Page 104 of Their Mate

And Jamie gave me the smallest, warmest smile I’d ever seen on him. “Aye, lass. We’ll come back. All of us. You have my word.”

The woman in the hood cleared her throat behind us and I turned to look at her.

“My name is Tamsin Drake,” the woman said as she took a few steps in my direction. “We’re from a group called the Accord. Weserve humans and wolves alike, trying to be a bridge between them, so long as they don’t turn feral or fall to the lycan curse.”

Before I could answer, Jamie snorted from where he leaned against the rail, rifle balanced over his shoulder. “Oh, aye, she’ll giveyouher name, lass. I’ve been calling her ‘mystery lass’ since she arrived, and she never so much as blinked.”

Tamsin’s mouth twitched with the ghost of a smile. “You didn’t need it, Buchanan. She does.”

I almost smiled despite the ache in my body. “And your wolves?” I asked, nodding to the four men who stood behind her like shadows, strong and steady even with the battle roaring below.

Tamsin’s pale eyes flicked to them, then back to me. “You should know who fights at your side.”

The first to step forward was broad and grinning even now, shoulders like a fortress. “Griffith Madoc, but everyone just calls me Griff.”

Next came the leaner one. “Bishop Hale,” he said simply.

The third stepped forward, knives gleaming on his belt. “Nox Byrne,” he murmured. His voice was low, smooth, and dangerous. “I like things quiet. Until it’s time for things not to be.”

I believed him.

The last man was calm as still water even with chaos below. “Eamon Tierney,” he said. “Field doctor.”

“You’ll stay busy, then,” Logan muttered from behind me, his voice dry.

Tamsin lifted her chin. “If this Commander Dane means to bury us all here, then we’ll just have to bury him first.”

I nodded once. “Agreed.”

CHAPTER 36

Aidan

The first claw hooked over the cliff edge, black and wet and sharp, talons digging furrows into the stone.

The lycans had brought the battle to us.

“Down!” I barked, already moving, but the lycan was faster than anything that size had a right to be. It hauled itself up in one fluid lurch. Its eyes burned sickly yellow, its teeth bared in a grin too human to stomach.

Sera gasped behind me.

That was enough.

My shirt tore open as the shift ripped through me, bones stretching, muscles thickening, fur bursting out with a heat like fire. The wolf came fast, brutal, leaving the man behind in fractions of a second. My claws slammed into the rock, my jaws opening wide.

Beside me, Declan roared as he shifted too, the sound tearing from his chest like an explosion. Logan followed, black as a shadow, his eyes like embers in the storm light. Edward shifted with the concentration of a soldier falling into formation, lean and deadly. Jamie was a blur as he shifted too, fur the sandy shade of the dunes, faster than a strike of lightning.

Five wolves. One pack.

We circled Sera and Tamsin. Humans in the middle, wolves at the edge, teeth bared at the nightmare crawling over the cliff.

The lycan lunged.

I went low, sinking my teeth into its thigh, tasting rot and iron. It shrieked and swung wide, but Declan was already there, barreling into its flank. Logan slammed into its chest, a streak of black fur and muscle, jaws clamping on its throat.

Edward was the one who finished it, his weight landing on the beast’s back, his jaws closing at the base of its skull. The lycan dropped, twitching once, twice, then stilled.

Then the sea roared again, and more claws were already dragging up over the edge.