Chapter 11
Bad, bad, bad. This is bad!
Clambering up from where he’d been spying in the tall grass with Daemon, Thrall’s brain was racing through a plethora of scenarios that could potentially result from Daemon currently going bat-shit crazy on the Biters pack.
This was really bad. And not because Daemon and Thrall were outnumbered and in enemy territory, but because this wasn’t the plan.
And Thrall was a stickler for following a plan.
While Koe hadn’t given them exact orders, it was understood that the plan had been implied.
At least to Thrall it had been understood.
Fucking Daemon! Fucking crazy, psychotic, fight-every-fucking-thing Daemon!
They were supposed to wait until Bragga was alone, and then they’d rough him up, have a little fun with him, and drag him back to their territory to gift him to Koe to exact his own vengeance.
But nooooo! Daemon, per usual, couldn’t control himself and was currently snapping necks like it was going out of style.
Rushing out into the clearing, Thrall’s booted feet slid to a stop as he roared a thunderous, “Hey!”
The fighting stopped, and all eyes turned to him.
With a sneer, Thrall looked right at Daemon, who had a lifeless, half-shifted guy hanging in the air by the throat while his arm was jacked back to deliver a punch.
“First of all, that one’s already dead. Second of all, the fuck man?
We were doing recon only.” With a displeased snort, he planted his hands on his jean-clad hips and shook his head, giving Daemon his most disparaging look.
In the next blink, everyone was fighting again.
Two of the Biters broke from trying to take down Daemon and turned on him.
“Hey!” Thrall boomed, ducking a punch. The two attackers didn’t stop, forcing Thrall to lurch back as he held up his hands and admonished, “You morons are giving me no choice but to defend myself!” He side-stepped a lunging wolf and simultaneously threw a punch that hit the beast hard and sent it flying. “You get that, right?”
Two more shifters abandoned attacking Daemon and came for him.
And he got it. He really did. Currently, there were three bodies at Daemon’s feet, and he wasn’t even in wolf form.
These shifters didn’t want anything to do with Daemon.
Hell, even he could feel the sheer menace radiating from his pack-mate.
But still. It was offensive that none of these fucks considered him a threat.
Catching the next fist that aimed for his face, Thrall glared at the owner, “You know I’m just as skilled as he is!
” Jerking his chin toward Daemon, his eyes slid that way too.
He thought he’d find Daemon coming to help deal with the four shifters currently surrounding him, but nope.
Daemon was currently slow stalking the woman who’d been accosted.
She looked terrified and was slowly backing away from Daemon, and if Thrall had been given the opportunity, he would have told her that retreating from Daemon would be seen by Daemon’s wolf, Demon, as running, and one ought not run from a monster wolf, but Thrall didn’t get the chance.
All four shifters attacked in unison, and he went down in a pile under them with a bellowed, “Really, D!”
***
Daemon couldn’t take his eyes off the woman in front of him.
Absently, he heard Thrall being taken down behind him, but Demon refused to be distracted.
Besides, if Thrall couldn’t handle the four pitiful shifters currently dog-piling him, then he wasn’t good enough to be the Allegiance Beta.
A position that had originally gone to Daemon but had just as quickly been stripped away when Koe realized there was no hope of controlling Daemon or his wolf.
Daemon didn’t mind. Hell, he’d been relieved.
He didn’t like the responsibilities that came with the title.
Lead Enforcer suited him and Demon much better.
Being an Enforcer afforded him the opportunity to shirk protocols, much like he was doing now.
He was supposed to be watching this so-called pack from cover; instead, he was standing before the woman who was slowly backing away from him, wondering how he was going to introduce himself after the carnage he’d just left behind him.
He should be asking her if she was ok. He should be telling her that he wasn’t going to hurt her so that the look of fear would disappear from her beautiful face.
But he couldn’t speak. Mouth dry as the Sahara, he could only try to get close, wordlessly offering his body as protection.
No male would get near her again. No one would touch her so disgracefully as that fuck just had.
Her back hit a tree, and a little gasp left her as she realized she was trapped.
Angling his head to the side, Daemon quickly closed the last few steps between them, nostrils flaring as he drank in her myriad of scents and sifted through them.
The fear he’d smelled on her earlier when the other male held her had now shifted to terror.
Because of him. He was an outsider, an enemy.
She probably assumed he was here to kill Biters…
well, he was, and he just had, but not her.
She wasn’t a Biter. Koe said destroying Bragga and his Biters was the plan, and part of that plan was sparing Jury’s sister because, like Jury, this woman was basically a hostage. And hostages needing rescuing, right?
Behind him, feral sounds were exploding from Thrall, and it made him grin.
He hadn’t gifted Thrall the heart of the battle in ages.
Typically, Daemon was the one to charge headlong into war.
He preferred it; he enjoyed it. But seeing this female locked in place while he’d battled had drawn him from the fun.
Demon didn’t like the worried look on her pretty face.
His wolf didn’t want her thinking anything bad was going to happen to her.
But now, with her cornered up against a tree, all Daemon could do was dip his eyes to her throat.
No mate mark. Good. Hands itching to reach up and smooth the hair off her shoulders so he could make sure he was seeing right, Daemon fisted and unfisted his hands.
The female glanced quickly to the side like she was thinking about running, and before he could stop himself, he growled a lethal-sounding, “Don’t! ”
The female inhaled again and pressed her shoulders tighter into the tree, her shoulders hunching like she was trying to shrink into herself.
Daemon didn’t like that. He didn’t like that she was trying to hide from him.
The problem was that Demon was too close to the surface, and if Daemon tried to say anything else, it’d just come out sounding feral as hell.
Eyes lowered, the female canted her head, exposing her throat in a show of submission.
Whatever good intentions Daemon had were smashed by Demon in that instant.
Before Daemon could even try to rein him in, Demon lunged.
In a move too fast to stop, he had the woman pulled up hard against him, wicked incisors sunk deep into the tender flesh of her throat as she screamed a pain-filled sound.
Demon had just marked her! The uncontrollable beast had claimed her as theirs!