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The moss beneath my paws has me skidding to a stop outside a brawl that seems to be shielded. It’s something magical, something primal, something my beast screams to avoid. I edge around it, sniffing the ground for signs of my mate. If she’s in the air, I can’t track her there, but down here, my animal side can follow any scent trail.
Movement in the water has me flattening my ears. Snakes hurry away from the shore, bobbing and coiling in a dash. I cringe. What makes water moccasins flee?
A sea hag swims this way, her stringy hair trailing behind her and her milky-white eyes staring into the distance. She triggers every alarm in my beast, raising the fur at my hackles. Bobbing beneath the water, she resurfaces, twisting her head almost a hundred and eight degrees toward the magical battle. The hag hasn’t sensed me…yet.
My wolf wants to run, but the fox inside me? It’s cunning, devious, and centered on our mate. We can sneak up on the hag and outsmart her if necessary. For the first time I can remember, I’m proud to have my fox half if it means finding Sadie and saving our mate.
Stalking closer, I let cool water lap over my paws and soak my fur. The hag goes under again, and tiny waves ripple outward in a circle from where she dropped. She comes up, closer this time, pulling someone along with her.
I sniff the air. Sadie. My wolf wants to growl and snap, to swim and save our mate. But my fox insists we stay still and wait. The hag hasn’t dragged her down. No, she’s keeping my mate’s head above the surface.
Standing guard, I keep watch while the sea hag pushes Sadie the last few feet toward the shore. I whine, and the hag’s attention snaps to me. I whine again, putting all my worry into it. Cocking her head as if considering whether to drown me or not, she crawls forward, tugging Sadie inch by inch. My mate doesn’t move. I wade closer, licking her face. The sea hag hasn’t made a grab for me—not yet at least.
I lick Sadie again, trying to wake her. She flinches and chokes, rolling over onto her hands and knees as she coughs up water. Wet locks of hair cling to her cheeks, and her clothes stick to her. Her eyes spiral with green—confusion and fear radiating off her. What happened to my terrifying Fury mate to make her cower?
I open the mating bond, hoping to glimpse the problem, but with it incomplete, I can only scent and sense that she’s trapped in whatever nightmare sent her sinking into the swamp. Without the sea hag, she might’ve drowned. I glance at the monster who stares blankly back through blind eyes. She retreats into the swamp, leaving me alone with my mate.
I nudge Sadie’s side, trying to lend her my strength.
“Nolan?” she whispers. Her hands sink into my fur, and I revel at her taking comfort in my beast no matter what led us to this. When she catches her fingers on the cord that had been long on my human self, hanging halfway down my chest, it makes sense now. It stayed through my shift, fitting on this form as easily as the other. She closes her grip around the charm and takes a long, shuddering breath. “They used my memories against me.” Her voice sounds ragged. “The fear? It was too much.” Her eyes blink, the green blowing out as the Fury rage replaces it.
Take it.
I force my thoughts toward her, desperate for her to have what she needs.
Kneeling beside me, she slips the cord over my ears and muzzle, wrapping it around her wrist as she keeps her hold on me. With mud, blood, and more that I can’t place, she draws symbols over my fur, chanting something beautiful and mesmerizing.
“It started with you, Tucker.” Devlyn circles above us. “I put you down in that attic.” Her words come out guttural and wrong. You should’ve stayed dead.” She lands a few feet away, baring fangs at my mate. The woman’s unnatural.
We will end her. Finally, both my animal instincts and I are in complete agreement.
I growl and snap, feral and bloodthirsty. An overwhelming obsession with revenge flows through my veins, a wild magic thrumming below my fur. Fury magic. Impossible yet it’s happening.
Sadie stands in a slow, deliberate rise that brings power circling in a loop through us both. It’s intoxicating. I want to roll in it.
“It ends now,” she says in the Fury voice that calls to my beast, bringing its wrath and rage as if a thousand avenging angels speak at once.
Her whip lashes out. The scents of leather thread beneath gunpowder with not a single firearm in sight. It comes from her magical weapon—a blast of Greek fire power so supercharged that it might as well be a cannon.
She catches Devlyn’s ribs with a slice that cuts deep. Blood gushes from the wound to mix with the mud underfoot.
The Huntress rushes forward, fangs and claws unleashed. I snap and bite to drive her back.
Sadie brings the whip around again, aiming higher. A long ribbon of red blooms on Devlyn’s shoulder to darken her green uniform.
“Bitch,” Devlyn screams.
More Huntresses land. I lunge forward, biting and tearing into the enemy. Yet Sadie stays centered on Devlyn who can’t outpace enhanced Fury fighting skills. The three long years of Sadie’s training while we’ve been apart are showcased in the lines and angles of her fighting stances, the fluidity of her movements, and her complete lack of hesitation.
After striking an astonishing blow, the mud beneath my mate gives way, and she slides backward. Devlyn lands a hit and rakes her claws over my mate’s face. Sadie’s hiss of pain and the coppery scent of her blood make me abandon the others and hurry to help my mate.
“Don’t,” she says, and the Fury voice in which she speaks has me freezing. “This is my vengeance to take.”
She’s right. I hate it. My beast hates it. But I can’t argue with her. She earned the revenge, and I won’t steal it from her. Not even when blood drips along her temple and down her jaw.
The cries and battle clangs in the distance fade. The other Huntresses come at me as if seeing Sadie bleed renewed their craze. I bite and leap and tear into them, not caring about the bruises or cuts they manage to inflict. My only purpose is to keep them away from my mate while she fulfills her gods-given mission.
Sadie and Devlyn streak through their next attacks, a blur of wings that defies shifter speed. When Devlyn gives a roar, I lose my concentration, allowing one of the Huntresses to slip through my defenses and drag her claws through my fur and along my spine. I yelp. Pain pours through me—fire screaming along the gashes as though she’s poured lava inside them.
