Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,37
instead of laughing. Watching Penn fight a fully-grown wolf weaponless and unarmed had shocked them, apparently.
Penn punched the wolf in the other eye over and over, blinding him until the wolf suddenly let go. Penn’s side was so bloody I couldn’t see how bad the damage was, but I got a general impression of vivid red gore. Rosemary’s hand had tightened until I could barely feel my fingers, but I was too focused on Penn—and on how I might try one last-ditch effort to get Penn and Rosemary out of here safely.
But Penn, wincing in pain, hurtled over the alpha’s back and wrapped his arm around his throat. The wolf tossed from side to side, trying to throw him, but Penn just clung tighter, squeezing the alpha’s throat.
And the alpha finally succumbed, staggering, then falling. The alpha’s eyes closed; he was beginning to transform, shifting back into a man, his wounds healing.
“He tapped out,” the alpha’s second muttered reluctantly. “Victory to the Carolina pack.”
Penn staggered back toward us as the alpha opened his eyes. Penn pushed his dirty blond hair back with one hand and leveled a grin my way.
I grinned back as relief flooded through me. “Looks like you learned a few things at the academy.”
“Not enough,” the alpha said from behind him, right before he lunged toward Penn. Someone in the crowd threw something to the alpha, who whipped toward Penn with a flash of silver in his hand.
“Look out!” I shouted.
Penn whirled just in time and ducked under the alpha’s blow. He managed to get him by the jaw with one hand, bracing the alpha with his arm across his shoulders. An oh shit look crossed the alpha’s face. Subtle strands of golden magic flared along Penn’s arm as he broke his neck. The alpha was staring right at me when the life went out of his eyes.
I hoped no one had seen that. We might still not get out of here alive if the pack knew we were using magic. They’d allied with the witches, and they were still arrogant and resentful about magic.
But everyone seemed to be staring at Penn in horror. He dropped the body, letting the alpha crumple to the ground, then dusted his hands against his jeans.
And then they began to kneel.
“Alpha,” they ground out as they went to their knees.
Penn looked around at them, his own horror mirroring theirs. He didn’t even want to be the alpha of one pack.
“Great,” he said. He stepped over the old alpha’s body. “I’ll be back. For now, I want you to bring all your weapons to me. No one leaves pack lands. Do you understand me?”
The Kierney pack had a date at the academy, but they were never going to make it to help the other packs and the surviving witches who had us under siege.
“Understood, alpha.”
“Sweetest words,” Penn said to me, even though I wasn’t sure he really meant it.
Rosemary suddenly hugged him, and Penn hugged her tight, looking over her head at me in confusion. But he patted her back, trying to make her feel better.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”
Once we had their weapons, the three of us headed for the car to get the hell out of pack territory before this strange situation could turn sideways yet again.
Chapter Eighteen
Maddie
* * *
A few hours later, just as dawn first streaked the sky, we had ditched the snowblazers—Silas had flickered his fingers and sent them racing off halfway around the world, it seemed—and finished our hike into Quorum.
We arrived at a safe house, a cottage in a maze of endless suburb streets. The inside of the house smelled musky, and I couldn’t stop sneezing when we walked inside.
“You sneeze like an adorable little kitty cat,” Jensen told me as he dragged open the curtains that looked out into the overgrown backyard. “Silas, you’re a terrible home owner. Although to be fair, it’s a terrible home.”
“Seems pretty nice to me,” Silas said mildly, reminding us all of where he came from.
The cottage was dingy, with a loft above the living room for the bedroom. “Looks like we’re all sleeping together,” Jensen drawled when we returned from our short circuit through the house.
“All right, before we move onto recon,” Rafe told Silas. “I need the full story about what happened back in the woods.”
“Do you?” Silas cocked his head at Rafe, examining him, then sighed before Rafe could unleash on him. “Yes, I suppose you do.”