Page 56 of Shifter Situations

We all sighed dramatically as Anna spoke. “You didn’t tell me you had a new girlfriend, Briggs.”

“I don’t tell you shit. We haven’t spoken in months.”

“Does she know all the filthy things we used to do together?” Anna’s eyes glittered as she stalked closer to Briggs. “Did she see all the pictures on your phone?”

“I tossed my phone out the window a couple of weeks ago. The guys had deleted everything for me before that, though.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. And rage coursed so heavily through our bond that I thought Anna had struck a nerve with Sloane, but the emotion was from Briggs.

Outwardly, he was calm. Internally, he was ready to lose his mind.

Anna had had such a tight grip on him in the past, twisting his feelings to make him think he was always in the wrong. Now she stood between him and his mate, trying to block his view of Sloane.

She rubbed the backside of her finger over his cheek. Fury like I’d never felt before swallowed us whole.

Sloane was at his side in the blink of an eye, and I finally understood that new power that Vaughn had been trying to describe.

Our mate snatched Anna’s hand back, bending her finger backward until her nail touched her wrist. The she-wolf shrieked, and Sloane smiled as her demon pushed to the surface.

Her voice was little more than a growl as she leaned into Anna’s face, nose-to-nose.

“Touch my mate again. I’ll break every bone in your body instead of just a finger. I’m patient, Anna. I’ll draw out the torture for eternity.”

“Bitch,” she groaned, gasping as she tried to pull her finger back into place.

“Thank you. That is my favorite term of endearment.”

As Anna stomped away, cradling her hand to her chest, Briggs leaned against the side of the truck. He scrubbed at his face erratically, and Sloane frowned at him as she approached.

She propped herself up beside him, bumping his shoulder with her own. He glanced at her between parted fingers, and she tilted her head toward the trees. He gave her a curt nod in reply, bending down to untie his boots.

They tossed their shoes and clothes in the cab of the truck as they stripped down to barely anything. Briggs shifted without a word to us, his black wolf hardly visible as he trotted to the wooded line at the edge of the clearing to wait for her.

Sloane smiled at us, saying, “We’ll meet you guys back at the cabin. Don’t separate. I don’t trust what’s-her-face not to come looking for any of you. Her mind wasn’t as clear as it should have been.”

She shifted into her gorgeous silver wolf, and as she joined Briggs, I realized how much they resembled the moon and the starless sky.

They disappeared into the trees, their tails the last thing we were able to see. I didn’t know what she planned to do to make this situation better, but killing Anna would more than likely solve it.

Or at least leave us one less stressor.

Maybe she wanted to make sure Briggs was okay, mentally and emotionally, before she hunted the she-wolf down?

I was ready to help her when that time came. We all were.

We’d done our best to shield him from her, but it was never enough. When I’d caught her cheating, we were able to break her hold over him. Even that hadn’t been an immediate release.

I knew he had feelings for Sloane and no positive feelings left for Anna. That wouldn’t keep her from fucking with his head, though. The she-wolf would pry her way into the smallest cracks in his mind.

Sloane wouldn’t let Anna get her claws in him again.

Anna would die before that ever happened.

Knowing our mate, the she-wolf would be dead before we left North Fork. The only question was how she would deliver her killing blow.

“What do ya think they’re doin’?” Palmer slurred.

Novak snorted, shoving the mage into the passenger seat of the truck.