Warriors of Poseidon 02.5 - Shifter's Lady

out of the car,” he said, his quiet voice almost shockingly contrasting with his wild-eyed demeanor. “Now.”
     
    “But—”
     
    He leaned into the car, unfastened her seat belt and ripped it off of her, then grabbed her arm and forcefully pulled her out of the car. Marie fell hard onto the gravel road when her legs tangled as he pulled her off balance. The immediate sharp pain focused her thoughts and snapped her out of the dazed state of shock the man‟s presence had caused. She evaluated him carefully. Taller than her, he was all muscle. Not someone she could hope to overpower. Dark auburn hair twisted in unkempt strands down to his shoulders, and his oddly pale yellow eyes burned with hate or some other equally intense emotion.
     
    And—for whatever reason—it was directed at her.
     
    “I‟m not playing with you,” he said, still in that calmly polite tone that was so at odds with the fury raging in his eyes. Then he fisted his hand in her hair and yanked her head up painfully. “Stand up now, or I‟ll kill you right there on your knees.”
     
    Shifter’s Lady – Warriors of Poseidon 2.5

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    Marie called on the Goddess for strength and courage and forced an expression of calm to match his to her features. “Of course,” she said, as she pushed up off the ground, ignoring the burning pain in her knees and hands where she‟d scraped the skin off them. “Although I think perhaps you have the wrong—”
     
    “Shut up.” He released her hair and lifted his hand, clenched into a fist. A hint of madness twisted his features into a caricature of their former calm. “I‟ve never punched a woman in the face before, but I can make an exception for Ethan‟s newest whore. Are you the slut he turned to after he let my pride-sister die? Or were you fucking him while she was still alive?”
     
    Marie blinked, completely lost. “What? I don‟t understand what you‟re talking about. I only met Ethan today, and—”
    He smiled at her and shook his head. “Wrong answer,” he said, almost patronizingly.
    Then he pulled out the knife.
     
    Ethan ran into the trees, following the strong scent of panther. More than one—some were shape-shifters. Maybe he‟d finally catch them. He leaped into the air and shifted, landing on the ground on powerfully muscled panther legs. The scent immediately intensified, since his animal senses were far superior to his human ones. There were many of them, and they‟d been congregating in this area recently. The scent was different from that of his own pride, but familiar.
     
    Maddeningly familiar. He stalked around the area, head down, trying to make sense of the myriad individual scents, when he heard a female scream from the direction he‟d left Marie in the car.
     
    Marie.
     
    Shifter’s Lady – Warriors of Poseidon 2.5

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    He snarled and raced back toward the car, feral thoughts of ripping his prey into shreds whirling in his mind. Rage nearly blinded him as he crashed through the brush with no thought of stealth.
     
    If they‟d hurt her, they would die.
     
    He whipped through brush and bounded around trees faster than he‟d ever moved before, heedless of the branches and thorns slicing grooves in his side through his thick fur. Throwing caution aside, he leapt through the grasses bordering the road and landed in front of the car, scanning the area as he did.
     
    There were four of them. Three surrounded the car, while the fourth held Marie with an arm banded around her waist. He had a knife to her throat.
     
    He had a knife to her throat.
     
    Ethan screamed with primal fury, his panther nearly insane with a murderous rage. But he stopped where he was when the bastard pressed the tip of the knife into Marie‟s tender flesh. Blood trickled down her neck, and Ethan swore he would exact vengeance upon them for every drop of it.
     
    Every single drop.
     
    The man holding her stared at Ethan and smiled. “Stay right where you are, Ethan. You wouldn‟t want my knife hand to get slippery and press harder into her neck, would you?”
    Ethan snarled again but held his position. He was fast, but not fast enough to get to them before that knife would slice through Marie‟s carotid artery. She stared at him, fear and helpless anger on her face, and he wanted to kill them all for causing it. His panther wanted to rip their heads from their bodies and eat their hearts.
     
    But then Marie would look at him with that same terrified