Page 161 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
With a roar, the large one charged past the smaller one and slammed itself against the door, the wood cracking with the impact. Desperate, I shot my gaze around, looking for something to block the entrance.
Another crash and wood flew everywhere. I jerked away to protect my face from the shrapnel, right in the direction of the shattering window.
Flicks of pain burst across my face, neck, and arms, and my pulse lurched. I wrenched my spear up before I’d fully opened my eyes, the tip skimming across the smaller grimalkin’s rough hide, not even drawing a scratch.
The beast roared, its foul scent flooding my nostrils, and bounded toward Quinn, Zavier, and the children.
“No,” I yelled, my pulse thu-thudding , my wildness roaring to the surface.
The children screamed, the group shrinking and pressing closer to the wall as if that would protect them, and Quinn leaped to her feet, her fingers extended into claws.
I didn’t know how much fighting experience she had, but I doubted it was a lot. She was a schoolteacher and was going to get torn apart like the dead wolf in the courtyard.
I rammed my spear into the grimalkin’s side, breaking flesh and drawing blood. With a howl that sounded more angry than hurt, the beast turned to me, wrenching itself free from my spear.
Fuck me.
Fear tore through me but so did my wildness. I’d killed one of these monsters before and I could do it again. I had to. Quinn and those children were counting on me.
More heavy skin-crawling power crashed over me as the grimalkin leaped at me, but my own power surged, batting it away as if it were nothing, and I aimed my spear right for the monster’s mouth. It had worked the last time with just a broken stick and it was going to work now.
But the beast wrenched his head to the side at the last minute, and my spear skidded uselessly across its hide — because, of course, the damn tip was only more or less sharp at the point since it was a fence post and not an actual weapon.
Its head slammed into my chest and sent me tumbling across the room, right into the fight between the larger grimalkin and Jaxon, who’d shifted into his wolf form.
The large beast swiped at me, and I rolled out of the way, slamming into a table leg and sending a box of thick nails crashing to the floor.
Jaxon charged at the beast, trying to bite its throat, but the grimalkin swatted at him, forcing him to twist mid-air to avoid its claws. Except he wasn’t fast enough and the beast slashed Jaxon’s side.
Too-bright blood stained his pale gray coat and he howled as the grimalkin attacked.
My heart pounded hard, fear and ferocity surging through my veins. Screaming, I grabbed my make-shift spear — which had tumbled from my grip when I’d landed in the middle of Jaxon’s fight.
The grimalkin swung its large blocky head toward me, its foul breath filling the space between us as it surged toward me. I wrapped my fingers around the fence post, wrenched the weighty piece of metal around toward the beast, and shoved the pointed tip inside the monster’s mouth.
Just like the last time, the spear hit something then popped through. Blood gushed from the grimalkin’s mouth, its eyes glazed over, and it crashed on top of me.
Hell, yes!
One down. One more to go.
I half shoved half squirmed out from under the grimalkin that was larger than Cyrus in his wolf form and wrenched on my spear.
Stuck.
I couldn’t even get it to budge.
Something crashed on the other side of the room, and I yanked my attention to Quinn and the kids. With her enhanced shifter strength, she’d pushed over the heavy metal table the children and Zavier had been hiding under, creating a short wall, and now stood in front of it, blocking the smaller grimalkin’s way.
Except even with her claws and canines extended, it was ridiculous to think she could stand her ground against the monster. She wasn’t even five feet tall and probably didn’t weigh a hundred pounds.
The beast lunged at her, and Jaxon flew past me, ramming his body against the grimalkin and knocking it off balance.
I scrambled to my feet, raced to the rack at the back of the room, and grabbed another fence post.
With a roar, the grimalkin swatted at Jaxon and he stumbled to the side, more bright splashes of blood staining his fur, making my pulse stutter.
Quinn leaped forward and slashed her claws across the grimalkin’s snout, drawing its attention back to her. Its heavy skin-crawling power rolled over me, making my stomach churn, and the muscles in its back legs bunched, preparing to attack.
I wasn’t going to get to it in time to distract it from attacking Quinn… Except that was all I needed to do. Distract it. I only needed a second, long enough to join the fight and help them.
I threw my fence post. It hit the stone floor with a clatter a good three feet before it reached the grimalkin and skidded forward, stopping between its feet.
Swell.
But at least the beast wrenched its head toward me instead of attacking Quinn. I grabbed another spear and barreled toward it. Except before I reached it, another grimalkin and a large gray wolf flew through the already shattered window, knocking more shards from the frame and sending them flying in all directions.
The two of them rolled midair — the wolf with its teeth in the grimalkin’s throat and the grimalkin trying to get its claws in the wolf’s belly.
With a thud, they skidded across the floor, the grimalkin on top using its weight to bear down on the wolf and drive the wolf headfirst into an anvil.
Stunned, the wolf’s grip on the grimalkin’s throat released and the grimalkin rose to tear into the wolf with its claws.
The wildness inside me roared to the surface. I howled a war cry and charged at it. The beast jerked its head up and I rammed my spear into its eye.
Roaring, the grimalkin leaped away from the wolf— No, Finn. The dazed, bleeding wolf on the floor was Finn, Stonehaven’s Watch Commander.
