They were all screwed.

Coveney’s animal jumped out of the way, blocking the attack of the Vergas wolf with ease, and buried his sharp fangs in his flanks. A pained growl was ripped from his chest and he turned to see an arrow lodged in his shoulder.

Shit. His tiger wouldn’t be able to get rid of it, and shifting back to his human form in the middle of this mess was nothing short of suicidal. He’d only taken a second to contemplate how utterly screwed he was when another wolf jumped him from the right; he saw another set of arrows flying at him on the left.

Arrows…

He knew someone who used those, and she rarely missed her mark.

You’re so dead, he told himself. He was - there was a very good chance that they all were. But inside their home, there were nine children, at least two of whom would die if he failed, so he didn’t have a choice. He needed to fight.

Zack, his Alphas’ newborn son, was condemned by shifter laws because of what he was: a Turner, able to change a regular human being into one of them. Their existence was a secret that shifters had spilled a lot of blood to keep under wraps.

Lola, their toddler, wouldn’t live much longer. There was a chance that the Vergas wolves had come because of Zack, too, but Coveney doubted it. They had wanted to kill Lola for a long time, hunting them everywhere, until his Pride had managed to push back.

But today, if things went their way, these wolves would have a chance, unless he stood his ground as long as possible to give the children a chance to run with their Beta female.

He had to survive.

Launching himself at the wolf, Coveney’s tiger roared as a second arrow pierced his skin, closer to his heart this time.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been shot. It hurt like a bitch, but he could ignore the pain. He had to.

His claws ripped through the wolf’s back; he placed a paw on its head and, with a flick of his wrist, broke its neck. Then he turned left, facing the direction where all those damn arrows had come from, and there she was. Smirking. Of course she smirked. She was finally getting what she’d wanted for the best part of a decade.

Lorren hadn’t always been that way. Back in the day, she’d actually been a sweet kid; his very best friend. He couldn’t even pinpoint when things had started to change, exactly, but he remembered when he’d realized there was no going back, not for them.

Coveney noticed that women had tits late for a shifter. They were animals, and most of them got horny shortly after hitting puberty and shifting for the first time, but he was nineteen when he found a girl that fascinated him more than a video game. Lorren disliked Holly on sight, but Coveney figured it was just because of the usual best friend versus girlfriend rivalry. However, one day, he’d been called to his Alpha’s office and found himself accused of rape.

Him. He’d been too shocked to utter a single word.

Oh, he’d fucked, wildly, savagely, but Holly had been an eager participant, and she’d loved every second of it.

“I don’t understand,” he’d said. “Holly…”

But it hadn’t been Holly who’d gone to the Alpha with poisonous lies. It had been Lorren.

With some distance, he now saw he’d been a dumb fool. Lorren had been into him; she’d probably seen them as a thing because there had been no other women in his life. Not that it justified the way she’d ruined his life, but, if he’d realized what had been going on, he would have acted differently. He might even have given things a try with Lorren, for the sake of their friendship; he liked his girlfriend well enough, but they both knew their relationship was casual. Shifters didn’t complicate sex.

Instead, he’d been completely blind, and the betrayal had hit him even harder for it.

Almost everyone turned from him, believing her word over his. Holly, his family, his friends. There were a few notable exceptions. The Prince who left his family Pride, going with Coveney rather than letting him become a loner. Others followed, standing firmly between him and the mob. They’d become the Wyvern Pride in the following months.

They were everything to him. No wonder Lorren smirked as everything he held dear was burning to the ground.

Lorren hated him more than ever since he’d been acquitted, no doubt. She got entangled in another lie, years after his departure, and the Royal Pride ordered a witch to cast a truth spell this time. His name was cleared in the process, when the witch saw fit to ask about what had happened back then. Coveney still felt bittersweet about the whole thing; sure, now everyone knew he wasn’t the piece of shit they’d believed him to be, but at the same time, they hadn’t believed him enough to get her tested back then. A simple spell and he might never have had to leave his home, his family.

Her punishment was becoming a Squire, a slave of the Royal Pride, which explained what she was doing here. If the Royal Pride had been called to fight against them, she’d be part of the attacking force.

Coveney saw a dozen familiar faces behind her. He was relieved to see his own family, and their Alphas, were notably absent. It would have been messed up if their King had come to kill his own grandson. But it looked like the Royal Pride hadn’t sent anyone official after them - these were just a bunch of stuck-up idiots who’d acted on their own.

He could see Lorren’s glee from a distance as she shot arrow after arrow - all in his direction. He had to deflect the adversary in front of him in a one on one and avoid getting shot again.

Coveney’s tiger screamed out as a wolf head-butted him right in the shoulder where he’d been shot. Falling to his flank at the impact, he saw another arrow fly, aiming right at his heart now that he was knocked over.

He almost closed his eyes, but he was no coward, so he watched death coming at him.

A split second before the weapon found its mark, a high-pitched scream resounded in the skies.

Great. Eagles. The servants of the shifter council had joined the party. Not only was he going to die - he was dying knowing his Pride was doomed.

That was his last thought when the magnificent bird of prey descended, plunging at high speed towards the driveway-cum-battlefield.

And it caught the arrow in its talons, before batting its large wings and flying back up.

What the…

An eagle had saved him?

His tiger sniffed tentatively and caught a faint scent he wasn’t ever going to forget. Olives. Lavender.

And blood.

Shit.

The eagle - the female eagle, if his sense of smell didn’t betray him - had been shot by Lorren. She may not be injured badly enough to die on the spot, but it didn’t matter.

Coveney knew that, like everything else Lorren touched, her arrows were poisonous.