Munro (Immortals After Dark #18) by Kresley Cole

            Strong-willed woman! He would have applauded his mate’s strength—if she hadn’t been using it against him.

            His legs were about to buckle. Dizziness surged. “You’ll die! Tonight.”

            “So certain?” She shrugged. “Wolf, understand something: girls like me don’t make it to the end of the story.”

            “Noo!” He fell to his knees for the second time—because of that cursed blade. “They took you tonight for a reason! It happens against them!” His words wouldn’t make any sense to her. Canna think!

            Gazing at the falls, she said in a distracted tone, “This is my duty. Since you will be sure to try to stop me, I must stop you. Permanently.”

            She was going to fucking behead him. Canna protect her if I’m dead! Panic fueled his dizziness. His beast was in the throes of confusion and aggression.

            She told him, “Vow to the Lore that you’ll never come near me again. Or die.”

            “You canna kill me. I’m yours.” His vision was failing. “As protective as I am of you . . . you feel the same for me.” He only hoped that. In truth, he suspected his mate was about to godsdamn end him. “Lass, let’s protect . . . each other.”

            As darkness took him, she murmured, “Time to kill a wolf.”





THIRTEEN





            Ren stepped away from the Lykae’s body, wiping blood off her blade with the tatters of her gown. She removed her thigh holster, tightened it around her arm, then stowed her knife within easy reach.

            Disbelieving what she’d done, she hastened to the cascade without a look back. She dove into the pool and swam away from the cave. Back on land, she freed her blade once more. She heard no howls and spied no newlings; they must have already passed by.

            Heart in her throat, she tore into the stormy woods toward the scout outpost. With luck, she could evade the invisible spring-trap portals that moved around the forest. Those trapped in one never returned—not even teleporting immortals.

            A gust of wind rocked her on her feet. Lightning flared nearby, charging the atmosphere.

            Though Munro had sounded so sure of her death, she sped on to meet her destiny. What was the alternative? Leaving everyone she loved to their doom?

            Never. She would get back to the circus and protect them.

            Especially Jacob.

            All of her hunters had chosen to journey to the front line of the Night War, pledging their lives to the cause, but Jake had been brought here as a boy. Over the years, she had sensed that this wasn’t his calling, and feared he’d stayed because of her.

            She would do anything to keep him safe.

            As she ran, she spied more ghoul tracks. All of a sudden, she was thirteen, right back in that harrowing search party for her overdue parents. . . .

            Shaking herself from the memory, she inhaled the smell of the stone pines. Even that scent didn’t settle her. She would forever associate it with the Lykae now.

            Her thoughts spun from past tragedies to her actions this night. She’d lost herself with the enemy, had never felt so much addictive passion. What if we were fated—

            Two viper shifters leapt from the bushes in front of her, fangs bared. Their venom paralyzed victims while the creatures fed—and this pair looked hungry.

            Fear tightened her throat, but Ren brazenly raised her weapon. “Reconsider,” she commanded them.

            They crouched, coiled to attack.

            She forced herself to take a threatening step forward. “You know of this knife. You know of me. Reconsider.”

            The pair shared an unnerved look with their sliver-pupil eyes, but remained poised to strike.

            “Scent the blade,” she told them. “You’ll detect Lykae blood from the ancient one I just beheaded.”

            They raised their faces, flicking the air with forked tongues—then shot into the brush, hissing over their shoulders.

            Relief weakened her knees, but she pressed on toward the outpost’s small cabin. When it came into view, the interior was silent and dark. By the flares of lightning bolts, she saw that the ground all around the structure was torn up.