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Chapter One
The Graveyard was not the place Mark Braden thought he’d breathe his last. He was sure he’d die in the pine forest of Savage Territory, chasing a drug-runner and getting hit by a spray of bullets.
Instead, he’d been ambushed.
He lay face down on the hard, rocky ground. Blood streamed from a deep gash in his skull and pooled in the debris beneath him. The rogue wolves kicked him, but he barely registered the blows anymore. One or two of his ribs had snapped and punctured his left lung. He had a deep stab wound in his abdomen. His heart felt like a bird fluttering wildly in his chest, nothing more.
The Graveyard was a cess-pit, a central place in Five Bridges used for dumping bodies at night. In the morning, Tribunal clean-up crews would arrive to cart off the dead, catalog them with unfailing carelessness, then send them to the crematory.
“He’s gone.” Ely Gammet, a powerful warlock, stood over him. The bastard had been one of six who’d drawn him to the Graveyard with the promise of information about his wife’s killers.
A few more kicks, and the crew started walking away. He had a dim view of their boots and heard the crunch through the loose rocks. Braden flared his nostrils to take in the warlock’s scent. He catalogued it in his shifter brain for future recall.
He almost laughed. What future?
His breaths were shallow now, small jolts of air he brought into lungs that barely worked anymore.
Maybe it was for the best.
Grief had ridden him hard. He’d spent the last year-and-a-half hunting his wife’s killers. He’d made the difficult decision to leave his pack in Savage Territory in search of justice. As an alpha, he’d assigned his top beta to function in his stead. He’d rented a small apartment in Elegance, and spent every off-hour on the hunt. His work as a Border Patrol officer in Savage hadn’t left him much time, but he was determined to make his wife’s murderers to pay for what they’d done.
Braden realized now that Gammet, a powerful warlock, had spelled him and blocked his wolf’s instincts. In any other circumstance, Braden couldn’t have been led into a trap.
The first blow had slammed into the back of his head. The second, his knees. He’d fallen before he’d gotten his opening question out. The rest was a blur of stabs and kicks.
Bones crunched.
Blood leaked everywhere.
Now, as he waited for death to take him the rest of the way, the footsteps returned.
“Boss, he’s gotta be dead. I stabbed him in his gut. Deep.”
Gammet snorted. “But you know what the witch is like. She’ll want proof. I’m taking his head back to her.”
The warlock had gathered powerful shifters to serve him. Braden could smell them as they drew near once more.
He couldn’t lift a finger to defend himself. If he could shift, he might have been able to heal. But he couldn’t even do that. A nice flow of obscenities slid through his brain.
Gammet’s smell grew stronger. He was over Braden now. He had an underlying stench that Braden recognized as an addiction to emerald flame. Braden hated the drugs of Five Bridges with a passion.
“You’re gonna love this, wolf.”
He felt a hand in his hair. A strong tug lifted his head off the rocks.
Light suddenly filled the near-dawn air.
A loud blast pummeled his ears.
His head dropped back to the rocks.
Machine gun fire. Rocks pelted his legs, what he could feel of them.
Footsteps running.
An engine gunned.
The blood loss took its toll and he suddenly felt his wife’s presence. Laura. He loved her so much. He could hear her voice in his head, Braden, what are you doing in the Graveyard? You’re supposed to live an
other two-hundred-years.
Love swelled over him. I love you so much, but I did something stupid. I trusted a warlock.
I know. He be-spelled you. I’m afraid you’ll have to go back, though. I’ve had word from On High. The witch needs you and you’ll come to need her, too. You’ll see.
He didn’t want a witch. He wanted his alpha-mate, Laura. He wanted her back in his arms.
He felt her fading. Don’t go.
I have to, my love. Heed the witch.
He would have given anything to hold her again. He’d never even seen her body after her murder. A dark coven had tortured her to death then disposed of her remains. At least, those were the rumors.
His grief slammed through him once more.
His thoughts slid around loosely then fell into a black pit.