I scrambled out of the way of the beast’s claws and slammed into the side of the other grimalkin.
Thankfully, Jaxon snapped at the smaller one’s throat, making it swipe at him. He barely managed to get out of the way, but without a doubt he’d saved my life.
The new grimalkin lunged for me, and I heaved to the side, desperate to avoid getting pinned between the two monsters. But the grimalkin kept pressing its attack, forcing me to scramble out of the way, knocking over stands and buckets, scattering tools and metal things, and not giving me a chance to fight back.
That made the wildness inside me furious. My pulse roared and my heart pounded violent thuds that reverberated through me.
Finn groaned and the eyelid of his one visible eye fluttered. Blood trickled onto the floor by his stomach, but it wasn’t gushing. Which meant he wasn’t about to die, and if Jaxon could fight with worse injuries, so could Finn… because there was no way I was going to get lucky two more times and kill both of the grimalkins myself.
“Finn!” I barked, my wildness crashing through me.
I rolled over a worktable, the grimalkin’s claws tearing the bottom half of my dress to shreds.
Fuck fuck fuck.
“Finn!” I barked again as the beast leaped over the table, forcing me to scramble out of reach.
My back hit the wall beside the forge, the stone searingly hot against my bare skin, and I jerked away, knocking over a bucket of ash. My thigh bumped a metal poker, its tip in the fire, and I grabbed it. I smashed the poker against the grimalkin’s nose and raced back around the table.
The beast roared with pain and its horrible stomach-churning skin-crawling power slammed into me.
This grimalkin was a lot more powerful than the one I’d killed, and my knees started to buckle in submission.
But my wildness surged out of me in response, overwhelming the grimalkin’s power. The beast shrank back with its teeth bared, red light flashing in its eyes, and fury pouring from it as its alpha power battled mine.
My stomach roiled and bile burned the back of my throat. Behind me, a wolf howled in agony and Quinn screamed.
“Get. The. Fuck. Up. Finn!” I roared and he lurched to his feet, his eyes wide, the expression almost cartoonish on a wolf. “Help me.”
Without hesitation, almost as if he were being controlled, he threw himself at the grimalkin attacking me, giving me a chance to hurry around to the monster’s side for my own attack.
But as I got into position, movement in the courtyard caught my attention. Two more grimalkins were barreling toward us.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I hissed as my wildness tore through me, bringing with it a ferocious anger.
Mine. This pack was mine and everyone in this smithy was getting out alive.
The grimalkins needed to leave now or die. I didn’t know how I’d kill them, but my wildness didn’t care about the details. It would tear them to shreds and bathe in their blood.
Furious, I threw the spear at the smaller grimalkin that was about to tear into Jaxon. The weapon miraculously slammed into the beast’s eye, tore through its head, and embedded itself in the stone wall behind it.
Power rolled off me in violent ferocious waves and my stomach heaved with something darker… something angrier.
Finn clamped his teeth around the other grimalkin’s throat and tore it out with a rush of foul-smelling blood, and I turned my attention to the two grimalkins outside.
They were almost at the smithy. A few more steps and I’d be forced to fight them. Instead, that dark power surged. My stomach cramped with sudden, painful nausea, and the biting acid burn of bile rose up my throat.
The grimalkins’ gaze leaped to mine, and I squared my shoulders despite my body’s desperate plea to curl inward and protect the agony churning in my stomach.
“Come on, assholes,” I snarled under my breath, sending the burn racing over my tongue and out of my mouth in a whisp of black smoke — that could only be from my imagination because of how angry I was.
And right now. I didn’t care if I was hallucinating. Whatever kept me strong and ended the threat to the people who were mine.
“I will fucking kill every last one of you.” Another whisp of black smoke curled out of my mouth and my stomach cramped, forcing me to suck in rapid breaths before I puked on my feet.
The grimalkins jerked to a stop. Skin-crawling power slammed into me, and I surged my wildness in return, matching their wave with my tsunami. I would crush them, rip them to shreds, and dance on their corpses. Vengeance would be mine, and I’d feast on their flesh and bathe in their blood.
I. Was. Done.
I was done with these monsters terrorizing this pack, hurting the people I’d grown to love, and terrifying children. And I was done with being weak and pathetic. I’d already killed two of these fuckers today. Two more was easy.
I blindly reached behind me, grabbed a fence post, and stormed out the front door to face them.
The grimalkins hunched almost as if they were going to pounce, but then the smaller one shifted back a step.
That’s right. Fear me! the something dark and powerful screamed within me. Die!
With a roar, I rushed forward, my wildness— No, my alpha power pouring off me in giant waves, my stomach cramping, and wisps of black smoke rushing from my mouth.
The bigger grimalkin also hunched, its back legs bunching as if to attack. But that only made me grin… because somehow, I’d lost my mind. Somehow, I was furious enough to believe I could take on two more grimalkins by myself.
“Run or die,” the darkness inside me hissed, and, as if I’d actually commanded them, the two beasts bolted away. “That’s right, fuckers!”
Oh, my God!
I’d scared off two grimalkins!
My stomach cramped, wrenching me to my hands and knees, and I threw up a burning mix of bile and black smoke.