I attacked.

Cora

The weaselly science guy stares at me with round eyes. Okay, so I’ve just materialized in his lab and killed two guards with ejections of power from my hands, but like fuck has he not seen magic before. He works for a secret group experimenting on vamps for godsake.

“Fix him.” I point to Hunter, who’s propped up against the wall. “You must have an antidote.”

The flicker of his eyelids tells me he does.

“I’m going to give you till the count of three to comply, then I’ll assume that you’re useless to me and fry your ass.” I light up my hands with electrical power. “One. Two.”

He moves fast for an old guy and is across the room by a cabinet in less than a second. “I have it. I have something that might help.”

“Might isn’t good enough, buddy.”

He holds a vial out to me like a sacred offering. “I can’t guarantee. The serum is for vamps, not Loup, and I told him that. I told him it could kill him, but he took it anyway.”

Fuck… I look down at Hunter. Why the fuck would he…Fee. He did it for Fee. Damn if that isn’t the perfect redemption arc.

“This might help,” scrawny scientist dude says. “It could neutralize the effects. Right now, the serum is tearing apart his genetic code and attempting to rebuild it. This should halt and reverse the process.”

“Give it to him, and just know if he dies, you die.”

He nods and hurries over to Hunter, grabbing an empty syringe on the way. He administers the new serum and then quickly steps away from Hunter.

Tick tock. “Well?”

“It should be working by—”

Hunter takes a lungful of air, his body arching on the inhalation. I stop myself from rushing over to him; there’s no way I’m taking my eyes off bozo science guy.

“Hunter? Hunter, can you hear me?”

He takes several breaths. “What happened? Fee?”

“Jasper’s gone after Fee. The wards are down. How are you feeling?”

He rubs his chest. “Like I got kicked in the chest by a rhino.”

“Hey, blinky!”

The scientist looks at me.

“Check his vitals.”

“Um…I’d rather not get too close.”

“Would you rather I incinerate your ass?”

Yeah, that gets him moving.

Hunter growls as the scientist gets closer.

I glare at the Loup. “Stop it. Let him check you over so we can get the fuck out of here.”

“I’m fine.” But he holds out his wrist for a pulse check.

The scientist does pulse and eyelids and nods. “Good. I think it’s working.”

Hunter shoves him away and stands. “I need to get out there and…” He sways and grabs the wall.

“Not okay, blinky.”

“I don’t know,” the science guy says. “I don’t understand. Weakness isn’t a side effect, but Loup aren’t vamps, so…”

“I’m fine,” Hunter growls. “Get me to Fee. Now.”

I want to say I don’t take orders from anyone, but it kinda feels redundant considering getting to Fee is what I want too.

I let the fire wink out and grab hold of scientist dude’s collar. “You’re coming with us.”

I hold my hand out to Hunter, and once he has a grip, I focus on Fee and make the jump.

Fee

My fangs sank into Cold Eyes’ face with a satisfying crunch. His scream was a symphony to my ears, and then I set to work tearing him apart.

Uri’s face bloomed in my mind. His eyes filled with regret the moment before and then after…

Rage was a red-hot monster taking over my body, and I succumbed to it, allowing it to drive me. To bathe in hot blood and slide its claws through warm entrails. I tore and I ripped until there was nothing but mush, and then I zeroed in on the next dead-eyed fucker and went in for the kill.

The snarls and howls of my pack echoed around me like a battle song as we allowed our fury to reign.

I was the beast.

I was the Loup.

I was wrath.

Gunshots pierced my side but the pain barely registered before I was healing and the fucker who shot me was dying.

Magic whizzed through the air, lighting up the night and burning holes in the super vamps. I caught the scent of death with a metallic undertone that was less copper more iron to my left. This was their scent. My boot snagged on something. I looked down, and the rage that was fueling me melted.

Uri.

He lay on his side just as he’d fallen. His amber eyes dark and unseeing. My Loup retreated, and I fell to the ground beside him, slipping out of half shift.

Around me, the battle raged, but I didn’t need to look to know we were winning. No. I needed to stay here. Right here with Uri.

I carefully lifted him and dragged him onto my lap. His torso was dark with congealed blood.

His body was cold to the touch.

