“I hunt creatures who mean to harm us,” he snarled and tugged her closer to him, pressed his cheek to hers and tilted her head up, forcing her to look at Rath. “That isn’t a man standing in front of you… it isn’t a man you obviously invited between your legs and feel something for.”
His low chuckle left her cold again.
“Maybe I’ll make a test subject of you… see what comes out when a human is impregnated by a monster… since you obviously enjoy fucking them.”
“I didn’t enjoy fucking you, and you’re clearly a monster,” she bit out and elbowed him in the ribs.
Alexander spun her away from him and slammed the butt of the rifle into her left cheek, the blow sending stars spinning across her vision, edging it with black. She hit the grass, head twirling and throbbing.
Something growled again.
“You alright?” Rath snarled and she struggled to look at him.
He wobbled in her vision.
His golden eyes glowing as he stared Alexander down.
Alexander chuckled. “I wanted to kill you, wanted you to pay for taking my father from me when I found you… but now… now I think I’ll take both of you with me.”
Her head turned and she pressed a hand to it, grimaced at the heat that bloomed beneath her fingers, wetness that had her stomach lurching.
Alexander smiled down at her.
“Archangel will enjoy studying you and the child you’ll produce for them.”
CHAPTER 13
“Archangel will enjoy studying you and the child you’ll produce for them.”
It was the last straw for Rath.
He burst towards the male to the right of Ivy, nearest the helicopter, and grabbed his assault rifle, tugging it up as the male became aware of him and began to wrestle to get the weapon out of his grip.
Rath twisted the gun, elbowed him in the face and turned the weapon on Alexander.
His finger squeezed the trigger, the angle awkward but effective as bullets sprayed and Alexander dived away from Ivy, rolling across the grass towards the helicopter and behind the male fighting Rath for his weapon. The bastard shoved forwards, kicking the barrel of the gun up towards the sky, and knocking Rath back.
The second soldier took aim and Rath leaped backwards, avoiding the bullets that whizzed towards him, barely missing him and the male he had been fighting. He pressed his left boot into the ground and kicked right, sprinted around the back of the chopper and used it as cover as his heart thundered and fur swept over his skin beneath his fleece, a need to shift bolting through him as Ivy shrieked.
“Get off me!”
A masculine grunt sounded and Ivy appeared in view, crab-crawling backwards across the grass, her hazel eyes wide and her terror striking him hard.
“Run,” he snarled when she looked at him, fear flashing in her eyes.
Fear for him.
Blood tracked down the left side of her head and he growled at the sight of it, couldn’t hold back the vicious sound as anger blazed through him and a need to fight swamped him, a hunger to avenge her and make these humans pay for what they had done to her.
She twisted onto her front and scrambled across the grass, heading for cover.
Alexander gave chase.
Rath snarled and kicked off, but a hail of bullets had him diving back behind the cover of the chopper, and he could only watch as she tried to evade the male chasing her.
Fuck.
Storm came out of nowhere and slammed into Alexander’s back, lifting him off the ground as he grappled with him, pulling him back. He tossed the male onto the grass and leaped on him. The two males turned towards their boss as he grunted, and Rath growled as he launched at the one nearest to him.
He grabbed the male’s weapon again and yanked it towards him, and the male made a strangled sound as the strap cut into his neck. He slammed his right fist into the hunter’s face—once, twice, and a third time—and the male staggered and slumped, the strap slipping free of his head as he dropped.
Rath turned the weapon on the other hunter and fired.
The male was quick to react, sprayed bullets at him as he hurled himself to his left and skidded across the grass.
Not quick enough though.
The hunter howled as a bullet tore through his leg, clutched it and clawed across the grass, heading for the chopper. Rath took aim.
Storm bellowed in agony.
He twisted towards his brother and snarled when he saw the blood flowing down his right arm from a slash in his black hoody and the flash of a blade in Alexander’s grasp. The male lunged with the knife again and Ivy screamed like a banshee as she barrelled into Storm and shoved him, pushing him clear of the attack.
