Dawn Endeavor 1: Fallon's Flame by Marie Harte (book recommendations website TXT) 📕

distraction against him. The bastard pierced his flesh with twisted, jagged claws that hurt like a bitch. He roared his displeasure and cried out in pain as the thing ripped its nails out. They entered smoothly but pulled out more flesh, the jagged teeth on the things fucking effective weapons.

Bleeding like a sieve, Fallon faltered on his feet. Need to keep clearheaded for Olivia, he told himself and forced his feet to move. A glance at her showed her fixated on his blood.

“Olivia, honey, please. You have to get to safety,” he growled, upset his mate wouldn't leave. The damned woman was going to get herself killed.

The mutant sniffed in her direction and grinned. Then it wrapped itself around Fallon, clinging like a goddamn leech, and bit into his neck.

Trying to free himself from its bone-crushing grip was bad enough, but feeling the mutant's pronged tongue sucking at his neck, ingesting his blood, freaked the hell out of him. Light-headed and growing weaker, Fallon struggled for Olivia's sake. But as his ribs cracked, he began to drown in the fluid building up in his lungs.

An alien shriek pierced the air, but he couldn't see what happened. Weak, you're weak, he berated himself as he fought to remain coherent, to not leave his mate to a horrific fate. Instead he floundered in a sea of cold, dark hell, listening to inhuman screams while he imagined the demon killing the only thing he'd ever loved.

Olivia couldn't stand it. The monster was eating Jesse! The only guy to ever prove somewhat promising in the relationship department, and a reject from the Black Lagoon was devouring him.

“Hell no,” she yelled and gave in to the sudden well of rage boiling inside her. She used the creature's own hungers to foster a need to kill within herself. Screams and alien noise from all around her only added to the insanity of the situation. Jesse's large, tough body continued to bleed out as the thing tightened around him like a coiled boa.

On fire, Olivia pulled at her clothes and stretched with every cell she possessed. The pain was agonizing, but the mutant's fury fed her desire to destroy. When the ache finally passed, she clenched her fingers, aware of a subtle difference. Her nails were an inch long and hard as steel A glance down at herself showed her body to be darker, taller, and way more muscular.

She smacked her lips, called for the mutant, and had to avoid piercing her tongue on the long, sharp fangs in her mouth. Holy crap.

“I'm here, you prick,” she yelled to it again. The scent of its internal decay sickened her, but in a way she also felt a strange pity. The thing had no sense of self, only a lonely need for companionship. It broadcast like a radio tower, its feelings loud, all-encompassing, and pathetic.

“I'm here. Come to me,” she said more quietly and held out her arms.

It didn't break its stare at her as it released its hold on Jesse. He slumped on the ground while the mutant crawled to her. Before she could figure out what she intended to do to it, a dark blur flew in front of her, taking the mutant away once more.

Two more Circs entered her immediate space, and she crossed to hover protectively over Jesse. A glance at him made her wonder how she'd ever thought him a beast. He still appeared like himself as a man, but he was better, stronger, harder. The blood all over him bothered her, and she sent him a burst of heat, warning him with an emotional tug to heal himself.

“Christ, that's perfect.” Jules's sarcastic growl came from the large Circ to her right. He radiated power, and she couldn't help her instant attraction. The beast within her preened at having the leader's attention. “A female Circ out here to tease the rogues circling us like a damned hunting party. Talk about a helluva trip.”

Kisho blinked at her and cocked his head. “I didn't see this coming.” Bigger, like Jules, he took her breath away. Exotically slanted eyes, thick, long, dark hair, and muscles that gleamed in the Brazilian sun. Were it not for her mate, she might have tried claiming the others as her own.

But she needed to protect Jesse first. The rest of her new family could come second.

In the back of her mind, Olivia recognized her newfound thoughts and emotions as not quite a part of her, but right now she focused her attention on those directly within reach of Jesse.

The mutant uttered a hoarse cry before growing silent, its lack of noise a distinct warning that something much worse had joined them.

To her shock, she barely recognized Gunnar. He stood a head larger than Jules and Kisho.

Ripped with muscle, the tendons in his neck and arms stood out in stark relief. Veins bulged as he moved like a hulking bodybuilder who ate other bodybuilders for breakfast. But it was his eyes, bright blue blazes bathed in black that alarmed her. Nothing about him looked remotely human. His claws dripped with a black, oily substance, and his teeth dripped with the same stuff.

Not fangs, but sharklike, pointed teeth that could rip into a body and decimate his opponents.

He raised his head and sniffed and took a threatening step in her direction.

She pulled at his rage and snarled in warning.

He stopped and blinked and, to her surprise, began to shrink in size. He remained large but not so gigantic, and his eyes once again looked normal, the slit pupils declaring him Circ.

“Olivia?” he asked, his voice hoarse. He absently wiped the black stuff from his face and hands. “Fuck, you fully changed.” He stared hard, his gaze centered on her breasts as he licked his lips.

“Is Fallon okay?” Jules asked.

She didn't know, but when he moved forward to check, she growled at him to stay back.

“We don't have time for this.” Jules scowled. “We need to