Page 19 of Triumph of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #6)

Chad dropped the magic detector as he spun toward me, utter shock on his face.

That surprised me. Had he not realized the werewolves up here were my family and considered that he might run into me?

“What are you doing here, Luna?” Chad glanced around, as if seeking the rest of his group and hoping for backup in dealing with me. Or was it more that he worried that Duncan might be in the area?

Good guess…

“My family owns this territory,” I said, though I had no idea who this parcel belonged to. It had sounded like it might be part of Mom’s property. If so, she had a lot more land than I’d realized. “The question, I believe, is what are you doing here?”

“Like I told you, I’m working with a real estate developer who called me in because of concerns about werewolves .” Chad raised his eyebrows, then looked in the direction of my mother’s cabin, though we were a mile away from it and couldn’t see anything but trees.

“The werewolves own this land. Your developer doesn’t have any right to be here.”

“He said he’s wrapping up a deal to get it.”

“Uh-huh. He’s a bigger schemer than you are. He’s not getting this land.”

In the mud at Chad’s feet, the magic detector started beeping. It shifted of its own accord, and its antennae pointed at me. No, at my purse .

“What do you have in there?” Chad asked.

“Nothing that belongs to you.”

His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Are you sure it’s not the wolf case that I legitimately bought and stored in our apartment and that you have presumed to keep? Even though it’s not yours?”

I didn’t want to admit that the exact scenario he’d described had happened and that he was right. The case wasn’t mine. But it wanted to be here, or so it had shared with me in a vision. Of course, that might have been a delusion… a hallucination.

“It’s probably beeping at this.” To avoid answering his accusation, I pulled the wolf-head medallion out from under my shirt. “It’s a family heirloom that belonged— belongs —to my mother.”

She wasn’t gone yet, and I refused to talk about her in past tense.

As if to validate the statement, the magic detector beeped happily, and its antennae wavered between pointing at the medallion and at my purse.

Chad’s gaze locked on the medallion. “What can it do?”

Good question.

“When I’ve touched it, it’s glowed brightly.”

The male version had not only healed Duncan but removed a powerful curse, but I didn’t mention that.

“It must do more than that ,” Chad said. “Leave it to you to not bother studying it.”

I bristled. “It’s my mother’s, not mine. I didn’t know it existed until recently.”

A far-off yell sounded, barely reaching my ears. Right after, glass shattered, the sharp sound carrying more clearly. Duncan had to be responsible, doing as I’d asked and scaring the developers.

“My magic detector thinks it’s powerful.” Chad, his hearing not as keen as that of a werewolf, might not have caught the commotion in the distance. He picked up the device and looked at whatever reading it displayed on the screen. “And it thinks you have something else.”

Eyeing my purse again, Chad took a step toward me.

My skin prickled, adrenaline and magic flowing through my veins, my instincts promising the wolf was available if I needed to defend myself.

“Don’t come any closer.” As I held up a warning hand to stop Chad, I took a deep breath to tamp down the magic. I had to keep my cool. I didn’t want to change and risk losing it and hurting him—or worse. Especially not with Cameron nearby.

I glanced over my shoulder, worried my son might have heard us and come closer. I didn’t see him, but if I changed and fought with Chad, Cameron was close enough to hear that.

Chad stopped, but he also glared in indignation. “You stole that case from me. And you divorced me. You don’t have any right to tell me what to do.”

“You cheated on me. Many times over the years. And you stole the kids’ college fund. You deserved to be divorced.”

Chad’s fingers clenched around the magic detector. “That has nothing to do with you stealing that case from me.”

“The case you hid from me. Like everything else about your conniving life.”

Heat flushed my face—my entire body. If I wasn’t careful, I would lose the battle to keep the wolf—and my temper—from taking over.

But more than twenty years of history with him—painful history—made it hard.

And the fact that he was up here, working with the people who wanted to drive my family off their land? I longed to punch him all over again.

“Like you never hid any secrets.” Chad looked past my shoulder and opened his mouth, as if he was on the verge of calling out to someone.

Cameron? Did he think our son would help him against me?

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to deal with me on your own,” I hurried to say, not wanting Cameron brought into this, not wanting him to witness any of it.

“I’m injured . Your feral boyfriend threw me over a car.”

