Free Half Wolf by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

what?” Rena snapped.
    “Fragrant,” Devlin concluded.
    “She’s going to be one of us,” Rena said.
    “Is she, now?” Devlin grinned at Michael.
    Vampire presence made the air harder to breathe even for a Were whose system churned oxygen like a well-oiled machine. Michael’s wolf pressed against his insides with a desire to be freed. His body wanted to turn itself inside-out and become the thing he harbored.
    “Party time,” he said as night finally darkened the air, rallying the two Weres. “Under no circumstances can those vampires be allowed to reach the campus.”
    “Like you have to tell us that,” Rena muttered as they all moved toward the spreading blackness that heralded the approach of the undead.
    There was no mistaking the stench in the air. The two vampires heading their way moved in unison from shadow to shadow. Although they were youthful in appearance, these vamps were terribly fast, their whereabouts difficult to pinpoint until they passed through a glittering shaft of early moonlight. Then, as if they’d been trapped by a searchlight, both bloodsuckers paused to hiss their displeasure over having any type of light touch their colorless skin.
    The moon belonged to the wolves, while vampires were true children of the night—the darker the night, the better. Though Michael didn’t know for sure, he supposed that like bats—which were credited as the vamps’ distant relatives—bloodsuckers didn’t have proper-functioning eyes in bright light, which was why vampires sought out dark spaces and burrowed underground in the daylight hours. The darkness was where nightmare belonged.
    The moonlight made these two vamps angry and twice as dangerous. Neither had been undead for long, since both retained some pre-death musculature. Their clothes were in relatively good shape, if the bloodstains were overlooked. However, no one on earth could have believed these creeps were living, breathing humans after a first quick look. No way in hell.
    “Ugly bastards,” he heard Rena mutter.
    One of those bastards heard her and slipped away from the pool of light. Devlin moved after that slinking shadow, leaving tree cover to follow his pasty-skinned prey.
    The vamp in the light made a strange keening sound that Michael was afraid might be some sort of signal.
    “You’re heading the wrong way,” he said to it. “This area is protected.”
    The vamp swelled as if it had swallowed enough air to double its size, though breathing wasn’t its forte. It bared its nasty fangs.
    “Saw that trick in a circus once,” Rena said, unimpressed.
    Her remark broke the standoff. The fledgling moved toward Rena without changing its expression, perhaps incorrectly concluding that a female would be the weaker opposing link. At the same time, Devlin gave a shout as the vampire they had lost sight of came rushing at them from the right, with Devlin close on its heels.
    Michael had already torn off his shirt to soak up the moonlight. Calling upon the innate strength and reflexes of his Lycan heritage, he had one vampire by the throat before Rena had moved.
    There was no time to strip. Michael kicked off his shoes and listened to his worn jeans tear at the seams. Before his next big breath, his continuing morph gave him teeth and jaws to match the claws he had already been wielding.
    Loud cracking sounds accompanied the realignment of his shoulders. His spine snapped straight with a shock to the bones. Seconds later, his legs jumped on the bandwagon.
    As Rena reached for the vampire in his grip, Michael butted her away, allowing his wolf the room necessary to deal with a creature that had died once already and now needed a reminder that dead was dead.
    He howled as he completed his shift. After hitting the ground on his paws, Michael bounded back up to lunge for the vampire’s neck. Grabbing hold there with his sharp canine teeth, he shook the bloodsucker so forcefully, the creature shrieked.
    Rena wasn’t to be left out of