B008IJW70G EBOK (25 page)

      “
Not yet.”
Came a sad reply. “
Not yet.”
 

      So he was going to die. From protecting her. He’d come back and now he was going to die. Claudia had been wrong, the
Infecti
had figured out how to block her, how to change her future. She’d been right earlier, they
were
meant to have a future together, he’d come back to her, but that meant nothing now.

      Hunter wasn’t going to survive. 

      “
He took down two of them, traitor leopard shifters who traded their lives for swapping sides. The suckers got away but the others are closing in on them.”
Claudia told her.

      Hunter was going to die. 

      Her world went black. She saw red before her eyes, but she didn’t stop. 

CHAPTER TWENTY

No! 

      Riley’s screaming roar cut through the air. The pain-filled noise echoed around the forest, bounced off trees, over and over. 

      No. She fought the pull to change as her emotions begged to be released. As her body and mind fought. 

      She stood over Hunter. His sleek black fur shone up at her, beckoning her. Calling to her. 

      But she was too late. 

      “
Hunter. I’m sorry, I’m …”

      His body flickered. If she wasn’t staring at him so intently she would have missed it. Wouldn’t have seen that he wasn’t as deathly still as she’d first thought. 

      “
Hunter
?”

      She dropped to the ground, falling to touch him. Riley bent her head to rest her ear against his chest. 

      He was still breathing. 

      She jumped up and stepped back. All she cared about was saving Hunter. Before she lost him forever. Her mind screamed out, but she controlled herself. The only pain she couldn’t push away was the one beating against her heart, hitting her, crushing her body. Threatening to smother her. 

      “
Hunter.”
She said his name over and over in her mind. Willing him to survive. For her. “
Hunter.”

      Riley growled and hissed then stood deathly still. Focused.

      “
Claudia
,” she beckoned. “
Claudia, come now.” 

      Her mind burned, as if the pressure was too much, but she knew her sister would come. Would arrive within seconds of being summoned. 

      It had been dangerous of her to come here. To be here still, alone, while the suckers were at large. Hunting her. But she wasn’t going to leave Hunter. Not when she’d finally decided to be his mate. To bond himself with him until death. 

      She hissed and spat some more, furious that he was here. Almost dead. Perhaps soon dead.

      Because of her. 

      She roared, her bellow ringing out through the trees again. If they found her, they could kill her too. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. Hunter was all she cared about right now. She would die herself to avenge his death. 

      A whoosh of air made her ears prick. Riley spun, but she wasn’t afraid. She knew that sound well now. 

      “
Claudia
.” She said her name in her mind, watched as her sister glanced at her first, then down at Hunter. “
Save him, Claudia. Please.”

      She didn’t need to be told that Claudia would do anything within her power to keep him alive. And she also saw that her sister understood, from her actions, what she’d decided. 

      But then Claudia had no doubt already glimpsed her future. Her new future. One without Hunter. 

      If Hunter died, she would never love again. She had his scent on her fur, held him like a prism within her heart. He was her mate and she loved him. Just because she hadn’t told him yet and made it official didn’t mean she wasn’t his. Right now, she couldn’t be anymore his if she wanted to be. 

      Claudia ran her hand, glided it, across Hunter. His body writhed as she touched him. It was then Riley registered the matted fur on his side, the pool of inky red blood staining the floor of the forest. Oozing out and snapping at her own paws, like it wanted to imbed itself in her. 

      But they hadn’t taken his soul. They’d been disturbed by the other leopards.
Her
leopards. If she hadn’t got help so quickly, they would have taken his body
and
soul. Forever. 

      Right now, there was still hope. A faint glimmer of hope. 

      “
He doesn’t have long
.” Claudia’s words rang out loud in her ears. Like drums beating an unknown rhythm with fury. 

      “
Save him
.” She demanded it. Commanded her sister to obey.  

      Riley went to move him herself, trying to nudge him, but his weight was too much for her. He was a big cat, and lifeless, he weighed even more than usual.

      Claudia pushed her away. Being able to feel her sister’s warm hand on her still took her by surprise, but she didn’t have time to think about it. Not now. 

      “
Let me move him,” Claudia instructed.
 

      All Riley could do was stand by, helpless, and watch. 

      
“Meet us at the lair. Hurry. He needs you.” 

      Riley roared again, watching as both Claudia and Hunter disappeared before her. 

      He was gone. She didn’t even know how, but Claudia had taken him. 

      Riley started to run, the pads of her paws thumping on the ground. 

      He was not going to die. She wasn’t going to let him. 

      Because she couldn’t survive without him. 

By the time she met them at the lair, it was surrounded. Young shifters from the pack were gathered, a few different leopards were scattered, but they all looked at her, wordless, as she passed. No one tried to stop her. They were too charged with battle to bother her, and too concerned for their strongest soldier fighting for his life to care. 

      Riley moved through the mouth of the lair and into the dry depths of it. 

      
Hunter
. She could see his still, lifeless form laid out on a bed of what looked like straw. Her sister was bent over him, so was another woman that bore a resemblance to Sophia. She guessed it to be her grandmother’s guider. They both rocked back and forth, a low wail passing through their lips, hands hovering over his body. 

      Riley wished she could see what they were thinking, know if they held any hope. Whether they believed they could do something or if they were just trying their best to appease her. 

      She tried to lock minds with Claudia and failed. 

      “
Don’t you dare leave me,”
She forced her thoughts to pass over to Hunter. “
I’m yours, Hunter. I will wear your scent. I’m yours forever. Forever, do you hear me?”

