Fighting by Anaya Phoenix (sci fi books to read .TXT) 📖

that triggers you, like how when I get angry and Liliana shines through. You push him to the back and you use your strength to fight, but you’re run by his fear. You mix fear and love, you’ve got a lethal mix.” A full on smile graced his lips and the pressure on my hand lessened as he stood to his full height.

“Leon?” Tabby said softly, her voice slightly squeaky, as she walked toward us. I looked to her then, knowing that everything would be over soon, and sneered.

“You’re not needed anymore, sweetheart, I’m safe.” Her eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth to say something snotty and, probably, rude, before her body went still and Filly surged forward. She clutched her stomach and took several deep breaths.

“Good goddess that cat is irritating as all hell.” Leon looked to her then and she looked to him. She dropped her hands to her sides and stood as tall as she could, still coming up slightly short on him but still taller than me, and held her chin high. I could see that he was fascinated with her, I could see it in the depths of eyes that were so similar to Leo’s, but she couldn’t and never did see that. She mistook his interest with distaste and his curiosity with disdain, and because of that he never could get too close to her.

“Shouldn’t you be gone too? I think that, as far as all of us are concerned, you’ve done enough.” There was disgust in her voice that I could tell hurt him. He clenched my hand again and I let myself hiss out air, deciding that I’d had enough of the awful RomCom deal they had going on. She looked to me then and looked back to him who simply raised a brow, trying his hardest to feign ignorance but his clenched jaw and terse eyes proved otherwise.

“Let go of her, Leon. This whole thing is getting a little annoying.” I inwardly rolled my eyes as if she had any right to talk as if she’d gotten most of the bones in her hands broken.

“And if I don’t want to? If I quite like holding her hand?” I saw annoyance flash across her face and knew it would only fuel him to continue.

“That’s not holding her hand, that’s holding her hostage. She’s got a mate, a powerful one at that.” His head cocked to the side slowly and he looked at her.

“You know he can’t beat me, especially the me that I am now. She could barely beat me at her best.” My brow furrowed and I growled low under my throat.

“I’ve already hurt you once Leon, and I’ve kept a good hold on my temper. I’d hate for that to slip.” He chuckled darkly under his breath and otherwise ignored me and kept staring at her.

“Why bring up her mate if you know he couldn’t take me on right now?” His voice was deeper and I saw the effect it had on her.

“You can’t have her. So stop king-konging this, and let her hand go and be a good little cub and rest until you’re called properly.” Before giving any of us a warning he zoomed to her, dragging me with her and popping my shoulder out of the socket and making me genuinely contemplate going full on rage at him.

“I don’t care to be told by a tigress what to do, especially an emotional one who does nothing but string me along.”

“Ok, whoa slow your roll. Back up several steps there partner. I’m not stringing anyone along, not you or Leo. And I am not emotional, you haven’t seen emotional yet.” Her tiger came to the surface and her fangs grew thick in her mouth as brown eyes laced with gold glared up at him. He simply smiled a menacing and slow crawling smile before he leaned down the couple of inches it took for them to be eye to eye.

“I have seen emotional sweetheart, I’ve lived for quite a while and seen females more powerful and more competent than you threaten me. It didn’t work.” I tried to warn him, and by that I mean I tried to pry my hand from his fist before I flew with him. I’d pissed off Filly enough to know that she strikes when you think she won’t and I was convinced that only I saw her fist clench; it was because I was the only one who did. Quickly she punched him in his nose, but gripped the back of his head so he couldn’t flee and continued to pound on his face. I was about to pull out my claws to scratch my way out of my imprisonment when he used me, yes actually fucking used me, to whack her off of him. From the sickening bruise that was growing around my wrist, I could tell that it was broken too but since my arm had been dislocated I no longer felt it as intensely as I would’ve. Her body made a scary thud as she was knocked to the side and she looked at him with her mouth open in shock.

“Did you just… use Luna as a weapon?” Using his other hand he reached up and popped his jaw back in before looking at a dangling me.

“You wouldn’t stop hitting me.”

“Let go of Luna, if her mate sees or feels any of the damage she’s going through he will come here and you won’t be safe.”

“Tell me, do I look like a man scared for my safety?” I looked to Filly then and saw she was barely holding herself from shifting and eating him, which is something her mom would’ve been proud of.

“Just let me go Leon, this whole thing is getting old.” He looked to me then and I saw the pain in his eyes and saw he was so close to crying and suddenly it appealed to me.