“You’re lucky he didn’t kill you. You’d better leave Seattle before something worse than a sprained wrist happens to you.”

“Screw you, Luna. You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.” Chad glanced at my purse again, then also at the medallion. Avarice and calculation gleamed in his eyes. “Ryder, Baxter!” he called. “I found some wolf relics for your boss.”

I blinked in surprise. I’d expected him to call Cameron, not other allies.

Branches snapped on a hill to one side of the draw, and two men with rifles charged into view.

I cursed. Had they been there the whole time?

They didn’t have paranormal blood, or I would have sensed them.

I didn’t detect magical bullets in their rifles, but that didn’t mean their weapons couldn’t hurt me.

Chad startled me by throwing the magic detector at me. I ducked, and it bounced off my shoulder. He sprang toward me, lunging for my purse.

I recovered quickly enough to club him in the head with it, then sprang back.

He stumbled but snatched again for the purse.

I spun on my heel and kicked, planting the sole of my shoe in his stomach.

With a pained grunt, he pitched forward, but the fight wasn’t over.

The other two men charged down the slope and into the draw.

The wolf magic roared into me. I wouldn’t be able to keep from changing, not with this new threat barreling down on me.

“Get her purse,” Chad rasped as he gripped his abdomen. “And the necklace.”

“It’s a medallion, asshole.” I flung down my jacket, phone, and purse, and kicked off my shoes, but there wasn’t time to remove the rest of my clothing.

My skin flexed, muscles and bones morphing, as the change took over. Fur grew from my flesh, and I dropped to all fours, the medallion remaining with me through the transition. It hung around my neck, glowing against my black fur as it emanated power.

The one who’d once been my mate—Chad—stared as, for the first time since we’d met, I changed in front of him.

“Shit!” The men who’d been sprinting toward me halted, their arms flailing as they gaped at me.

One recovered and pointed his rifle toward me.

At the same time, Chad lunged for the bag I carried as a human.

Though such items had little significance to a wolf, I recalled and sensed that a powerful artifact lay within, something important to my people.

I sprang toward my ex-mate, both to keep him from reaching the bag and to escape the rifleman’s aim.

My enemy fired, but I’d moved in time, and the bullet did not strike me. I bowled into Chad, knocking him back, and he landed on his ass in the mud.

I bit into his thigh, drawing blood. I might have done more to ensure he couldn’t steal my belongings or endanger me further, but both rifles had shifted to point toward me.

The men might have hesitated to shoot a woman, but now that they believed me a wild animal…

Their eyes promised they would have no trouble firing.

I rushed into the ferns, hoping the fronds would hide me. But I wasn’t a small wolf, and the foliage moved with my passing.

The men fired into the foliage. One bullet grazed my flank as the other flew over my head.

Fear and pain prompted savagery, the rising of my wild instincts, and the magic threatened to steal all rational thought. Forgetting where I was and who these people were, I rushed through the ferns until I drew near the riflemen, then sprang at them.

One might have had time to fire again, but his eyes widened with fear, and he stumbled back, heel clipping a root.

The rifle flew upward as I smashed into his chest. He released the weapon, and it clanked onto a rock several yards away.

I bit and tore, ripping into my enemy’s arms and torso to ensure he couldn’t attack me further.

To the side, the other man clubbed me with the butt of his rifle.

My hard muscles armored my body, and the blow didn’t hurt badly, especially not with magic and adrenaline flooding my veins.

I turned, leaving the first man, and lunged at him.

My foe jerked his arms up to protect his head and neck, almost but not quite dropping the rifle.

I bit into his side, my fangs slicing through clothing to tear away a chunk of flesh. The man screamed, the noise so loud that it hurt my ears, and he tried to club me again. I bit deeply into his leg.

When he jerked his arms down, trying to knock me away, I clamped my jaws around his rifle and flung it into the woods.

“Stop right there, Luna,” came Chad’s voice from ten feet away, surprisingly calm.

When I turned, I saw the reason. He’d picked up one of the fallen rifles and was pointing it at me.

I crouched, debating whether to spring at him and try to knock it aside before he could fire, or to leap into the bushes, hoping to dodge when he did.

“Do I…?” an uncertain voice asked.

