Page 159 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
“If you’re not fighting, follow Lucius and Audrey,” Cyrus yelled as he yanked off his shirt, revealing his broad, muscular chest and powerful arms.
And at any other time, I’d have appreciated his physique — despite him not being romantically interested in me — but with the panicked people rushing closer and the deadly grimalkins right behind them, all I could think about was saving as many lives as I could.
Except that only added frustration to my fear. I couldn’t fight the grimalkins, not without a wolf form. Sure, I’d fought them twice before, but only because I’d had no other choice, and I knew just how lucky I’d been to make it out alive.
Which meant the best I could do was help ensure the Mountain and Sea Alliance delegates and their aides were safe. The last thing this horrible situation needed was a political incident on top of it.
“Stick with Lucius,” Bishop said to me as he, too, pulled off his shirt. “Make sure no one gets separated.”
“Cohnal,” Representative Folmar said to the gryphon shifter beside me. “Watch their backs.”
Then she shifted into her gryphon form, not caring that she destroyed her clothes in the process.
For a second, no longer than two quick pounds of my heart, I stared at her. In my realm, everyone thought gryphon shifters were extinct or had never existed, but about a dozen feet away stood a majestic creature with the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle.
With a piercing cry, she spread her massive wings and leaped into the air, skimming over the heads of the fleeing people and landing on one of the grimalkins.
Cyrus extended his claws from his fingertips and howled, calling his warriors — the sound strange coming from his human throat — then he plunged into the fray. Without hesitation, Bishop followed him, and I could feel his ferocious determination to protect me and his pack racing through our mating bond.
“This way,” Lucius called out as he waved toward an alley beside him that sat between some of the semi-permanent market stalls.
He was an older man, his hair gray and deep laugh lines around his eyes and mouth, but I didn’t doubt he was still the warrior he’d been when he retired as huntmaster to become the pack’s top advisor and diplomat.
A third of the Alliance delegates rushed to follow him, while the others drew their swords or extended their claws, or — in the case of the Dedearc who were covered in scales, already had claws, and were all bigger than Cyrus — just rushed to stop the grimalkins.
But even as everyone ran forward, more grimalkins appeared.
The wave of terrified people surged around the warriors who twisted and turned, trying to move against the flow, and a second later, the wall of people was headed toward me.
Audrey, Lucius said in my head, jerking my attention back to the delegates and reminding me of my duty.
All of them were in the alley, and while I could hesitate for another few moments and let some of the men, women, and children fleeing the grimalkins go ahead of me, that would separate me from the delegates, and my alpha had given me an order.
I scrambled after the group and Cohnal hurried after me.
The alley wasn’t long, only six stalls deep before we raced onto a slightly wider road. But that only meant everyone who’d run through the various alleys between the stalls converged on the street, turning into one big horde.
Children screamed and cried, some half shifted unable to control their form while afraid. Men and women who weren’t taking care of terrified children or teens, ran with their claws extended, watching for danger to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.
Still, even with an eighth of the horde calm and on guard, it was chaos. A literal human stampede. One wrong move, one trip, and someone would be crushed to death before anyone could stop it. And while the road was relatively smooth, Stonehaven was built on the rocky slopes at the bottom of a mountain. There were ramps and steps everywhere.
Beside me, a lanky teen boy, probably around fourteen or fifteen, who was desperately trying to carry a much younger child whose form kept shifting between toddler and wolf, tripped.
Cohnal grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him up before he could be knocked completely to the ground by someone else. Except the child shifted into her wolf at the last minute and tumbled from the teen’s arms just as he righted himself.
“Jolie!” the teen screamed.
I lunged for the child who tried to jerk out of the way of someone else’s feet and ended up getting kicked deeper into the mob.
The child yelped, tiny, heartbreaking noises that I could somehow hear over the pounding feet, screaming, and crying. My pulse lurched as she tried to avoid getting trampled and I heaved against the flow.
Someone slammed into my side, twisting me around and bumping me into someone else. I jerked out of the way before crashing into another person, but everyone was too close together. Heavy feet smashed my toes, while more bodies bumped into me, ricocheting me like a pinball.
Somehow, I cut sideways and reached the child, who’d curled into a tight ball in a desperate attempt to protect herself. Fury and fear churned in a nauseating mix in my stomach as I scrambled to pick her up.
Someone ahead of me screamed and a large man slammed into me. He fell, creating some space in the horde, and I grabbed a handful of fur and yanked the child into my arms.
“You—” he snarled at me as he leaped to his feet. Then he saw the wolf pup in my arms and he gave me a tight nod.
He moved to step closer, possibly to protect us, but the crowd surged, suddenly changing direction, and forced us apart. More screams sounded, desperate and afraid, and a massive gryphon leaped into the air.
Shit. Everyone was running in every direction, slamming into each other, desperate to get away from the grimalkin that I couldn’t see but knew was about to have a gryphon attacking it.
I jerked my attention around, trying to find the delegates, but I wasn’t tall, a little shorter than average in height, and couldn’t see anyone.
Shit shit shit.
The pup in my arms, still curled in a tight ball, whimpered. My first priority was the child’s safety. I needed to find the fastest way out of the crowd, and it didn’t matter if that brought me closer to or took me farther from the delegation.
A woman carrying two wailing babies slammed into me, heading the way we’d come, and I curled protectively around the pup as I stumbled after her. But someone else hit me from behind, shoving me hard. I lost my balance and the crowd surged around me.
Someone tried to help me stand but was bumped away by others. Another person tripped over me but managed to keep her balance before righting herself. She didn’t even turn to look at who she’d tripped over. She just kept running.
The wind suddenly shifted, and the heavy, foul stench of a grimalkin washed over me, along with the cloying reek of blood. The beast was close. I had to move. Now.
I elbowed a man about to crash into me, earning an angry glare, and heaved to my feet.
The grimalkin roared, the sound so close I was afraid to look behind me. Then two more answered, just as close.
Cohnal screeched and one of the roars turned desperate, but I didn’t know how powerful a gryphon was. I’d seen firsthand that one grimalkin was challenging for a couple of shifters unless they were powerful alphas. The black dog-like creatures moved like tigers and had feline-sharp claws. Cohnal might be able to take down one, since his alpha power was strong, but I wasn’t going to bet that he could take down three by himself.
I heaved to the edge of the crowd and slipped into one of the extremely narrow passages between some of the wooden market stalls, praying that this time a grimalkin wouldn’t be hot on my heels. The space was so tight I had to turn sideways and hold the pup above my head to squeeze through, and there was no way I was going to be able to turn my head to see if one of the monsters was behind me.
My pulse pounding, my breath short sharp gasps, I hurried to the thin rectangle of light ahead of me, careened out the other side, and almost crashed into the rear end of a grimalkin.