The demon tilted upon feeling the mass of my body, but recovered as my back paws hovered inches aboveground. Yet even my hard pulls weren’t enough. His wings remained intact and incredibly strong. He flapped them left, right, compensating for the odd angles in which I twisted his body.

The miles passed in a rush below me as we fought. The demon’s remaining limbs expanded their talons and grabbed at my body. I answered with my claws. There was no strategy, no perfect choreographed strikes, no smooth fighting techniques. There was only survival. I batted, I kicked, I scratched, wildly, while holding tight to a mouthful of leathered nastiness my jaws beseeched me to abandon.

My fangs held tight to the demon’s tail in order to hang on, but their sharpness eventually sliced through the demon’s thick hide. The muscle and tendons split and began to pull from the bone. I changed, keeping my claws and using them to scale up his back in human form.

Danny hollered with gut-wrenching terror and agony, “Help me! Help me!”

I threw out my arms and pierced my nails through the upper arch of the demon’s wings, forcing them to tilt down. The wind slapped at my body and dried my eyes, making it hard to see. He was brutal and attacked any way he could. But, damn it, I was brutal, too. I hung on tight and pulled my legs beneath me so my back claws stabbed into his shoulder blades. I ground my teeth, cursing and grunting until I finally forced his rapid descent.

My long hair belted me in the face and blocked my vision. I threw my head back, allowing the wind to whisk it behind me. I managed just in time to see the mountain of boulders we were about to crash into. I leapt off the demon’s back and shifted into the earth. The speed plummeted me deep into the mountain. I couldn’t slow quickly enough and buried myself deep before I could begin to surface. My lungs shrieked from the pressure and demand for air. I broke through the ground just above my br**sts, coughing and wheezing. The stress against my ribs and diaphragm made it hard to draw a breath. I finished my shift in short spurts, clawing my way along the searing and jagged rocks.

Oh God. I didn’t know where I was—just far, far away from where the demon had first emerged. And crap, the traveling, winged, evil monster assured the weres wouldn’t be able to track our scent.

I forced myself to a kneeling position, scanning the area in search of the demon. Splattered blood dripped from a collection of boulders high above me. My lids peeled back, hoping my attempt to save Danny hadn’t killed him. I staggered to my feet and forced myself to climb, still too oxygen deprived to call forth my beast.

My fingertips were slipping over the first traces of blood when I heard the demon’s hiss echo. I clambered faster, ignoring my racing heartbeat and the alarm pooling my palms with sweat. The demon hissed again. It was then that I saw his head jutting into a crack between two boulders. A stick protruded from the small opening and nailed the demon lord in at least three of his testicles.

I launched myself on top of him and ripped off one wing, then the other, before it wrenched me off and threw me against the side of the mountain. My spine cracked like a pile of falling LEGOs. For a moment I thought two demons stalked toward me before my vision merged them into a single, mangled, royally pissed entity.

Shit.

I dug my heels into the rock and tried to rise. The demon was nice enough to help by grabbing me by the throat and hauling me upward. My power had returned enough to shift his three legs into the stone. He was trapped up to his knees, enough to momentarily confound him, and prevent him from crushing my larynx.

My limbs flailed wildly and my energy had wavered down to mere trickles when Danny’s warrior scream blasted from the crack in the boulders. He rushed out, gripping an old tree branch in his hands, and struck the demon with all his might. The wood splintered in his grasp, but he wouldn’t abandon me. He jumped on his shoulders and pounded his angry fists into the demon’s head. The demon ignored him. After all, to him, Danny was just another morsel waiting to be eaten.

The red irises of his turtle gaze glowed as his maw opened wide and his tongue slithered out to lick my chin. I ignored his taste, gathered my remaining strength, and punched through his chest. His head lolled forward in shock as his heart pulsed one last time in my hand.

The demon dropped me as his body bopped and rolled like some sinister and twisted Weeble. I landed hard on my side, shaken, severely oxygen deprived but alive. Very, very much alive.

Danny fell backward, groaning when he hit the slab of stone and gagging when the demon burst in an explosion of moving innards. He rolled onto his side and crawled toward me, fighting back his nausea. Maybe I would have had to beat down bile, too, if I hadn’t viewed the blast of guts as the equivalent of drop-down balloons to our very nasty, very gruesome victory.

