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“We’re coming,” I whisper. I won’t lose another two sisters.
17
NOLAN
My wolf doesn’t want to leave our mate, not even to let her take flight above us. We need to keep her safe. Pushing faster through the woods, I let my beast side take control, our paws hitting the damp grass as if we can push off the patches like a springboard.
Smoke burns my nose and stings my eyes. The yellow of the mating bond gives way to the greys, blues, and blacks of the rest of the world. My view comes in wolf sharp with the bonus of my fox’s night vision.
While my human half worries about promotions and justice, my other half sticks to basic desires. We satisfied our mate, carry her scent and taste on us, and now we need to protect her at all costs. But she won’t leave her Fury sisters. So we run into danger instead of away. It’ll take both halves of me—the beast and the man—to sort through whatever lies ahead.
The underbrush parts around us, allowing my wolf to push faster while weaving between the trees. Things grow too quick, too big, too wild in Syn City. The immortals’ magic makes it a perfect playground for shifters if not for the deity daughter predators who don’t want us here as more than workers.
Faster, faster. I don’t need to glance up to know my mate’s above. The mating connection’s strong. Another orgasm, a bite, a commitment—and she’ll be ours forever.
One night. My beast wants to snarl at the ridiculous idea of less than life—this life since we missed our chance in her last. We won’t miss again.
Clearing the trees, I round the corner and charge into the Pleasure District. Scents of people, panic, sweat, and animals surround me. The cracks, pops, and hisses of fire fill the air.
Women with bows and arrows pull others from a burning building. They’re shouting—loud voices calling out. One aims her weapon at me, and I bunch my hind quarters to leap and attack. But my mate lands in front of us, dropping a basket that smells of herbs and my clothes to the ground. She spreads her wings, blocking my view of the others until I go around her. Holding an uncurled whip in one hand, she sinks the other into my fur, and I press close, shielding her as she defended me.
The woman yells at my mate, and I growl.
“People are trapped in the hotel,” Sadie says. Her attention focuses on the big building where I was chained days ago.
The top floor blazes. Glass explodes, the windows shattering and raining sharp, slicing bits toward us. My mate covers us with her wings. When she rises and shakes the shards to the ground, I advance toward the flames. Her Fury sisters pull crying people free from upper floors. Curtains ruffle out of busted glass and open holes into the night wind as if the building has taken on wings of its own.
Waves of fire rise along the brick, stone, and wood, sending pops of light and floating ash through the night sky. The bright clouds of earlier take on a sinister grey.
The grizzly braces a heavy load above his head, letting deity daughters and shifters escape beneath. The mountain lion slinks through, dragging a pup by its clothes. No, not a pup. A child. Another small human rides on his back. There are kids inside.
I growl at my mate to stay and run for the door, darting beneath the grizzly’s shaking limbs.
“No,” Sadie screams behind me, but I don’t turn back.
The ceiling is blinding with ribbons of fire flowing as fast as a river. The sizzle of heat makes my fur stand on end. With my snout to the ground, I follow the scent trails, pushing past the caustic explosive smells and sticking to the tracks of soap and snacks. A woman farther inside the hotel yells out names as if expecting pets to come running. Not pets. Kids. The hunch has me hurrying.
In what looks to be a café judging by the small round tables and spindly chairs that offset benches sturdy enough to hold shifters, I find the first kid cowering under a table.
“Puppy,” the toddler exclaims while clutching what looks to be a toy dog.
I crouch until the kid climbs on my back and crawl from table to table, following a scent trail of snot and yogurt to the next little one. Herding that one who holds onto my fur as if I’m her favorite stuffed animal, I keep going with the fire chasing us. More screams come from behind, but we can’t go back. So I push forward.
A column crashes to the ground, shaking the wooden floorboards beneath me, and still I go deeper into the terror. The shouting of names leads me to the kitchen, the scents of fear mixing with flowers and spices. A woman cradles a kid on her hip with two more hanging onto her legs.
“Oh thank goodness,” the woman in blue says and takes the children from me. A Nymph. She’s older than most on the team with more silver in her hair, but definitely a Nymph. “These two got away from me when the blast shook the room apart.”
A beam clatters behind me, fire running across the floor in a surge that has me scrambling away before my tail and the toddler on my back get caught in the flare. Flames surround us, blocking the way I came and cutting off the door. There’s no way out.
Lifting my muzzle toward the blaze, I howl long and loud. I call to my mate, letting her know everything I wanted between us.
All that could be.
All that should’ve been.
The smoke’s so thick I choke on it. My lungs swell as if they’ll burst, and the air’s too hot and heavy. My wolf might be out of ideas, but I’m not. I nudge the kids toward the Nymph, and coughing, I shift into human form. My sweaty skin sticks to the floor, and my body feels as though I weigh a thousand pounds when I push to a stand.
Searching for a fire extinguisher yields nothing so I turn the taps of the sink on high and aim the spray nozzle toward the flames while tugging to rip the damn faucet apart. Even when I pry the pipes loose, it’s like aiming a squirt gun at a forest fire.
