I watched in amazement as both werewolves and the remaining mutants bowed in submission, accepting and acknowledging Zane as the uncontested leader of a new, more diverse pack, a pack where purebreds and mutants would work and live together as one family.
Being a bi-racial woman with supernatural powers, I was for the all-new, all-inclusive Pacific Pack.
Our victory celebration was cut short, not by a search for Jazmine, but a thundering roar that raged louder than any lion, tiger, bear, mutant, or werewolf.
Working at an animal park, I knew that a male lion’s roar could be heard up to five miles away, the loudest of any big cat. What I was hearing far surpassed anything I’d ever heard, including the King of the Jungle.
I realized right then we wouldn’t have to hunt Dillon’s killer.
It was hunting us.
Chapter 4829
Misty responded first. Blasting into the air, she shifted into a wolf before her front paws hit the ground.
The nearby air swelled and rippled as the others followed her example, morphing into their fighting forms and circling their prey, a predator unlike any they’d faced before.
The newly formed pack radiated a sense of confidence that came from having the numbers advantage.
Our increased numbers offered me little assurance.
I’d been inside the creature’s mind. Its sole purpose was to kill. There would be no reasoning. No surrender. Its death alone would stop its murderous cycle. God only knew why Jazmine had kept the monster in her possession.
I needed to find the answer, and with it, the means to crush her rabid pet.
Zane glanced from the menacing demon back to me. I didn’t need any mindreading skills to decipher his thoughts: Stay here. Stay back. We’ll handle it.
I nodded, well aware I would be disappointing my mate for what I hoped would be the final time.
The pack bordered the demon. There were no other words but hell-spawned demon ¯ to describe what we faced. Demonic might prove too kind a description by the night’s end.
A thunderous bellow erupted from the fiend’s mouth.
Even from my position I could see its lethal fangs. Several rows of what resembled ice picks lined its cavernous maw. A thick tongue-like appendage rolled from its mouth, reminding me of a humungous frog seeking to capture an unsuspecting insect.
If I had any control over the outcome, no one I knew would end up in its protruding and malformed midsection.
To make matters worse, my thoughts flashed to Dillon. The idea that Dillon, or a part of him, was being digested inside the beast revolted me. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. I would not allow myself to think about the slain guard. Any mourning would have to wait. Connie was doing enough of that already. I needed to think about locating Jazmine and bringing a rapid conclusion to this monster-sized problem.
Closer inspection revealed three sets of arms protruding from either side, all ending with scissor-sharp claws. I had no doubt the extent of damage those claws could render. I didn’t have to wait long to see the results.
One of the new mutant converts lunged, reaching for the beast’s throat. For the briefest moment I was fooled into thinking the creature was embracing its attacker. An instant later, all six arms sliced across the mutant’s back, gouging so deep, her spine was severed.
Gagging, I turned away and caught a glimpse of what might be our last hope.
From the tree line, David and his mutated brethren floated forward, forming a perimeter around the conflict.
In the interim, more mutants rushed the beast, and were gruesomely dispatched before they could deal out any damage of their own.
David, what is this? I was almost afraid to ask. Can you stop it?
What you see is a loathsome mistake created on the barge. Jazmine is able to control it, to a degree, with a mechanism she alone possesses. She’s eluded us all night.
We can restrain the beast not defeat it. It too is filled with fae, unseelie to be exact, magic. Yet to our benefit, it is of very low intelligence, operating by brute force and the instinct to kill.
An unstoppable idiot for a monster, we were facing the worst kind of enemy — dumb and deadly.
I had to find Jazmine. We needed the device she used to command it.
Contain it! I’m going for Jazmine. I had to act fast.
Zane and James McQuillen signaled for the pack to cease their frontal attacks as David’s cluster approached cloaked in silent secrecy. Without Zane’s command, the pack would