The Pack Girl's Retribution (Sequel to The Pack's Girl)

Bite

I cried out at the sting of the wound. Clutching my shoulder and feeling the indentation of his teeth still embedded in my skin.

I felt the hot flood of blood seeping over my hand and saturating my clothes. Instantly dizzying me as I remembered the sticky feel and coppery scent of it on that floor so many years ago.

Shoving that image from my mind, I refused to succumb to the tremors just now. I focused on trying to get free of the brutal jaws.

This was no marking.

It was an attack.

He shook his head roughly to sink his teeth in further. Than he ripped out a chunk of flesh.

I yipped in pain and pressed my palm against it to try and stem the bleeding. Standing on my toes to keep my scalp from being torn free.

Hawk and Magus stared at me in horror. They'd stopped moving and now gripped their daggers loosely next to their legs as they assessed what they were doing.

Then I saw Magus gaze flick to something at the edge of camp.

No one else seemed to notice but his gaze was locked on whatever he glimpsed.

I knew it was moving fast when I saw how quickly his gaze rolled toward me, as he watched something approaching.

What?

Goosebumps pricked my skin as I wondered if it was something worse.

"Drop your weapons!" The man declared. "Or I kill your she-wolf after I'm done fucking her."

Magus was staring at a spot just next to my shoulder.

My eyes flicked over but I saw nothing.

At first.

Then I glimpsed the merest haze of movement. Just to the side of my shoulder, next to the man holding me.

Magus' head dipped less than an inch downward, in some form of assent.

The man made a shocked sound and then I heard gurgling and felt the hot splash of blood down the side of my face, along my ear and over my collar.

I gasped and lifted my hands in shock.

The man's grip fell away, and I was freed.

I stepped numbly away and stared, jaw gaping as the man crumbled to the forest floor.

Something crashed further in the trees and when the strange haze twisted to see behind it. I glimpsed long, flowing brown hair and the dagger gripped in a small fist. Strange leather robes were her only covering.

She looked like a wild forest girl.

"Back to the trees, Zyra!" Magus ordered.

That long straight, hair spun out around her as she took off. Turning into only flashes of light again.

"Zyra?" I gave him a stunned look. I knew of the other she-wolf but like the other females, had kept my distance from the odd one.

I'd had no idea she was capable of camouflage. I turned an astonished look on Magus.

Hawk shouted for me to duck.

I swung low and dodged what I assumed was an impending blow. Rolling from beneath my attacker's reach.

Hawk's fluorescing green magic swept out as he swished his hand, tossing the man into the high branches of a tree.

Just as we got that far, a group of males came rushing

toward the camp.

They were formidable. And armed.

Oh, no...

Magus' scouting hadn't accounted for a hunting party.

They gave a battle cry. And charged toward us.

Magus and Hawk turned their backs against my shoulders and put up magical shields to protect us.

I was centered between them.

Another male rushed us, and I swiped my dagger a couple times and took him down before he could fully reach us.

Magus was impressed. "Where'd you learn that?"

"My mates."

"Of course." Magus murmured. Humor in his voice.

"It appears they were right to do so." Hawk remarked. "As if they know you."

I frowned at him.

"So, what are we going to do now?" I asked them.

"Pray to live." Magus offered.

Seeing I wasn't amused he deferred to Hawk. "What are we doing Commander?"

"Commander?"

Magus shot me a look that told me he'd explain later.

Hawk was scanning the crowd assessingly.

Mary suddenly shrieked from by the treeline.

Hawk's shield dropped as he runed fully toward her. Surrounding her in a shield which folded around her like he'd put her inside a tipped bowl.

But it was too late.

She, herself was already reacting.

Her hair waved as if gravity no longer bound her.

Water slid to the surface of the ground and caught at the feet of the men coming at her. Knocking them to the ground.

They tried to scramble loose but the water gripped them, like vicious vines.

Water began pouring from the tree canopy. Dumping in great waterfalls on their heads. Forcing their faces to the ground and pelting them with the weight.

I looked up in wonder and saw water atop the leaves moving from each other to collect and pour straight down on them. Each drop becoming part of the single collective.

After a moment both men were still. The water having forced their face deeply into a puddle full of mud.

"Mary!" Hawk cried.

She lifted up a hand to stay him and when she looked up the blue of her eyes seemed to be floating like waves washed over them. Bits of white flickering through it.

"I'm fine!" She called.

A spear flew across the camp toward me, and I hissed through my teeth. Twisting my body and already half turning into a wolf as I tried to escape it.

Before either man next to me could react, a hand shot from before us to catch it mere inches away from my stomach.

I looked over and met Vanquish's furious green eyes.