Page 151 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

As he kisses me back, one of his hands rises to the back of my neck. The stroke of his fingers over my skin stirs up all kinds of hungry emotions inside me, not that this is a good time for indulging in them.

When we ease apart, I don’t see a trace of disapproval in any of the other guys’ expressions.

Jacob wavers on his feet and then steps toward his brother. As Griffin turns to meet him, Jake yanks him into a hug of his own.

“I should have been there,” he mutters. “I’d have done everything I could to stop them.”

Griffin hugs him back hard. “I know you would have. I can feel how angry you are on my behalf. I haven’t blamed you for being angry with me at first, Jake. I deserved it.”

“They fucking deserved it.”

“They’re gone now. I don’t even know if they’re still working with the Guardianship. Clancy told me what they’d done was barbaric.” Griffin frowns as he draws away from his brother. “But he might have just said that to encourage me to trust him.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “We have plenty of other reasons not to trust him now. And we’re not going to have anything to do with him again except to get the other shadowbloods free.”

Zian reaches out to squeeze Griffin’s shoulder. “Thank you for telling us everything, even if I kind of bullied you into it. I guess we should be getting back… and explain why we don’t have any more water.”

Andreas waves his hand dismissively. “We’ll just say it looked too muddy to risk it. Simple enough.”

I might have liked to have topped up our supply of hydration, but my spirits have lifted as we tramp back to the path anyway. The simmering tension between all of my guys has melted away, the vibe between us feeling almost as companionable as back when we were teens.

We rejoin the younger shadowbloods just in time to see Celine slipping through the trees toward the group from the other side.

Griffin aims a pointed look at her that I don’t totally understand. “Where did you go on your own?”

She laughs with a tug at her clothes. “Needed a trip to the ‘ladies room.’”

Griffin still seems pensive, but then his gaze travels across the group, and his eyebrows draw together. “Where’s Lua? My cat?”

Booker, Nadia, and Devon look over from where they were standing in a cluster farther down the path, matching guilt on all their faces.

“I’m sorry,” Nadia says, her shoulders slumping. “She was hanging out with us getting pets all around, and then all of a sudden she freaked out. Fur puffed out, hissing at us. She raced off this way.”

“It was only a couple of minutes ago,” Booker adds. “Maybe she saw or smelled something weird that freaked her out a bit, and she’ll come back when she realizes there’s no problem.”

Zian’s head jerks around in response to something I didn’t pick up on. “Unless there is a problem. Everyone, stay where you are.”

We all freeze, our voices fading into the humid air. My heart thuds so loud I can barely make out the twitter of the birds overhead.

Then I catch a hint of movement between the trees. A striped, muscular body prowling through the jungle several feet from the path.

We’ve got a feline companion, but it’s not Griffin’s little housecat. No wonder Lua panicked.

I glance at the guys, not sure what to say. How do you deal with a tiger on the hunt?

I don’t want to risk pissing it off and making it more inclined to attack.

“Let’s get moving, slowly and calmly,” Dominic says. “Stick close together, and?—”

“What’s there?” The girl who found our path interrupts him with a nervous shiver, her gaze scanning the jungle. Then she lets out a squeak and scrambles farther down the path.

As if her fear has lit a fuse in the youngest shadowbloods, Ajax, Devon, George, and a couple others dash after her, George blinking in and out of view every few steps. But clearly that’s the wrong move.

Paws thump over the ground. The tiger barrels through the jungle toward the fleeing kids.

“No!” I cry out, throwing myself after them.

The giant cat lunges onto the cleared path right at their heels, and a shriek jolts up my throat before I can even think about it.

The tiger’s body seizes up. My power radiates up from my lungs, latching on to every nerve and bone in its immense body.

I’ve shattered a shadowkind monster before. A mortal jungle creature is nothing.

The energy vibrates through my body as the scream peals louder. This beast was going to hurt the kids—the kids I swore I’d protect.

I can’t let it get another chance.

The tiger’s legs crumple with a groan of agony.

Its tail kinks. Its back twists. Its jaw snaps open and sideways.

The crack of its skull resonates through my veins with a rush of power. In that instant, I feel as if I’ve just woken up fresh for the day, not a single step taken yet.

The furry creature slumps in the middle of the path, limp and deformed.

The young shadowbloods huddle together, staring at the tiger and then at me. My stomach knotting, I glance behind me to find similar shock etched on the faces of the older teens.

They had some idea what I can do, but they’ve never seen my power on full display before.

They’ve never seen the sadistic edge it takes… or how much satisfaction I take from the torment, even if I wish I didn’t.

None of them have abilities anything like this. They couldn’t have been prepared.

Jacob sets his hand on my back and lifts his voice. “You got it just in time, Riva. That thing would have mowed all of them down if you hadn’t hit it so fast.”

His steely gaze dares anyone to complain about my methods.

“Let’s grab our things and get moving,” Andreas adds, brisk but warm. “We’ve had enough of a break.”

And we don’t want the kids spending any more time gaping at the tiger’s mutilated body than they have to.

Ajax squares his shoulders and meets my eyes. “Thank you, Riva.”

The girl who ran first nods shakily, though she’s clutching George’s arm. “Thank you.”

But as we skirt the tiger’s broken body, a gloom seems to have fallen over our group that not even the brilliance of the late-afternoon sun can beam away.