“Run,” Rath barked again, because he needed her away from danger, but she ignored him and grabbed Storm, trying to pull him away from Alexander.
Storm growled and swatted at her, was on his feet the moment she released him and ready to launch back at Alexander.
Alexander was on his feet though, running for the helicopter as the engines began to wind up.
Who the fuck was still inside?
All three males were still out in the clearing, the one he had wounded staggering into an upright position, leaning heavily on his rifle and using it as a crutch, and the other one still out cold on the grass.
He glanced at the chopper, caught a flash of a blonde female leaning over the pilot’s seat, and then threw himself flat as his senses screamed a warning at him. Bullets zipped over his head and he rolled as Alexander lowered his aim, adjusting it. They tore through the grass, sending the scent of earth into the air, and Rath growled as he found his feet and sprang at the male.
Storm beat him to it again, only this time, it wasn’t in his human form.
Fuck.
Rath swiftly checked on Ivy, and sure enough, she sat on her backside on the grass, her skin pale and eyes round as she stared at the huge golden cougar that slammed into Alexander and knocked him sideways.
The female in the chopper shrieked as the bullets ripped through the metal and shattered glass, and smoke poured from below the rotor blades.
The male he had knocked out groaned as he came around, and the one he had injured took aim at Rath’s brother.
Damn. He couldn’t let Storm fight alone, and his brother was right, they would have the advantage in their cougar forms.
Besides, there was no point in holding back now Ivy had seen Storm shift.
Rath pulled off his fleece and t-shirt, kicked out of his boots and tore open his jeans. He growled as he shifted, his bones lengthening or contracting, transforming beneath his skin as golden fur swept over his arms and legs, and down his back, and a band of white fur rippled down his chest.
He felt Ivy’s eyes on him, her shock as she watched him turn from a man into a huge cougar, and he wanted to cry at her, to call to her and have her come to him even when he knew she wouldn’t.
Not now.
Not ever.
She would run as soon as he gave her the chance, and she would never look back.
He couldn’t hold back the low moan of mourning that rolled through him, let the pain swamp him for only a second but it tore him apart. He shut it down and launched at the male he had knocked out, taking him back down. He clawed at the male’s chest, savaging him as he grunted and wrestled with him, desperately trying to push his weight off him.
The other male hollered something and Rath sprang backwards as he fired, leaping high into the air. The bullets tore through the hunter instead, and he gargled as blood leaked from the holes in his chest and from the corners of his lips.
“Shit.” The male swung the gun up as Rath landed, aiming it at him.
Storm snarled as he leaped on the male, front legs open and paws spread wide. The male turned and grunted as the full weight of Storm landed on him, and then screamed as his brother brought his head down and tore into his throat.
Alexander shoved to his feet, clutching his side, crimson slipp
ing from between his fingers, and grabbed a gun from the grass. He lifted it, his eyes cold as he turned them on Ivy.
Rath’s heart froze in his chest.
“I was wrong… the way to make you suffer...” The male slid his gaze towards Rath. “I’ll take everything you love from you and then I’ll put you in a cage to rot.”
Alexander’s finger squeezed the trigger.
Rath roared as he kicked off, sailed through the air as Ivy gasped and recoiled, trying to flee, and grunted as the bullet meant for her tore into his right shoulder. He hit the grass hard, tumbled across it as the fiery heat that ripped through him forced him to shift back, and landed face down, breathing hard as agony rolled through him, the pain so intense that he couldn’t move.
He had to move.
Ivy was still in danger.
He heard Storm growl and Alexander grunt as his brother attacked him, and pushed his hands into the grass, forced himself to move so he could help his brother protect Ivy.
He wouldn’t fail her.
