Filed To Story: A Claim of Fortune Book PDF Free by Jaymin Eve
His fury blasted in a surge of heat as he shouted, “You’re going to die, Finley.”
Finley remained limp, and the irony was that it was Sorenson’s spell holding him as a dead weight on top of the tiger shifter.
Sorenson continued to shout. “The witch will be back in seconds, once she’s obtained her leverage. I just need you to give them to me, or they’ll kill my whole pack!”
He roared and wiggled, but the giant bear was too heavy.
Meanwhile, I was fighting the sort of rage I’d never experienced before. How. Fucking. Dare this piece of shit put my entire pack in danger again to protect his weak bitch of a mate. Stepping into the open, I strode right over and booted him in the side of the head.
“You have two seconds to tell me what you want,” I snarled, “or I’m shifting and ripping your throat out.”
His expression didn’t calm, but he stopped struggling as he stared up at me. “You,” he finally choked out. “You’re the one I need. You and the dragon. Alpha Fletcher has Chelsea and the rest of our pack in his compound, and he’s… experimenting on them. I struck a deal that if I return with you both, he’d let us go. He knows I can get in and out of this city without detection, and decided it was worth it to get you back. I’m sorry, but I had no choice!”
“Who is the witch?” I asked, trying not to let my panic show that one of those evil bitches was somewhere in this city, getting leverage. “How did she get in undetected?”
His eyes bored into me as his lips curved into a mocking smile. “Yeah, you’ll find out soon enough. I’m not going to be the one to spoil the surprise and get myself killed via magic. I’m just trying to survive. Trying to ensure my pack survives.”
Crouching down near his side, I let my voice lower until the true fury in my soul spilled out. “There’s no surviving for you or your pack,” I whispered, the even-tempered part of my omega essence long gone. Fuck with my pack and I would channel the goddess herself to take you down. “Chelsea signed her death warrant the second she used me to keep herself safe. It’s not my fault she expected the devil she bargained with to honor their deal. There’s no help for her… or for you.”
A scuffing behind us had me turning to see Hunter fighting the magic, his face bright red as his eyes glowed gold. He opened his mouth, and I swore I heard, “Kill him.”
Sorenson confirmed it when he let out a mournful, purring sound. “You can’t mean that, Hunt. We’ve been friends since we were young.”
Hunter’s face only grew darker, and redder, as he fought the hold. I found myself rising and hurrying toward him. When I touched his chest, a sticky residue clung to my hand as the magic coated him like slime. To contain this many powerful alphas took strong magic, and I wondered if we were about to meet one of these ancient
Termaine witches?
“Kill him,” Hunter managed to rasp again, louder this time.
Slade’s roar filled the air and he burst free from the ropes binding him. A piece of the magical debris hit me, and I flinched at the burn. Slade had been enduring that pain… Now I really was going to follow Hunter’s command and kill Sorenson.
As the dragon tilted his head back and roared to the sky again, the burns were already healing. With a flash in his glowing green eyes, he strode forward and rolled Finley off Sorenson. He wrapped his hand around the traitor’s throat and lifted him from the ground.
“How dare you threaten us,” Slade thundered, his voice guttural and brimming with his dragon’s rage. “Say your goodbyes, tiger.”
Sorenson couldn’t say anything as his eyes bulged, and with another squeeze of his hand, Slade crushed the shifter’s throat. He didn’t stop there either, lifting his other hand to palm the tiger’s face. With a sickening crack, he ripped Sorenson’s head right off, not letting go until the jerking of the tiger’s limbs ceased.
Feeling satisfied but slightly ill by the graphic death, I faced Hunter, unsure how he’d take the death of his friend once it was too late to go back. He’d told us all that they would die for what they did, but it might have only been his anger talking.
I hoped he didn’t regret the decision now. Not that anything would have stopped Slade in that rage-filled moment.
Hunter’s expression remained cold and indifferent, and when he finally burst through the spell, he scooped me into his arms and held on protectively. “Baby,” he growled, “are you okay?”
Tilting my head to examine him, I was relieved to find none of that sticky magic on his skin any longer. “Of course I am. I didn’t even get touched. Are you okay?”
He buried his face against my neck. “Yeah, I am now.”
Slade dropped the tiger’s body and head, which rolled a few feet away to sit there like a macabre trophy. “Will that kill the rest of his pack?” I asked, unsure how it all worked for semi-complete quintets.
Hunter’s shoulders lifted in a brief shrug. “It’s different for every pack. It depends on who the heart is, who holds the strongest bonds, and how weak their beasts are. I personally hope they’re all gone now. It’ll save us tracking their disloyal asses down later.”
Slade strode over to us, wiping his hands down his black pants, which only removed a fraction of the blood coating the dragon. He examined me as closely as Hunter had, and appeared satisfied that I was okay. “What happened?” I asked them. “How did Sorenson even get in here?”
“He called for a meeting,” Slade said shortly, “then ambushed us with magic. There was no sign of the witch when he entered, and no unauthorized magic came into this city. I still can’t feel them.”
Hunter growled, and his hold briefly tightened on me. “So, how the fuck did they do this?”
Slade’s lips thinned, and it was clear that he not only didn’t know, but he was pissed about it.
As I peered around Hunter to check on Kellan and Finley, who were starting to stir also, there was a surge of magic in the street once more.
Slade’s eyebrows drew together as he glanced above the heads. “Jewels,” he murmured. “She must have felt the spell?-“
He broke off, and I wondered if we were all struck by the same thought. Jewels was in the city, but hadn’t come until the attack was over.
“What if the witch helping is
Jewels,” I bit out. “That might be how they made it into the city without any detection. You all consider her an ally, and she’s in and out of this fucking place like she owns it.”
Hunter opened his mouth as if to deny the possibility, but he couldn’t voice the words. If there was any witch in the world he trusted, it was Jewels. Well, as much as one could trust a witch.
“I always wondered why she put up with our shit for years,” Slade rumbled. “But I could never find anything damning on her. If she’s a traitor, she played her game well.”