other. So I keep running forward, placing my faith in my best friend.

The shields grow closer.

Closer.

Their deadly power buzzes against my paws.

Magical whips rush at me from behind, and I barely dodge them, leaving giant streaks of dead grass in my wake. I shudder at the thought of what they might do to me—especially because Teller appears to want me still alive and mostly intact.

Ali screams, "Now!"

Throwing out her hands, she sends a white lance of destructive magic directly at the shield in front of me.

And it explodes, leaving a hole I run through at the last moment, every piece of fur on my body standing on end.

Chapter16

Adar

She did it. That smart little witch got Rina out, and what's more, she destroyed Teller's shields in the process. I watch them crumble into the dirt with a surge of satisfaction, pleased that my flames will finally be able to travel far and wide.

I can feel the battlefield open wide as new avenues of attack present themselves to us. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my brothers, I look down at the vampire and human army and peel off targets one by one.

I start by destroying every vampire within a hundred feet of Rina with a sweep of my hand. The bloodsucking losers catch on fire easily, turning to dust. Then I move on to the human army, throwing fireballs at their tanks and melting their weapons.

Even the highest grade of steel will warp and bend under the pressure of fire made from pure ancient magic.

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