Page 64 of Pretty Little Assassin

“Yes. But⁠—”

Donnie’s “but” makes my entire body start to burn.

No. I speed up, and I stop caring about the mess I am making, the mistakes that I could be causing. I no longer care about anything other than reaching Valentina. The rest will be collateral cleanup.

Nothing can stop me.

“Second hallway on the left,” Donnie says through the comm as soon as I’ve made it out of the main ballroom. “Take the last door.”

I move through the building. Nothing in it stops me. Stepdad should have stayed behind bars. The top of the Primacy will not protect him from me.

“No, no, it’s the other hallway actually.”

“Donnie, are you making mistakes?” Zero’s voice sounds shocked. She’s still behind me, fighting inside the venue. She can handle herself. I’ve already thinned the crowd down, and the little savage kitten is there at her side, helping.

I stop in the middle of the hallway, waiting for intel that tells me where to go.

“No, I didn’t make a mistake. The feed has been tampered with. It’s been spliced. They’ve got someone working the security cameras behind the scenes. I didn’t notice it at first, but I can see the blip cut out now. Viktor, turn around. Second hallway on the right. Last door. That’s where they are.”

I whip around to find an alpha standing there. A Primacy guard. I’ve met him before. Not a bad guy in the past. Currently, a guy standing in my way.

“Viktor,” he says as his hand wraps around the grip of his gun. “Stand down, man. You can’t stop this. Don’t get distracted by an omega. You, of all alphas, know better. I don’t want to fight you.”

My eyes narrow. His hand is trembling. A bead of sweat over one of his brows. His lips tighten almost to the point of white.

“You’re in my way. Move.”

He doesn’t move. He stands there, trying to negotiate with me further.

“I don’t want to fight a legend like you, especially not over some girl. Think of the bigger picture, Viktor.”

“I don’t want to fight you either. Which is exactly why I won’t.”

Before he can pull the trigger on his own gun, I’ve already shot him in the skull. I step over his body as soon as it hits the floor.

“She’s not some girl,” I snarl as I head down the hallway toward the door Donnie marked. “She’s my mate, and I’ll kill anything that gets between us.”

Primacy’s first mistake was to underestimate me. Frenzied or not—I am still the Wraith.

Their second was to put hands on what is mine. They won’t live to make that mistake again.

20

VALENTINA

The sound of the door splintering isn’t enough to drag my attention from my mother.

I see them—Viktor crashing through the door, Zero right behind him, and Alley Cat appearing at their side as if she was always supposed to be here.

But I don’t let go of my mom.

The room is spinning.

My stepfather’s face goes white.

Alley Cat stops.

Not for long. Half a second, less, and I only catch it because I am looking at him too. She doesn’t look at the guards. She looks at him. At his face. The way you look at a word in a language you used to speak.