The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,100
park in New Orleans, he realized. He must have been there on the other side of the gate, waiting for Ben to be swallowed so he could grab Rhianne. Except Rhianne had saved Ben, and then Shifter Bureau had slid in, blocking Ivor’s way.
Ben never thought he’d be grateful to those assholes, but in this case they’d probably saved his and Rhianne’s lives.
Dirt and grass spilled into the crack as Ben readied himself to leap it. He would grab Ivor and throw him into the hole, end of problem.
Before he could, a roar behind him made him swing around. Beyond the goblins, who were laughing as they caught Walther’s many arrows and threw them back at him, a horde of Shifters headed for them in a full-on attack.
Not adult Shifters, Ben realized as he stared. The cubs.
A lion whose black mane hadn’t fully grown led them, along with a fleet Bengal tiger who darted from the lion to their troops and back again. Next to Connor came a half-grown polar bear, his roars occasionally deepening into those of the massive beast he’d become.
Following them were all the cubs of Shiftertown—Jordan as jaguar, the bears from Ronan’s household, lean-legged wolves, and more wild cats. Every cub who’d progressed above babyhood through those who’d reached their Transition rushed across the green, intent on the enemy.
Ben felt a surge of glee and pride followed swiftly by terror. “No!” he yelled at Connor and Tiger-girl.
Ivor watched the approaching horde with contempt. “Why warn them? They can do nothing against me.”
He turned away, swirling his sword to continue his work on the ley line.
The Shifter cubs raced toward them, bounding, roaring, ready to fight. Ivor could obliterate them in an instant, but he seemed in no hurry to do so.
He didn’t consider them a threat, Ben realized. Ivor underestimated them, just as he underestimated Rhianne, and Ben, and everyone else he’d ever encountered.
Ben turned for the cubs. “To me!” he yelled. He’d gather them and lead them the hell away from Ivor and Walther’s deadly arrows. “To me, little ones!”
Their yowls of fury and triumph increased. Olaf bellowed the roar of a polar bear who could tear apart his prey with one swipe of his paw.
Thunder answered their shouts, and the crack in the earth widened.
Inside the silent stasis of the glasslike ripples, Tiger heard the voice of the young Bengal, his cub. His body was tight with energy drawn from Ivor’s magic, the earth, and the lightning that stalked the skies.
The waiting was over.
Now! Tiger roared and broke his bonds.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rhianne, from her swirling height above Shiftertown, watched the thick ripples splinter like glass. Tiger sprang from them in his between-beast form, his roar drowning out the thunder.
The cubs shrieked with delight and rushed for Tiger. Ivor swung around, but his amazement at Tiger’s escape did not halt him for long. He gathered his power, the immensity of it touching Rhianne high above him.
No! she shrieked.
Her thoughts flashed to a scene from her childhood, one of the rare times she could recall her mother and Ivor together. They’d been traveling from somewhere Rhianne couldn’t remember to her mother’s home and had come upon a trade caravan of hoch alfar on the road, the slow-moving conveyances blocking their path.
The hoch alfar hadn’t been warriors or lords or haughty Fae princes, but merchants returning from a market fair, laden with goods.
Ivor, impatient, had risen in his stirrups, called down terrible magic, and obliterated the entire caravan. Men, women, children, horses, dogs, livestock. Dead in an instant, and then they’d shriveled to dust from another blast of his magic.
Rhianne, a child, hadn’t been able to banish the horrifying images from her head for decades, and they’d never truly gone.
After that she hadn’t seen Ivor much anymore. She’d not witnessed her mother turning him out, but he’d vanished from their lives.
Ivor could kill all the Shifters emerging from the stasis, down to the last cub. He’d imprisoned the Shifters inside the ripples not from any compassion but to save himself having to expend the energy on killing them. He’d come here to take Rhianne—everything else had been unimportant.
The thick stasis field continued to shatter as more and more Shifters returned to view, shaking themselves free.
No! She wanted to scream at Tiger. Put them back. Keep them safe.
The Shifters quickly took in the situation—Walther, Ivor, the cubs, Tiger. As one they sprinted toward the advancing cubs, their first instinct to protect the offspring.