Power poured through Ashton’s blood. He and Isabella had turned each other. Now they were both hybrids. With that knowledge, Ashton began to understand why there had been a taboo against shifters and vampires mating. The mating bite would change them both, creating a creature more powerful than either had been before.

A slow smile spread on his lips. He was going to rip her father’s head off and then shove it up the other one’s ass. He shifted into animal form, ruining his clothes. He didn’t care. The thrill in his blood was worth more than all the clothes in the world.

His mate hurried behind him. They took the wall in a single bound and ran together through the gardens toward the mansion. In the moonlight, they could see three figures standing on the front steps, looking into the darkness. Ashton knew they could seen them coming.

Santiago hissed and flew forward, flanked by his two flunkies. Ashton and Isabella pounced as one, knocking the ancient vampire and hurling him toward the stairs behind him. He landed on his feet and hands, his eyes bright with rage and his fangs long and sharp in his growling mouth.

“You dare to challenge me!” he roared. His voice cracked in the cool night air. Ashton could feel Isabella’s panic and anger. He could smell her desperation as she focused on her father. The child within her still wanted to be loved by the man who had never loved her. Ashton knew what it felt like to never get what you needed from someone important to you. For an instant, he wondered what his brother Ronan would think of his transformation.

In unison, the two hybrids pounced again, their long fangs exposed in the pale moonlight. The other vampires charged them, but Ashton and Isabella were able to throw them back with a flick of their heads.

With the other men disposed of, they pounced at Santiago, but the patriarch was too fast for them even still. He leapt to the roof of the mansion and began to run. The lions jumped, landing on a balcony on the second floor and then bounded again to the high roof. The vampires were all together again, standing at the far end of the mansion.

Isabella shifted, and Ashton stopped. “What are you doing,” he bellowed through their link.

“Father,” she pleaded. “Let us end this.” She held out her arms in supplication her pale skin glowing in the moonlight.

“This will not end until you are dead, daughter. You’ve become an abomination.”

Isabella cried out in rage and agony. Still trying to be the good daughter, still disappointed. She looked at him with utter hatred in her eyes, her chest rising and falling in quick heaves. “Let’s end this,” she bit out before falling into her shift.

The glorious giant cat stood beside him, her lines sleek and beautiful, her smell intoxicating. He would go to the ends of the Earth for this beauty. He would defend her and their growing child with his life.

They roared as one and pounced at the vampires. Instead of attacking from the front, they landed on either side, bookending the group of vampires. In one swift motion, they swiped at the three men, knocking them down, under their powerful lion bodies.

Screeches of rage and pain erupted from the three men as the lions devoured their bodies, tearing, clawing, and destroying the men. But one of the bodies scurried away and scampered across the roof. Santiago jumped down to the ground, leaving the other men to be torn apart.

Looking up, Ashton nudged Isabella and they hurried after the escaping elder. A man that old was hard to kill or even catch. They send questioning messages to each other through their animal link. Neither really knew how to kill an ancient.

He jumped into a car and sped away just as they hopped down to the ground. They shifted, naked, bloody, and panting. “What do we do?” she asked.

“I don’t know. We’re evenly matched now. He can’t take us.”

“But we can’t take him either.”

“How do you kill a vampire that old?” Ashton asked her.

“A stake through the heart or fire,” she said definitively.

“Will he come back?”

“Perhaps. But I know one way to make sure he doesn’t.”

Isabella stormed into the house and Ashton followed her. She marched into the parlor and picked a fireplace lighter up off the mantle. Walking to the drapes, she flicked on the lighter and then held it to the long curtains. As they lit, she walked to the next and the next, until the room was alight with fire.

She stood, smiling gleefully at her handiwork. “Come darling, this isn’t safe,” Ashton said, pulling her out of the burning room. As they walked down the hall, flames licked behind them. “Hurry,” Ashton yelled, pulling her out of the mansion and down the front steps.

Outside, they could see the fire spreading quickly through the old house. Isabella’s eyes were alight with glee and remorse. Her childhood home and her prison burned before her.

“Let’s go, Isabella. You don’t have to watch.”

“Oh. But I do want to watch,” she whispered. A gas line caught inside the house, exploding in a loud burst of flames. She stepped backwards but didn’t take her eyes from the fire.

“We should go,” he warned again. “The fire department will be here soon.”

“No. I want it to burn to the ground.” Another loud explosion sounded from within and the entire building was alight with deep red flames.

“And it will. But I don’t want to be here when the authorities arrive.”

She sighed and turned to him, sorrow in her beautiful face. “Okay,” she finally whispered. They shifted together and ran through the gardens and jumped over the walls to disappear in the forest.