The wielders are coming, and they're ready for violence.
With a cub in her arms, Arietta James, a dedicated vet technician in training, flees for her life and the life of the little shifter she's ready to die to protect. Her escape lands her right i...
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"Explain."
"They're here for Naya," Arietta said. "She's the one that escaped."
Gavriel frowned at the young woman in front of him. The smell of sickness poured off of her today, which agitated his leopard. The beast inside him stretched, desperate to shift to fur. Oddly eager to rub against her in comfort in the hopes it might ease her suffering.
He ignored his beast.
"Shifters do not give up their young."
She had known that. It was why she'd rushed to bring Naya across the territory border. The wielders must know that as well.
"It doesn't matter to them," Arietta said.
Gavriel, surprisingly hesitant, released Arietta's elbow. "This Association would rather their own die than let one cubling go?"
Oh Sarai, what did they do to you and your young one?
Arietta's lips pressed into a thin line. "Getting Naya across the border was..."
Gavriel saw it in Arietta's face. Getting that cubling across the border and into their territory had been more than Arietta cared to admit.
His heart softened.
He understood that the wielders had chased her across the border. That they'd been ready to run the risk to get a hold of them. But he had been naive in his assumption that it was because they simply wanted to protect their secrets.
Instead, they were— "Trying to retrieve an asset," he muttered.
An asset. As if Naya were nothing more than a prize.
Naya. His niece.
"Why do they want her?" Gavriel asked. The rage was building inside him, gathering like an inferno. One that had been fed slowly, once with the revelation of his sister, and again by the attack at the border.
What could the enemy possibly want with one of their younglings?
Protective instincts rushed to the surface. He'd fight tooth and claw to keep any of their little ones safe. It was a shifter's responsibility to keep those close to them protected. Even new additions to their territory.
Especially new additions to their territory.
Arietta's lips thinned. It told him enough. Whatever she was going to say next, he would not like it.
Inside him, his leopard itched to tear free and find those who had attacked his border to teach them another lesson, even if it required pulling them back from the grave.
"What were they doing in that facility, Arietta?"
His hands were fists at his side. "Was it a facility?"
