The ring on my finger suddenly felt like ten pounds, the reminder of my ability to escape a welcome beacon in my thoughts.
Only, my wolf snarled in response. She wanted to stay.
We need to go,I argued.
But as we pulled into the alpha’s driveway, I knew I couldn’t leave.
“The silver package has been delivered. They should be dead by morning.”
The sun was kissing the horizon now, the early morning air heavy with mourning.
“Tyler’s been poisoned.”
Dead by morning.
Two different conversations, both with related outcomes.
This isn’t a coincidence. It’s all related. If I run now, I’ll never understand why. And those girls… someone has to save those girls.
Alaric sat frozen in the passenger seat, his nostrils flaring. I almost reached for him to offer comfort, to say something, anything, to calm him down. But the vibrations growing in his chest kept me at bay.
“I need to go inside.” Darkness underlined his tone, his wolf riding just beneath the surface.
“Do you want me to come in with you?” I didn’t mean to offer that. I didn’t mean to even speak.
But his midnight gaze met mine, the pupils blown wide to engulf his irises. It left me wondering what he looked like in animal form.Ebony eyes and brown fur to match his hair.I could almost see it. He’d be big, too.
“He’s dying,” Alaric whispered. “I can feel it.”
I swallowed. That wasn’t exactly an answer to my question. But I suspected he was beyond reason at the moment. Grief altered behavior, made some more aggressive and others weaker. Alaric would likely fall in the former. “I’ll come in with you,” I decided out loud. It just felt right. I’d examine why later.
He nodded as though I’d answered some unspoken question. Then he unbuckled his seat belt and exited the car without another word.
Alaric
Makayla’s presencecalmed my wolf, her gentle energy something I didn’t realize I needed until I stepped into my former home.
I’d grown up here with Tyler.
Our father had been the Silver Lake Alpha.
Then he’d passed the property to Tyler once he’d taken over the mantle as leader. It had been a gradual transition with my brother being bitten and turned into a wolf on his eighteenth birthday. He hadn’t fully taken over the pack until his twenty-second year. By that point, I’d already left.
I, too, had been turned on my eighteenth birthday. Just two years after Tyler.
Our animals had immediately warred, our desires to dominate passionate and strong. It had been expected since our father had been an alpha as well.
My wolf’s innate power, however, hadn’t been expected. Tyler being the oldest had meant he should have naturally inherited the mantle, but my inner beast had disagreed wholeheartedly with the birthright. And had we fought one another, I would have won.
So I’d left instead.
Had gone to New York City, found a job with E.V.I.E., and had lived there ever since.
Oh, I visited on occasion. But never for long. It just wasn’t my home anymore. It was Tyler’s pack now, a point that became clear as everyone moved out of my way with each step I took.
The enforcers—all old acquaintances of mine from my younger years—nodded their respects.
“He’s in the master.” The statement came from Paul, an old friend of my mine from high school. He’d become a pack enforcer soon after graduating, the position suiting him. But right now, I wasn’t interested in reminiscing.
