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I nod. “That he was tired of hiding. That we are the dominant species and the humans should be living by our rules, not the other way around.”
The alpha shakes her head. “Fucking asshole. I don’t understand how this happened.”
“Z?” I question. If anything happened to him—
“He’s fine. A few broken bones that I imagine are healed now.”
I turn to Delaney. “The rest of my team?”
“They were dead by the time we got there. You and your father were the only ones still breathing, and he’s in bad shape, Bronywyn. Harrie took a chunk out of him. Would have finished him off if Ridley hadn’t shown up when he had.”
“I need to see him.” I jump off the table, swaying on my feet the moment they touch the ground. Cole and Delaney are there, both taking either side of my body and leading me toward the doorway. My father is just outside, stretched out on a cot, his entire stomach bandaged up. Every inch of his exposed skin is crusted with blood.
“Dad?” I sink to my knees beside him.
He turns toward me and smiles softly. “Glad to see you survived, kid.”
I grip his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
His brows draw together in confusion. “What are you sorry for?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. None of us saw this coming, but we should have. Somehow, someone should have seen this. For fuck’s sake, we have a psychic on our side. “We should have known.”
“We took every precaution.”
“How did they know where we were going, though? You said no one knew—” I glance at Paloma, the final pieces falling together. “You were in that meeting. You both were. He told them that my father knew all the locations.”
“More than likely,” Delaney replies.
“And they used that information to lead us right into a trap.”
“How many did we lose?”
“Elijah, Fearghas, Eira, Z, Paloma, Rachel, Brad, Drex, Mags, Natalia, Deissy, and Felix barely made it back. Natalia’s hunter, Anthony did not. And neither did Willa’s other three teams.” Delaney looks sadly at the alpha, who offers a single, tight nod.
“The only reason we managed to make it to you guys in time was because Ridley’s team literally popped right into the middle of the trap, and he got them back here to warn us. We immediately sent him after the other teams, and the fae that survived went after the rest of you.”
“That’s how we knew. Bernard and I. We materialized right into the center of them. Barely made it out,” my father mutters.
“We gave him vampire blood,” Delaney explains. “He was pretty injured, but should be back on his feet soon.”
“Tasted like shit,” my father quips. “But I’m ever grateful.”
Sheetrock crunches, and we whirl on Elijah as he shakes his hand. “He fucking played us from the moment he sat down with us in Jane’s café.”
Back when Rainey had been the target of the original witch, Heather, she’d had a massive bounty on her head, and Harrie set up a meeting between her and Josiah Akacheta—Willa’s father, the then pack alpha.
“You really think he’s been a spy this entire time?”
He nods. “Think about it. How many times over the past few months has Odette been one step in front of us? She knew exactly where to find us—knew exactly when Bronywyn took in that dark magic. And it’s all because he’d been milking his wife for information.”
I look over at Paloma. The woman is completely pale, her eyes wide, staring blankly ahead. She was used this entire time…used by a man who claimed to love her.
Pushing to my feet, I take a deep breath and try to calm my thundering heart. “We have to find them. They didn’t take them for no reason, so we can assume that both Tarnley and Rainey are alive.”
“For now. But how long will they keep them that way?” Delaney asks, her face falling. Cole wraps his arms around her, and she turns into his side, shoulders shaking. “I’m sorry. I’m already terrified of losing them, and being pregnant means my emotions are even less controllable.”
“You’re fine.” I move past them and out into the living room where a good portion of our original group is waiting.
