AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh, right. The Loups-Garous.
“Not to pile more problems onto the plate,” I said with a sigh. “But it would appear your rogue wolf pack is back in action in Maurepas.”
“I beg your pardon?” Callum asked. I suppose of all the things I could have said right then, this wasn’t one he had anticipated.
“That’s where I’ve been the last two days. I went to find La Sorciere hoping she could sort out all this.” I waved my hand over Lucas, who smiled in polite confusion. “While we were there we were attacked by the pack. From what I gather they’re a lot less organized and not nearly as intimidating as they once were, but they’d definitely still pose a threat to human tourists. They seemed, um, what’s the politest way to phrase this?”
“Rapey,” Wilder offered.
“Yeah, they weren’t a really pleasant lot.”
For the first time, Callum showed an emotion other than annoyance. He hefted a sigh and shook his head, and I gathered I wasn’t the only one working on a grade-A migraine right now. I didn’t want to add to his worries, but the pack in the swamp would need to be dealt with, and that was sort of his job as king. As much as I would have loved to leave it for another day, he needed to know.
Which left us with two other things that needed to be addressed immediately. Ben was off somewhere with Mercy, for God only knew what reason. That created a whole avalanche of smaller issues. For one thing, Ben knew everything about my life in the city. He knew where I lived, knew about my pack, my friends, all of it. Which meant if he was now on Mercy’s side, nothing in my city life was safe anymore.
“Call Magnolia,” I told Wilder. “She needs to know that she can’t trust Ben.”
I didn’t want to believe that Ben could hurt Mags or the other members of my pack in the city, but if he was bitter enough about losing the Alpha role to join up with our mother—which seemed the most logical reason to me—I wasn’t sure where his line in the sand was anymore.
He wanted to hurt me, and the easiest way to do that was to hurt those close to me.
Wilder nodded and left the room to place the call. We’d make our way home as soon as this meeting was done, but in the meantime I wanted to know Mags was okay and prepared for the worst.
Then there was the other problem.
The tall, muscular, handsome, royal problem sitting beside me.
“You’re alive,” I said to Lucas.
“It would appear so.”
“But you died in New York.”
“I did.”
This complicated things. Timothy Deerling had returned to the scene of his death, which was likely close to where he’d been buried. Mercy had returned to the place where we’d buried her head, rather than where she’d died. Lucas had come here, to where I was, but he hadn’t died here or been buried here, which confused the hell out of me.
“Do you mind me asking how you got here?”
He shook his head. “I don’t mind, but my answer isn’t going to help you. I woke up on the side of the road not far from here and just started walking. I knew who I was, and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be alive, but all I could think was, I have to find Genie.”
“That’s bizarre.”
“You’re telling me. I’ve been dead for what, almost four years? And suddenly I’m here? And no offense to you, Genie, but coming back from the dead after four years, you aren’t the McQueen I want to see most.”
I gave him an apologetic smile. “It’s my fault.”
“How do you figure that?” Callum asked.
“Because I apparently had so much guilt about people around me dying I inadvertently cast a spell to bring them back. Except most of them seem to want me dead.”
“Personally, I’d just like to go home,” Lucas said.
Which brought me full circle to the most complicated issue of them all. I looked to Callum and asked, “Do you want to call Secret, or should I?”
Chapter Twenty-two
“Hello, Secret, I just thought you should know I used the intense power of guilt to bring your ex-husband back to life. And also the woman who tried to kill you on your wedding day. And also our mother. How was Bolivia?”
