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He whipped through brush and bounded around trees faster than he’d ever moved before, heedless of the branches and thorns slicing grooves in his side through his thick fur. Throwing caution aside, he leapt through the grasses bordering the road and landed in front of the car, scanning the area as he did.
There were four of them. Three surrounded the car, while the fourth held Marie with an arm banded around her waist. He had a knife to her throat.
He had a knife to her throat.
Ethan screamed with primal fury, his panther nearly insane with a murderous rage. But he stopped where he was when the bastard pressed the tip of the knife into Marie’s tender flesh. Blood trickled down her neck, and Ethan swore he would exact vengeance upon them for every drop of it.
Every single drop.
The man holding her stared at Ethan and smiled. “Stay right where you are, Ethan. You wouldn’t want my knife hand to get slippery and press harder into her neck, would you?”
Ethan snarled again but held his position. He was fast, but not fast enough to get to them before that knife would slice through Marie’s carotid artery. She stared at him, fear and helpless anger on her face, and he wanted to kill them all for causing it. His panther wanted to rip their heads from their bodies and eat their hearts.
But then Marie would look at him with that same terrified expression.
He shunted the thought to the side. Focus. Get her to safety and then worry about the rest.
The man nodded. “Good boy. And I know it’s you, so why don’t we dispense with the bullshit and you shift back into your human shape, Ethan. We have a little business to discuss.”
Ethan knew that what little advantage he held in panther form was destroyed by the point of that knife against Marie’s neck. He instantly shimmered into the shape change and stood before them, fully dressed, in his human form seconds later.
The man whistled. “Very nice. Fallon told me you were the fastest at the change of any shape-shifter she’d ever met. Even faster than me, I’ll give you that. But not by much.”
The connection clicked in Ethan’s mind. “Fallon. That’s why your scents are so familiar. You’re Fallon’s pride-brothers.”
“Ding, ding, ding. Two points for the former alpha of the Big Cypress pride. I’m Travis, and I owe you blood feud for allowing Fallon to die,” Travis snarled.
Ethan inclined his head. “It is your right. She was under my protection when she died at the vampire’s hand, and I take full responsibility. But this woman has nothing to do with any of it. She is merely a visitor who arrived today.”
The three men surrounding the car had been edging their way toward Travis and now stood fanned out in a loose semicircle around him, staring at Ethan.
Travis laughed, the sound a chilling mockery devoid of humor. “You lie. I can smell you on her. You’re fucking her, aren’t you? How does it feel to know somebody you care about is hurting? That she might die?”
Marie started to speak. “You gain nothing by threatening me. He spoke the truth. I—”
Travis dug the point of the knife further into her throat, and she broke off with a strangled moan. Ethan roared out his fury and started toward them, but the three thugs blocked him from Travis.
Travis shouted his command. “Stop or I’ll kill her now. Just like I killed your precious panthers. Did you get my message? Or, wait, was it my half-dozen messages, delivered in the form of dead cats?” His chilling laughter rang out, and Ethan noticed that even Travis’s henchmen shuddered. A panther shifter who could murder cats of his own kind was worse than the lowest kind of scum.
Ethan froze, gaze locked on the knife point where it was sunk into Marie’s skin. “What do you want, Travis? Tell me now, and leave the woman alone.”
“I want you, alpha,” Travis said. “I call blood feud and alpha challenge upon you. Tomorrow night, under the full moon, we
will battle for your title, your lands, and your pride. Dare you to refuse?”
Ethan stared at the Texas shape-shifter, assessing strengths and weaknesses. There was no option. Alpha challenge could never be refused. But if Travis harmed Marie any further, Ethan would kill him now.
He’d kill them all. Four to one was just another way to say good odds to an alpha who’d been trained by the best.
“I accept your alpha challenge, Travis, pride-brother to Fallon,” he said in the formal words of acceptance. “The blood feud will resolve itself at the challenge. Now let the woman go.”
Travis moved the knife away from Marie’s throat and shoved her at Ethan so hard that she fell, then signaled to his men and turned to run. “Enjoy your woman and your land while you can,” Travis shouted. “In twenty-four hours, they will all be mine.”
Ethan leapt the distance to Marie, lifted her off the ground, and cradled her in his arms. “How badly did he hurt you? Your neck, your hands, and your knees are bleeding. He’s going to die painfully for this, I swear to you,” he vowed, his hands almost compulsively clutching her to him.
“Ethan, please. It is not…I am not severely injured. Merely surface wounds. But I would like to return to the cabin, if you do not mind.” She was trying so hard to be brave for him, he could tell, but her breath caught in a hitching sob at the end of her sentence. She pressed her face into his chest, and he felt something cold and hard in his heart soften even while rage pounded through him.
Protective instincts far older and more primitive than any he’d ever known, even in his role as alpha, swamped him. He would protect this woman, no matter the cost. His cat snarled its agreement inside him, roaring out its claim. Marie was theirs to protect.
