Cowl
He delivered the ceremonial first blow.
A huge booted foot drove the wooden door inward with one strike, ripping it clear from its hinges. It flew across the room and struck someone, moving too swiftly for Cowl to see who it was.
He swept into the room, trying his best to ignore the vision of Andria helplessly bound to the chair surrounded by the pack of thugs that Jake employed.
“Anyone ready for round two?” he snarled.
They weren’t going to catch him off guard this time. Nor was he alone. Behind Cowl came Ivore and Caine, both prepared and ready for a dustup.
Nobody moved for a moment, until the person under the door flung it free, rising to their feet. Cowl wasn’t sure what surprised him more. That he’d managed to take Jake out with the door, or the fact that when Jake had flung the door free, it had embedded itself in the ceiling. All hundred-plus pounds of thick wood.
“What are you waiting for?” Jake howled. “KILL THEM!”
Two things happened. One, the room exploded into motion, and two, Cowl came face to face with the explanation for the supernatural strength of Jake and his gang.
A huge wolf lunged at him from where Danny had been standing, green eyes gleaming as bone-white teeth snapped at his neck. Cowl spun out of the way, hammering a fist into the beast’s side as it flew past, breaking ribs and sending it tumbling into the wall with a yelp.
“SHIFTERS!” he bellowed as wolves came at them in all directions.
Black ones, gray ones, striped and spotted, mottled, and even one bleached white one, a huge beast that could only be Jake.
Cowl called upon his powers as he ducked another attack. In the middle of the room Andria was screaming. Frost formed around his fists, turning them from pale white to icy blue as his armor emerged from under his skin, hardening the surface.
A wolf lunged at him, jaws open wide. Cowl grinned. “Stupid pup.” He stuck his entire arm down its throat. Powerful muscles clamped down on his arm. Teeth shattered against his impenetrable skin, and Cowl turned with grace, slamming the creature into another headed for his back.
He did this twice more before the hapless wolf slid off his icy arm, falling to the ground when its legs wouldn’t support it.
On his left Ivore called up a whirlwind of ice and snow, directing it at the two wolves he was facing off with. One didn’t dodge swiftly enough and was lifted into the air by the mini-tornado and flung completely through the wall.
Caine clapped his hands and shoved them at an approaching wolf. Ice flowed out from his palms, encasing the creature from the back half of its head to its tail, immobilizing it.
A throaty growl caught Cowl’s attention as the oversized white beast stalked toward him. It looked as bad as its human half. The hair was actually tinged yellow, and hair was falling out from it everywhere. Folds of loose skin clung around its flanks and hind legs, giving it a very unhealthy look.
It was still a dangerous creature though.
“Come on, puppy. Sit!” he barked, pointing a finger at Jake.
The sickly beast clacked its jaws at him, crouching low. It was going to charge any moment now.
Cowl lifted his hands, resting the fingertips against the ceiling as he called up more power.
“Let’s go. I’m getting tired of the wet-dog smell in here. Did you piss yourself?”
Jake lunged at him.
Cowl jerked his fingers downward. A wall of ice descended from the ceiling between him and Jake, moving down as fast as his hands. It caught Jake in the snout as he tried to pass under it. The white beast went down, its head bouncing off the floor only to rebound back up and into the descending ice again, like a pinball.
Jake was dazed but not out of it, and he backed away from the wall, extricating himself. He was slow, however, and Cowl simply walked up to the wall and then pushed it over.
Several hundred pounds of ice fell onto Jake, pummeling the beleaguered wolf until it lay still, its flanks rising and falling in ragged motion.
He glanced around, but his brothers had already taken care of the others. All the wolves were down. Only one of them looked to be permanent, an ice spike sticking out from its side.
Caine shrugged, unapologetic. “It went for my nuts.”
Cowl smiled in understanding. That was foul play, and had to be treated as such. He took a closer look at the wolf in question, and noticed through the half-drawn eyelid that the eyes appeared to be green. That fit.
“Hey, Cowl?”
Satisfied that it was safe, he turned his attention at last to Andria. It angered him that she wasn’t his first priority. He’d needed to deal with the wolves first, and fast, before they could think to go after her, the sole human in the room.
“Coming.” He hurried over to her side, ripping the rope apart with his bare hands. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” she said, looking down at herself. “Got a little sick. I’m really embarrassed. But not hurt.”
Cowl swept her up into a hug. He didn’t care if she’d been sick; all he cared about was that she was okay. “I’m sorry I left you. I’m sorry it took so long.”
“It’s okay. Cowl, it’s okay.” She slipped out from his arms.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. That’s fine. But…Cowl?”
“Yes?”
She looked around the room at the unconscious, frozen, or in one case dead, wolves. Then back at him. Her eyes were dark and delicious, green-eyed and beautiful. Her golden hair clung to her face, damp from the snow and ice that had been flung around the room by him and his brothers. Cowl had never seen someone more beautiful.
“Can you tell me what the fuck just happened here?”