Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(100)

Land and shift, he told her. Three seconds later, she was on the stone floor, a woman once more, falling to her knees, her head bent as if in agony. Good girl. He followed her, landing and shifting into human form more effortlessly than he'd ever been able to. Awe and gratitude filled his heart and mind, and he embraced the hawk spirit with both, receiving a warm rush of appreciation and pride in return.

Three of the animals started toward them, but as Hawke had counted on, Maxim held them back. He thought Hawke and Faith were beaten, and he wanted to deliver the killing blow.

Hawke stood as if guarding his injured mate as the sabertooth stalked them. "You're not going to touch her, Maxim," he snarled. The walls shook with the force of the terrible, rising magic, making his skin crawl and his stomach clench. "She's mine! My woman. My mate."

The great cat roared his fury, as Hawke had counted on, and leaped.

Now! Hawke shouted silently. As one, he and Faith shifted into their birds and flew at the sabertooth, the falcon aiming for the back of the cat's head, the hawk for his soft underside.

As she reached the great cat, Faith shifted back to human form, straddling his back and plunging her knife deep into his skull in one fluid, graceful move. Hawke zipped between the cat's legs, shifted, and plunged his blade deep into its chest. Maxim thrashed, releasing a horrible roar of anger and pain. Blood poured over Hawke, but he finished what he'd started, digging out the bastard's black heart.

The cat collapsed on top of him. The feel of magic vanished, the glow from the pentagram winking out.

Hawke pushed aside the heavy carcass and rose, battle ready, prepared to finish the fight or take on the other animals. But all were gone except for Lepard. A man once more, the snow-leopard shifter was on his knees across the dungeon, and appeared to be struggling.

"Did you see where they went?" Hawke asked Faith, who was already running for the girls. The pair, still hanging over the pentagram, were both crying openly now.

"No. But I've let the others know what happened."

As Hawke approached Lepard, the man looked up at him with a ferocity that had Hawke pulling his knives. Until he heard his snarled words.

"Stop . . . me. Tie . . . me."

Glancing around, he spied an extra coil of rope against a nearby wall and grabbed it, pushing a barely resisting Lepard to his stomach and tying him hand and foot.

"Where are the others?" Hawke demanded.

"Ran," Lepard managed to get out, his voice guttural, as if he forced the words through a constricted throat. "Called."

"By whom?"

"Don't . . . know."

"Ten bucks says it's Inir." He rose, looking down at the big male trussed up like fresh game ready for the barbecue. "Don't go anywhere." He joined Faith as she laid the second of the girls on the floor, far from the bloody pentagram.

The girl stared at Faith with a mix of fascination and wariness. But no fear. "What are you?" she breathed.

Faith smiled. "I'm what I've always been, Paulina. Just someone who wants to help you." She looked up as he approached, her face splattered with blood, her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright with victory and soft with love. And she'd never looked more beautiful to him.

He glanced at the other girl, the one who'd been injured. She was still crying softly as she pressed the torn sleeve of Faith's sweater to her chest.

"How bad is the cut?"

"Not bad at all. I think Maxim must have put some kind of bleeding spell into that pentagram for it to have drawn as much blood from her as it did. I barely nicked her, thanks to you."

He studied the girl's pallor. She hadn't lost much blood overall. She'd be fine. "We have to take their memories. Try it. If you have trouble, I'll help you."

Faith's smile bloomed, confident and sure.

Remembering her unique ability to hear him even when neither of them was in their animals, he added, You might add a suggestion or two while you're at it. To go home or to seek help or to get off the streets.

Or to talk to the director of the art school and to dump the pimp boyfriend. Her smile turned wry. "If only I'd had this ability before. Helping kids would have been so much easier."

"But it wouldn't have changed anything. You'd still have been out there with them."

Her expression turned thoughtful. "I suppose you're right. We all have our journeys to take, and this was mine."

"I have money," he told her. "And everything I have is yours. Get them what they need, starting with tuition for that art school."

Her smile turned beatific, flipping him head over tail in love with her all over again. At the sound of Feral footsteps behind him, he turned to find Kougar and Wulfe racing into the dungeon. Kougar looked at the dead sabertooth with cold-eyed satisfaction.

He joined his friends. "Did you catch the other three when they escaped?"

Kougar shook his head. "We never saw them. They must have gone out through an underground passage. Bolt-holes are common enough in castles like this. Paenther and the others are searching for them."

"I suspect Inir called them."

"I agree. The last thing he wants is us cutting the strings off his puppets." Kougar nodded at Lepard, who lay on his side, still struggling against his bonds. "You caught one."