“What are you?” Amos snarled down at me. “How can you keep going?”
“Easy. I’m a hunter—trained by wolves.” The wooziness was starting to affect me. It felt like everything in my skull was tilting. But I had enough strength to scissor kick Amos in the ankle.
He cried out, and a hunter rushed to stabilize him while another planted his boot on my chest—as if I was going to sprint off.
“Hope I broke it,” I muttered as nausea churned away in my gut—the blood loss was setting in, fast.
“Why do you fight for them?” Amos demanded. “Wolves killed your parents! By all rights, you should be joining us! Did the beasts brainwash you?”
“We got them!”
Beyond Amos, one of the Fletching hunters dragged Amelia, Young Jack, and Original Jack out from behind the trap.
The hope that they’d get the second anchor point out sputtered and died in my chest.
“Let me go!” Amelia scratched the face of the hunter who was struggling with her, and it took another two hunters to control Young Jack and Original Jack.
Amos laughed and wiped blood off his face. “So that’s what you were so valiantly fighting for, was it? Too bad—you failed.” He smirked at me, then hummed as he strode toward the Pack.
“Don’t hurt them!” Young Jack shouted. “Mom! Dad!”
“Stop it!” Amelia screamed.
Scarlett and Radcliff jumped at Amos, but several hunters caught them and dragged them off.
The pain and nausea was too much to take, but no matter how I tried to move, I could barely twitch my neck.
Get up! Stand!
Still whistling, Amos unholstered a weapon as he strode up to the trap. He flicked off the safety and pointed at the nearest wolf—Aeric, who was snarling and still slamming his body into the trap, trying to break through it.
The sound of my heart beating filled my ears, and fear and terror rippled through me like a bullet.
It’s happening again. Someone I care about is going to die.
My hunter magic pulsed in my chest—hot, furious, and desperate to get out.
No.
“No.” My lips felt numb as the sensation of my magic flooded my entire body, numbing me to the pain.
Maybe it was the blood loss, but my magic beat in my chest—screaming to be used. But I didn’t know how! What could I do? I wasn’t Pack—I was a hunter!
My magic surged, and it felt…different—though I couldn’t say how, because I was barely holding on to consciousness, my eyes drooping shut—and it surged through my body.
Before I entirely lost it, several things happened at once.
Greyson’s Alpha powers hit the area with enough force to fry my nerves, and the hunter who’d been standing over me flew over my head, tossed aside like a doll when Greyson slammed into him in his massive wolf body.
The wolves inside the trap glowed before they grew larger. They were nearly horse sized now. Their eyes glittered with magic I’d never seen before, and energy hummed around them.
Aeric slammed into the trap, and the net-like weaving frayed.
Several other wolves threw themselves at it, and the trap bulged—hissing and spitting sparks. Aeric and Wyatt—still in his human form—slammed into it together, and the trap snapped.
The wolves burst out of the trap, howls tearing from their throats as they pounced on the hunters.
Is this the power of a Pack under the direction of their Alpha? It’s beautiful.
Even in my addled state I could recognize the one-sided fight.
Aeric leaped onto a hunter’s chest, flattening him with enough force that he wasn’t going to be getting up anytime soon.
Wyatt jumped over Aeric—pushing off his back—and kicked another hunter in the side, downing her with one hit.
Another wolf grabbed a hunter by the shoulder—which was easy to reach now that they were all so huge—and flung the man into another hunter.
A shadow fell over me, and I realized somewhere in the battle, Greyson had turned into a human. （Which must have been a record for him; I swear only twenty seconds had passed since I saw him arrive.） He scooped me up, cradling me against his bare chest.
I groaned in pain, but as soon as my forehead smacked the side of his bicep potent, powerful magic zapped me like a lightning strike, waking me up and chasing off the wooziness of the blood loss.
My shoulder was hot, but I felt great. I could feel my muscles knit together—it was like chugging three of the best fae potions, one after another.
“Wow.” I weakly clung to Greyson as I exhaled pure magic. “Is this what being part of the Pack feels like? Because this…this is pretty awesome.”