“For what?”
“For taking care of Bastien.” He forced his jaw to unlock for the rest, because as grateful as Riker was to Myne, he couldn’t completely get rid of his envy over Myne being there for Nicole. In Riker’s bed. “And for helping Nicole through her change.”
Finally, Myne’s gaze met Riker’s. “Nothing happened.”
“I know.”
“Yeah? Do you also know you’re a fucking idiot?”
Okaaay. “Is that a trick question?”
Myne blew out a frustrated breath and turned away again. “You need to mate her.”
“That decision is up to her.”
“Then make her choose you, because if you don’t make her yours, someone else will.” Riker went taut. “Meaning?”
“Dumbass,” Myne snapped. “Not me. I’ll never see her as anything but yours. But there are a lot of unmated males in the clan, and she’s . . .”
“Special. I know.”
Myne pivoted, very slowly. “Do you also know someone’s coming? Two people. Females or young males.”
Shit. Riker reached for a dagger as Myne palmed his twin swords out of the sheaths on his back. He heard the sound of two sets of feet pounding on the forest floor, and then, coming up fast, the rumble of dozens more feet.
He saw Nicole before she saw him. She was running, but the female with her, Aylin, he was sure, was slowing her down. He and Myne bolted toward them at a dead run. Nicole finally saw him, but as she screamed his name, she and Aylin were swarmed by ShadowSpawn warriors.
Rage shattered Riker’s ability to think about anything but protecting Nicole. Bellowing with f ry, he launched a blade, catching one of the enemy warriors in the throat. The guy went down hard, but three more replaced him. An arrow shot past Riker’s head. He ducked another as he raced toward the enemy line.
In the space of five seconds, he and Myne were engaged in battle, outnumbered, and balls-deep in trouble.
Nicole shouted his name, but it was barely out of her mouth when Aylin’s scream rang out. He couldn’t see the females, couldn’t help them, not when he was fighting five guys at once. He dodged and spun between the enemies, burying a dagger in one belly and then spinning and slashing chests and throats on the return. Blood spurted, some of it his as he took more than his share of damage.
A blow to the head made him see double, and as he wobbled on his axis, something sliced open his shoulder and sent him spinning into a tree. As a hatchet came at his head, he hit the ground and rolled.
He hunched down behind a stump to avoid another blow, and the hatchet sank into the tree with a dull thud that could have belonged to Riker’s skull.
As the hatchet wielder yanked the blade free of the wood, Riker exploded to his feet and threw a double tap to the male’s face, followed by a roundhouse kick to his gut. The guy dropped, but there were ten more warriors to take his place.
Suddenly, war cries filled the air, and in an instant, all but two of the ShadowSpawn males scattered, their focus on fresh targets.
Hunter and the rest of MoonBound’s warriors had arrived.
New energy hummed through Riker’s bones. He welcomed the adrenaline rush, welcomed the smell of blood, pain, and fear that fueled his desire to rip apart the males who were manhandling Nicole. Battle lust reduced him to a weapon of pure power as he fought his way toward the last place he’d seen Nicole, cutting through ShadowSpawn’s warriors with a dagger and throwing stars.
He caught sight of Nicole as she struggled against two males who were dragging her away from the battle.
He roared her name and hurtled over a fallen Shadow Spawn warrior, but as he landed, he took a blunt-force blow to his kidney. The impact made him stagger, and pain made him grunt in agony, but he kept going, never taking his eyes off Nicole.She cursed viciously and sank her fangs deep into one of the warriors’ biceps. He yelled as she shook her head like a dog with a rabbit, ripping his flesh from his bone. The other male with them brought his arm back, hand balled into a fist. Before it landed on Nicole’s jaw, Riker hit the guy from behind and brought him down in a tangle of limbs.
Riker took a solid punch to the face, but the other male was no match for Riker’s fangs. He sank them deep into the guy’s throat, clamped down hard, and tore the bastard’s carotid artery out of his neck.
“Rike—!”
At Nicole’s cutoff scream, Riker half scrambled, half spun off the spasming body of the dying vampire in time to see kars, his fist tangled in Nicole’s hair.
ShadowSpawn’s unholy leader shoved her to her knees and jammed a dagger against her throat. “Lay down your weapons!” he shouted. “Or the bitch dies.”#p#分页标题#e#