Chapter 21

Twenty-One

~ Nate ~

Princess Blake is gone when I lift to my feet, and panic makes my muscles tighten. The three giants are dead on the ground, their bodies still warm and the scent of their blood strong in the air. I scowl, wishing I had been the one to end them. That I could have been the one watching as the life drained from their eyes.

“Blake!” Dante shouts, and I turn my attention to the demon who’s scanning the street. He’s holding one of the giant’s axes, and his dark eyes blaze with anger.

“How long were we out?” Prince Callan asks coldly as he rises to his feet.

“It’s hard to tell,” I bite out, moving to stand over one of the giants, “but goin’ by the bodies, I’d guess not long.”

Prince Callan comes up beside me and stares at the multiple arrows protruding from the giants’ bodies. “The princess didn’t do this.”

“You think it was the assassin?” Dante asks, his gaze still searching the surrounding buildings. “The one she believes is her mate?”

Prince Callan looks uncertain. “I’ve never heard of a Drozac assassin having a mate.”

The demon frowns. “So, you think she was wrong about him?”

Prince Callan flicks his wrist using wind magic to retrieve his discarded sword. “Who can say.”

Fuck, I want to make someone bleed. I clench and unclench my fists. Stepping a few paces away, adrenaline courses through my body as I shift, taking on my beast form. A roar rips from me the moment the change is complete, making the stones vibrate under my paws. Dropping my nose to the street, I breathe in, searching for Blake’s scent. My mate. My queen. It doesn’t take long for me to detect her, and I don’t spare the others another glance as I leap forward, picking up speed as I run between the buildings.

“He’s found her!” Prince Callan shouts behind me and he takes to the sky, following me from above. Dante isn’t far behind, his boots pounding the pavement, and it’s not until Shade squawks that I tip my head up, taking note of where she’s appeared. She flaps her wings furiously, desperately trying to keep up with the prince.

Right now, I can’t think about them. All I can think about is the fact that someone’s taken my mate from me. I push myself harder, and the buildings become a blur as my powerful body takes me further into the city.

It feels like hardly any time has passed when Blake’s scent leads me to a three-story structure with a flat roof. I don’t slow my pace as I leap onto the side of the building, my claws digging in as I climb the stone walls and head for one of the higher windows. Dante jumps up beside me, grunting as his fingers dig into the grooves between the stones, and the steady flapping of wings tells me Callan is descending from above.

My blood pounds faster as Blake’s scent grows stronger, and a protective instinct I’d long since thought I’d lost drives me forward, screaming at me to move faster. If the assassin has hurt her, I’ll tear him apart.