Page 97 of Mated By the Alphas
“It’s a long drop!” she squeals.
“Ugh, fuck,” I grumble, lowering myself to my belly.
Daisy slides down my side, and I wait until her feet are on the ground before I rise up. There are five vampires headed our way, all makers, but none of them are old. Too bad that’s just the tip of the rotten iceberg.
The vampires fan out, trying to flank us. They’re fast. Faster than any human. But we’re faster, especially now. With pack bond between us, even Hayden will be stronger than he was. An Alpha is always strengthened by a bond like this. We’ve fought together for centuries, but now, we’re practically a single unit and we’re capable of massive devastation.
“Five on five,” Storm transmits. “A fair fight.”
“Nothing fair about it,” I snarl back. “They’re already dead.”
I speed ahead of my brothers and meet the first vampire head on. He lunges at me, fangs bared, moving at supernatural speed. I let him bite me. Fuck it, it doesn’t matter now. After we marked Ansley and tasted her blood, we’re all immune to them now.
“Doesn’t even hurt like it used to,” I chuckle, then my jaws snap shut on his arm, tearing it clean off at the shoulder.
The vampire screams and black blood sprays across the pavement. I don’t give him a chance to recover. My massive paw comes down on his chest, and I pin him to the ground. I press down until I hear bones snap and splinter, then I rip his chest apart, my fangs finding his heart before he even realizes how close to death he is.
I rip his heart out, crush it, and spit it on the ground. One down.
Ansley is off to the side, sword ready. Daisy is behind her. They’re not in danger, so I turn to my left, where Hayden is ablur of charcoal-grey fur and fury. He may be smaller than me now, but he’s deadlier than ever. The vampire he’s fighting tries to dodge, but Hayden anticipates the movement. He catches the vampire mid-leap, jaws clamping around his midsection.
The creature screams, clawing at Hayden’s face, but his black fingernails don’t break skin. They just slide across the fur without penetrating. Hayden shakes his head violently and the vampire’s body tears apart. I leap over my brother and help him tear open the chest, but I leave the heart for him.
“Thank you, brother,” Hayden says politely. We both flash wolfy grins before he reaches in and tears out the heart
Two down. The odds are much better now. We turn our attention to the one Remy is fighting. He’s moving so fast that he’s just a black streak. The vampire is swinging wildly, biting the air, and screaming with frustration.
One moment he’s standing, and the next, Remy is behind him, fangs bared. Remy snatches the vampire’s leg, snapping it off at the knee, and he goes down hard. Hayden and I move in to help, but Remy is too quick. He goes straight for the stomach, burrows up into the vampire’s chest cavity with his claws, and its heart is splattered on the ground before we can take another breath.
Three down. Nothing to worry about now.
“Let’s help Wyatt,” Hayden sounds almost perky. “Storm looks like he’s doing fine on his own.”
I glance towards the silver-white wolf. He’s got the vampire pinned down and he’s tearing him apart. He doesn’t need our help at all. Wyatt’s battle strategy is always more methodical, even now as an Alpha. He uses practiced speed and grace to avoid the bites and swipes, even though he’s immune. Hecatches the vampire by the throat, and the rest of us join in, tearing the creature into pieces before Wyatt crushes the heart.
Four. I look over at the viscera surrounding Storm. Five.
“The welcoming committee is taken care of,” Storm says. “But I don’t think it’ll be any better once we get inside.”
“No,” I agree. “But we’ll be ready. Ansley, Daisy. Stay behind us.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Daisy chirps.
We move towards the entrance, and I hit it with two paws, tearing the rotted wood from the hinges and destroying the plywood covering the door. As soon as I land, I see more vampires. At least a dozen. This is therealwelcoming committee.
“School’s out,” I growl. “Forever.”
“And they say you don’t have a sense of humor,” Storm chuckles, rushing past me.
Now it’s two versus one at a minimum. I distract three of the makers and pull them off to the side so I can fight them. They’re hungry and angry. That’s fine, I am too, but I don’t need their blood. I’m hungry to watch them die.
I snap at them as they close, but before I can attack, one of them stops. They growl, thrash, and then a blade pushes through the front of their chest, the tip dripping with blood.
“Got one!” Ansley says as the vampire slumps on her blade, then falls to the floor.
The other two vampires spin around, fangs bared, claws ready to launch an attack.
“Stay back,” I snarl, then I snatch a spinal column out through the one on the right’s back.
