didn’t look back to see if Ivy and the guys were following him. He prayed they were. If not, this was going to be the shortest assault in history.
Kendra was on her feet stumbling after Declan even as he and Marcus smashed into each other. The sound was so loud, she was afraid the collision had killed Declan. But then he was back up and throwing himself at the gigantic hybrid again, roaring in a way Kendra had never heard in all the time they’d known each other.
When she’d first seen Declan, her heart had almost stopped. She had left him in that shelter so he’d be safe from the hybrids. And what the hell had he done? Walked right into the blasted compound and practically hand delivered himself to the monster that ran the place. She’d wanted to shout at him and ask him what the hell he was doing.
But she knew what he was doing. He was there to save her butt because that was just the kind of big, soft-hearted teddy bear he was.
Yet, while Declan’s heart was the same as it had ever been, there was definitely something drastically different about the rest of him. She’d recognized it the second he ran into the courtyard. His eyes were blazing so vividly, she had no problem seeing them in the bright morning light. His jaw and fangs were pushed out almost as far as Tanner’s when he was losing it, and his claws were almost as long as Marcus’s. But what made her realize something big had happened to Declan was that roar. She’d never heard anything like it.
Though she had no idea why it’d happened, she knew what had happened—Declan had shifted more completely than he’d ever let himself shift before.
She stood there in awe as he squared off against the bigger hybrid and shook off vicious blows that no other shifter in the DCO could have even survived. In return, he laid crushing hits to Marcus’s shoulders and chest. Kendra had always known Declan could be a powerful shifter if he just let himself embrace his inner bear, but even she was stunned at the sheer power he displayed in standing up to the hybrid that had been hunting them for days.
Despite being terrified that Marcus was going to kill him, she was proud of Declan.
She knew Declan wanted her to run, but she couldn’t. Besides the fact that she was just too sore right now—getting tossed ten feet through the air by a couple of hybrids could do that—there was no way she was going to leave him here to fight alone. Even though she believed in her heart that Declan couldn’t lose, she had to stay to make sure.
Then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye that made her think maybe she was being a little too optimistic.
Three hybrids entered the courtyard, weapons down at their sides. Crap. Declan wasn’t in a position to take on more hybrids—he had his hands full with one. If they joined in the fight, Declan wouldn’t last.
She looked around for something she could use as a weapon. Her eyes locked on the broken bodies of the two hybrids who’d been dragging her to the lab, and the rifles they still had slung across their backs.
Ignoring the pain, she limped over to the bodies. She dropped to her knees beside the first dead hybrid and grabbed his weapon, trying to yank it off his back. But the corpse refused to work with her no matter how hard she pulled. Dammit. She jerked the sling strap off the front attachment point. She was getting the damn thing away from the creature if she had to drag him behind her.
Once she had the weapon in hand, she dug through the hybrids’ cargo pants’ pockets until she found all their extra magazines. There weren’t many. Apparently, hybrids weren’t fans of carrying too much ammo.
She was just dragging the weapon around to get into a shooting position as the three hybrids headed her way.
Kendra dropped to the ground behind one of the dead hybrids and threw the barrel of the weapon over the creature’s chest, then grabbed the charging handle, praying the gun operated like the ones she was used to. She jerked the handle to the rear, feeling the bolt move with it. When it stopped, she let it go and felt the bolt slide forward with a satisfying thump. She hoped she’d just chambered a round properly.