The urge was strong, had him moving despite the debilitating pain that screamed through him with every flex of his right arm. He snarled as he lumbered onto his feet and twisted towards Alexander where he was backing away from Storm, struggling to evade his brother’s swipes of his claws as Storm hissed and growled at him, and sprang away whenever Alexander opened fire.
A hail of bullets forced Storm to leap further away, leaving Alexander a clear path to Ivy.
The bastard raised his gun and aimed it at her again, his grin cold as she shook her head, her fear hitting Rath hard.
He squeezed the trigger again.
The gun just clicked.
Alexander looked down at it, his eyes slowly widening.
Rath roared as he barrelled into him and slammed him into the ground, sending the gun clattering across the grass as it tumbled from his grip. He snarled as he pinned Alexander beneath him and smashed his right fist into the bastard’s face, knocking his head to his left. Satisfaction rolled through him as the male grunted, blood coating his lower lip, and he struck him again, and again, his fury getting the better of him.
When the male went still, he sagged forwards and breathed hard, blood streaming down his right arm, the pain returning as his anger faded and the knowledge that Ivy was safe washed through him, easing the hold his instincts had on him.
He wavered and lumbered onto his feet, staggered back a few steps as he clutched his arm, his heart racing and breath sawing from his lips.
“What do you want me to do with this?” Storm’s deep voice rolled over him, had him lifting his head and trying to focus on him as his brother moved on the edge of his vision.
A slim blonde dressed in a grey pencil skirt and white blouse hung from Storm’s hand, his grip on her arm so tight the skin around his fingers had blanched.
“Lock her in one of the cabins until we can question her.” Rath’s words came out slurred and he frowned as the world around him wobbled.
“Rath?” Ivy’s soft voice came from his left, a soothing balm in his ringing ears.
He looked at her.
And passed out.
CHAPTER 14
Things had taken a turn towards crazy.
But as Rath went down, the fact he wasn’t human, the shocking revelation that he could shift into a wild animal, and the knowledge he’d had a wife once and had lost her and part of his family to humans who wanted to hunt him and hurt him, didn’t matter.
All that mattered was saving him.
Ivy sank to her knees beside him on the torn up grass, pulled him onto his back and gasped at the sight of him. Blood drenched his right side, leaking from a hole in his shoulder.
“Rath,” she breathed, patted his cheek and tried to rouse him, but he remained deathly still.
Everything Yasmin had taught her leaped to the front of her mind and she automatically removed her hoody, bundled it up and pressed it to the wound to stem the flow of blood. Her friend had trained her in tackling most injuries, wanting her to be prepared and know how to deal with them should she injure herself while alone in the wilderness. She doubted Yasmin had been expecting her to use that knowledge on another.
On a man who could change into a cougar.
She kept pressure on the wound as she scanned the full length of his body, searching for any other injuries that might place him in danger. There were only cuts and bruises. She looked back at her bloodied hands where they pressed into the dark fabric, and then at his face. He was pale, beads of sweat dotting his brow, his lips slack.
Fuck, he looked like death and she hated it.
“Come on, Rath,” she murmured and pressed the fingers of her free hand to his throat, heart pounding a sickening rhythm against her chest, her breath seizing in her lungs as she searched him for a sign of life.
Time seemed to stretch into an eternity before she finally found a pulse.
It was strong.
Fast.
“Motherfucker.” Storm’s deep voice made her jump, and she swiftly twisted to face him.
He had transformed into a cougar too, and had been as naked as a jaybird when he had walked away with a stunned blonde in tow, obeying his brother’s command. Thankfully, he’d had the decency to put his trousers back on at least.
He crouched beside Rath, a wealth of concern in his grey eyes.
Eyes that matched Rath’s so perfectly it brought tears to hers.
The fear she had been fighting pressed down on her. Not fear of Rath, or what he and his brother were, but fear that she was going to lose him.
Part of her felt she should be afraid of him, but she felt as drawn to him now as she had been before she had discovered he wasn’t like her.
