A single pine needle dropped to the dense forest floor, alerting my tigress to haul ass. I jerked out of the way, narrowly missing getting body-slammed by a clawed and hungry sadist. She landed in a crouch, thick, sharp nails out, and torn rags for clothing.
We circled each other, my growls challenging her hisses. My suspicions were verified. The bulging green fluid beneath her skin distorted her formerly slender features. Except traces of the once beautiful vampire still remained. Run a brush through the matted and bloodstained chestnut hair, throw on a powdered wig, slap on a long velvet robe, and voilà, all stand for Judge Sofia.
I shifted, hoping to surface behind her, but her heightened senses must have felt the gentle stir of the soil when my head broke through. She pounced on me. I allowed the momentum of the tackle to spin me so I ended up on top. We clawed and swatted each other, both of us vicious and screaming for blood. My beast matched her power almost equally. She would have been hard to take down, but then, I was no longer alone.
Koda, the red wolf, appeared, just behind a powerhouse gray wolf a good two hundred pounds bigger than my tigress. Aric made a gruff sound before he and Koda bit into Sofia’s upper arms and yanked hard. An oil spill of green fluid sprayed in their direction, yet their efforts seemed worth it. Bloodlust vampires were a hell of a lot easier to kill when they lacked limbs. I broke through Sofia’s chest at almost the same moment Aric severed her neck in a single bite.
The three of us shook off the ash that blinded us in a windstorm of decay. Aric approached me, nudging my nose with his.
I smiled as much as a tigress could. I’m all right, wolf.
The thought formed in my brain before I realized he wouldn’t be able to understand. Without thinking, I rubbed my face against his neck and purred, comforted by his strong presence. His warm fur slid like silk across mine. My God, I didn’t want to leave him.
Aric wagged his tail, melding his body against mine. His throat vibrated long and deep, releasing soft wolfish sounds that filled me with peace…until he licked a scratch on my face.
Holy…
The tingling warmth from his taste spread down my spine in a flash of searing heat, pounding my girl parts like the beat of native drums. My lids peeled back and so did his. Koda backed away into a white fir sapling in his haste to escape whatever the hell had ignited between Aric and me. Six hundred pounds of red beast scurried over the plantlet. It bent from his weight and rebounded back with a whoosh. He took off toward the house. I blinked at Aric’s stunned beast before chasing after Koda and passing him like my tail smoked with fire.
Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh…crap! Someone else’s baby daddy should not have had this effect on me. My muscles burned as they stretched the claw marks Sofia had dug into my skin. Aric’s…lick…caress…kiss—whatever it was pushed my beast to race faster than I had when I chased the judge.
I was less than a quarter mile from the house when I caught the scent of the wereraccoon who had rifled through our garbage a few weeks back. What the hell was he doing here? I roared. He jumped before changing and leaped through the trees like a flying squirrel.
Yeah. That’s right. Don’t piss off the angry tigress who wants to mount a wolf who knocked up someone else.
I slowed when I reached our back lawn. My sisters waited on the rear porch. Taran paced, rubbing blue and white flames between her palms. Shayna stood on one of the patio chairs with her new bow out and an arrow ready to fire. Emme remained tucked beneath the crook of Liam’s big shoulder. His amber eyes narrowed when he saw me. “Did you get her?” I nodded and leaped onto our wooden deck. “Are Koda and Aric behind you?”
I didn’t have to answer; Aric and Koda jetted across the lawn. Taran extinguished her fire and opened the back door for me. Emme followed behind me as I barreled up the stairs. As soon as she finished healing me, I rinsed the ash from my skin and rushed us downstairs. “Come on, Emme. I need to talk to Aric.”
All the wolves donned sweatpants. Aric and Koda stood at separate sinks wiping off the bloodlust goop with old towels.
“It was Judge Sofia.”
Aric stopped midwipe. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I recognized her scent first, then her face.”
Koda swore.
Taran moved over to Emme. “I can see that.” She drummed her nails nervously against the granite counter. “She wanted Emme back in vamp court; of course her hunger would make her want her even more now.”
Liam pulled Emme closer and growled. “They can’t have her.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Aric folded his arms. “Bloodlusters seek large clusters of humans to feed their hunger. She could have targeted any of the bigger communities in the area instead. Why come here specifically for Emme?”