This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,96
She’s holstered her gun in favor of a dagger. In the distance, five shifters, including my brother, jump out of the SUV. They immediately split up, drawing us in opposite directions, one group heading for the street on the left, the other for the street one block over. Danika could pick them off one by one right now, but she won’t fire unless our lives are threatened.
Our goal—unlike them—is not to waste life, but to deter them from invading Tristan’s territory again.
“You take the group on the left,” I shout to Iyana. “Dawson is mine!”
Iyana races off to the left, running so fast that she’s a blur. She catches the nearest man, throwing herself through the air and knocking him down before she spins and throws her dagger into the shoulder of the next man. Within seconds, she’s engaged in a fist fight with both of them.
I veer right, my wolf’s power surging through me, increasing my speed as I race to cut Dawson and the other two wolf shifters off. I catch the nearest man, who shouts, wide-eyed, and tries to dodge me. His cry chokes into silence when my boot connects with his throat, sending him sprawling onto the pavement.
I can’t afford to stop. Racing after the second shifter, I grab his arm just as he spins toward me, a pistol aimed right at my chest.
My reflexes kick. Pushing his arm up just in time, the bullet flies wide of my head, but it nicks the tip of my ear, sending shockwaves through me.
In the distance, I hear a hawk’s screech of frustration. Danika can’t take a shot while I’m this close to my attacker and we’re moving around so fast. She also can’t use her hawk’s scream to help me, even in her human form, or she’ll hurt me along with my attacker.
Fear fuels my defenses as I grip the man’s wrist, step, spin, and flip him onto his back. The pistol slides from his hand into mine at the same time. He’s at close range, but I’ve never hit a damn target with a gun in my life.
In the second that I hesitate, the first shifter charges at me.
I spin and kick. His own momentum increases the thud as he meets my foot and stumbles backward. At the same time, I throw the pistol wide, slip my dagger free from the holster around my thigh, and drop to ram it into the shoulder of the man on the ground. Wrenching the blade out, I spin again and throw it into the thigh of the shifter I kicked.
Two blows to the head and they’re both sprawled unconscious on the pavement. I retrieve my dagger before I search for Dawson.
The distraction has given him enough time to run across the parking lot. His legs are a dark blur in black jeans, but his chest is bare, his brown hair flying where it’s cut longer on top.
I give chase, darting after him, pushing myself to go faster as I try to catch up. I don’t know what he plans to do, but I can’t let him get anywhere near the clock tower.
Bullets hit the pavement right in front of him. Danika fires warning shots that force Dawson to pull up sharp, leap backward, and swerve off-course. He veers to the left, away from the street he was headed for, and races alongside the building opposite the parking lot. If he rounds the corner, he’ll be out of Danika’s sights.
But avoiding her bullets slowed him down. The delay is all I need to catch up with him.
I hurtle the rest of the way across the street and ram into him, using all of my strength to knock him against the brick wall at the side of the building and bring him to a complete halt. The impact shudders through me, contact with his body that I don’t welcome. I follow up with a punch, but he recovers fast enough to duck and I nearly hit my fist into the bricks before I pull the punch.
I evade the retaliatory blow he aims for my stomach.
For the next thirty seconds, we trade quick blows as he tries to get past me, but I continue to force him up against the wall, blocking each attempt to escape. I sacrifice my defenses to keep him there—taking a punch on my chin and another across my temple.
By the time he slumps against the wall, I’m bleeding down the side of my face, but he’s in