She still couldn’t believe he could transform into a cougar.
Or the fact he had protected her, had saved her life by taking a bullet for her and had killed Alexander.
Ivy looked across at Alexander as Storm went into action, hauling his brother into his arms and over his shoulder, his words lost on her as she stared at the bastard who had come here to hurt them.
Kill them.
Her gut twisted as she looked at his body.
She was sure she should have been shocked or horrified by what Rath had done to him too, should feel bad about it, guilty for her part in it, but it had been him or them, and all she felt was relieved that he was dead.
“Ivy,” Storm snapped, dragging her back to him. “I’m going to need your help.”
She nodded, pushed onto her feet and clutched her soiled hoody to her chest as she followed Storm to Rath’s cabin, trying to shut out the ache in her temple as it began to build again, reminding her that Rath wasn’t the only one who had been injured. Her own wound could wait. Rath came first.
Storm set his brother down on the wooden floor and she stared down at Rath as he went into the bathroom.
When he emerged and dumped several white towels, bandages and other items next to his brother, she startled from her stupor and pushed away from her fear.
She wasn’t going to lose Rath.
She moved to his right side, nudging his brother aside, and dropped to her knees. Her hand slipped on the fresh blood on Rath’s shoulder when she tried to lift him, his dead weight working against her.
Storm crouched and grabbed his brother, lifting him for her, and she thanked him with a nod, and peered beneath Rath’s shoulder.
“No exit wound.” She tried to remember what Yasmin had told her about treating bullet wounds, and wished her friend was here with her now, because she was sure Yasmin could handle this without breaking a sweat, would have Rath patched up and back on his feet in no time.
“We need to get the bullet out.” Storm waited for her to place a folded towel beneath Rath’s shoulder before lowering his brother onto it.
He straightened, stepped over his brother’s head, and rifled through the drawers in the kitchen in front of her. A knife flashed in his hand when he turned to face her and her stomach lu
rched.
She must have paled, because Storm smiled tightly.
“We just need to open the wound a little.” He kneeled beside his brother’s head and glanced at her, concern lighting his grey eyes, making them more blue. “I hope you have a strong stomach.”
Those words told her what he wouldn’t, revealed her purpose to her and she swallowed hard, bracing herself against what she was about to do.
“I don’t have anything else we can use.” Storm’s voice dripped with an apology.
Ivy shook her head. “It’s fine. I can do it. Yasmin showed me what to do.”
Although, the thought of sticking her fingers into Rath’s wound and seeking the bullet had her stomach churning and bile rising up her throat.
“I’ll have to thank this Yasmin sometime.” Storm gave her another tight smile and then his handsome face shifted into a pained grimace as he looked at his brother. “I fucking hope you stay unconscious for this… and I’m sorry.”
Ivy looked away the moment the knife pierced the wound, covered her mouth as the scent of blood in the air grew thicker, and her mind filled with images of Storm cutting his brother, not letting her escape the gruesome sight.
Storm dropped the knife and pressed a towel to the wound, muttering dark things to himself.
She drew down several deep breaths, dragging her courage a little higher with each one, feeling Storm’s eyes on her as he waited.
Ivy nodded.
He moved.
She glanced at Rath, just enough to make sure her fingers hit their target, and balked as slick heat surrounded them, his flesh giving way as she pressed her fingers into the wound.
“Breathe,” she whispered to herself, swallowed and closed her eyes, pressed deeper and ignored how her stomach lurched when a wet sucking sound broke the silence.
She was going to throw up.
“You’re doing great,” Storm murmured, voice soft and gentle, encouraging. “As soon as the bullet is out, he’ll be able to start healing the wound. He’ll heal fast, Ivy. You just need to get the bullet out.”
She nodded, sucked down another breath to stop herself from vomiting and probed deeper. Bile shot up her throat when she felt bone, the jagged end of it scraping her fingertip, and she braced her other hand against the floor, sure she would throw up this time.
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