Oath Sworn - K.N. Banet Page 0,47

go?” Now he smiled. “Like we haven’t been watching you since the full moon?” He chuckled. “One wolf in the gas station and no backup…really? You must be new at this.”

Ice ran through my veins and the shock of what he said must have loosened my grip. He took the chance to bring a knee up into my gut, forcing me to let go of him. I had no time to recover before a fist connected with my jaw. I shook it out before he got in another hit and pushed away his leg. I ducked down, small enough to get under another swing, and pushed forward, slamming my shoulder into his gut.

We both went down, into displays and shelves, things flying everywhere. In the midst of the struggle, he rolled us, forcing me onto my back. I went for his eyes as he got two hands around my throat. I started to Change, knowing deadly claws were replacing my finger nails, my hand was becoming a paw, and longer than it was in my human form. A quick swipe and the spray of blood that followed told me that I hit my mark. His scream made my ears ring as I took a deep breath when his hands were done. I pulled back on the Change and stalked after him as he tried to stagger away, holding his bloody face.

I jumped on his back, forcing him into another set of shelves. Rian was screaming something but I ignored it, too focused on killing the other predator who had come into my domain to take what didn’t belong to him. The wolf tried to pull me off his back as I tried to adjust my angle on him, going for his throat this time. I felt flesh rend under my nails and another scream dominated everything. He staggered underneath me, going to his knees.

I was relentless, pushing him all the way down and rolling him over. When I was on his chest, I snarled victoriously. I sank my fingers into his neck and pulled, taking out everything except his spine.

I was dazed the moment it was over, looking down to see what I had done. The last wolves I had fought, I had done so as a werecat in my animal form. This time I had killed a man with bare hands.

“Jacky, you have to go!” Rian yelled. “There’s a fucking hunting group in the parking lot. There’s too many for us!”

I jumped up, letting his works sink in. I picked up the gun off the tile floor, my mind reeling, trying to put together any sort of plan.

No.

All I could do was run. I flew out of the gas station towards the motel, covering four to five feet with every stride. I could see them clearly. Brin was trying to talk them down with his other two sons backing him up. The problem was, there were a dozen wolves this time, maybe more.

This was a true hunting party. Werewolves only ran in that number for one reason, and that was when they were killing a werecat.

I saw Carey there as well, held roughly by her upper arm by one of the brutes. Luckily, everyone was still in human form. Regretfully, they all had guns too.

I never slowed down, even when they realized I was coming. One lifted a rifle, but was stopped. He said something I didn’t hear, but I didn’t honestly care what that was.

“Stop! We don’t have to kill you!” he yelled.

I jumped.

The thing about cats was that we could and would jump long distances when it was required. I cleared fifteen feet, landing on a wolf next to Carey, who screamed at the top of her lungs. It might not have been my smartest move, but the only thing I really cared about was that she was next to me and maybe I could get her out of the middle of the hunting party and running with the fae before I died. I lifted my gun and fired before the one holding Carey had time to react. His eyes were wide with shock as he dropped, a bullet hole on the right side of his forehead. I grabbed her, pulling her into my body and kicking another wolf. I fired at the same wolf, putting it down before it was a problem.

Three down. Ten to go.

I’ll kill all of them before they take what’s mine.

One tried to grab me away from Carey, so I kicked back,