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Colt was just asking him for new orders when he felt the wards go down. Both Wolfe brothers knew it had to be a trap. If Evangeline was home alone, she never would drop the wards of her own free will. If Cilla was there—whether she still had Evangeline with her or not—it was a blatant invitation.
Maddox told his brother to wait. He’d be there in twenty no matter what he had to do. He didn’t want to risk Colt facing off against this version of Priscilla without him.
Colt said no.
Actually, what he said was, “I owe that bitch,” before disconnecting the call. And Maddox knew, deep in his gut, that his brother wasn’t going to stick around and wait for anything.
Which meant that Maddox had to push the speedometer as far as it could go. At one-ten, the truck started to whine in protest. And one-twenty, it started to rattle. Smoke—dark smoke, not the pale purple magic shit—started to billow out a few minutes later. He pushed Colt’s truck even harder, promising himself he would replace it as soon as he had Evangeline back with him.
He started to make all kinds of fucking promises if he could only get his mate back.
The truck made it all the way into Grayson, but the tires squealed, the transmission seizing when he was forced to come to a sudden stop when he hit a nasty traffic snarl right in the middle of the downtown.
Leaving the truck where it was, Maddox bolted in the direction of Evangeline’s apartment building.
And that’s when he discovered the source of the traffic.
A crowd of people was milling in the street in front of Evangeline’s home. Maddox counted three cop cars—no sign of Wright yet, but that could change at any second—and two news vans. Blood and magic filled the air. Maddox sniffed, recognized whose blood that was, then pushed his way through the crowd of Ants.
Colt was lying bare-assed naked on his side, his body bloody and broken in the middle of Evangeline’s street. Chunks of asphalt littered the space around him, torn up from impact. Maddox’s head jerked upward. There was a Colt-sized hole in the window.
Maddox’s heart stopped, only beating again when he heard a weak snarl coming from his brother, followed by, “Mad, tell these Ants to leave me the fuck alone.”
Maddox dropped to his knees. Blood splattered his face, his neck, his chest, wounds slowly healing on the side that didn’t look like hamburger meat, but Colt’s eyes were open and alert.
Thank fucking Alpha.
“Colt, what happened? How badly are you hurt?”
“Might need… might need another minute before I can kick that witch’s ass.”
Another minute? Colt looked like, in another minute, they might need a hearse instead of an ambulance. “Cilla did this to you?”
“Unh, yeah. You’re right. She’s got Evangeline up there with her. She’s got your mate.”
Maddox glanced toward the busted window on the sixth floor. He was too far to make out what was being said clearly, though he heard a soft female voice. Purple shadows rolled across the jagged teeth of the broken glass.
“Stay here.”
Colt grunted. “Give me a second. Healing’s got to kick in any second now. I’ll be your back-up. The cops here won’
t do shit since both Cilla and Evangeline are considered Paras. You can’t go up there alone.”
Like hell he wasn’t.
His brother was lying broken and bloody on the asphalt, surrounded by a growing crowd of gawking humans. Colt’s snarl kept them from getting too close, but Maddox was the Alpha.
He got low, locking eyes with Colt. His brother’s eyes went glacial, a hint of a whine slipping out through gritted teeth. It was a show of dominance, pure and simple. When Colt was a hundred percent, he was no match for Maddox. After being thrown through a window, he didn’t have a prayer.
“Stay. Here.”
Colt tore his gaze away. “Then you get that fucking witch. Make her pay.”
It was an order. Any other time, Maddox would’ve gone for Colt’s throat if he thought he could issue an order to an Alpha right after a dominance challenge. Only, this time, Maddox was more than happy to accept it.
He braced Colt’s shoulder, his ears picking up the wail of the sirens in the not too far distance. Maddox needed to hurry. Evangeline needed him, and it was essential he took care of Cilla as soon as possible. If the Ants called an ambulance for Colt, they were all in for a hell of a surprise when they tried to get him on a stretcher.
Maddox squeezed Colt’s shoulder before rising to his feet, glaring at the window where his mate was facing off against an unpredictable witch.
