Zander was fighting hard when Rae reached him, his white fur scarlet, blood dripping from his fangs. He roared and struck, scattering Shifters, but too many sprang up to go at him again.

Rae let herself shift to her half beast between one step and the next. She could do that when she was agitated and this situation counted for some serious agitation. She flourished the samurai sword and swung it hard.

A wildcat screamed as the blade sliced him, then he came at Rae, claws reaching. Zander intercepted him and slammed him to the ground.

Zander growled at Rae, but just then a feral wolf landed on his back, claws and teeth tearing into Zander’s flesh. Rae struck him away from Zander then swung around, sword singing as she danced and sliced, moved and thrust.

Broderick, Mason, and Carson reached them and now the two Lupines were fighting furiously, trying to clear a path so Rae and Zander could escape. Carson, deep anger in his eyes, took down ferals one at a time with the tranq gun.

Rae rolled across Zander’s back to come to her feet and swing at another feral. Her Collar was shocking her but she didn’t care. She could barely feel it as the crazed wolf inside her fought to defend her true mate.

True mate?

The stunning thought cut through her fighting frenzy. Well, why not? Rae couldn’t imagine her life beyond this not involving Zander.

Her heart warmed and burned. The wolf in her knew. Mate bonded. Yes.

The split second of acknowledgment allowed a Feline Shifter to get under Rae’s reach. One moment she was drawing back the samurai sword, the next, a set of claws pierced her stomach and ripped it open.

She swung the sword, but weakly, barely cutting the Feline. He fell in the next moment, neck broken, giant bear paws twisting his head around.

Rae’s legs gave out and she found her knees hitting the wet ground, a little sapling scraping the hell out of her arm and side as she went down.

She heard Zander’s roars and the ferals’ jackal-like cries. Carson was swearing, Broderick and Mason snarling in fury.

Dizziness sent Rae falling forward, the samurai sword sliding out of her hand. Doesn’t matter if I’m hurt, she thought dimly. Shifters heal quickly. Right?

The next thing she knew, Mason was lifting her, and then she found herself on something hard, furry, warm, and moving fast. Rae had been here before, on Zander’s back. The last time, he’d run with her out of a bar where they’d all been drunk and working off steam, and Rae had hung on and enjoyed it.

She hung on now, locking her fingers around Zander’s fur. He swayed as he ran, but he could move.

Rae tried to turn her head and see what was happening behind her. Mason and Broderick were back there, and Carson. She couldn’t leave them. Plus she’d lost the samurai sword and thrown away the Sword of the Guardian. Stupid. All the Shifters and Guardians would be pissed off at her now.

Sorry, Daragh, she thought muzzily. Hey, if I come to the Summerland today, don’t be mad at me, okay?

Rae thought she heard Daragh’s low chuckle, then his smart-ass voice saying, If you abandon your mate right now, cub, I will kick your ass.

“Wrong way!” Carson was yelling behind them.

Zander didn’t swerve. He kept charging. A big-ass bear like Zander didn’t need a path, Rae decided. Things just got out of his way.

Even so, once she saw sky again instead of trees and more trees, Rae knew they were on the wrong beach. This cove was different, less sandy, with cliffs forming a U-shape out into the sea. A good place to defend, Rae thought critically, but they’d have to fight to the last Shifter standing before her dad, brothers, or the other Shifters could reach them. And they’d probably get wet.

Wolf paws caught Rae’s shoulders and lowered her from Zander’s back. Mason again, with Broderick right behind him. Zander shifted to his human form and caught Rae, his dark eyes glinting red but with terrible fear behind his anger.

The ferals were coming down through the woods, humans with them, and those humans had rifles with scopes.

One of the humans called out to them, taking aim over his weapon. “You don’t have to die, you know. Join us, Battle Beasts, and you can live another day.”

Zander jerked his head up, the beads on his intact dreadlock glistening in the sunlight as he slowly turned around. He studied the array of Shifters and humans, at least fifty of them, waiting to rush across the narrow strip of sand and kill them all.

Zander said, in a voice that rolled around the cove and echoed up into the woods, “Not today, Fae slaves.”

He raised his arm high and made a pointing signal with his hand.

The boom from the sea shook new pain through Rae’s bones, and she cried out. An explosion blossomed on the shore, right in front of the ferals. Humans and Shifters scattered, yelling, men shooting wildly, then screaming when yet another explosion tore through the air.

Rae, supported by Mason, tried to shield her face, but debris cut it, stinging her eyes.

Then Zander had her in his arms, lifting Rae against his chest. Out on the water, a heavy rubber raft was speeding toward them, the man at the helm familiar.

“Miles!” Rae tried to shout. “It’s Miles.” Nothing came from her throat but a feeble whisper.

“Hush, Little Wolf,” Zander said. “Almost there.”

Miles drove the raft right up onto the sand. He leapt from it, dashing to help Zander and Rae into it, then climbed back to the tiller. Mason, Broderick, and Carson wasted no time shoving the raft around and heaving themselves in.

As Miles gunned the engine and the raft skimmed back across the water, Rae peeled open her eyes. Zander was holding her, his braids, one now minus its beads, brushing her skin. She saw a glint of silver, and turned her head enough to see that Broderick held the sheathed Sword of the Guardian; his brother, Zander’s samurai sword. Broderick did not look happy, but he clutched the sword grimly.

Zander caressed Rae’s face, moisture on his dark lashes. “Hang on, Little Wolf. I won’t let you go.” His hand went to her chest and she felt a hot tingle, a brush of his healing magic.

“Where did you get a rocket launcher?” she tried to ask.

The corners of Zander’s lips twitched and he shrugged. “Wasn’t hard. I know a guy.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Rae was dying. Zander knew it even as he lowered her onto the bunk she’d used when they’d been on Miles’s and Carson’s ship before. The feral had torn open her abdomen, her blood was pouring out, and the feral’s dirty claws had the potential to give her a deep infection.