Lacking his birds-eye view, he was forced to crack his eyelids and peer through blurry eyes to see Kenar, now in human form, standing over Reda, who was on her knees, forced there by her human-form guards while the two wolf forms stood back, bristling. Dayn knew all four, knew they would follow their alphas orders without question. And he dreaded the empty, soulless look in Kenars eyes as he stared down at her.
I claim the rights of a guest, she said, lifting her chin to glare at Kenar, face white and drawn. You have to grant me shelter and safety. Its tradition.
The alphas eyes didnt even flicker. That would have worked on my sire, or even my softhearted whore of a sister, but not on me. Im pack law now, not a bunch of moldy old traditions that lured a witch and her creatures to come into our realm and attack us. And my law says there are no guests anymore. There are only the wolfyn and their enemies. He turned away, tossing over his shoulder, Kill her.
Reda screamed as the guards dragged her to her feet.
Hold! Dayn bellowed, lunging to his feet and yanking his short sword with one hand, his crossbow with the other. He swept the crowd and snarled, showing his blood drinkers fangs.
Redas face lit and she gave a low, glad cry. Dayn!
The wolfyn flinched back, ears flat and lips pulling back in snarls of their own. All but Kenar, who rounded on him, eyes lighting with cruel joy. Bloodsucker, he hissed. Back for more?
The bastard had left him partly alive on purpose, testing to see if he would heal.
Not letting his hand shake at what he was about to do, Dayn pointed his sword at the alphas throat. I claim the Right of Challenge.
Redas eyes widened and her lips shaped the words Right of Challenge, though no sound emerged.
Kenar barked a laugh. Bullshit. A bloodsucker cant challenge to lead the pack. Only a wolfyn has wolfyn rights.
I know. Dayn looked at Reda, and said, Remember this if you remember nothing else good about meIm sorry for everything. Because what happened next would destroy the slim chance theyd had at a future. Just like the voice had said.
Exhaling against the sudden stab of pain brought by the knowledge, he did the something he had avoided since his first blood moon, when he had realized what his parents spell had really done to him when it sent him to the wolfyn realm.
He called on his other magic. And changed.
CHAPTER TEN
REDAS SCREAM WAS BURIED beneath the tumult that arose from the wolfyn as Dayns form blurred, widened, shifted, shortenedand then crystallized into a huge wolfyn.
Dayn was a wolfyn. Oh, God. No. This isnt possible. Its not happening. But shaking her head didnt clear the sight, and she was beyond thinking any of this was a dream. Or, in this case, a nightmare. Itshisfur was dark, nearly black, which made the reddish shoulder patch and golden dorsal stripe stand out like a visual shout. And when he drew back his lips to snarl at Kenar, his canines were longer than those of any of the others, and wickedly pointed. A vampire trapped, temporarily at least, in a wolfs body.
Noooo. The word escaped from Reda on a low, anguished moan as the structure of her unreal reality crashed to pieces around her and she saw the past few days for what they had been.
Dayns brilliant eyesemerald green, not the amber of the othersflicked to her at the noise, but she couldnt find any human emotion in them. His words rang inside her: Im sorry for everything.
He wasnt just talking about her being caught up in his familys magic, or even about him having kept yet another huge secret from her. He was apologizing for what he had done to her over the past two days.
The bastard had enthralled her.
Shame. Rage. Heartbreak. She didnt know what to feel, what to focus on within the huge wave of emotion that slammed through her as the pack struggled to deal with this new shift in the balance of power.
Kenar recovered quickly from the surprise. He might have paled, but his sneer didnt lose any of its oily, predatory nature. It made her think of the wolfyn in the book, the villain And that made her see how Dayn wasnt the woodsman, after all.
He was the wolf.
He was the seducer, the tempter. And she had fallen hard for the temptation.
A challenge? Kenar waved the others back, and the pack members cleared out. Within seconds, he and Dayn were facing each other in the middle of a cleared circle. You think the pack will accept you as their leader now? I dont think so. And dont look to Keely for any help this time. She was outcast for helping you. Last I saw, she was hauling ass away from a big silver loner. Kenars sneer turned even nastier. Hes probably caught up to her by now. Wonder if shes having fun? Those loners dont get a chance at many bitches.
Dayn growled low in his throat and began circling toward Kenar, trying to flank him.
The alpha, still in human form, moved to stay opposite him, openly taunting now. Were you planning on handing things over to my weak slut of a sister? You think thats going to be any He morphed abruptly, dropped to a crouch and leaped with a feral roar as Dayn did the same.
