Free The One We Answer To: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 3) by May Ellis Daniels Page A

eyes wide.  
    See? Fucking strange.  
    “Smell him?” Shiori whispers. “I do. And I can taste him…his beating black heart…”
    “Shiori, let’s move,” Connor says. “Now!”
    Shiori ignores him. “A feed…I scent him…his warm black blood…”
    Anik and Pim are tugging at Shiori, trying to pull her down the corridor, but she’s rooted to the spot.
    There’s a burst of gunfire overhead, then a spine-chilling animal shriek.
    Shiori begins humming. It’s a frantic, high-frequency hum that makes goosebumps rise on my arms. She sounds like a wasp swatted from its nest, and then her entire body’s vibrating and long tendrils of spittle leak from the corners of her mouth and down her chin and her skin begins to change under the surreal purple glow of the skylight, becomes shiny and plated—
    “No hunting, Shiori,” I say, trying to keep my voice measured and remain calm. I’m supposed to be her alpha , for fuck sake. She has to obey. Isn’t that how this works?
    Then I realize: I have no idea how this works.
      “We’re all hungry,” I say. “No hunting. Not now! We don’t know what’s up there—”
    “I scent what’s up there,” Shiori says. “And I will feed.”  
    Something heavy drags along the sidewalk above.
    I reach out to grab Shiori’s shoulder. I’ve barely touched her when something awful lifts from the back of her neck, a hooked leg or antenna, and swats my hand away. Tiny stinging barbs pierce my skin, drawing several drops of blood.
    “Do not touch me,” Shiori says in that horrible humming voice while still staring up at the skylight. “None of you. Ever again.”  
    So much for being the all-commanding, all-awesome alpha of everything.  
    “Show her,” Trish says from behind my right shoulder. “Make the nasty little bitch remember who you are.”
    “No Lily,” Anik says, his eyes wide. “They’re drawn by your creature…and my spirit…Shiori saved me…the bear is fond of her. I don’t know what he’ll do—”
    “Holy fucking hell,” Trish spits. “So much for pack loyalty.”  
    The rotten wooden rafters holding the sidewalk up overhead creak as something very heavy moves over us. Shiori’s skin is fully plated, her cheeks elongating, the barbed antenna that swiped at me now four feet long, with several more sprouting from the back of her neck, each moving upward toward the skylight, waving in the air, scenting.
    The reek of Stricken blood fills my nose.  
    My chest tightens in fury.  
    Trish is right.  
    Apparently I have a lot to learn about pack dynamics, and if I allow Shiori to undermine me now…next it will be Anik. “I’m going to ask you once more, Shiori,” I say, my voice very calm and controlled, “and then I’m going to show you why you need to obey when I command.”
    Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know if I’m strong enough. Shiori and Connor are the only one’s among us that still seem close to their animals. Maybe Shiori knows that.
    I feel like a fucking impostor, and suddenly I want nothing to do with any of them. My packmates. Connor. Even Trish. Suddenly all I want is to be on the back of Aaron’s bike, arms wrapped around his waist, feeling his muscles tense and leaning hard into the curves—  
    “Anik…” Pimniq says, her glance lifting to skylight as a shadow blocks the sun streaming into the tunnel.
    “Shiori! Let’s move! Now!” I shriek, dropping my claws, summoning my creature’s wrath, grabbing the disrespecting little bitch by the neck and tearing her to the side as the skylight bursts in and glass shatters around us and a long, six-inch thick spike slams into the floor where Shiori was standing only a moment ago.
    I saved her life. What a shame.
    Shiori digs her barbed hind legs into my back as we thrash and struggle, her face twisted in a horrible half-insect howl.  
    I throw Shiori into the wall so hard the brick cracks and the roof shudders, and at the same time a Stricken drops into the dimly-lit