Taken by Lane L.V. (top young adult novels txt) 📕

“And now I’m going to make sure no one comes through the door until I’m ready.”

The air crackles and charges. Raglan’s face and body distort before he assumes the half-shift. My jaw falls slack for the second time. He is absolutely enormous, head skimming the ceiling with broad, muscular chest, shoulders, and torso, and powerful hind legs holding him upright. As he flexes his fingers, lethal claws spring free.

The shifted version of his handsome face is terrifying, dreadful, and beautiful all at once.

He rolls his shoulders and stretches his snout to the ceiling as though familiarizing himself with a long-dormant form. The claws retract, and the air crackles again. This time a stunning, and equally enormous, tawny-colored wolf takes his place.

“Oh!” I say in shock as he pads over to me and swipes his big tongue up my face. He is easily as big as a horse and fills the tiny hold.

“Fuck,” Brook mutters.

“Fuck,” Caden agrees.

The wolf pushes between us, places his back against the door, and lays upon the floor. It would take ten men to shift his great weight. Given the small confines of the stairwell, I’m not convinced they could get in at all.

“That’ll work,” Caden says.

Without other choice and no input from Raglan, who remains vigilant in his wolf form, we make ourselves as comfortable as we can within the confines of the tiny hold.

Squished between Caden and Brook, and with Raglan guarding the door, I feel safe despite the looming danger. At any moment, a call will sound, and chaos will come for us. But until then, the lap of waves, and the gusty wind as we power through the sea, are sounds of the calm before the man-made storm.

A mighty boom and a crack, so loud I fear that the ship is rupturing, jolts me from a light doze.

A warning cry comes from above, and a bell clangs, alerting the crew to danger.

“What was that?” I ask as we stagger to our feet.

The ship lists to one side, and we all grab the posts and brace against the walls of our tiny hold cell. As the vessel rights, water sloshes in through the slatted portal window.

Raglan morphs from wolf to half-shift. I’ve only seen Nate in half-shift, and it was hard for him to maintain. I heard him mention once that it’s hard for any shifter to hold, and not only for a half-blood. Yet Raglan seems to have command over his forms to another level.

“That is the sound of grappling hooks,” Raglan says. His voice is low and more like a gravelly snarl. “That is the sound of revenge. Keep Priya from trouble. These arrivals are our friends.” Turning, he springs his claws and rips open the door. Despite ducking, he cannot fit through the gap. His powerful fist smashes into the frame, shattering the wood and sending chips and splinters flying. His claws clatter as he bounds up the stairs, the floor vibrating with his passage.

The ship still lists from one side to the other, although not as wildly as before.

“Stay behind me,” Caden says. Brook and I follow him up the narrow stairs.

The roaring rush of battle greets us. Fires are burning on the deck. The mast is smashed in the center, shattered such that the main sails drape into the water. Grappling hooks line the starboard side where another ship has drawn abreast.

Men armed with swords, and wolves too big to be anything but shifters, are pouring over the side. The Blighten outlaws surge to meet them in a ferocious melee.

Raglan stands over the body of an outlaw. Turning, he tosses the fallen man’s sword, hilt first, to Caden, just as a ruffian charges us with a battle cry. Brook thrusts me behind him as Caden parries the strike.

“They are King’s men,” Caden calls as he battles with the man. I notice the Imperium red among the shifters boarding us, and my hope rises from its long slumber.

“Watch out!” Brook calls. He grabs up a swag of rope and beats an outlaw trying to flank us. Raglan leaps, tackling the man. His giant claw swipes, opening up chest and throat. Lips curling, he growls as he stomps over the fallen man to take down another foe.

The clang of metal rings in the air—Caden engages the villain, but he pushes the man back under a barrage of blows before cleaving the ruffian from throat to crotch.

A great cracking sound comes from above, and we all dive just as part of the cross beam and a flaming swathe of sailcloth crashes to the deck.

We are scrambling away when the regal Orcs charge onto the main deck.

They are huge, powerful monsters. Gan brandishes a crude ax, and he smashes into the nearby Imperium ranks. Edil is an equally monstrous image as she wields a giant sword.

Raglan turns his attention to the two Orcs like he is about to attack when Derick emerges from the shadows, loaded crossbow in hands. The Blighten lap-dog shoots.

Lightning fast, Raglan charges. Morphing to a wolf, he ducks under the bolt, leaping for Derick. He morphs again to half-shift as he bears down upon the outlaw. Claws spring and sink into flesh. A high scream and shrill gurgle are Derick’s last sounds as his body is shredded under lethal claws. Torn nearly in two, his lifeless remains are discarded on the deck.

On the other side of the ship, Imperium soldiers surround Gan and Edil with long pikes.

With a roar, Raglan issues a challenge to the Orcs.

“Fuck!” Brook hisses. Raglan halts, crouched ready to leap. All eyes turn to find the Alpha slave who fought Brook under the Orc’s command approaching. The man bears the bruises and cuts from his many days battle with my mate and carries a crude spike-tipped club.

He stops a few paces away. “Mine,” he says, pointing his club at the Orcs. This man has fought Brook, but he was a slave, just like we all were, and had no choice in this.

“You want