by T. S. Joyce
He eased back and searched her eyes. His face was cast in highlights and blue shadows from the moon hanging low in the sky behind her. As she ran her knuckles gently against his dark beard, he parted his lips to say something, but his attention flickered to something behind her. Jathan’s entire body went rigid, and shock filled his blazing green eyes.
Chills rippled across her skin as she turned slowly to see what had him so enthralled. Through the drops of rain racing down the front window, twenty yards off, a silverback gorilla stalked slowly through the woods in the direction of Jessies Brewskies, eyes intent on the town lights through the trees. Behind him a female gorilla was walking on all fours in the same direction. And behind her? A fully mature male lion. And another. And another. The woods came alive with movement.
“What the fuck?” Lynn whispered on a horrified breath.
Jathan pulled the seat lever and yanked her down on top of him so fast she gasped. They lay flat in his truck, her face pressed against his neck, her body trembling in fear.
“They’re going after Red Havoc,” she breathed against his ear. “In public. Why?”
“Because then no one can help your crew.” Jathan’s voice was so soft it was barely a breeze against her eardrum. He was texting with one hand, the glow of the screen lighting up the interior of his truck. That glow was going to get them busted, but Jathan whispered, “I didn’t come alone.”
When Lynn looked at his phone, the person he was texting was listed as The Blue Dragon.
His grip tightened on her hair as something bumped the truck.
In a whisper, he said against her ear, “The shifters of Damon’s Mountains can’t help if this war is public. Everyone would recognize them.”
Something bumped the truck harder.
Blink.
“Lynn, not yet. We have to get Red Havoc to the woods. Don’t. Change. Yet.”
Blink.
Jathan’s grip tightened around her. “Wait.”
The truck rocked up on two wheels and glass shattered inward with a deafening crash. A meaty hand gripped her arm, and Lynn screamed as she was yanked away from Jathan by a massive gorilla. Window glass cut her thigh as she was pulled through the opening, and the pain was instant. She was flying through the air, thrown by the silverback, and didn’t even have enough time to call Monster. She was shocked. She was going to hit the fence and then the ground, but right before impact, a massive, tattooed arm snaked out and hooked her around the waist, cushioning her. She still fell, but it wasn’t like it would’ve been.
Jathan was scary-fast and had gotten to her. He stood in front of her, facing off with three gorillas—the silverback and two females. Two lionesses were also slinking this way. They were two against an army of mixed shifters, who had clearly become allies against Red Havoc—lions and gorillas, warring together for the first time in shifter history.
Jathan looked like a damn beast in the moonlight, body tensed and puffed up, a snarl rattling from his chest as he eased her toward the fence.
“Lynn, don’t Change until you get to the bar. You need to get Red Havoc to the woods so Damon can help them.”
“What will you do?” Damn her voice as it shook like a dry leaf in autumn.
“I’m gonna buy you time.”
“But there’s too many,” she whispered in terror.
He gave her a fiery glance over his shoulder. “Get to Greyson. Run, Lynn.” And then an enormous bruin grizzly exploded from his body with a force so big, she was thrown into the chain-link fence.
A snarl sounded behind her, and she turned just in time to see a lion running straight for her from the other side of the fence. With a shriek, she pushed off it, just as Jathan charged the silverbacks. The force of them hitting each other reverberated through her chest, and for one terror-filled moment, she watched the violence Jathan was capable of. He really was Monster, just like her. He ripped and shredded the gorillas with teeth and claws, and as much as she wanted to stay here and make sure he finished them, he’d asked her to run. To find Greyson.
She forced her legs to move, and in the woods near her, the two lionesses pulled their focus from Jathan’s fight and arched it to her. Fuck, she was giving them a perfect target on her back as she ran.
Monster snarled inside of her.
“Not yet,” she whispered, pushing her legs harder and harder. Jathan was right. If she Changed now, Monster would turn around and fight every last shifter coming for her. She wouldn’t be able to tell the crew they could get help if they made it to the woods. She wouldn’t be there for Grey and whatever was happening inside the bar right now.
