Page 55 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
Shit, why couldn’t it have been one of those jackals? I’d seen their corpses when we’d left the cave and they’d been half the size of the grimalkins. I was sure my club from the other night would have taken one of them down. The only reason Knox had had so much trouble was because there’d been so many of them.
The grimalkin was focused on the wading pool and not the slightly closer lounge area, and my fear turned into a hard, cold rock in my stomach.
None of the women looked like fighters and I couldn’t see any weapons. Even if they were fighters and armed, they wouldn’t reach the wading pool in time. I was closer, and while I didn’t stand a chance against a grimalkin, I might be able to buy time for Cyrus and Bishop to arrive. I could only pray that with their better-than-human hearing, I was still within yelling distance.
The grimalkin tensed, readying to pounce, and I glanced around, looking for a weapon. Rocks or branches. Swell.
I grabbed the rock at my foot that was about the size of a tennis ball along with the closest fallen branch. The branch was almost too thick for me to wrap my fingers around, but it was longer than my last two “clubs” so hopefully that would mean I wouldn’t be within claw’s reach as often.
Then the large grimalkin leaped out of the bushes and so did I.
Oh, fuck oh fuck oh fuck.
“Cyrus! Bishop!” I screamed as I raced over the rocky ground, splashed into the wading pool, and barreled past the suddenly wailing babies and stunned teenagers.
One of the girls yelled and jerked toward me as if to fight me and defend the kids, but I ran right past her and threw my rock at the grimalkin.
I missed.
By a mile.
The stone landed in the water with a plop so far away from the creature it was embarrassing .
The grimalkin didn’t even flinch but I didn’t stop rushing toward it.
With a snarl, the beast leaped at me and I heaved out of the way, somehow managing to not get clawed or bitten and remembering to swing my stick as well.
My aim was too high, and the creature ducked and rammed its large blocky head into my stomach. But I’d faced that kind of attack before, and I managed to stumble back and avoid falling on my ass.
Ha! One point for me.
I smashed the stick against the grimalkin’s nose, breaking the end off my impromptu weapon and making the beast howl in pain.
Two points.
Maybe I could actually do this.
But the grimalkin surged forward, swiping and snapping at me in a relentless attack, and all thoughts of fighting back vanished.
Just survive, I told myself as I scrambled to avoid being clawed. Just survive until they get here.
People and children screamed. I didn’t know if all the babies and toddlers were out of the wading pool, and I didn’t have time to check. All I could do was keep the grimalkin focused on me and stay alive long enough for my guys to show up.
The grimalkin’s foul stench wafted over me, making me choke, and it swiped again. I jerked to the side, its claws narrowly missing me, but it leaped in, not giving me a chance to catch my balance, and rammed its head into my chest again.
My ass hit the hard ground, the ankle-deep water not enough to cushion my fall, and pain ricocheted up my spine. Water soaked into my pants, instantly weighing me down.
With a snarl, the grimalkin leaped and I scooted back on my butt. I didn’t want to chance rolling away and getting caught face down in the water. It wasn’t deep, but it was still deep enough to drown.
But I wasn’t fast enough and the grimalkin’s claws sliced into my calf, pain burning through my leg and my blood billowing out into the water.
I swung my stick at it one-handed, using my other hand to help me get out of the way and praying for a second where I could get back on my feet. I had crappy agility while standing and even crappier agility while on my ass.
Where the hell were Cyrus and Bishop?
Then my back hit something hard.
The edge of the pool.
Shit.
The grimalkin surged forward, its maw open to bite, saliva dripping from its sharp teeth, and its foul breath making my eyes water.
I jabbed forward with my stick, hoping to hit its eyes or nose, anything soft that would get it to back up so I could get over the pool’s two-foot edge.
But my stick plunged into the monster’s mouth, hit something then popped through. The weight of the grimalkin slammed into me, wrenched my stick from my hand, and crushed me against the pool’s edge. Blood rushed out of its mouth onto my chest and neck but it didn’t move. I’d killed it.
Somehow, I’d killed it.
Then Cyrus splashed past me and I realized there were two other grimalkins. Knox was already in the shallow water near the patio, keeping both of them away from the humans, snarling and biting, fighting to block off one grimalkin and pin the other. But it was a losing fight and even though the women and children were running from the pool area, Knox and the grimalkins kept getting closer and closer to them.
Bishop hurried to my side and hauled the grimalkin off me as Knox buried his teeth into one of the grimalkins’ throats and tore it open.
