She was just as I’d remembered, other than the fact that she was now carrying a gun, pointing it right at her brother’s chest. Three men as big and broad as Emilio flanked her. All of them were wolf shifters.
“Elena,” Emilio said, unable to keep the raw emotion from his voice. Tears shone in his eyes. “It’s… good to see you.”
Something told me the feeling wasnotmutual.
“Didn’t I tell you not to step foot to my jurisdiction,wolf?” She flashed a feral grin. Then, without warning, she clocked him on the side of the head with the butt of her gun.
Emilio dropped like a bag of rocks.
“What the hell?” I shouted.
“Shut up, demon,” she barked.
I took a step toward her just as I caught the blur of another cop in my peripheral vision. I tried to duck, but it was too late—he cracked me right on the skull.
The last thing I heard before the pain surged and sucked me under was the sharp bite of Elena Alvarez’s final command.
“Cuff them and put them in the truck. Make sure no one sees them.”
Thirty-Four
GRAY
“That was unwise, witch.”
I was flat on my back on the stone floor outside Bean’s gate, Jonathan staring down at me, his foot planted squarely in the middle of my chest.
My entire body screamed in agony, as if he were holding me down in a tub of acid. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even breathe.
Somehow, seeing Bean had unleashed something in me, and I’d slipped briefly into the realm. But I’d barely been there a second when Jonathan yanked back out again.
My shield must not have held.
Now, I wanted to die.
“Please,” I finally managed.
“Do you promise to behave yourself?” he asked.
I nodded and held my breath. It was all I could do to keep my body from imploding on itself.
Jonathan crouched down and jammed a needle into my arm, injecting me with a liquid that warmed my veins.
And then… bliss.
The pain ended. I didn’t have the stomach to ask him what he’d injected me with, or what he’d done to cause so much pain in the first place. All that mattered now was that the pain was gone.
Jonathan grabbed me by the arms and hauled me to my feet. “Walk with me, Rayanne.”
I did as he asked, letting him lead me further down the corridor. Every few feet, we passed another dark alcove, but I kept my eyes on the ground, not wanting to see what else he might’ve chained up inside.
The pain had completely receded, but somehow, he’d woken up the serpent inside me. I felt it uncoil, slithering in my gut, warming. I welcomed it.
I knew now it was simply biding its time. When I absolutely needed to call on it, it would respond. It would be ready.Iwould be ready.
The thought gave me courage. Hope.
“We’re more alike than we are different, you know,” Jonathan said, reaching for my hand.
