Free The All Consuming: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 4) by May Ellis Daniels Page A

my wolf mad. I shake my heavily-muscled neck back and forth, grinding my prey’s face through the dirt. Her stinger stabs me again, but the pain feels miles off. I dig my claws into my bloodmate’s back and force her hind legs down until she’s flat on her belly.  
    I could sever her spine.  
    Just flex my jaws a little and snap it in two.
    But something holds me back. A memory of how we felt together. And another image, of a child swaddled in black silk.  
    My son.
    Shit’s gotten complicated.  
    A long, wheezing breath hisses from Lily’s throat.
    Then she freezes.  
    I stay on top of her, mounting her, making damn sure she’s yielding and not only playing at it.
    Then I hear a soft moan of submission.  
    I loosen my jaws. Just a touch. Enough to let the bitch know I don’t need to kill her if she smartens the fuck up.
    Lily stays perfectly still.  
    Her body begins to shift. Her skin tightens and her bones snap and her fur recedes and in seconds her animal is gone, and lying beneath me is a naked, wounded and bleeding woman, my bloodmate, Lily Thompson, AKA Sparkles the Cop.
    I’m still in my wolf.  
    Five hundred pounds of furious death instinct.  
    My jaws fit easily around my bloodmate’s flimsy Skin neck.
    Lily’s lying flat on her belly.  
    Pinned into the dirt.  
    Sobbing.
    “I fucked up, Aaron,” she says through her tears. “I thought they…Stricken? Not your crew. Not Purebloods. I was so afraid…I didn’t mean to call her…”
    “Lily?” a woman screams.
    Trish.
    So the fucking nosy, meddling Skin is still alive.
    “Get the fuck off her, you animal,” Trish screams.  
    I glance up. Nash has Trish wrapped in his arms.  
    The cop chick’s squirming against my VP, cussing him out—
    Trish is right.  
    I should let Lily go. She yielded to me.  
    But my wolf fought hard for this kill. He demands a feed. My prey’s warm red blood is filling my mouth. It tastes…powerful. More nourishing than any black Stricken blood. Maybe the tables have turned. Maybe we don’t need the Risen to defeat Vuk. Maybe the Risen need to die to prevent him from Becoming—
    “Your son, Aaron,” Lily whispers. “I’m carrying your child —”
    Lily’s heart’s beating like mad.  
    I know, because every time it beats a fresh throb of blood fills my jaws.
    Control .  
    My dead brother’s words.
    Love is weakness.
    The First Fallen.
    Right now I decide where I stand. Who I’m loyal to.  
    Am I like Vuk, loyal only to myself?
    Or is there something greater in me? Some sense of…good?
    Whatever the fuck that is.
    My brother thought so. Saw something in me. Kneeled to let me lead.
    The Purebloods have closed in around us. A couple dozen leather-cut wearing MC bikers and hundreds of animals I don’t recognize.  
    A fucking army at my command.
    The ones I summoned in the church when my grandfather named me the One We Answer To.
    Fuck it.
    There’s a war to fight. I offered Vuk a blood challenge.  
    I want that brawl. Want to see who’s really top dog.
    I’d even toss Lily into the pole pyramid just to make Vuk Become so I can square off against him. I fear nothing. And after I murder the Fallen, if the Risen need to die as well…so be it. The strong above the weak. Somewhere along the way the stupid motherfuckers got confused. Believed all the wrong stories. Thought it was the end of the Pureblood era. Thought a new species was destined to rise.  
    They’re wrong.
    Slowly, in complete control, I release Lily’s neck. Retract my claws from her back. Step off her. Send my wolf back into his cage.
    A rush of held breath escapes from the crowd.
    They still want her dead. But they’re willing to follow my lead.
    For now.
    Lily rolls onto her back. Sits up, cradling her belly and wincing. Looks me in the eye. A wave of conflicting emotion passes over her face: anger and hatred, love and lust.  
    Then she fucking smacks me straight across the cheek so hard my head rockets to the side. I grind