Crimson Moon by Carol Lynne

you to whisk me off to safety. We’ve waited too long for Juniper to make a move like this.” When his chest began to tingle, Gunnar knew his wolf was fighting like hell to shift. Dropping to the ground, he began burrowing under the fallen leaves, rubbing his entire nude body against the soil.
    Ramiro raced back to the bench and found his phone amongst the pile of clothes. “We’ve got company,” he said into the phone before tossing it back to the bench.
    Thoroughly covered from head to toe in dirt, Gunnar resumed his position next to Ramiro. “How many do you think there are?”
    “Too many. We don’t know how to kill them.” Ramiro glanced at Gunnar. “If something happens, know that I love you.”
    “You picked a hell of a time to tell me that,” Gunnar said as pain shot through his body. He doubled over before falling to his hands and knees. He could hear Ramiro’s voice but the pain was too intense to make out the words. Fuck, what had he got himself into? Gunnar began to wonder whether he’d survive the transformation.
    “Juniper!” Ramiro shouted.
    Gunnar opened his eyes in time to see a group of monsters enter the clearing. He tried to get to his feet, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. It was a cry of pain from Ramiro that allowed Gunnar’s wolf to push to the forefront. All at once, hair sprouted through the pores on Gunnar’s body as the crunch of shifting bone grew louder.
    Staring down at his hands, Gunnar took a deep breath. He hadn’t fully changed. Two-inch talons sprouted through the flesh of elongated, hairy human hands. An unexpected blow to his side knocked him over.
    Instinct kicked in and Gunnar jumped to his feet, or what could pass as feet. They, too, seemed to have suffered through the partial shift. He swiped at the monster that had charged him and ripped easily through the freak’s leathery flesh.
    The monster charged once again as blood ran from the gaping wound on its chest. Gunnar hadn’t noticed it at first, but he stood eye to eye with the thing. With the freak’s size taken out of the equation, it was down to a battle of skill.
    Although Gunnar received a bite to the forearm, he pushed through the pain to plunge his sharp claws through the hybrid’s chest and into its beating heart. Before the freak fell to the ground, a searing pain ripped down Gunnar’s back. He span around and lashed out at another of Juniper’s hybrids.
    All around him, the battle between Juniper’s freaks and guards from The Realm raged on. Dodging blows and delivering lethal blows, Gunnar worked his way towards Ramiro. By some miracle, his wolf had come out to help protect the handsome vampire, and unless he hurried, it would all have been for nothing.
    On the ground, Ramiro’s muscles strained in his effort to hold a hybrid from ripping his throat open. Gunnar ended the lives of two more monsters before he reached the man he loved. One hard kick to a freak’s head managed to get him off Ramiro. Gunnar charged towards the hybrid, ready to end his life as easily as he had the others.
    “Stop!” Ramiro yelled. “It’s Juniper,” he informed Gunnar.
    Gunnar barely heard Ramiro as he hoisted the freak that had dared to attack Ramiro off the ground.
    “Gunnar, stop!” A deep voice ordered.
    Seconds away from ending Juniper’s life, Gunnar paused long enough to glance over his shoulder at Neo. Despite Gunnar’s agitated state, an order from his boss had the ability to get through to him.
    With Neo at his side, Spiro rushed forward. “Drop him,” Spiro said.
    Gunnar threw Juniper to the ground as hard as he could. Although it seemed he wouldn’t be allowed to kill Juniper, the wolf inside him wanted to inflict more pain on the threat to its mate.
    Juniper landed with a satisfying sound of breaking bones. Spiro shoved Gunnar out of the way and began a furious chant, moving his hands back and forth above Juniper’s body. In the blink of an eye, Juniper was gone along, with