Page 108 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

He shifts in front of me, rolling his shoulders back and transforming into his big, gray wolf.

The witches scream around me, falling to their knees. The shadow monsters are weakening them somehow.

Each wolf shifts, lunging for the shadow monsters that dart in and out of their grasp. The two shifters guarding me tighten their stances.

“Shift!” I tell them, “Go!”

They shake their heads. “We’re under orders. We’re not moving.”

Behind us, Danielle cries out, a shadow monster is swirling its body around her, covering her in a tornado of white smoke.

She looks as though she’s choking, gasping desperately for breath.

“Get her!” Jasper yells.

Two shifters leap forward, landing with snarls as they pull at the shadows beneath their claws.

The sound of tearing fills the air as they pull the monster from limb to limb. It lets out one last, defeating shriek.

Jasper checks me again.

I shake my head. I know I’m human, but I’m not the priority, not now.

The witches scramble, whispering frantically, as they attempt to reignite a glow. Their chanting fills the air, momentum growing until another shadow monster dips down through the air and knocks two witches to the ground.

“What do we do?” I yell to Jasper.

He turns his wolf head, dips it back, and growls before hurtling himself into the air.

Mid-jump, he collides with one of the shadows, opening up his jaw and digging in his teeth with force.

There’s another scream, the sound of a deflating toy as the shadow monster dissolves into the air. Leftover smoke settles onto the floor.

The third monster gets away, shooting up into the sky and disappearing among the clouds. The shifters growl above.

I rush over to Danielle, who’s heaving on her elbows, her head barely lifting above the floor.

“Danielle!” I yell.

Jasper shifts back and instructs his crew to tend to the witches the best they can.

“I’m fine,” Danielle manages to say between heavy breaths. “I’m okay.”

But she doesn’t look okay, nor do any of the other witches, for that matter. Their faces have turned bone-white, cold, and lifeless. They’re all struggling to get themselves up off the ground.

The shifters tend to them, rushing to their sides in their human forms.

“Can you go on?” Jasper asks Danielle.

Danielle shakes her head. “There’s dark energy here; the further we go, the more there will be. Our presence will only attract more attention.”

I look at Jasper, whose face has hardened. “So, we call it off.”

“No!” I plead, “We’re so close, doesn’t this mean we’re in the right place? If we leave and come back, the shadow monsters will know we’re coming.”

“She’s right,” another witch says. “Best bet is for you two to go alone.”

From the look on Jasper’s face, I can see just how much he hates that suggestion.