Mated to the Moon (Portal City Protectors Book 6) by Georgette Clair (little red riding hood ebook free txt) 📗

Silva swallowed. “There’s only one way: from the palace. Whoever is sitting on my throne opened the door for her. And they’ve officially declared war on the human world.”

Kalinda’s blood ran cold. They now had the Norn of the Past and the King of History in attendance.

This didn’t bode well at all.

Yup, ugly bad. She knew it!

Chapter Twenty-Three

Red and black blood colored the ground everywhere she looked.

Adonis was vicious, swiping anything that even tried to come near her, and several men joined the battle around him. But try as they might, the Hollows were weighing down on him.

And they had another enemy.

The thing was massive, maybe standing the height of a giraffe and then some, its feet round with flat hooves. It was made of bone, but old, ripped, leathery gray skin hung in random places as if it had been decaying for centuries and was forced to take form once more.

A broad body rested on top of the legs. Its ribcage was solid instead of slats of moving bone like she’d expect, and its long neck connected a smooth skull. Scariest of all was the face; the skin was more intact there. But its wide, blue eyes were guileless, almost blank, and whiskers surrounded its bulbous nose. Beneath such sweetness sat rows and rows of jagged teeth in a mouth that opened wide, splitting at the hinges of its jaw where two pincers protruded.

Fabiana had watched the pincers grab three wolves and feed them into that cavernous mouth.

She searched for somewhere to escape, but every time she moved the thing focused on her and tried to grab her. Adonis pushed back, but Fabiana was terrified to move and cause more wolves to lose their lives.

“Don’t move, baby. I’ll get you out. Just wait.”

She couldn’t be soothed by Adonis. Just a short time before, she’d planned run away without even hearing his side and she was embarrassed at her actions. He hadn’t told her the truth, that was true, but she hadn’t been innocent either.

She’d destroyed a lab, messing up weeks of work to retaliate against him, work that should have been waiting to try and save more lives with the wolves. Fabiana could see those who had the gear could move more easily on the field. The Hollows were confused by them, having to rely on their eyes to fight and not being able to gauge how powerful their opponents were.

There was now no doubt her invention would save so many more lives.

But only if they survived.

Raphael was at Adonis’s side, and the two attacked and dogged, destroying the seemingly never-ending Hollows with timed push-and-pull moves. They’d been together since they were kids, and it showed in how they worked together.

“Zahara, when will you be here?”

Fabiana didn’t have one of the mics, and she kicked herself for not asking. As an Alpha mate, she could have been fitted with one but had been so focused on the lab that she didn’t think about not having time to get to safety before the battle came to them. If she’d been tucked away with the others, they’d have cameras to watch what was going on and she could reach out to other mates to check on them.

She couldn’t hear the response, but Adonis’s frustrated growl was answer enough.

A car barreled onto the grounds, and Fabiana thanked the Goddess when she recognized the driver.

“We’re here!”

Giuliana and Pasquale leapt into the fray without a thought, pushing toward where Adonis and Raphael fought with a group of men.

“Fabiana,” Adonis called, looking to Giuliana.

“I’m already on it.”

Giuliana slipped to the ground, raking her claws down a Hollow’s belly before she turned and dug them into the neck of another. She was magnificent, fighting just as fiercely as the men. When she met up with Fabiana she was panting and trying to catch her breath.

“Sis, I gotta get you into combat training.”

Fabiana nodded, tears clogging her throat. “I can’t do anything. I’m … useless.”

Giuliana pulled her in for a quick, hard hug. “You’re not useless. Fabiana, you were never meant for the battlefield. ’Scuse me.”

She reached for a Hollow that broke in too close and put her hands on the top and bottom of its mouth and her fingers around its teeth before she pulled. The motion was enough to halt the Hollow while Raphael slammed his fist through the side.

“Nice one,” Giuliana complimented. “What are we gonna do about Big Ugly over there? He’s tracking Fabiana.”

“But I don’t know why,” Adonis tossed back, dispatching another Hollow. “Skuld doesn’t know about her, right?”

“We can’t be sure,” Pasquale offered. “They track magic signatures, and Fabiana’s has changed with her gifts. Either way, we gotta do something. She can’t leave the battlefield and she can’t fight.”

Not that Fabiana needed any reminders. The best she could do was stay in place and not bring attention to herself. As long as she remained still, the Zealot didn’t move.

“My mate can’t stay here.”

“Agreed. Think I can get her into that building over there with the columns? If she’s at least hidden away, we may be able to regroup.”

Raph grunted. “He’s going to follow.”

“It’s better than nothing, Raphael, until Zahara gets here.”

Adonis moved closer to her and captured her mouth with his. “Be safe. I swear to the Goddess, you won’t sit for a week if anything happens to you. Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” she whispered. She wanted to pull him back to her mouth, claim him, tell him she loved him, but this wasn’t the time or place. Fabiana wanted them to be okay, to have a chance to fix what she might have started to break.

Adonis turned away, heading back into battle. “We push them back as far as we can. Giuliana, get ready to run.”