Page 43 of Ancient Promises
Diem backed away from the male. He’d chased her through the open section of the facility. She couldn’t freaking shake him. No matter how fast she ran or which direction she went, he would simply fly overhead and cut her off.
He was taunting her, and she was getting tired, her wolf and lion anxious, but her body quickly running out of steam.
“Zihndyr promised you’d be fun for the whole nest, by the way,” he taunted as he stalked toward her.
Another male joined him, having wiggled his way out from under the partially open door of the unit. That meant the others would soon be there, except for the one that she’d managed to take out with her claws to his leg. At least he wasn’t going anywhere.
She growled, her hackles rising.
Looking wildly around, she huffed out a breath.
“He’s definitely dead, you know,” the new male said. “Zihndyr is the best fighter in our nest. Eivross the traitor is dead. If you’re lucky, our king will give you an hour to grieve before he takes you as his third mate. Then you’ll spend the rest of your life on your knees.”
“Or your back,” the first male said, chuckling.
She bared her fangs.You can go to hell.
With a last burst of energy, she raced away from the males, heading toward the gates at the entrance. If only she had wings, she could fly over the damn things. The males’ wings flapped loudly behind her. They were gaining on her!
She skidded to a halt at the gates and let out a panicked howl.
Where was Eivross? There was no way he was dead, she was sure of it.
She backed up a few paces and looked at the gate, but there was no way to climb it.
The males reached her and she spun, her back to the gate, and flashed her fangs.
“Pretty little thing,” one of the males said.
“Won’t be that way for long.”
A shadow soared overhead, and Diem looked up, surprised to see the furry white underbelly of a large wolf as it cleared the gate and landed on one of the males, jaws snapping around his neck and head shaking hard to break it.
What the hell?
Diem snapped to action, jumping at the other male, who was staring in slack-jawed shock as his friend died on the ground. She knocked the male down and he landed hard, his fists beating on her sides. She sank her fangs into his shoulder and dug her claws into his stomach, raking downward as hard as she could.
He screamed and thrashed.
The other wolf lifted its head and howled.
The male under Diem went still with a groan and she let go, moving off and staring at the petite timber wolf who’d come to her rescue. It was a female, that much she was sure, but where had she come from, and more importantly, why?
The female sat on her haunches and howled again.
“I fucking heard you the first time,” a male said irritably from the other side of the gate.
Diem turned and saw a large black SUV at the gate, waiting, while a male in a blue jumpsuit opened the gate for the other male, wearing a black suit. The others getting out of the SUV were dressed similarly.
“You’re just lucky we were in the area when we heard the other female’s howl,” he said. “Now, what the hell is going on here?”
Someone landed right in front of Diem, and she startled backward, nearly going ass over teakettle. Then she realized it was Eivross.
He was bleeding from claw and sword marks on his body, one of his wings hanging at an odd angle.
“My name is Eivross Danforth. These dragon males attacked my mate and me tonight when we came to the storage unit.” He moved back and knelt next to Diem, putting an arm loosely on her back. “I don’t know who this other wolf is.”
“It’s Fiona Cartwright, daughter of the Fremont pack alphas. We’re FSA Hunters. Her sister called her father and he called me, since I’m part of his pack. We’d heard your mate howling for help and were on the way to investigate when we got the alpha’s call that Fiona was possibly in danger.”