“God, Mira,” he groaned, his head thrown back, his entire body clenched and still as he waited for me to finally take him in my mouth.
Shotgun blasts echoed through the silence of the woods then, shattering the calm and startling us both. Danaus and I froze, our eyes searching the area for danger.
“Naturi?” I asked as I extended my powers to sweep over the area while quickly rebuttoning my shirt.
“None. Only the shifters and some humans.”
Another set of shots rang out, and this time there was a distinct yelp of pain. My temper surged, sending my hands down to grasp the knives perpetually at my sides as I jumped to my feet. “A hunting party,” I snarled. “Stay here! I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Like hell I’m staying here,” Danaus snapped back at me, already heading toward the edge of the clearing while closing his pants up. A pained expression crossed his face as he moved, but he said nothing about the sudden interruption.
I grabbed his shoulder, pulling him to a sharp halt. “These bastards aren’t going to discriminate between wolf and human at this point. They see you in the woods at this hour and they’re going to fire on you as well. Stay here. I can sneak through the woods unseen.”
“James is out there along with the rest of the wolves. I’m not going to stand by.”
“Bastard,” I growled before pressing a quick kiss to his lips, knowing there was no way that he would hold back. He was the hunter, and I couldn’t stop him. “Be careful! Don’t kill anyone if you can help it. We need information.”
We headed in different directions in an attempt to circle around the group of humans who were slowly making their way through the woods. Cloaking myself, I rushed toward a knot of four hunters west of me. The men were trekking in groups of three and four, a total of more than twenty. It made it more difficult for the wolves to strike back when four different guns were trained on them at once.
After a couple of minutes I found four hunters standing over a wounded, naked male who was clasping his side and moaning as blood poured from his body. The wound appeared small enough that he could heal from it, but two of the humans had their guns trained on his head, ready to blow more holes in him if it looked like he was recovering.
“I think you gentlemen are a little in over your head,” I announced, leaning against a tree. Startled, the men jerked their guns in my direction. “You should never have come out into the woods tonight starting trouble that you can’t finish.”
“What the hell—” was as far as one of them got before the wolves attacked at once. No one managed to get off a single shot, and in a matter of a couple minutes, all four men were torn apart and dead.
I stood back with my arms folded over my chest. The pack had only needed a distraction so they could strike at the ones who had hurt their fellow pack member. Despite what I had told Danaus, I knew that these particular men were dead upon discovery. It was the rule of the forest.
One of the larger wolves stepped away from the group and slowly changed back to human form, naked and streaked with blood. Barrett’s copper eyes glowed and his handsome face was distorted with rage and confusion. Never had the local pack been hunted by humans, particularly in these numbers. There were stories of wolves being shot by farmers when they ventured too close to human territory, but men never went into the woods looking for wolves at night. It meant one thing—someone was hunting for werewolves.
“How many are there?” he demanded when he finally got hold of his emotions enough to speak.
“Less than twenty now. They seem to be hunting in groups of at least three or more, making it harder for your people to strike back.”
“They’re hunting us, Mira,” he growled, balling his fists at his sides. “They are hunting us!” The remaining wolves that had attacked the humans ventured over to Barrett’s side and were milling around, growling and snapping as they sensed his anger and frustration.
“We need to find out who these men are and how they found out about the shifters,” I calmly said, knowing that he was going to hate my suggestion. “We need to capture a few of these men alive.”
“They’re hunting us, Mira!” he repeated, and I knew what that meant. In his mind, it meant that every one of these gun-toting bastards needed to be shredded by the pack. But if we didn’t know how the information was leaked, it would never be safe for the pack to hit these woods again on a full moon.
“If we don’t get information, more will come. They will keep coming until they pick off every last member of your pack. Some have to be left alive.”
“Fine,” he bit out after a minute of tense silence. With every muscle tensed in his lean body, Barrett closed his eyes, seeming to block out the world around him. He then opened his eyes and looked down at the smaller wolf at his side. His sister gave a little yip before running off into the woods with a pair of other wolves flanking her.
“I’ve reached Nicolai,” Barrett explained. “He’s pulling back some of the pack to the clearing. He will guard my sister and some of the younger members that haven’t the strength to change back into human form just yet.”
“Do you want me to send Danaus back as well?”
“No, keep him hunting. That’s what he does best. Have the survivors brought unarmed to the clearing.” Barrett then bent over and turned back into wolf form. As a wolf, he could move through the woods with more stealth, sneaking up on his prey as he blended in with the darkness.
With a quick touch of my mind, I relayed Barrett’s instructions to Danaus before setting off myself into the dark woods in search of my own prey. There were only sixteen humans out in the woods with guns. We needed to keep at least some of them alive. I had a dark feeling I knew who was behind this attack. I just needed to know
With blades gripped in my hands, I slunk through the woods, treading as silently as possible as I headed toward the closest group. A rumble of growling flowed around me as I drew closer to my prey. Wolves circled the group, keeping their bodies hunkered down close to the ground, hidden among the ferns and low-lying brush.
My knives winked in the light of the full moon as I wiped away the cloak that had hidden me from the view of the humans. I smiled, my pale skin seeming to glow in the light that broke through the trees. They raised their guns toward me but offered no warning as they each fired off a shot. My smile never wavered as I dodged the bullets and then returned to my relaxed stance, casually spinning one knife in my right hand. Humans were an easy target for me after so many centuries fighting nightwalkers, lycanthropes, warlocks, and naturi. Under most circumstances, I could easily let them go with a couple superficial wounds and a good scare. But this time I was struggling to follow my own advice. They had attacked my friends and comrades. They endangered James’s life and now they were shooting at me.
“You have no idea who you’re fucking with.” Lunging forward, I knocked the guns out of the hands of two of the four men before plunging my knives deep into their abdomens. As they bent forward in pain, I pulled my blades free and turned to the other men. One managed to get a point-blank shot to my stomach. I lurched backward a step as the bullet ripped through me and into a nearby tree with a
“My turn,” I snarled before stepping forward. I grabbed the end of the gun and yanked it out of his hands before slamming the stock against the side of the man’s head, the wood splintering as he crumpled to the ground. With only one man left, the wolves hovering on the fringe of the fight lunged forward, taking him down before he could get off a shot. The two men I had initially wounded with the knives were also shredded into pieces.
Frowning, I reached down and grabbed the collar of the man I had knocked unconscious. A couple of wolves growled at me for taking away their prey, but they quickly backed off. As much as I hated it, we needed to keep a few alive.