“Oh Gawd. Gawd,” Danny spit. He trekked across the squirming intestines, slapping a few of the more ornery ones away, until he reached my battered body. He froze, realizing clothing was something my tigress had long since pooh-poohed. I’d crossed my legs and covered my br**sts, but that didn’t matter, did it? Fact remained, I didn’t enjoy anyone but Aric seeing me na**d. And hell, I didn’t even want him seeing me covered in demon organs.

Danny jerked his body away and yanked the shirt off his lanky frame. “Here. It has some demon snot on it, but I think it’s okay.”

“Thank you, Danny.” I didn’t just mean for the shirt. He’d fought for me, despite knowing he might die. I didn’t have many friends. But the ones like Danny were worth having.

I sat up and pulled the polo over my head. The shirt thankfully covered all the important female parts. I leaned against the boulder, trying to ignore the shower of sweat pouring down my body and the blinding pain that leadened my lids. I didn’t remember Wonder Woman ever ending up covered in demon bowels. But maybe I’d missed that issue.

Danny inched to my side, panting. The lenses of his glasses spiderwebbed out. It was a wonder he could see at all. “We asked to do this,” he said with stunned disbelief.

“Yup.”

He angled his head. “Do you think Aric will ever let us tag along again?”

I took in the scent of my blood leaking behind my skull, the withered demon parts, the body fluids coating my skin and hair green, and thought about how close we’d come to becoming demon kibble. “Oh, hell no.”

“Yeah. I didn’t think so.”

Danny and I stopped moving, stopped speaking, the effort it took to breathe robbing us of our remaining stamina. The sun dragged across the mountain, brightening the rock walls to orange and eventually stealing our shade. Bastard. “We need to get back,” I mumbled. Too much time had passed. The sun, although grueling, was nothing compared to the chilly desert night that awaited us. And despite the tough exterior with which my tigress blessed me, my injuries needed to be tended to by my youngest sister.

Danny peered over the edge. “How are we going to get down?”

“I’ll shift us down and change at the bottom.” At least I’d try. “You can ride me if you’d like.”

Danny shook his head. “No way. I’d rather take on another demon lord than risk Aric finding me on top of you.”

The sound of roaring engines cut off my laughter. Danny bolted to his feet and hurried to the ledge. “It’s the pack. They must have regrouped and doubled back to the Jeeps. Bren! Bren!” He waved his arms.

I scrambled to my feet on wobbly legs, digging my disgusting claws along the indentations of the rock to help me stand. By some miracle my back wasn’t broken and my legs still semiworked. But damn, I resembled nothing short of a chiropractor’s wet dream.

I ignored my pounding head and focused my topsy-turvy vision on the horizon. Sure enough, the wolves and my sister had arrived. Shayna maneuvered the lead Wrangler. They’d been desperate enough to find us to allow her to drive. She powered through the inclines and ditches, leaving the other Jeeps to trail in the far, far distance. Bren and Aric stood in the backseat, their gazes taking everything in despite the hard jerks and skull-chattering bounces. Bren pointed to us and shouted to Shayna, “Over there. Near those damn rocks!”

Shayna stood in the driver’s seat and threw her fists in the air to “Woo-hoo!” before sliding back and taking control of the jolting vehicle. She tore through the underbrush and skidded to a halt at the base of the boulders.

Aric leapt off the Jeep before it completely stopped and scaled to the top within seconds. His hands swept over my face, back, shoulders, and head. When he yanked them back, they were covered with my blood. “Jesus, Celia.” He pulled me tight. “Stay with me, okay? Emme and Gemini’s group are almost here.”

I clutched him against me, my body trembling from the adrenaline continuing to ride my body like a bull. “Did you get the other demon?” He nodded but urged me to save my breath. “I’m okay, wolf, just a few bumps and bruises.” And possibly some head trauma . . . and tissue damage, and a battered spine.

Bren clambered up next, growling, “Where’s the turtle-necked little prick?”

Danny removed his black-framed glasses and wiped the sweat from his eyes. “Gone. Celia pulled out the big guns and killed him.”

