Page 189 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

“No!” I yelled back at Sterling. “I won’t let you.”

I had to protect my mates.

As if thinking of them summoned them, Bishop, Knox, and Cyrus rushed into the Great Square, their expressions fierce.

Knox, in his wolf form, looked practically feral, snarling with his lips curled back showing his teeth. But I couldn’t sense his emotions, couldn’t tell if he held onto any scrap of humanity.

I couldn’t feel Bishop’s emotions, either. The power crushing me and raging inside me overwhelmed everything. My stomach ached, but my rage burned through my nausea.

“Get away from her,” Bishop commanded, his own alpha power crashing into the courtyard as he raced toward Sterling.

“Don’t—” I gasped.

They didn’t understand how powerful Sterling was. He was going to murder them.

Before they’d even gotten close to him, he flicked his hand and three men? Beings? Creatures? rose from the ground, black smoke swirling around them. They were identical, each wearing heavy clothes that hid their form and hoods that hid their faces, and they all looked like the man who’d poisoned Bishop.

“Don’t let their claws touch you,” Bishop yelled as the men screeched an inhuman sound and leaped toward my guys.

“It was you?” I snarled at Sterling.

My guys twisted and leaped out of the way of the smoke men’s claws trying to get in a strike while I heaved and snarled. My mates needed me and I was stuck bowing on the ground. I was stronger than this.

Sterling howled with laughter. “That’s it, fight me. Squirm against my power. Entertain me.”

Like I’d entertained him when he and his friends bullied me at school and taunted me about the mother I’d never known and the father who couldn’t handle living with the things he’d done in the war?

No.

No more.

My wildness surged. I seized it, wrapped it around the dark magic, and heaved. Power, stronger, wild power, roared through my veins. It tore through Sterling’s demand to submit and filled me with strength as I stood.

“I’m not your toy anymore.”

Sterling’s sneer twisted into a snarl, rage filling his eyes. “You’ll always be mine.”

He raised his arms, and a flurry of snake monsters burst from the ground around me, snapping and hissing.

One of the snake monsters swooped at my head. I raised my hands to bat it away, but another dove in and wrapped around my neck, squeezing tight. Others sank their fangs into my flesh, but I couldn’t feel the pain of their bites.

The dark magic pulsed, stronger and stronger, consuming me.

I had to save my men, had to stop the smoke assassins before they could be poisoned.

With a snarl, I tore the snake from around my neck and the dark magic snapped, a quick, sharp blast.

All the snakes around me burst into smoke and the smoke men screeched, crumbling to ash at my guys’ feet.

Surprise and fury flashed across Sterling’s expression and it was my turn to look smug.

He was going to pay for everything he’d done to me.

I glanced at my guys, but I couldn’t tell if they’d been poisoned or not. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it right now. Sterling had to be stopped and then I could pray that I could remove the poison using my own dark magic.

At least, for now, they were free and could help me.

But as soon as I thought that, grimalkins and snake monsters stampeded into the courtyard and they were overwhelmed again. Some of our fighters quickly followed, but not all of them, and I couldn’t help worrying that they hadn’t arrived because they couldn’t, not because they were still fighting monsters elsewhere.

“Kill her,” Sterling roared, jerking his chin at Royce. “Get me my magic,”

Royce shifted into his wolf and barreled toward me. I raised my spear, swinging it at him, but he slipped past the weapon and slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.

With a snarl, he dove in to bite me, and I swept my spear up, bashing him in the face with the shaft. He staggered to the side, and I scrambled back, desperate to get on my feet and put space between us.

I don’t think so, bitch, he snarled as he lurched forward and snagged my pantleg with his teeth, jerking me closer.

Sterling howled with laughter, and my dark magic heaved within my control, while the grimalkin’s alpha power grated against my skin.

I kicked at Royce’s head, missed, and kicked again, my heel skimming the side of his face.

“Just fucking die,” Sterling roared.

How dare he! How dare he fuck with my life.

“No. Way. In. Hell,” I roared back.

I seized my alpha power and slammed it as hard as I could at Royce. I was sure I could resist Royce’s command, but I had no idea if I was powerful enough to command him. He was almost as powerful as Sterling, and I had no idea if Sterling had given Royce any special power. There was just too much power and energy snapping through the air to tell.

Royce jerked to a stop and shifted back to a human, his eyes wide with shock.

“You—” he gasped.

“Me,” I snarled back, satisfaction pouring through me.

Take that, asshole. I’m not weak anymore.

“Fucking useless,” Sterling screamed as he stormed toward me.

Then, between one quick step and another, he shifted into… a monster.

It was more like a grimalkin than a wolf, except it was three times the size and instead of a grimalkin’s short, black fur, it had red, leathery skin and a thin tail with a wicked point on the end. Large black wings rose above its body — like the gryphons’ wings — and Tzanagoth’s trademark ram’s horns curled from its forehead.

It— Sterling pounced on Royce, still struggling against my alpha power, and chomped him in half.

My thoughts lurched, unable to fully register what had happened, and bile burned my throat.

Bones crunched, frothy pink drool dripped from Sterling’s mouth, and part of Royce’s arm dropped to the ground… right beside the rest of him. Legs. Half torso. All slumped on the ground surrounded by a massive pool of blood.

Horror roiled in my stomach and I stumbled back a step, drawing Sterling’s attention.

Oh, fuck.

He lunged at me, black smoke and dripping blood pouring from a mouth with too many teeth. In my weak, human form, I didn’t stand a chance against him.

I wrenched my spear up to strike him, but he batted it out of my hands, sending it clattering across the flagstones out of reach, then he snapped at me.

With a yelp, I dove out of the way. His teeth tore through the back of my shirt as I scrambled to direct my magic into controlling a grimalkin or snake monster to help me — since I no longer had a weapon and the monsters had overrun even my guys and no one was going to come save me.

Sterling swiped at me with his paw. I tried to leap out of the way, but he still caught me, sending me tumbling across the courtyard just like my spear.

Fuck me.

That strike could have killed me, but he’d pulled his claws. He wanted to torture me first.

I shot my dark magic toward the closest grimalkin but felt Sterling yank it away.

No. Please, no.

The magic was my only chance of surviving.