THE AWAKENING

She felt no fear.

Her bared fangs dripped with saliva as she hungered for Ulster’s blood. Beside her Tieran, her Alpha and One True Mate, stood on all fours beside her with an identical snarl as Ulster and his clan advanced like a dark, evil force invading every crack and cranny, seeking out weakness.

Cassandra and Tieran were outnumbered but stared death in the eye without flinching. Ulster would hound them until he snatched victory from their jaws and that would likely mean the death of one of her pups.

A new and frighteningly powerful emotion swept through Cassandra as she held her ground, refusing to yield in the slightest to the rival clan.

I will not surrender my babies to you. I would rather die first.

Ulster’s thoughts, harsh and guttural, poked at her brain, intruding. I will take what is mine. Kill the other.

The growls echoed in the forest as Ulster’s clan closed in.

A howl ripped through the air. Tieran answered with a sharp, answering howl.

Within seconds the males of Clan Barrachius appeared from within the dark canopy like one solid wall of coiled muscle and pelt to flank Cassandra and Tieran, bulking their numbers and increasing their odds of survival.

Cassandra’s wolf lips twisted in a parody of a smile as Ulster lowered his rangy head with a growl, surveying the increased numbers.

Turn tail and run, you bastard so I can run you down like the rabid dog you are.

Ulster didn’t

fight. He had blood lust in his eyes

centered on

Mine!

brain seconds before Ulster launched straight for her, crashing into

as wolves tore at one another, crunching bone and tearing

on Ulster’s back and sinking her teeth into the

dirty, as if he’d rolled in something disgusting and rotten only moments earlier

strength above and beyond the rest of the clan and within seconds Ulster yelped as she

off and she landed on the ground with a

on snapping it, but Cassandra used her mental skills to tear into his brain, causing unrelenting pain.

beast howled and let go, dropping to the ground in agony but another took his

in a thousand different places but

pain as the bone threatened to crack but within seconds

a halt when she realized Tieran had things well in hand — or well in teeth

received. She remembered the poor, abused women stuck in Clan Janus and she knew that if Ulster were

first, Ulster had

and dying from both sides were scattered about the clearing and Tieran stood over