Moonbound to the Alpha Triplets

CHAPTER 4

Kael doesn't think about it.

I can hardly see him because he's moving so fast. He's in front of me one second and beating the stranger with all his might the next. The man hits the stone wall and breaks it.

Thorne moves through the air, and all of a sudden, his bones break and his fur comes out of his skin. A very big dog lands next to Kael and glares at him.

Draven grabs my arm. "Don't move."

"I wasn't going to," I say in a frozen whisper.

There is a lot of noise in the trees outside. It steps and growls. There are howls that make the windows shake. Eyes that are red shine through the trees like hot flames.

Even though Kael has the scout pinned down, he laughs. "Not enough time." The line between them is already broken.

Kael growls. "You'll wish you hadn't done this."

The man says, "Oh, I already do," and looks at me again. "But he'll like it."

The floor shakes beneath us, and Draven pulls me back. The silver marks I didn't know were there pulse like a heartbeat under my feet.

Draven says, "No." "Not now." "What's going on?" I ask, my heart racing.

He says, "The land is reacting to you." "It thinks you're in danger."

Outside, dozens of wolves burst out from behind the trees. Kael's pack runs forward to meet them, and the fight is quick and brutal. Under the light of the moon, fur and blood mix together.

The scout yells something in a language I don't know.

The marks on the floor get brighter.

Heat rushes through my blood and fills my body. I gasp and hold my chest as the moonlight bends toward me as if it were alive. "Selene!" Kael yells. "Fight it!"

"I don't know how!"

The walls are bright. The ground shakes more. A shockwave spreads out from where I am, pushing wolves away like leaves in a storm.

A crash of quiet.

All of our dogs and theirs freeze.

Then a voice rings through the woods. Relax. Strong. Of course. "Little Moonbound, you feel it now, don't you?"

My blood runs cold.

The voice goes on, "Because I do." "And I'm coming for what's mine."

The moon shines bright silver above.

And my knees give way as something inside me responds.---