The two huge creatures thudded together midair and went down snarling in a flurry of fur, raking claws and snapping jaws. Blood sprayed and one of the combatants yowled, and then they were surging to their feet, up onto their hind legs to come together again, smashing into each other like fighting rams going for a head butt, only with gaping jaws and wickedly sharp teeth.
Growls and excited yips came from the crowd, and more than one of the human forms went wolf, as if the experience was better in fur.
Redas stomach roiled; she had to breathe through her mouth to stem the surging nausea that came from the potent mix of fear, disgust and upset rocketing through her.
Enthralled. God.
That explained why she had fallen so hard so fast, didnt it? And even now that she knew the truth, she wasnt free of his spell. She couldnt be, because her eyes were fixed on the fight and her heart was lodged in her throat.
She hated the sight of blood wetting his thick, dark coat when he and Kenar next parted. She hated the thought of his lean, beautiful body taking on new scars. And she hated how the other wolfyn were watching him with cold, hard eyes that suggested that even if he won his fight, he wouldnt live to claim his prize. She wanted to put herself between Dayn and the others, warding them off with her body while snarling, Mine.
Even more, some part of her drank in the sight of him in his wolf form: how his thick black coat shimmered over his muscles and caught the light as he reared up and lunged for his enemy; and how his eyes flashed like emerald-green flame when the combatants came together chest to chest, snapping and snarling. The sight of curving, elongated and wickedly pointed canines stirred her deep inside, and the way he moved so elegantly, like a fighter, like the largest of predators, brought the same whisper of, Mine.
And she had to get out of here. Because if she stayed any longer, she might never escape his spell.
But how could she leave? She was surrounded, disarmed, her bow and arrows tossed aside. Mind racing, she scanned the scene. She caught a blur of motion from the trees near the waterfall, another from a stand of middle growth nearby, but then nothing, making her think it had been a bird.
Her captors were all in their wolfish forms now, glued to the fight as Dayn rose over Kenar and slammed down atop him, driving the alpha to the ground. Teeth flashed, blood sprayed and Kenar screeched in pain. When he next stood, he was panting and dragging a foreleg. Dayn, too, was injured; he was bleeding from a deep gash on his shoulder, and the blood spattering the ground beneath him said that there were other wounds hidden by his dark fur. But he lunged first, drove Kenar back and followed him down with a flash of bloodstained teeth.
The brutal, meaty crunch that followed was the most sickening thing Reda had ever heard, and she gagged as Kenar spasmed and went gruesomely limp.
And then that slurp-crunch instantly dropped to the second most sickening thing she had ever heard as Dayn topped it by planting his front paws on Kenars body, lifting his blood-streaked black muzzle to the sky and loosing a terrifying and self-satisfied howl of victory.
Awwwoooooo. The noise reached inside her, making her want to scream and claw at her own skin. Or maybe that was the knowledge that she had lain with a creature, a killer. Her heart tore as she stared at him, his wolf form gorgeous, terrifyingand entirely enthralling.
He howled again and nausea flared suddenly, and she clapped a hand over her mouth and turned away. Two of her huge wolfyn guards flanked her as she ran blindly from the circle with no real destination in mind except away. She needed to get away from the sight of his gorgeous emerald eyes, away from the wild, feral glory in his howl, away from the burning desire to turn back.
The guards herded her toward the trailhead, near where her bow and arrows had been tossed. One nudged her toward the weapons. The other turned back to the pack, silver-white fur bristling as if he were protecting her rather than holding her captive.
Wait. Silver?
Reda looked down at the wolfyn nearest her, thought she saw something familiar in its eyes. Keely?
The creature nodded, then nudged her forcibly toward the weapons, the pathway. She whuffed an almost-word that sounded like, Go.
And then there was a sudden howl of alarm, a scramble of feet, and Reda looked up to see the pack reorienting on her, Keely and the silver-backed male.
Reda exploded into motion. She grabbed her bow and arrows and bolted for the trail. Behind her, a feral snarl sounded the attack as the Scratch-Eye pack came after her, and Keely and her loner friend tried to fend them off, and only partially succeeded. They stalled some of the wolfyn, but others came on.
Reda ran for her life. Her legs and lungs hurt; the wolfsbene helped, but would it be enough? Please, God. Gods. Whoever you are, she thought brokenly as she hit the trail and started up with a half dozen beasts behind her and gaining.