Page 104 of Found Objects

Someone hit me from behind, hurling me to the ground, and I found myself under Justin, along with two others, trying to rip out my jugular.

“We’re going to see if what you said was true,” Justin snarled at me as he slit my throat. The arterial blood sprayed, hitting him, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. “But I think if you’re dead, my power will return.”

“Merritt!” Cole screamed. “No!”

Images tumbled through my brain, eons of time rushing by faster and faster, my memories flashing by, jumbled together, all coming to a stop suddenly on Cole smiling at me. I wanted him desperately, so I struggled to move.

The blood loss would mean nothing if I could change, but it made the process itself harder to accomplish.

What a terrible choice Matthias had given me. This was what came of your enemies knowing what you loved.

It was my fault, all of it, because I had changed my nature, and losing my mate would be my divine punishment.

“Eirich,” came the sharp, biting command in my head.

I gasped as tears filled my eyes.

“Rise,” her voice ordered me for the second time, the demand lancing through my body, the pain of her anger far greater than anything I’d ever felt before.

I shuddered in agony, feeling as though I was being ripped apart.

“Creid!” Her roar roiled through me, and my body arched up off the wet, bloodstained ground. I was nearly blown apart by the voice of the goddess.

Believe, she’d said. Not in myself, not even in her, but in the power of community, family. I had to have faith in others and not simply believe, in every instance, at all times, that the burden of protection fell only to me.

There was a blessing there as well, and I felt her power call to mine, because yes, I’d been made to mete out justice, to punish, to kill, but I’d changed. And even though it was my choice, my free will…still, she had allowed it to be. My purpose now was to avenge, but also to shelter.

Unmade with the shedding of blood.

Remade with the infusion of her essence.

Justin stood over me, his foot on my throat, pressing down, watching the blood drain from me. His expression when I shoved him off, rolled to my feet, and turned to look at him was priceless—absolute, soul-searing terror.

“How in the hell,” Matthias rasped, staring at me in astonishment.

“Mere!” Cole was beside me fast, crushing me in a hug of pure relief. “You scared me. Thank God you’re all right.”

“I am, and I know what to do,” I assured him, staring into Matthias’s eyes.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” the alpha yelled at me. “There are those here who will die, and there at your shelter. I hold all their lives in the palm of my hand.”

“The humans I care for aren’t as helpless as you seem to think, and not everyone here needs me to save them either,” I said, feeling the conviction in my body seep into my voice.

I breathed out, and the change was instant, and I shook off my fear as the power rolled through me, making me whole.

“What are you?” Matthias gasped, punching buttons on his phone as he stumbled back.

All eyes were on me as I glanced at Cole.

“Follow me,” I commanded in his head, and in every other member of his pack before I rushed at Matthias and his men.

“Fire!” Matthias shouted in response.

Bullets flew through the air, enough to destroy any normal being, man or wolf. But I was neither. The lead hit me like gnats on glass, unable to hurt me or slow my advance in the least.

I rammed into the men, sending bodies flying. I was huge after all, and the attack had Matthias’s men scrambling, some running away, others on the ground, dazed, hearing his repeated order to shoot, but helpless to do so.

Cole was right behind me, now shifted to his wolf, with the rest of his pack falling on the men, howling for blood.