The skittering of claws on pavement drew my attention. I glanced back to find Harvey sliding to a halt. He didn’t turn to chase me. Instead, Harvey’s eyes were on the silhouette at the end of the street.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a soft glow. Looking down, I found the lightning mark on the back of my hand glowing. The wind blew a familiar, yet sweet, scent toward me.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Ryder.”
About to turn back toward Ryder, I came to a halt when Harvey let out a low growl. He twisted and lowered his head so he could glare at me. His teeth were white against the dark when he snarled. I wished I had shoes just so I could take them off and throw them at his cruel face.
“Go away. Bad dog,” I snapped.
Harvey leapt. I jumped back, his teeth clashing as he bit down on empty air. My heart lurched into my throat. My ass hit the ground and sent a jarring pain up my spine. Teeth clattering, I backed away from the prowling wolf.
Ryder suddenly appeared behind Harvey. Exhilaration hit my lungs when Ryder reached to grab the wolf between us. Ryder’s hand stopped. It trembled in the air over Harvey’s back. Ryder only had to take ahold of Harvey.
He couldn’t, though.
Ryder’s lip curled. He pushed, leaning his whole body forward. His hand refused to move, as if held by an invisible force. Ryder looked up and locked eyes with me.
Harvey realized what was going on. He chuckled, soft barks echoing in the night. I shot to my feet and turned to run again. Harvey hit me square in the back.
Ryder roared. The sound drowned out my impact with the ground. It swallowed my grunt and my outcry when Harvey bit down on the back of my neck. Pinpricks of light flared across my vision as the pain eclipsed the back of my skull.
My breath quickened. The hound in me thrashed. She wanted to live. She was tired of everyone trying to hurt her over things neither of us could change. It was time to fight back.
Behind us, Ryder threw things. A mailbox soared over my head. A kid’s plastic truck collided with the side of the nearby house. If anyone was home, they weren’t going to come out and help. At least, I prayed that they wouldn’t.
“Are you going to be like your father? Are you going to spend your life hunting innocent women?”
Harvey hesitated, as if my words had confused him. Did he not know? I’d assumed that Alvin had been working hard to pass on the family hobbies, but there was a chance that Harvey was like this all on his own. Maybe his father hadn’t done much, if anything at all, to turn Harvey into the monster that he was.
That meant Alvin had kept his murderous ways a secret from everyone. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was.
I had to live to expose Alvin. Even if Ryder couldn’t help me tonight, I had to live. I had to fight back.
In the corner of my mind, I wondered why Ryder couldn’t grab Harvey. I thought back to the last time that Harvey had attacked me on his own. Ryder had intervened. I’d been so afraid that Ryder would outright kill Harvey that I’d begged him to stop.
No, I hadn’t begged. I’d commanded him.
My arcana had slipped into my voice that day. It’d wrapped around my words and sunk deep into Ryder’s being. Now, Ryder couldn’t hurt Harvey. That meant that I was on my own. No matter how strong Ryder was, he couldn’t override my command.
“Goddamn it,” I grunted into the grass.
Harvey recovered from his confusion. He bit down harder. Teeth slid through flesh. I thought they would meet bone soon. What then? I shuddered to think about what might happen. If I couldn’t throw him off, these might be my last moments.
Like hell would I let Harvey win. I summoned that spiteful energy and let it rise like smoke, filling every inch of me until it reached my tongue. My handle on this was shaky, at best, but I had to try.
“Drop it,” I growled.
Why? Why was that the first thing I said? I wasn’t talking to a dog. This was a wolf shifter, and theitwas me!
Still, Harvey unclenched his jaws. Pain throbbed along the back of my neck, but I was free to wriggle out from beneath him. I crab-walked rather ungracefully away from Harvey to put space between us.
He lowered his head, a snarl ripping from his curled lips. My command kept Ryder from being able to hurt Harvey even now. I hoped that it would stop Harvey if he tried to attack me again. If it only made him put me down after he bit me, the shifter could still do a lot of damage.
I had to think quickly. My mind churned, turning over possible commands. However, the power slipped away from me. Fear slithered in, cold and unbidden. It chased away that vengeful spite that powered my arcana and left me with a hollow void where it’d been.
Among the debris that Ryder had thrown in our direction was the sledgehammer, ripped free of its concrete prison. I spared a split second to marvel at Ryder’s sheer strength before I raced toward the hammer. My back protested at the hammer’s weight, but I ignored my pain and hefted the tool like a baseball bat.
Harvey must have thought he would be quick. He lunged for my leg, like he might take it out from under me. I shifted my handhold on the sledgehammer and swung it like a gold club. It crashed into Harvey’s jaw.