Chapter 5 5

or the next several minutes, I stood at the other side of the daybed, using it as a barrier between myself and Grog until Fenrir mustered up enough strength to strike. Sweat poured down my brow, and every limb on my body trembled with the force of my heat.

The shaman knelt on the floor, twitching and cursing from my attack. I itched to charge at him with both hands shifted into claws, but my wolf panted and prowled with the urge to take control.

Grog staggered to his feet and released his grip around where I'd sliced his neck. "There." His eye sockets glowed with magic. "I've stemmed the flow with my magic. This time, I will wait for the heat to consume your mind before making my next move."

My wolf pushed herself to the surface and whined to be set free, but I wrestled her down. The heat had gotten to her the worst, and she was consumed with the instinct to mate.

Grog edged toward me, his eyes burning with hatred. "If Marchosias hadn't told me your consent was necessary for the mating ritual, I would have taken you already."

I forced a laugh. "Fine words, coming from someone as skittish-"

Fenrir pushed himself off the wall and tore the crossbow bolt from his chest, making my breath catch. Blood flowed from his wound only for it to seal and the red liquid sank into his skin. He staggered to the edge of the wards, his eyes crackling with white fury.

Grog's brows furrowed, and it looked like he was about to glance over his shoulder but I hissed as a distraction. His eyes snapped back to me.

"I'll never submit to you," I spat. "Not even if this heat tortures me to death."

The shaman grinned. "I am a patient man, and the barrier keeping us here is strong. When the heat takes control, you'll be begging me for a hard pounding. As soon as I've impregnated you, Marchosias' soul will rise from Hell and inhabit the vessel."

My nostrils flared. "You'd condemn the world just so you can be a shifter?"

He puffed out his chest and ran both hands down his beard. "Better than that. Marchosias offered me the position of his High Shaman."

"You can't be a shifter and a shaman," I spat.

"He's letting me keep my magic." Grog waggled a finger. "And I will rule at his side."

Fenrir placed both hands on the wards, spreading magic across the invisible barrier, sending a ripple of power through the air. My wolf's growls grated across my eardrums. With a deep shudder, I wrapped my arms around my middle, trying to hold together my human form.

Grog shuddered. "What's that?"

"Maybe you've been rolling in fleas?" I forced my gaze away from Fenrir.

Another attack of heat burned through my veins, making my insides spasm. I clutched my arms around my middle, curled my legs toward my chest, and groaned.

"Lydia," Fenrir snarled.

Grog turned around, raising both arms in a parody of victory. "You can't beat my wards. They're tied to my life force."

"Is that right?" I asked through clenched teeth.

He cast me a dismissive glance. "Marchosias has given me eternal life."

Despair twisted through my gut, mingling with the agony of my heat. How on earth could I break out of wards tied to the life of an immortal?

My wolf snapped and snarled and reared up with a force so strong that I felt my skin itch. Grinding my teeth, I pushed down on her with all my power. She thought Grog was someone like her and couldn't fathom that he could be dangerous.

The air trembled with Fenrir's magic, which felt like the crackle of electricity lashing at my skin. I darted my gaze to where he stood at the edge of the wards, his face contorted with fury. Whatever he was saying to Grog was muffled by a sound barrier, but I imagined that he was threatening the shaman's life.

The sweat on my skin sizzled as the room felt like standing too close to the stove of a sauna. Grog's wards looked like they weren't about to fall, and I needed to act now, while his back was turned.

"Give me some of your fire," I said to my wolf.

She stopped jumping and paused with her head cocked to one side. It was her way of asking what I intended to do with it.

"I want to show him that we're worthy of being his mate." My insides cringed at the obvious lie, but I was trying to save both our lives.

My wolf sat on her haunches, raised her head and blew out a plume of flames. I channeled the magic through my palms, just as Fenrir had once done when my wolf was in his lands, and I coated them with flames.

"Grog?" I asked.

"What?" he replied without turning around.

"Come here."

He scoffed. "You can fool me once, girl. Never twice."

I shuffled to the edge of the daybed, and dropped down to my knees. The flames extinguished, making me groan, but I crawled across the floor on my belly to where he stood at the edge of the wards.

Fenrir stared down at me, his lips parting, his brow furrowing into a frown. Perhaps he was wondering what I was doing.

"Can you hear me?" I asked him through our link.

When he still didn't answer, my heart plummeted. Grog must have used a form of magic similar to the one he had employed when suppressing my wolf. As the shaman of a large pack, he would have had years to perfect his craft.

Pain flashed through my insides like sheet lightning, making me clench my teeth. I pulled myself across the floor with my forearms, my legs dragging uselessly behind me.

"The Great Fenrisúlfr," Grog said, his voice dripping with contempt. "I prayed to you day and night to grant me a wolf, a mate, some fucking respect, but you never once answered my pleas. Now, I'm going to take your woman while you watch."