Pride (Shifters #3)(75)

I drove them both to the ground on the upward slant of the hill, Kaci pinned beneath Radley. It was the only way I could think of to keep him from using her as a hostage—I’d been in that position, and didn’t want to put her in it.
My jaws closed over the back of Radley’s neck. My teeth broke his skin. Blood trickled slowly into my mouth. I didn’t want to kill him until she was free, so my bite was mostly a warning. Still, his blood sent adrenaline rushing through my veins, demanding I finish it. That I taste the blood of my enemy: a victor’s right.
Instead, I planted my paws in the dirt on either side of them both and pulled Radley backward by his neck, lifting him several inches off of Kaci.
She didn’t move—apparently too scared to realize what had happened. I whined, and felt her squirm beneath us. Then she scrambled into motion, crawling out from under him in a series of short, panicked movements. Finally free, she scooted up the hill on her rear, staring at us both in horror. There was no recognition in her eyes. She’d never seen me in cat form and clearly didn’t realize her nose worked in human form, too. She had no idea who I was.
Eyes wide in terror, she turned away from us both. Then she ran—again, and I could do nothing but watch her go.
“Please…” Radley begged beneath me. And I hesitated, because Kaci was free and I was in no danger. I could hold him until someone else arrived—and surely the cavalry would show up any minute. They would probably want to talk to him.
I shifted, tightening my grip on Radley’s neck as I settled onto my stomach on his back. I would wait.
I inhaled through my open mouth, listening as Kaci’s footsteps echoed off to the west. Radley squirmed beneath me, and I growled, warning him to hold still. Then I heard a metallic click, completely out of place in the woods.
What the hell?
Pain lanced my right side and shot through my hip. My heart tripped in panic. Then understanding bit me just as deeply as the pain. The son of a bitch had a knife. He’d fucking stabbed me!
I roared around his neck in pain and fury, and in response, someone shouted my name from the woods. “Faythe?”
It was Jace. Footsteps pounded the earth frantically, headed in my direction.
Radley pulled the knife free, and my teeth bit farther into his skin, my paws digging into the dirt on either side of him to hold him still. But then the bastard stabbed me again.
I moaned in fresh agony. Blood soaked through my fur, drenching the form beneath me. Pain ripped through my side with each heartbeat, echoing in the lacerations in my back and the vicious bite on my ankle. Panic edged up on me, burning beneath my fur like an electrical charge.
The bastard pulled the knife out again, and I screamed around his neck. If he hadn’t nicked any vital organs yet, he would soon, and I’d be dead. And he’d be gone long before the guys found us. The motherfucker would get away free and clear. 
The hell he will.
My jaws clenched around his neck. Blood flowed into my mouth. My teeth met bone. He thrashed beneath me. I bit as hard as I could, but breaking someone’s spine was harder than I expected; Marc made it look easy.
I concentrated, clenching my jaws so hard they ached. Radley bucked, and shoved the knife in one more time. My body jerked on top of his. Footsteps raced toward me from the trees, but I couldn’t hold on. My whole world was pain. Pain, and anger.
I seized the anger and forced my teeth together. Finally, bone snapped. Radley shuddered beneath me, then went still.
Fire licked at my side, burning deep within. I rolled off him onto my good side, and thought of nothing but breathing through the pain. Minutes later, Jace ran into sight, followed by Kaci and a handful of toms in cat form. He knelt at my side and pressed his shirt to my worst wounds, as Marc had done two days earlier.
I growled to tell him he was late, as usual, and to my surprise, he actually seemed to understand.
He smiled, even as his eyes watered. “Better late than never, right?”
Says the man who wasn’t used as a pincushion.
“Faythe?” Kaci knelt at my side, and her hand stroked my muzzle. “Is that you?” I nodded, and she sobbed. “You came for me. You didn’t let him take me.” She wrapped her arms around my chest and laid her head on my shoulder. “Thank you.”
Thirty-Four

“Hey,” Marc said, and I looked up to find him leaning against the door frame, a mug of coffee in one hand. He wore his leather jacket, even though a fire raged in the next room, heating the tiny cabin much more effectively than I would have thought possible. “How do you feel?”
“Like someone used me for target practice.”