Fuck! Dunn lions? Cold Mountain Pride? Gorillas? There were so many, all allied with the sole purpose of snuffing her crew from the history books. Red Havoc had made lethal enemies.
She could feel them behind her now, hear them growling and panting. The hairs lifted on her body. At the last second, she pulled off sharply to the right. One of the lionesses had been mid-leap and went flying into an oak, but one of them skidded through the dry leaves on the ground and kept coming.
Almost to the street!
Now! Monster growled louder inside of her. Blink.
“Not yet!”
There was chaos in the parking lot of Jessie’s, and smoke billowed from one side of the bar. Lion’s and gorillas were everywhere, focused on something happening on the side of the building. A panther screamed. Fuck, that was Barret. Another screamed, and a bear roared. Jaxon. Behind her, another roar bellowed, answering his twin. Jathan.
Fury boiled in her blood, tinging her vision with red. Blink.
“Not. Yet.”
She could see them now. There was a crowd around her crew, so many lions, so many gorillas. Humans were scattering in the parking lot and street like roaches running from the sunlight. The air was filled with screaming.
Now? For fuck’s sake now, or we’ll lose them!
“Not. Fucking. Yet,” Lynn gritted out.
She shoved between two female gorillas who were set to pound their fists onto Jaxon’s grizzly. Lynn ducked under his belly just as he reared back and raked his powerful claw against the arm of one of the gorillas. The war had already started, and Red Havoc was locked in battle with every shifter that could reach them. Her crew was losing. Bleeding. Eden was swooping down and clawing at faces, trying to give them relief. Kaylee’s lioness was brawling with two male lions, and She-Devil had gone straight murder-cat on two lionesses already, but had three more on her now. Greyson. Where the fuck was Greyson? There. He was off to the side. He’d been hunted and separated. He was clear on the other side of the parking lot, his panther brawling, but being dragged and herded by four gorillas.
“Get to the woods!” she screamed as a lioness closed in on her race toward Greyson. “We’ll have help if we get to the woods!” God, let her crew have heard her desperate instruction. Let Greyson have heard her.
The lioness was on her.
Now? Monster screamed in her middle.
Lynn pumped her fists and zeroed in on the silverback about to batter Greyson with his fists.
“Now.”
Blink. No time was lost.
Pain ripped through her as Monster took over her body. Black fur, lithe body, teeth and claws. She had weapons now. Weapons she was going to use to maim every fucking one of these assholes who were hurting her crew. Who were hurting Jathan.
She hit the ground on all fours and ducked the lioness, gave that bitch her back as she slammed into the silverback just as he was blasting his fists down on Greyson. Pain clawed down her side, and she sank her teeth into the gorilla’s throat. The silverback gripped her neck and went to fling her away, but she’d hit his kill spot. He was already dead, and he didn’t even know it. She pushed off him—ripping with her teeth. The ripper. She was the badass. There were so many she lost track. She sliced and clawed and bit and spun and attacked, kept those mother fuckers off her alpha as he waged war on so many. Soooo many. Grey was a war machine. She was a w
ar machine. Eden was helping. She was dive-bombing the masses that kept coming. Through the haze, she could hear panther screams. They were closer to the woods, crossing the street and heading for the trees. They were calling her and Grey, but it was too hard to get away. Lynn and her alpha were being pushed toward the burning bar.
Grey was fighting two males now. She didn’t recognize them, but they had to be Dunn lions. They were massive with black manes, a Dunn trait. A female gorilla rushed her, but Lynn’s leg was stuck in the pile of bodies she’d tried to step over. Panicking, she pulled her leg, but it was stuck like cement. Shit! She hunched just as the gorilla came flying through the air, and time slowed. Lynn screamed, promising death if the gorilla touched her. Greyson’s panther screamed in pain behind her. The gorilla was in the air, arms out, silver eyes intent on her, black lips pulled back, baring long canines that would puncture Lynn’s body in a matter of moments.
