The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,87

after Ben as he sprinted behind Tiger. Tiger charged down the green, the huge Bengal scattering cubs before him. Not to hurt them, Rhianne realized, but to herd them from the middle of the common area, a long strip of grass dotted with live oaks.

Tiger gave a great barking growl, and the cubs, understanding his warning, ran toward the houses. The other Shifters, taking Tiger’s cue, began to snatch up cubs and carry them away from the green.

What Rhianne didn’t understand was why. She saw no danger in the middle of Shiftertown, saw nothing at all except trees moving in the morning sunshine, green grass just starting to brown for autumn.

Almost as soon as her bewildered thoughts formed, a shiver began deep inside her. A wrongness oozed over the middle of Shiftertown. It was invisible, soundless, scentless, but the sensation was there.

The Shifters felt it, voices sharp as they rushed cubs indoors. Tiger sent the last cub back toward Liam with a nudge of his paw, then charged to the center of the green, heading for a circle of trees.

“The ley line,” Ben yelled to Rhianne over his shoulder. “Crap!”

Ripples of nothing spread from the center of the trees, shimmering in the air.

Ben slammed to a halt and Rhianne barely stopped herself from crashing into him. Around them chaos reigned as Shifters ran and dodged, grabbed cubs to shove them inside houses or threw off clothes and shifted. A gray wolf began an ear-piercing howl. Calling other wolves, Rhianne realized.

The ripples hit Tiger, terrible snarls tearing from his throat. He slowed, as though he’d rushed into thick glue, his limbs paddling but his body grinding to a full stop.

Then came a flash so bright Rhianne had to slam her eyes closed and turn away. Shifters screamed around her as the light seared the air.

She pried her eyes open again and saw the mucus-like ripples envelop Tiger like a cocoon. Then Tiger vanished.

“Fuck!” Ben yelled.

Rhianne couldn’t speak, her throat going dry. Tiger, the indestructible, the wise, the one who’d understood Rhianne almost instantly. Gone.

A keening rent the air. Tiger-girl raced toward the circle of trees, desperately pursued by Connor. Carly came after them, Seth screeching in her arms.

“No!” Tiger-girl’s wail cut over the growling, snarling, and howling of the other Shifters. She threw off her shirt, the rest of her clothes falling from her as she shifted into a Bengal tiger nearly the size of her father.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Connor snarled. He loped after her, shifting as he ran into a black-maned lion, his mane not fully grown. Connor sprinted on powerful limbs, trying to catch up to Tiger-girl. She outran him, leaping toward the ripples where Tiger had disappeared.

Ben caught Carly before she could run after them. “No,” he said sternly.

“Let me go.” Carly writhed in Ben’s strong grip. Her son kicked and squirmed, Carly barely able to hold him. “He’s my mate. He’s my mate.”

“Your mate who’d kick my ass if anything happened to you,” Ben growled. “Stay. Let Shifters mess with this.”

“Whatever the hell this is,” Carly shouted back at him.

“My father,” Rhianne said quietly. “He’s come for me.”

Ben sent her a grim look. “Your stepfather. He didn’t sire you. So I don’t have to feel guilty when I rip his heart out.”

“What are you talking about?” Carly demanded. “How could anyone get through the gate? Fionn is there holding it, isn’t he?”

Rhianne’s body flooded with coldness. “This Fionn is only a hoch alfar lord. Ivor de Erkkonen could cut him down without trying.”

Andrea, Fionn’s daughter, must have understood this, because she was racing toward the clearing herself, Sean in hot pursuit. The other Guardian, Pierce, sprinted after them.

Dylan Morrissey was the only one not rushing around or shifting or shouting. He had halted a few feet from Ben and Rhianne, hands on hips, watching the confusion with emotionless eyes.

“Dylan, honey.” Carly wrenched herself from Ben and marched to him. “You’d better be thinking of a way to rescue my mate.”

Dylan glanced at her, not in rage but understanding.

His own mate, Glory, slid clothes from her tall and beautifully curved body, dropped into wolf form, and moved off to join the other wolves gathering on the opposite side of the green. The wolf pack parted to let her in, welcoming her.

Dylan turned to Rhianne. “Ivor?” he asked.

Rhianne’s lips were stiff. “It’s me he wants. If I return to Faerie with him, your Shifters will be safe.”

Ben’s furious, “The fuck!” was joined by a chorus of “No way in