“I am Fae,” Selena answered coldly. “But I am first, and always, a Daughter of the House of Gaian.”

“A witch?” The woman’s voice rose to a shriek. “A half-breed wiccanfae has dared intrude on one of our ceremonies, has dared try to pretend she could be one of us, has dared think she can control the power that belongs to us?”

“I pretend nothing. I do command the gift now.” Power was spiking inside her, painful little flashes of lightning along her nerves.

“You command nothing, you bitch!”

Her body reacted to the word before she realized what she was doing. One moment she was facing the former Lady of the Moon; the next, she was a shadow hound racing across the distance between them, a snarl of fury filling her throat. The woman didn’t have time to scream before she leaped, her forelegs hitting the woman in the chest hard enough to knock her rival to the ground. Then she pinned her enemy, her fangs a mere handspan away from the vulnerable throat as the woman screamed and flailed and screamed again.

She realized her enemy’s flailing had a purpose when she heard flesh slap boot leather, saw the flash of moonlight on metal. She whipped her head around, her fangs slashing the woman’s right forearm before the knife found its mark. Blood—and the taste of flesh, of prey—filled her mouth. She fought against the shadow hound instinct to rip and tear. This was prey. This was—

Blood sprayed over both of them as the woman flailed again—and the knife flashed again.

Her jaws closed unforgivingly over the torn forearm until teeth met bone. One fast, hard twist of her head—and bone snapped.

The knife fell to the ground. The woman screamed. Screamed and screamed.

She released the arm, turned her head so that she and the woman stared at each other. Blood dripped from her fangs onto the woman’s face. She snarled.

“I yield!” the woman screamed. “I yield I yield I yield!”

The throat. So vulnerable. So rich with hot blood. So…

Selena carefully backed away from the woman, her paws leaving bloody prints in the grass. With the scent of blood in the air and the taste of it in her mouth, it took fierce effort to change back to her human form.

She could still taste the blood.

The woman stared up at her, her face pale with shock. “W-what are you?”

Selena looked down at her rival. “What you should have been and never were. The Queen of the Witches.”

She walked away, striding toward the center of the clearing. Too much power churned inside her. Too much. She couldn’t ground it, not until she’d dealt with these Fae, but if she didn’t release some of it and it got away from her…