Chapter 172

Before I could be sure whom to trust, I shouldn’t let any bloodsuckers discover me. I lowered my hat over my face and cowered lower.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Sideburns spat.

A tall female vampire stepped up and whispered in the lead vampire’s ear. Even with my superior hearing, I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

She stepped back.

The lead vampire sneered again, his eyes glued to the Alpha Heir the entire time. “Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about, especially about the girl.”

From what I’d seen, shifters relied on brute force, but vampires were more into playing games to get what they wanted.

Sideburns retorted, “What’s so special about this girl?”

“Let’s just say she belongs to my lord,” the vampire said. “She’s his lost pet. If you don’t have the girl, you have nothing to worry about. And if you allow us to take a look around your camp, you need not fear a battle.”

 

 Ice clogged my veins, and terror slithered up my spine.

The vampire said that I belonged to his lord. Did it mean Lucian was the mastermind behind me being locked up for who knew how long? Had my tormentors in that lab been working for him? Or was Lucian the Vampire God? If so, he’d have been here instead of having his minions fetch me.

He’d come for me in that lab building, which meant this lot had nothing to do with him.

It would be equally bad if the vampires broke through the shifters’ ranks and came for me, or if the Alpha Heir handed me over. I had to flee now. I couldn’t go back to the slaughterhouse. I’d rather die.

I was about to rise and bolt, but Shade pushed me down. He held my panicked gaze, his own steadfast, with the promise of protecting me with his last breath. He wouldn’t let anyone, not even his brother, harm me.

“Like hell I’ll let your filthy bloodsuckers touch anything of mine,” Sideburns roared and charged without another word.

The lead vampire drew his sword from behind his back at lightning speed. His long sword and Sideburns’ broad one clashed with a harsh sound. Then all around the forest, steel crashed against steel, claws tore into flesh. The vampires hissed. The shifters snarled.

The beasts and the vampires charged each other in a brutal battle. Blood splashed everywhere, the stench of copper and gore permeating the air.

A bear dragged down a vampire, but another vampire skewered the bear’s hind leg with a blade. The bear bellowed in pain and rage. A shifter in his warrior form slammed his claws into the vampire’s chest before the vampire could finish off the bear with a follow-up blow.

The bear tore out the throat of the vampire that he’d pinned down and lurched at another one. The shifters fought in pairs and went against four vamps.

A beastly sound rumbled out of Shade’s throat. He was guarding me, but he couldn’t stand watching his pack members be slaughtered, as they were outnumbered.