      This was not how she thought she would lose him. To the enemy? Yes. One day. But not to their own kind. To fellow shifters who were meant to be fighting the same cause. 

      How could they have done it to him? An assault on one soldier, by so many of them. He’d been so brave, taking them on like that. So determined to save her.

      And why had he been in the forest? Had he picked up her scent and known what would happen? Had he come back for her or to the pack? 

      The hair on her back prickled, like she was about to fight, but she calmed her mind. This was not the time to lose control. All that mattered now was Hunter. Healing him. 

      She had to leave that to Claudia. She was their only hope. What she had to do now was figure out a plan. 

      
“Come.”
Her sister did not turn, just sent the word to her. Commanded that she obey. 

      Riley moved forward, her paws inching closer to Hunter. 

      
“Touch him,”
Claudia instructed.
 

      The smell of him made her want to run. Gone was the musky, male scent, the scent that usually made her want to rub her body all over him to absorb it. Instead he smelt like sickly, sticky blood. Of medicine. 

      
Of death. 

      She forced the bile down that hovered in her throat and focused on the form in front of her. She could do this. She had to do this. If Claudia hadn’t thought it would help, she would have kept her out of the way. She had to do what she could. 

      Riley bent over him and purred. Kept her mind focused. She rubbed her head over his, butted at him gently, did everything she remembered he liked. But her strength was waning. If she didn’t stay strong, focused, she wouldn’t be able to keep her form. And to help him, she needed to be a leopard, not a human. 

      She knew Hunter couldn’t change either. He’d die of these injuries in human form. He needed to stay changed. Claudia must have frozen him like this, taken the ability from his mind to change until he was healed. 

      If he ever healed. 

      “
I’m yours, Hunter. Claim me. Please.”
She thought she heard him moan. 

A quick glance at Claudia told her she was right. “
More. You’re doing well.”
 

      Riley growled low in her throat and nipped at him, lightly, as a cub would. She rubbed her face over his, pushed her shoulder against him. Gave him every indication that she was his. Didn’t care who could see or who might be watching. 

      She had only one purpose. And that was to rouse Hunter. 

      “
Show that you’re mine, Hunter. You’re my mate. You can’t die. Show the others that you accept me.”

      He stirred again, his movement more pronounced this time. 

      Claudia moved away from her then. Her eyes had clouded, her skin had become deathly white, like she was sick too.

      She was seeing something. 

      “
Claudia.”
Riley shouted at her. “
Claudia, what do you see?”
 
      “
They’re coming for you. More of them.”
When her sister looked back at her, her eyes were wild.
“You need to go. If Hunter is to heal, you need to go. I need to focus on him and only him if you want him to have a chance. Lead them away. Take the strongest. Summon Sophia. Go!”

      Riley didn’t need to be asked twice. 

      
“I love you, Hunter. Don’t leave me. Be strong.” 
      

      She gave her sister one last look, but she was already bent over her patient. 

      Hunter was going to make it, he had to. But real change was coming. She could smell it on the wind. 

      Riley burst from the cave and inhaled deeply. She’d been so worried about Hunter that she’d ignored the full strength of her senses. 

      “
Men!”
She bellowed the word. A rumble around her signalled they’d heard. “
Now is the time. Now is when we fight. They are here. They have come for us.”

      She wanted Hunter, needed him by her side. But this was what he’d trained her for, wasn’t it? This was her destiny, and she had no choice but to embrace it. They might not have started her combat training, but every instruction he’d ever given her had been to help her prepare. 

      He was their strongest warrior, but they’d learned from him.
She’d
learned from him. 

      Six leopards appeared before her. She recognized them all from the other day. Now, they were serving their purpose. Some of them were already spoken for, mature leopards who wanted only to fight for her, and they’d help keep any rogues interested in her romantically out of her way. 

      She thought the smallest was the one who had challenged Hunter, but she couldn’t be sure. 

      “
The traitors?”
She asked them all. 

      They looked at her with respect, not longing, to her relief. It made her feel better about being out in the forest with them. More confident. 

      She was to be their new leader and this was her time to prove herself. Their eyes, green and slitted, told her they were here for her. To fight beside her, not for or against her. 

      Curved, teeth-bared smiles appeared on all six faces. 

      “
Gone,”
said one. 

      “
Ripped apart, piece by piece,”
said another.

      She nodded, before arching her back and hissing. She revelled in the way her lips moved back to reveal her teeth, thrilled in the anger as it pulsed through her body. She hadn’t yet trained with them, completed any army training, but she could feel in her bones what needed to be done. 

      Hunter had almost died trying to protect her, had killed two fellow warriors alone and fought even more,
for her
. She’d seen their fallen bodies when she’d raced back to the lair. Now it was her chance to prove herself. To make him proud. 

      The enemy was here. Now was their chance to capture them. To kill them, and send a message back to their kind that they were stronger than ever. 

      “
We must go. Now is the time to take them down. They’re coming.”

      One of the leopards, the eldest, growled at her. But she wasn’t scared of him. 

      “
They come for you,”
he said. “
You need to stay.”
 

      She flicked her tail, growling low in her throat. No one told her what to do. She was their leader now. Or would be soon. 

      “
We kill them now.”
She had no intention of backing down. “
You kill them with me or you turn back.”
She gave him no option. 

      She knew this was only the start. That killing those on earth now would only delay what was coming. But they needed to act fast, then prepare for the onslaught that would come soon after.

      But she needed more time before the big battle. She needed Hunter to live, to make their bond real, so they could fight together. Side by side. Only together would they be strong enough to defeat this. When the decade was up and the full force of their enemy was unleashed, once she truly understood what she was fighting.