And then something monstrous came out of the sky, straight down at them, with such power, Lynn was blasted backward, twisting her back leg painfully. All she saw were red belly scales as the wind from the dragon’s wings flattened her against the concrete and stole the air from her lungs. His enormous claws raked the concrete beside Lynn and Greyson as he picked up the two Dunn lions and the gorilla in an instant. With a powerful beat of his wings, the red dragon, Vyr, son of Damon, arched his back and pushed off the ground, creating and earthquake as he aimed for the sky.
The silverback and the two Dunns were gone, and no fire filled the air above them, raining ashes and an arc of burning magma. Vyr wasn’t minding Damon’s rules to not be seen in a war. There would be video footage of this, but the red dragon apparently gave zero shits about that. And when Lynn eased her throbbing leg out from between the two lion bodies, she looked up to see Nox’s blond grizzly and Torren’s green-eyed silverback mauling a pair of gorilla shifters. If they didn’t die in this battle, Damon Daye was going to filet them.
A firm swat on her rump pulled her attention to Greyson, who was urging her forward. Fire blasted down through the parking lot, lighting up cars and causing a new wave of screams from crowds of running humans. Vyr wasn’t a careful dragon, and as important as it was to get to the woods to get help from ally shifters, it was equally important to get as far away from Vyr’s fire as possible. He would char them alive and lose zero sleep over the mistake. That dragon was fucking terrifying.
Lynn bolted after Greyson as best as she could, ignoring the pain of her back leg and the claw marks that crisscrossed her body. How long had they been fighting? It felt like hours. She was exhausted, but fueled by adrenaline. How badly was Greyson hurt? He was running in front of her, not favoring injuries, but his coat was matted and he smelled of blood. A lot of blood. Too much. Fuck. She knew why he was important. The crew had almost folded losing her, and who was she? Bottom of the crew. If Red Havoc lost its alpha right now, right when it was crippled from losing Brody, and almost her, and with power shifting from Ben to Grey, they would all go crazy, just like her. It would be too much.
Greyson made it to the street, aiming for the woods beyond, but when he reached the solid white line, right in the center of the road, he was hit hard by a Dunn. There were so many enemy shifters cluttering the street and woods beyond. There had to be fifty lions and gorillas. Fifty against one crew. She hated them. Hated them.
Lynn leapt onto the lion’s back and sank her teeth into his neck. His mane was thick, and made it harder to hurt him fatally. This lion was the biggest she’d ever seen. He was easily three times her size. Black Dunn mane, and he reeked of a dominance so potent she choked on it. Couldn’t breathe! He had his teeth on Grey’s neck though. Her alpha was brawling, but the Dunn lion had to be on his neck. A kill bite. Fuck, fuck, fuck, she needed to end this before the alpha of the Dunn’s ended Greyson. He was pinned under the weight of the lion, and though he was clawing like some demon escaping hell and doing damage to the lion’s stomach, ribs, and face, it wasn’t enough.
“Be the ripper,” Beaston demanded, his powerful voice echoing over the screams and chaos.
Beaston?
He stood at the edge of the woods, green eyes blazing, hands behind his back, chin held high. “You are exactly as you’re supposed to be.”
She needed to be Lynn, but she also needed to be Monster.
In desperation, she blinked.
And time was lost.
Chapter Eighteen
Jathan saw her. She was running after Grey, covering her alpha as he tried to get to the woods. She’d made it to him, told him what he needed to do, and now she was protecting his weak side.
Grey was hurt. It was bad. Jathan could see the Dunn alpha coming for him, right in the middle of the street, but he couldn’t get to them fast enough. He charged from the forest, desperate to reach the two panthers, but just as the Dunn alpha had slammed into Grey, Beaston stood in front of him, appearing out of nowhere like a ghost, hands out. He didn’t say anything, just stood there, blocking Jathan.
Behind him, the woods came alive. The trees came alive with snowy owls, falcons, and ravens. Bears, tigers, gorillas, and boars stepped out of the shadows, and the chaos died down around them. Above, the wind was a hurricane with the beating of dragons’ wings. Not just Vyr either. The blue dragon was in the sky, ready to rain hell down on the Dunns and the gorillas. Damon was here, out in the open. More circled, blocking out the clouds. Dark Kane, the monstrous black dragon, the End of Days was here, which meant his Blackwing crew was in the woods behind them. Two smaller green dragons flew together, one right above the other—Diem and her daughter, Harper, alpha of the Bloodrunner Crew. Holy shit. Damon and Beaston had gathered everyone, just in case.