Aric held me at arm’s length, only to cradle me when I wobbled. “You killed the other demon lord?”

A sense of pride warmed my unnerved, and strangely cold, skin. “Yeah. I did.”

“Shit, don’t you ever do anything like that again!” he bit out. He lifted me in his arms and jumped off the cliff. He landed in a crouch and carried me to the Jeep. I didn’t complain. Especially since I’d slurred my last words. More Jeeps ground to a stop around us. My sisters rushed me, and the remainder of the pack spilled out of the dusty cars. They raced to us, their chests rumbling, ready to fight, ready to slaughter.

“It’s over,” Aric told them. “The demon lords are dead.”

Silence swallowed all of Death Valley until the howls of triumph broke through, loud enough to collapse its hard walls. Aric’s proclamation sent everyone into a frenzy of celebration.

Too bad he was wrong. Dead wrong.

CHAPTER 23

“I love you, Aric.”

He stopped caressing my back. The air around us stilled, and his breath barely registered. I kept my cheek against his chest and continued, despite his silence and the tensing muscles beneath me. “I know you’re probably used to hearing it, but I want you to know, I’m not used to saying it.”

Aric leaned into me, meeting my lips before he spoke. “I have heard it before, but it’s never meant anything . . . until now.”

Aric’s expression lacked the happiness I’d wished for. Only sadness and worry creased the planes of his face. I waited for the words that never came, and that I eventually realized he had no intention of sharing. He didn’t move when I inched away from him. So I continued, until I slipped out of bed.

I tugged on a shirt and cotton shorts, not bothering with underwear. Aric sat up and leaned forward, a thick white sheet covering the lower half of his body. “Come back to bed, baby.”

My hand rested against the thick footboard, barely registering the feel of the smooth wood as I stared blankly at the closed window. “I need some water.”

I shut the door to our room, but it failed to muffle Aric’s curse. My feet moved fast. Too fast. I stumbled over Koda’s industrial-size shit-kickers at the bottom of the steps. I picked them up to toss them aside, only to stop and stare at them.

The more I examined Koda’s boots, the more my soul hurt. Koda was the scariest thing in a size 17. Yet Shayna had easily won his heart. Perhaps my sisters were wrong, perhaps I wasn’t deserving of such love, and all I was capable of waited upstairs in my room.

I filled a glass with water but couldn’t bring myself to sip the cold liquid. Without shoes, I hurried out the back door toward the beach and into the warm August night. Tonight I needed Tahoe’s magic to hush my inner turmoil and silence my tigress’s mournful growls. I only hoped that she’d answer me and grant me the peace I sought.

My fast movements turned into a swift jog. I neglected my worries that someone would see me, and raced along the dirt path and across the road. I stopped at the top of the short wooden pier leading to the beach. The full moon’s reflection danced along the waves of the deep blue water, luring me to it, and promising to help me.

My bare feet kicked the sand behind me, my steps urgent as I reached the water’s edge. I took a breath, and waited. But all the energy did was bounce off my skin, no longer wanting or needing me.

I waded into the cool water until the soft waves brushed against my thighs. I refused to allow the lake to dismiss me. Don’t you cast me aside, too.

Tahoe’s energy teased around me, not quite touching yet letting its strong presence be known. I bowed my head and hugged my arms, feeling abandoned . . . until Aric’s scent stimulated my beast.

Water splashed against my legs as he came up behind me and encircled my waist. He bent and kissed my head. “I wish I could tell you what you want to hear, but I can’t.”

Despite the stir of the waves, I heard my tears fall against the water.

Aric tightened his hold and whispered words in French. And while I normally would have melted, this time I wouldn’t allow myself to be tempted by the softness and fluidity of his words. I broke from his grasp and backed away toward the shore, keeping my arms against me. “I don’t want you to say anything you don’t feel, but I need you to understand why it hurts me.” More tears trickled down my cheeks. “I won’t be used, Aric.”

Anger and pain flared in Aric’s eyes as he advanced toward me. When he reached me, his body trembled violently. “You are the most important being in this world to me. More than my brothers, more than my pack. I need you to believe that . . . no matter what happens.”