“Sorry about this, Leo, but you’re too wrapped up in your fear.” Pulling my claws out I brought my wolf to the surface and with a growl scratched him from his abdomen up to his arm, going deep enough that his skin peeled back and blood spurted onto my clothes. He roared then, the heat from his breath blowing my hair, and dropped me but punched me hard in my abdomen which sent me flying into her cave wall and dented it. I whimpered, the impact of the blast had broken most of my ribs and punctured my lung. I was going to choke on my own blood, but he had to see it and come back. I spit up some of the blood and three of my teeth but I couldn’t focus on that. I sent a panicked look to Filly who came to me immediately, cupping the back of my hand.

“Ander!!” She screamed, looking utterly disgusted at Leo but when she looked to me her eyes teared up and they were fear filled. I couldn’t hear very well, my eardrum had probably been exploded on my left ear but I could hear normaly in my right one and heard him coming along with half my family. Ander slid in and I looked up at him before coughing up more blood and wheezing gently. His eyes turned green and he looked to Leon who stood there completely still with blood still running down his body. Jesse ran to in and kneeled next to me, holding my hand and searching my face. I groaned gently as I turned my head to look at him, counting on Filly to keep my head up. I opened my mouth and felt my lip quiver and knew it wouldn’t be long before I blacked out.

“Don’t…. let…” Was all I could groan out and I didn’t want to risk any link to set any wolf off. His eyes searched mine and Alissa ran in before stopping behind him and putting her hand over her mouth and falling next to him.

“We have to help her!” She screamed before grabbing my shirt and lifting it up to see what I could imagine was a nasty bruise. I could feel my nose start to bleed and I looked to her. I shook my head gently, hissing through my remaining teeth when the pain shocked my spine and I almost, stupidly, arched my back. I looked to Filly and saw the pain there and the annoyance and the anger, but I saw the ultimate sadness. I looked at my chest the best that I could before looking back up at her and taking a deep wheezing breath. Her eyes lit up and tears flew to her eyes, before she looked to Jesse and then Ander.

“She’s choking on her own blood, I think her ribs punctured her lungs. I’ve got to get it out, but it’ll hurt her really bad. Our bones are really thick when it comes to penetrating them, it’s going to catalyze him. I need one of you to protect Leo.” Her voice was shaky and she brought up her other hand and called her magick to her to make a hollow and thick needle.

“Why should I protect him, she’s practically on her deathbed.” Jesse growled, his fist clenched as he kept watching me.

“Because this could get bad really fast.”

“I’d say it’s already pretty fucking bad.” Alissa snarled, her hand shaking while my shirt was in her hand. I kept my eyes on Filly, trying to relay to her that she’d need all the help she could get and that my brother alone would not be enough. She stared at me for a quick second before she looked up.

“Mason, Shay!” She yelled and I sighed in the best way that I could. They would suffice, if my brother helped. Under thirty seconds they were there, but with Mason Libby came along. She put her hand over her mouth and sobbed out before falling to her knees. Alissa dropped my shirt and went to her, holding her and rocking gently.

“What do you need?” Shay asked, looking around but not noticing Ander and Leo in a staring contest.

“When I plunge this into her chest I need you to grab Ander, because he will go for Leo and he’s in his uber wolf stage so that would not be good for either of them.”

“You want me to protect Lord Asshole against an uber wolf? You know those bastards are mean, right?” Mason growled out but went to stand behind Ander regardless. I looked up at him and he grit his teeth as he saw what I’m sure looked horrendous. Filly looked at me and gripped the needle tight in her hand.

“I need you to focus on me, because this is going to hurt but I need you to stay conscious. If you slip under, Ander will go insane and I need him to not to kill that son of a bitch because we kind of need him.” I swallowed and hid my wince well but nodded against my body’s wishes. She took a deep breath and gripped the nape of my neck hard, her tigress coming out, and threw her leg over my legs for extra stability.

“I’m sorry.” She lifted her hand and stabbed me between the ribs and directly into my lung. Suddenly I could breathe, but I didn’t care about that. Not being able to control it, I let out a blood curdling scream and arched my back which only made things worse. I felt my ribcage, in its entirety, break and part of my spin crack in half. My body slumped and tears were flowing freely from my eyes, but I couldn’t care and I couldn’t stop screaming. Red clouded my vision, but I wasn’t angry. Slowly my scream died in my throat, but I knew the damage had been done already. I could breathe, but doing so hurt and made me not want to do it.

“Fuck.” Filly hissed, and dragged my body closer to her