He smiled and sat in the sturdy, knobby wooden chair by the bed. The chair was handmade by Elias Keller, as was the bed frame. The whole building, in fact. They’d carried me to Keller’s cabin because it was closer than ours, and the bruin had insisted I stay to recuperate. I think he liked having company, after fifty-odd years alone.
Which was why he’d invited Marc, too.
Instead of catching his flight the morning before, Marc had headed for Keller’s cabin. According to the bruin, he showed up on the doorstep with determination in his stride and desperation in his heart. He’d asked Keller’s permission to stay in the territory until my verdict and lightened sentence were official, to make sure I was safe.
Rather than simply granting him permission to camp in the woods, the bruin had insisted Marc stay on his couch.
Later that day, he’d loaned me his bed. And earned our Pride’s loyalty for life.
Marc set the mug on a small table made of a section of tree trunk polished to a smooth finish on top. “Doc says you should wait at least a week before Shifting again. Radley got you pretty good. It’s a miracle he didn’t hit anything vital.”
Yeah, that’s what it was. It was a miracle I’d “only” been stabbed in the hip and the side. It was a “blessing” the knife had nicked bone, rather than intestines, on the first plunge, then gone clean through muscle and skin and out the other side on the last two attempts to end my life. Really, I should have been grateful.
Marc smiled, as if he knew what I was thinking. Hell, he probably did.
Dr. Carver had also said my arm and ankle would probably scar, but I didn’t give a shit about that; I was just grateful there was no muscle damage. Besides, I didn’t know any enforcers without a couple of claw marks to show off. And now I had scars to match Marc’s.“How’s Ethan?” I asked, reaching for the mug.
Marc handed it to me before I could stretch far enough to hurt myself. “Heavily bandaged, lightly sedated and recovering nicely. His ribs look awful, but Doc says he’ll heal fine.”
“What about Kaci?” I hadn’t seen her since Carver shooed everyone out of the room so he could stitch me up.
Marc’s mouth turned up in a triumphant smile. “They’re going to send her home with you, when you go.”
“Really?” I grinned through the pain. That was too good to be true. “How did my dad manage that?”
“You play a pretty convincing hero.” He brushed a strand of hair back from my forehead and I treasured the touch, wishing it would linger. “You’ve made lots of progress with Kaci. And Malone saved face by pointing out that your mother will be there to bail you out if you screw up. She’s still well respected among the Alphas. Even by most of those who don’t like your dad.”
I nodded. My mom was strong, and Alphas respected strength. Especially in my mother, because she presented her strength all dolled up behind a dainty, well-appointed and feminine facade. She’d been playing the game for a long time, and she almost always won.
I was trying to learn from her, but my facade was nowhere near as shiny, and I was pretty damn disinclined to polish. Especially after such an obvious dig from Malone.
“Where is Kaci?”
“She’s asleep at the lodge. Jace is there, too. The only way we could get her to leave you was by promising Jace would stay with her.”
When Kaci had run from me and Radley, she’d run right into Jace and the other enforcers, who were following the sound of her screams. “What was he doing in human form?” I asked, letting the mug warm my hands. “I thought they all went out furry.”
“They did.” Marc picked up the old-fashioned alarm clock on the nightstand and fiddled with the dials to keep his hands busy. He was nervous about something. “When they got there, Radley’s hangout was empty. Jace Shifted and snagged some clothes one of the strays left behind, then headed for Keller’s. They were hoping he had a phone Jace could use to call the lodge. He wasn’t home, though.”
I shook my head, smiling at the memory of the bruin smacking a werecat hard enough to snap his neck. “No, he was with us.”
“I know. He went out to catch some fish for dinner, and caught the scent of several werecats near the stream instead. The trail led in this direction. So he Shifted and followed, just in case.”
“Where is he now?”
“Out hunting with Parker and Michael.”
The guys were hunting with a bruin? “No fair. I always miss the good stuff.” I took another sip from my mug, watching him. “What about the strays? Did we get them all?” 
A glimmer of true satisfaction shone momentarily through Marc’s melancholy. “You got one in the woods—two including Zeke Radley—and I finished off two of the three you and Ethan took on in the cabin. Keller got several more, and the other guys ferreted out the last two—we hope—shortly after they found you. It was a big mess, and a horrible waste of life. Such a shame, what Radley turned them into. But Keller should have some peace on his mountain now.”