The Alpha by Jenika Snow

25

Cian

Iran hard and fast through the woods, the long strip of deserted asphalt parallel to me. I was purely running on animalistic instinct right now, allowing my wolf to take control. My senses were heightened exponentially, more than they’d ever been before.

I was no longer human, the sheer determination to get to my female and ensure her safety like fuel in my veins, air in my lungs, the very beat of my heart.

I was vaguely aware of several vehicles coming over the crest of the road, their halogen lights illuminating the darkness in a glow of neon blue. I didn’t have to see who was in the cars to know it was Adryan and his soldiers. I didn’t even try to rationalize how he’d found me or how he knew where to go.

I ran faster, my mouth and body eating up the distance, my paws digging into the dirt as I picked up my pace. I smelled blood and gasoline before I broke through the tree line, finally spotting a small fire burning from the hood of an overturned van.

My heart skipped a beat. I thought I was too late, that Evie was already taken from me. But I reminded myself that I still felt her, felt my mating mark pulse in my blood. She had to still be alive. I wouldn’t accept anything else.

I heard shouting, cursing, and screaming. I filtered out all those sounds and only focused on finding my female. I scanned the surroundings, the fight, the bloodshed. And then I saw my Evie, her body seeming so small among the carnage as she fought against another woman. It was clear the other female was part of the Assembly by the clear way she fought, her moves skilled, obviously trained. My mate didn’t stand a chance against someone like that.

I tipped my head back and howled in rage and vengeance.

I could see the wounds covering Evie, could smell her blood even from the distance. And then there was Odhran, naked and bloody, his wounds covering so much of his body it was all I could see. He was holding off several men, fighting in the way our kind did. No mercy. It reminded me of all the times we’d been in battle. I knew his many wounds were the reason he hadn’t shifted. He was too hurt to shift, and as I inhaled deeply, I picked up the scent of chemicals. They’d weakened him with something, causing him to be unable to take his wolf form.

I focused on Evie again and let out a growl as I lunged forward, moving faster, needing to get to her. My wolf was vicious as we jumped right into the fight, snapping and tearing flesh from anyone who got in front of me.

I was on the human woman attacking Evie, latching my massive jaw on her leg until she screamed in pain. She swung her arm out, and something sharp slammed into my shoulder, but I didn’t feel anything but the adrenaline rushing through me, and the need to kill her ran strong.

I didn’t think about anything but bloodshed as I tore a chunk of her calf off. She screamed again, and I fucking loved the sound. I launched myself fully onto her. She fell backward, her body supine, her eyes wide and terror-stricken. She lifted her arm up, and I saw the hunting knife she held. If she thought that would stop me, if she thought stab wounds littering my body would bring me down, then she knew nothing about a Lycan and how powerful we were at protecting our mate.

I was in a haze as I finished her off, my canines and teeth tearing at her flesh, blood coating my jaw, all the fur down my chest covered in the gore. It was only when I stumbled back and swung my head in Odhran’s direction that I saw two human males coming after Evie. I could see their mouths moving, assuming they were shouting, but I heard nothing but the rush of my pulse in my ears.

I was about to launch myself at them when there was a fast blur of motion to my right, a flash of color, a body, a form of a male moving faster than any human could. And then Adryan was standing behind one of the men, towering over his body, looking at me over his head with a sadistic grin spread across his face and his red, glowing eyes flashing with excitement and menace. His fangs grew long right before me, now passing his bottom lip.

And the human didn’t even know he was about to die.

Adryan gripped the hair of the human and wrenched his head to the side. The man struggled for only a millisecond before Adryan opened his mouth wide and sank his fangs into the human’s throat. He growled so deep I heard it across the distance. Adryan tore his mouth away, ripping away a chunk of spongy flesh so the human had a gaping—blood-squirting—wound.

Blood pulsed out of the man’s throat in a brilliant display of red, an arc of his life literally moving through the air.

Adryan spit out the chunk of flesh with a grin.

I heard a female cry and snapped my head to see another man behind Evie, a gun raised to her head, the barrel pressed to her temple. Her eyes were wide, tears streaming down her cheeks. I held very still even though I was howling in rage and fear for my female.

I crouched low, analyzing how to take the fucker down in the safest, fastest way possible, when she rammed her head backward until her skull cracked against his nose. He howled, blood rushing out of his face instantly. His arms loosened around her, and she was smart as she dropped her body to the ground. God, my female was magnificent.

I wason him in the next second, jumping over Evie as she got flat on the ground and rolled away. I slammed my paws down on his chest so hard I heard his ribs break under the force. His head cracked back on the asphalt, his arms splaying out, the gun skittering across the road. I didn’t wait, couldn’t even think rationally or decide what I was going to do.

My wolf took over as I clamped my jaw around his trachea and ripped it out, letting that part of his body fly through the air to land in the distance. It was a gory, brutal display of my strength, my prowess.

It was who I was as a Lycan.

It was how I protected my mate.