The werewolf grunted, swatted her hand away, and retightened his grip on her neck. “Lively one. I like that. But you’re gonna have to learn your place, bitch.”
Adalynn continued her struggles, kicking, clawing, and hitting the werewolf, but it only seemed to arouse him further. When he finally released her neck, she fell to the floor, her legs crumpling beneath her. She sucked in several deep, gasping breaths. A second later, pain stabbed across her scalp as he grabbed her hair and dragged her away from the wall, forcing her onto her hands and knees.
Realization of what he intended to do struck her hard.
“No!” she cried, turning, drawing back her foot, and kicking the beast’s chest. It was like kicking a brick wall—the wolf didn’t budge. Adalynn managed only to scoot herself back on the floor a foot or two, pulling her robe taut beneath her. She flipped over and crawled away, but the werewolf caught her ankle and dragged her back beneath him.
His weight pressed down on her back. “I’m gonna get off whether you fight or not,” the wolf growled, “but it’ll hurt a lot more for you if you don’t knock it off.”
“Get away from my sister, you fucking asshole!”
Adalynn’s throat constricted, and everything within her stilled, frozen in icy terror.
No, no, no. No! Danny was supposed to go!
Adalynn turned her head to see her brother charging the wolf, his ridiculous bowie knife raised overhead. His lips were pulled back in a snarl that bared his teeth, and his face was contorted with more hatred and rage than she’d ever thought possible from him.
Danny brought the knife down, plunging it into the werewolf’s back.
The beast snarled and reared back, dragging Danny—who clung to his knife with furious desperation—along with him as he swung around, lashing out to reach for the boy. Danny grabbed a fistful of the werewolf’s fur, pulled his knife out, and stabbed the beast again.
“Danny!” Adalynn cried, scrambling out from beneath the wolf.
One of the werewolf’s groping hands caught Danny’s shirt. The beast plucked the boy off his back like he was pulling an insect from his fur and threw the boy across the room. Danny hit the wall and fell to the floor in a heap.
The wolf stalked toward Danny. “You little shit, you’re gonna pay for that!”
Adalynn pushed herself up to her feet and lunged at the werewolf. She grasped fistfuls of fur on his back and forearm, planted her feet on the floor, and wrenched back with all her strength. “Leave him alone. Don’t you fucking touch him!”
He shook her off effortlessly. Adalynn stumbled backward and fell, landing hard on her backside.
“I’ll deal with you in a minute, little bitch,” the werewolf said.
Gritting her teeth, Adalynn braced her hands on the floor to either side, meaning to get back up. She paused when her fingers brushed something cold and hard. She turned her head to see the shotgun on the floor next to her.
Slapping her hand down on top of the weapon, she picked it up, swung it around, aimed it at the werewolf’s torso. She slid the grip forward, producing a loud click as a new shell loaded into the chamber. “I said, leave him alone, dog.”
The werewolf spun around. His reflective eyes flared, and he opened his toothy mouth wide to release a roar. Adalynn pulled the trigger just as he leapt off the floor. His roar died in a snarl of pain as the shot struck him in the groin, shredding his flesh and spraying blood on the floor.
Adalynn rolled aside as the wolf crashed down nearby. She shifted the shotgun and tugged the grip down to eject the spent shell.
“You fucking cunt,” the werewolf wheezed, pushing himself up from the floor and cupping his bloody groin. He grimaced and snarled before launching himself at her again.
Adalynn braced for the impact, for the inevitable pain, tightening her grip on the shotgun. She wouldn’t get it reloaded in time, wouldn’t be able to get another shot off—and she didn’t think it would make a difference even if she could.
A blast of roiling blue, fire-like energy struck the werewolf with enough force to lift him off the floor and send him crashing into the wall. The plaster cracked and crumbled, and wood snapped inside the wall itself. Adalynn flicked her gaze to the open doors.
Merrick stood in the open doorway, his body wreathed in crackling blue energy that both flowed like fire and scintillated like electricity. It burned in his eyes, and wisps of it poured from the claw wounds on his arm and chest. Behind that energy was a darkness far too deep to be natural, from which shadowy tendrils writhed and whipped.
Adalynn dropped the gun and crawled across the floor toward her brother. She swept her hands over him quickly but gently, checking for wounds. Danny groaned and opened his eyes. Adalynn helped him sit up; he seemed unsteady even in that position.
Danny’s eyes rounded as they fell on Merrick. “Oh shit.”
Those two words sent a wave of relief through her.
Adalynn clutched the sides of her robe together and turned to look at Merrick.
The wolf struggled to get up. Merrick stalked across the room, trailing blue energy and star-flecked shadow behind him, and stopped to stand over the beast. With a grunt, the werewolf lashed out and buried the claws of both hands in Merrick’s sides.
Merrick didn’t flinch, didn’t make so much as the slightest sound of pain. He clamped his hands on the sides of the werewolf’s head. The energy sheathing Merrick flared, and the shadows swarmed around it, swept through it, to envelop the werewolf and pierce him with their tendrils.
The brightness intensified; Adalynn turned toward her brother and squeezed her eyes shut, throwing her body over Danny to shield him. The light was so bright she could see it through her eyelids, even while facing away. The only means she had of marking the passage of time were her own rapid, thumping heartbeats, which were too fast to count.
When the light finally faded, Adalynn straightened and opened her eyes, blinking to rid them of the dark afterimages skittering across her vision. She looked at Merrick over her shoulder.
He was standing over a pile of ash that had been the wolf only moments before. A thin, slowly dissipating cloud of ash hung in the air in front of him. Though the magic on his skin had faded from its height, it still crackled and pulsed like constantly shifting veins in a marble sculpture, casting a blue glow throughout the room. He turned his head to look at her, and his eyes burned a little brighter.
Adalynn turned toward Merrick as he walked over to her.
He sank into a crouch in front of her. There was fury on his face, but also a strange hint of wariness and uncertainty. He reached for her, but stopped before he touched her, lowering his hand. “Are you two all right?”
Adalynn launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck to embrace him tightly. Somehow, she knew the magic flowing around him, over him, and through him would never hurt her. That magic whispered over her and permeated her body as she touched him; it sang to her.
Merrick wrapped his arms around her and held her just as tightly. His magic made her skin tingle in the most delightful way; it brought her every nerve ending to life despite all that had just happened.
“Wow,” Danny said, his voice strained. “You obliterated him.”
Drawing back from Adalynn, Merrick flicked his gaze between her and her brother. “Are you okay? Are either of you hurt?”