Midnight Kisses (Shifter Island #1) - Leia Stone Page 0,96

to be alpha, fight me fairly!”

This was not how alpha status fights were done.

He just grinned.

Still tracking the rogue wolf, I spun and shot a fireball at the animal, but it splashed into the forest as he deftly rolled away.

“What’s in this for you?” I yelled at Nolan. “Seems like a lot of risk just for alpha status.”

The ground rolled beneath our feet, and my gaze darted to Sean, an earth elemental. Rage licked my hand and then broke away from me to take on Mallory and her siblings.

I understood. There were too many of them; we needed to keep them busy until Justice, Noble, and Honor got here.

Okay. I could do this.

New plan: keep my cousin talking while taking out the rogue wolf.

“You can’t believe the pack will follow you after they know of your betrayal,” I shouted across the clearing.

Nolan barked another laugh, this one closer than the last.

“After I kill you, then I’ll fight your dad. Once I win and your family is eliminated, Crescent gets to come back to Alpha Island with me as their alpha.”

My shock turned to sickening understanding.

The alpha king was in on this. He was the only one who could lift the banishment.

All of this: the attacks, Nolan’s ferocity toward me, it was all driven by the king. It had to be. Nolan couldn’t afford an assassin. I had no idea when he’d seen the mate mark or if this was something more, but—

“Nai! Look out!” Kaja screamed, her voice deep in the trees.

I spun as the rogue charged. I had no time to think, not even to act, only react.

Raising my hands, I produced fire in my left and water in my right, and then I shot a torrent of steam at his face; so hot his fur, and then skin, and finally his muscles melted … right off the bone.

Oh mage.

Bile rose in my throat as the wolf dropped to the ground, thrashing and writhing in pain.

I…

I forced a swallow and pulled. I couldn’t even say what I pulled at, only that I felt a surge of power course through me. I grabbed hold of it and doused the rogue with a final burst of steam, and then he stilled.

Horrified, I gulped and turned, facing Nolan once again.

The wind picked up; the trees creaked with the force of his power, and branches snapped. The gale-force slammed into me, lifting me up into the air. I lurched from the ground with a scream on my lips as Nolan’s wind power took hold of me. Up, up I went—and then the wind disappeared.

Gravity hurled me toward the earth, past a blur of trees, and pain seared through my right side as a branch sliced into me. I flailed, arms and legs waving as I pummeled toward the ground.

Suddenly, a soft force of magic slowed my fall, cushioning me. I landed hard enough to have the air knocked out of me. But gulping with relief, I tasted ash in the air as I climbed to my feet—

To the tortured cry of Rage’s wolf.

My attention shot to the sound.

Mallory and Heather were shooting fire at my mate, and Sean was staring at the dirt where a gaping hole was inching closed around the lower half of Rage’s wolf. My mate scratched and tried to climb out, but it was too late. He was trapped, being buried alive.

Something deep down inside of me, something dark and wild snapped. The tangled mess of my magic swelled, coursing through me so quickly I gasped.

My mate was in danger.

My mate.

“Stop!” I shouted, flinging my arms back to propel me forward. I flew up as if the wind were carrying me, skimming the ground as I sailed across the clearing like a freaking witch on a broomstick. I landed next to Rage, and the earth shook. Trees uprooted around Rage as he was propelled up from the packed soil and freed.

Mallory punched her brother in the arm.

“It’s not me,” he said, backing away from where Rage’s wolf now stood, whole, on solid ground.

No. Not Sean at all.

I didn’t know how… I didn’t know why… but I knew. This was one hundred percent me.

I could feel it.

I could feel … everything.

The line where the mulch met the soil as well as the soil content, how much iron it had, where the vein of quartz crystal ran through the shale, deep into the sedimentary rock. I could feel the tree roots snaking through the earth, and below the stone, all the