I stroked his face and ran my fingers through his silken hair. I was going to buzz cut it for him. He’d said I could. I closed my eyes, and his warm laughter rang in my ears. We’d had so little time. Too little, and still, he’d made an imprint on my heart, one that nothing would erase. I just wished…I just wished I’d had the time to tell him…

I opened my eyes and leaned down to kiss him. His lips were ice as I pressed mine to them. Hot tears slipped down my cheek to kiss his.

The pain in my heart was acute, spiraling, never-ending, and it hit me. I loved him. I’d fucking loved him.

Heat kissed my brow. Light. What? I sat back and stared at Uri’s body as it began to glow from the inside out. Wait…wait a second…

He sucked in a sharp breath and then cried out in pain, hands going to his chest as the wound began to knit.

I gripped his face. “Uri? Uri, can you hear me?”

“Fee…” He groaned. “Aw, fuck, that hurts. Back away.”

He slid off my lap and tried to put distance between us. My instinct was to go after him, but I did as he asked and backed away. He was glowing brighter and brighter, and the world around us was cast into darkness, and then the light exploded outward in a shockwave, knocking me onto my ass.

I held up my arm to shield my face as the world dimmed again.

“Fee…” Uri stood a couple of meters away, whole and glorious, shining with an inner light that slowly seeped back into his skin.

“You’re alive.” A sob pinched my throat, and then I was on my feet and running toward him.

He swept me up into his arms and squeezed me tight. I let him for a moment, and then I pulled back, grabbed his face, and peppered it with kisses.

His chuckle warmed my heart and brought fresh tears to my eyes, this time, ones of relief.

“I thought I lost you.”

“He sent me back,” Uri said.

I pulled back. “The divine?”

“Yes.”

“Looks like I owe him.”

“He said he owed you.”

I pressed my forehead to his jaw. “Thank you. Thank you so fucking much.”

“Fee!”

Cora? Uri released me as Cora came striding into the clearing.

“Motherfucker, look at this mess,” she said.

Super vamp body parts littered the clearing, and my Loup stood about, naked and bloody. I spotted the Magiguard huddled in a corner, and then there was another flash of blinding light as a tear opened up in the world. Ursula led the charge of Magiguard, coming in hot.

Ponytail ran up to her to give her the lowdown, no doubt.

“Great timing,” Jasper said coolly, appearing by Cora’s side.

Grayson joined me. He was naked, but he didn’t give a shit, and neither did I. It was the nature of the Loup to be untethered and free.

Cora’s gaze flicked to Grayson’s crotch then back up, eyes round. Fucking hell, even at a time like this, she could make me smile.

“Looks like you didn’t need us after all,” she said.

Us? My gaze slipped over her shoulder, and I saw him, Hunter, his hand around a scrawny human’s wrists. His dark eyes locked with mine, and he smiled, smug and cocky.

“Took your sweet time, didn’t you?” And then he promptly collapsed.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“What’s wrong with him?” Grayson asked Petra.

“Is it the serum?” Cora asked. “I made the scientist give him an antidote, but the serum was never designed for Loup. It’s for vamps.” Her gaze flicked my way. “Hunter knew that it could kill him, but he took it anyway. He knew it was the only way to help you guys. Juice up and get me to the ward symbol.”

She said you guys, but she meant me. He’d done it for me. My throat pinched. He’d risked his life for me…again.

“Is it the serum?” Grayson asked Petra.

Petra shook her head. “The man you brought with you took samples of Hunter’s blood. It’s clean. The issue isn’t biological, it’s mystical.”

“The Tribus…” Grayson exhaled heavily.

“Maybe the stress he placed on his body kick-started his decline, or maybe he would have declined anyway; the fact is, now that it’s begun, he will continue to weaken and eventually pass on, unless…” She slid a glance my way. “The decision is yours.”

There was no decision. “It’s not a choice. We can’t let him die.”

“No,” Grayson said. “We can’t.” His throat bobbed.

“The curse removal?” Cora said. “Are we doing that today?”

With everything going on, I’d forgotten about the fucking curse. The wound on my neck had healed now, but the memory of Grayson’s devastated face was still sharp in my mind.

“Yes.” I nodded. “Can you call Vi?”

“I’ll go get her.” She winked out.

Petra patted my arm. “You’re doing the right thing, Fee. A Tribus is a rare and powerful thing. It’s considered a gift. Some say it only occurs in times where great turmoil is on the horizon. To spurn it would be foolish.”