A second later, Cyrus tackled the other grimalkin before it could rush past Knox. The grimalkin dug its back claws into Cyrus’s stomach, but Cyrus held on, and with a roar — and a strength I hadn’t thought possible — Cyrus snapped the beast’s thick neck.
“Are you hurt?” Bishop asked, his gaze sweeping down my body as if he didn’t trust me to tell him the truth and sending a shiver of desire rushing through me.
The muscles in his jaw tightened when he reached the gashes in my calf. With a low growl, he lifted me into his arms, not bothering to ask if I could walk and not caring that I was soaked in water and blood, then clamped a large hand around my calf to slow the bleeding.
“Two days. Two fucking days. That was all you needed to wait and then you could have done whatever the hell you wanted,” Cyrus yelled, storming toward me as if he hadn’t noticed he was bleeding. God, even when he was bleeding he was gorgeous.
Water soaked his clothes, clinging to his powerful body, leaving nothing to the imagination, including how well-endowed he was. Not that I needed help imagining his naked body. I’d seen everything and it was burned into my brain.
“I’d ask what’s wrong with you,” he huffed, “but I already know.”
A woman with streaks of gray in her hair and wearing a loose beach dress splashed through the water toward us. Her face was pale and her eyes too wide with shock, but her expression was serious and determined. She was holding herself together to stay in control, and she was coming toward us instead of running away which made me think she was in charge.
“Is anyone hurt?” Bishop asked her.
She eyed Cyrus then looked at me, and I realized the entire front of my shirt was soaked with watery blood and giving everyone a show of my perpetually turned-on nipples. Thank God she couldn’t smell my arousal like the guys could. Still, I crossed my arms and prayed someone would offer me a change of clothes while I waited for mine to dry… because the other option was waiting naked and that wasn’t going to help the desire constantly raging through me.
“A few scrapes and bruises,” the woman replied. “We should get you two to our doctor.”
“Just Audrey,” Cyrus replied. “A quick shift and I’ll be fine. I’m just waiting until the pool clears out. Most humans I know don’t appreciate public nudity.”
The woman’s gaze trailed appreciatively over his body and something inside me twisted. “I’m sure no one here would mind if you stripped.”
“Mom!” a younger woman exclaimed as she hurried toward us. “You’re a married woman.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t look,” the older woman said with a sly smile.
“Oh, goddess save me.” The younger woman rolled her eyes at her mother. “I’m so sorry. Thank you for saving us. I’m Hallie and this is my mother, Neera. Let’s get you some dry clothes and have Ida check you out.”
Bishop glanced at Cyrus and raised an eyebrow, and Cyrus gave an ever-so-slight nod.
“Is your village nearby?” Bishop asked.
“Not far. Will you be able to walk?” Neera asked Cyrus, her tone turning seductive. “Or should we wait for you to change forms?”
“Please forgive her,” Hallie groaned. “There hasn’t been a new handsome man in town since?—”
“Since you snatched up the last one,” her mother chuckled. “And now two more have shown up and saved your wedding day.”
Cyrus grabbed our packs from the bushes where he and Bishop had left them and our canteens where I’d left them, and then Hallie and Neera led us out of the pool area.
“Are all three of you shifters?” Hallie asked as we stepped onto a wide, well-maintained path lined with what looked like patio stones.
The path led up a gentle slope until we were level with the river again and, from my glimpse through the trees, toward a collection of sturdy stone buildings. Much to my surprise, Knox fell into step beside Cyrus instead of returning to the shadows, but his posture was tense, and I hoped the villagers wouldn’t mistake his worry as aggression.
“All four of us,” Bishop corrected. “I’m Bishop, this is Audrey, Cyrus, and Knox.”
Hallie leaned closer to us and dropped her voice. “Is he not shifting because he doesn’t want my mother ogling him? I wouldn’t blame him.”
“Yeah, he’s the best looking of the three of us,” Bishop said with a chuckle. “Doesn’t want to cause a commotion and all that.”
“Better looking…?” Hallie’s attention turn to Cyrus who walked ahead of us with her mother, and her gaze dropped to his perfectly outlined butt.
The something inside me twisted tighter and turned sour. No, not something. Jealousy. I was jealous this woman was checking out Cyrus even though he’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in me. Not that I wanted him to be interested. I was just horny as hell from the mating bond and my heat.
Besides, if I was too weak to be his mate, a human would be even worse. And I was not going to think about how much it would hurt if he rejected me but accepted this human.