The second Lynn leapt onto the back of that massive Dunn alpha, all Jathan wanted to do was protect her. But Beaston had given him a warning look and turned to Lynn. He called out for her to be the ripper. He told her she was exactly as she was supposed to be.
Her eyes had trained on Beaston, and then a moment later, they’d gone dead. Lynn had disappeared. In her place, only Monster remained. And even Jathan winced as she clamped down and bit through the spine of the Dunn alpha. The beast jerked under her, then released Grey’s neck and slumped over.
Monster didn’t let go. She crouched defensively by her kill.
Jathan tucked his bear back into his body and gasped at the pain of the claw marks that covered him. He was exhausted, barely able to stand, but he stumbled to her. Rain pouring down from the storm clouds above, he stood there watching the shifter he loved fulfill what she was born to do.
Genevieve, Greyson’s mate, was human again, yelling in a voice too loud because she was deaf and couldn’t hear herself. She was pressing her hands against her mate’s throat as he lay there in the street. Tendrils of red streamed slowly away from his body, mixing with the rainwater. He panted, his throat gurgling, and Gen was crying, sobbing, begging help. Jathan stepped forward to assist, but Annalise was suddenly there, and Kaylee. Jathan was numb. He couldn’t understand the words they were yelling as the Red Havoc Crew surrounded their alpha, trying to save him. All but Lynn, who stared vacantly at Jathan, her teeth clamped onto the lion’s neck, her face buried in his thick mane. Her gold eyes were like Vyr’s fire, daring him to take her kill.
Such a feeling of déjà vu hit him as he looked down at his ruined torso to the pink that streamed down his wet body. This was exactly as Beaston had described in his vision.
Around them, the remaining Dunns and gorillas were fleeing. Probably thanks to all the shifters from Damon’s Mountains, Harper’s Mountains, and Kane’s Mountains melting out of the woods. On the other side of the street, a few brave humans remained, phones pointed at them, taking video. The fallout from this would be awful, but he couldn’t worry about that now. They would have to face that hurdle when they got to it.
Right now, all he cared about was getting Lynn back.
He knelt in front of her and whispered, “Medusa.”
Nothin
g. Still, she stared vacantly back.
“Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
Swallowing hard, he whispered, “Lynn, you did it. You became the badass.” He smiled proudly at her. “I love you.”
She blinked slowly, and her pupils constricted, focusing on him. In an instant, she released the lion, looking startled. Crouching on her belly, she backed off a few quick steps and looked around. Her gaze paused on the burning bar, on the demolished cars in the parking lot. On the scorched earth, and the humans across the street with their camera phones pointed at her. On the woods with all the shifters staring back at her. To the dragons in the sky. Beaston. Her crew working on Greyson. And finally back to Jathan.
Slowly, painfully slowly, she tucked Monster away, and then, naked and bleeding from the claw marks, she sat there on her folded knees. Her red hair was plastered to her face, and her eyes were still gold with tiny pupils. She snarled up her lip, his badass, and then she said in a hoarse voice, “Is it over?”
“The crew of two wars is the crew of two wars won,” Beaston said. “It’s over.”
Lynn deflated, as though completely drained, and Jathan rushed to catch her before she hit the pavement. He hugged her close to his body and wished to God he could take her pain into him.
“Jathan?” she murmured, eyes on her crew working frantically on Greyson. “If Grey doesn’t make it—”
“He will.”
“If he doesn’t, we won’t be okay.”
Jathan leaned down and kissed her gently. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded, eyes full of emotion as she opened them.
“Everything will be okay. Are you still here with me?”
Lynn blinked slowly but opened her eyes and focused on him again. With the tiniest smile pulling at the corner of her lips, she whispered, “Yeah, I’m still here.”