It was one of my offspring, his brown hair dangling around his jaw. He crouched a step away from Chad, staring at me with round eyes.

I froze, not wanting him to be harmed and also remembering that I hadn’t wanted him to see this, to witness me turning into a wolf and fighting his father. Hurting his father.

Chad leaned on his good leg, not putting much weight on the one affected by my bite wound. His torn trousers were dark and damp with blood.

“Get the purse,” Chad ordered without looking at Cameron.

Human words didn’t entirely make sense to me when I was in wolf form, but I got the gist.

My offspring licked his lips, crept forward with his gaze on me, and reached for the bag.

Frustrated, I growled, but I couldn’t attack my offspring.

He picked up the bag and backed away. Chad kept the rifle pointed at me.

Groans came from the two men I’d attacked, but they were crawling away.

They wouldn’t fight further. Chad was the only one I needed to worry about.

Would he fire? Even though I’d known him well once, it was hard for me to tell.

“Take it back to the car, and stay there,” Chad ordered Cameron.

“But what about?—”

“Do it,” Chad snarled. “She’s feral as fuck. She could attack you at any second.”

Lies. I wouldn’t harm my own offspring. All I was doing was protecting my belongings from a thief. From the bastard who stood in front of me, aiming that rifle between my eyes.

Cameron licked his lips again and glanced uncertainly at me, but he did as his father ordered, backing toward the stream with my bag.

Again, I debated if I could reach Chad before he could fire at me.

The presence of my offspring had kept me from trying, but if I dodged to the side as I ran toward him…

I was fast and powerful, and the magic of the medallion coursed into me, making me feel invulnerable.

I was more concerned that I would kill him if I attacked.

“I always wanted to see you change,” Chad said. “I admit I thought we’d have sex afterward, not that I would shoot you, but you’ve been standing in my way for too long. And I think if I lowered this gun, you’d kill me.”

I growled at him.

He glanced over his shoulder. Because he was waiting for our offspring to be gone? So that he could shoot me without a witness? And later tell Cameron that it had been self-defense?

The hell with that.

I rushed toward Chad, zigzagging to present a more difficult target.

My power combined with the magic of the medallion made me fast, a blur to his human eyes.

He had time to get one shot off, but it slammed into the ground where I’d been an instant before.

Unharmed, I bowled into him, my momentum and weight taking him to the ground.

As he hit with a grunt of pain, I snatched the rifle from his grip and flung it into the woods.

Fangs parting, I lowered my jaw to his throat, letting my warm breath hit his skin. He pushed his hands against my chest but found that he lacked the power to push me away.

My eyes meeting his, I stared into his soul, letting him know that I could kill him. And in that moment, I wondered if I should. He’d meant to kill me. He’d declared himself an enemy. If I let him go, would he keep coming after me?

The scent of urine reached my nostrils. He’d wet himself.

I stepped away, deciding to release him. Maybe it was naive, but I thought him too afraid to come after me again.

As soon as he was free, Chad rolled to hands and knees, gasping and groaning in pain from his injuries. Only with the help of a log did he manage to push himself to his feet and stumble in the direction that Cameron had gone.

I sat back on my haunches, aware that my offspring had escaped with my bag—with the wolf case. Soon, Chad would have it. Perhaps… to be done with him, it would be worth letting it go.

As Chad clawed his way across the stream and out of the gully, I grew aware of another presence in the area. The bipedfuris crouched on a stump at the top of the draw, gazing down at me.

How long had he been there? Distracted by the heat of the battle, I hadn’t noticed his powerful presence.

When our eyes met, I knew he had witnessed me defeating my enemies. I lifted my snout, pleased that he’d seen it and that he’d waited nearby without interfering. He’d believed me capable of dealing with the situation.

He lifted a clawed hand, a strap wrapped around it. My bag. I sensed the artifact within.

A hint of uncertainty touched me, and I cocked my head. Was my offspring all right?

The bipedfuris roared, flexing his powerful muscles, then lifted his face toward the sky and howled.

That hadn’t answered my question.

Realizing we would need to return to our human forms for a discussion, I swished my tail, snatched up my jacket and shoes, and headed for the stream. The bipedfuris hopped down from the stump and also strode in that direction.