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Almost there. Come on.
A question suddenly occurred to her: a question that was answered at the same moment it was asked.
The question:
Who set off the mist?
The answer:
Oh. That crocodile that’s sitting on that balcony directly above me. Not really a crocodile, I suppose. More like ‘that crocodile shifter’.
That crocodile shifter that’s now falling through the air directly above me.
Oh hey, it’s a mekosuchine. Cool. Huge prehistoric crocodile that attacks its prey from above. Those haven’t been around for about… oh, a few thousand years or so.
The part of Tahnee that was an expert on extinct shifters was thrilled to see a shifter type she’d never seen before. The part of her that didn’t want to get squashed and/or eaten by a drop croc, however, was less sanguine about the situation.
She stared at it as it fell, its cold reptilian eyes holding her gaze with an inhuman force, its abundant teeth seeming to bare themselves in a very human, very unsettling grin. Tahnee didn’t know whether it had hypnotic powers or whether she was just paralyzed with fear, but either way, she couldn’t move.
At all.
It felt like she stood there watching it fall for an eternity, but it must’ve only been a split second.
And then its weight drove her into the cold, hard ground, and she didn’t feel anything at all.
Chapter 3
Our mate. Our mate!!
Robb couldn’t be sure if the words were his, or the dingo’s – honestly, it was probably both.
Either way, he didn’t care. All he knew was that his mate was in danger, and his body – previously fighting just to breathe and stay conscious – was suddenly propelling itself down the alleyway with a ferocity that he wouldn’t have believed possible just a moment ago.
On some subconscious level, he was aware that he couldn’t shift, and that his dingo was howling in rage at being denied, but the pure strength of the mate bond, pushed down and denied for so many years, was now surging to the surface with an absolute fury, bypassing his straining lungs and foggy brain with a singlemindedness that was almost blinding.
Through the swirling yellow fog and pouring rain, he could see Tahnee staring upwards in horror, frozen in place, as what looked like some sort of crocodile-dinosaur hybrid plummeted down towards her from a balcony railing.
The absurdity of what he was seeing barely even registered – after all, he’d seen far stranger things over the course of his career. The only thing going through his mind was Get her out of here. Now.
He sprang forward, his feet leaving the ground – and then he twisted at the last possible moment, grabbing Tahnee and pulling her close to his body even as he felt the crocodile’s claws tearing at his shoulder. He caught the briefest glimpse of Tahnee’s shocked face before it disappeared beneath the protection of his arm, and he tucked her even tighter against him, trying to soften the inevitable blow as they hit the stony ground.
They landed with a thud that drove the last of the air from Robb’s lungs, and he held on to Tahnee for as long as possible as they tumbled over the ground, the pain of the stones thudding against his flesh barely noticeable against the electric thrill of the mate bond where their skin was touching – and Robb knew, with a certainty that he’d never felt before, that there was no going back.
He wasn’t going to be able to just walk away from his mate this time. Not again.
The two of them skidded to an undignified stop, gasping for breath, Tahnee still held tight in Robb’s arms. He wanted nothing more than to stop and check if she was okay, to hold her like this forever – but they were far from out of danger.
He jumped up into a crouch, pushing Tahnee behind himself instinctively, to find himself face to face with the snapping jaws of the weirdest-looking croc he’d ever seen. Whatever kind of crocodile it was, it wasn’t native to Australia… or, at the very least, it definitely wasn’t something that belonged to the modern era. Either way, it was definitely a much bigger threat than Lachie and his tower of empty beer cans back up in Darwin.
His dingo snarled, pulling back its lips and baring its teeth.
Whatever it is, it will be no match for us!
And in that moment, Robb could believe the dingo’s determination – but it wouldn’t do him much good, considering he couldn’t shift.
The croc wasn’t giving off any shifter vibes… but, given that Robb couldn’t access his dingo form just now, he had to work under the assumption that the yellow gas that had filled the alley was blocking both his shifting abilities and his ability to detect other shifters. After all, there was plenty of tech out there that could mess with shifter abilities, and much of it came from Hargreaves’s own labs. The chances of Hargreaves being involved in whatever the hell this was were pretty damn high.
The gas was starting to lighten a little, making it easier to breathe, but it was still enough to scratch at his lungs.
