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“What curse?” Nolan asked before anyone else could.
“It’s the entire fucking reason the hunter is here,” Lane answered quietly. He walked his fingers over the stitches he’d put in, checking them. Thankfully, none were broken.
“What does that mean?” Declan demanded.
“She’s here to kill all of you,” he said. “The Byrne line. She’s here to kill the six of you, and then she’ll kill your cousins—Chloe and Camden, Cillian Byrne’s daughters.”
“We know who they are,” he replied. “Why?”
“Because I cursed your ancestors at the height of the war when I made it my mission to kill Aodhán. If all the Byrnes in one generation die, then the entire species dies.” He said the words so simply as if they didn’t carry the weight of our whole existence in them. I stared at him at a loss for words.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Declan snapped.
“It means that she plans to exterminate all wolves around the world by killing the eight of you.” Lane looked up, meeting his angry stare. “If she does that, wolves will no longer exist. Hundreds of thousands of wolves around the fucking world will drop dead the minute the last of you dies. There’s a reason the Byrne line is required to have children as a part of your duty to the pack. Your ancestors here in America were warned of my coming and my curse by a fucking witch I knew. Pain in my fucking ass… she helped them design the pack laws that you grew up with. Your children don’t ensure the survival of the Byrne pack. They ensure the survival of an entire species. And as none of you have children… if she kills all of you…”
“Undo it,” Nolan cut in. “Undo the curse.”
“Dark magic doesn’t fucking work like that, kid,” Lane told him. “I couldn’t undo it, even if I fucking wanted to.”
“Do you want to?” Why I was asking was beyond me.
“If I’m being honest, no.” Well, at least he was honest. “The Byrnes have been peaceful wolves for decades, but what if that fucking changes? If it does, I like to know I have a contingency plan for dealing with the lot of you before people get hurt. I think you, of all people, should understand what kind of damage wolves can do.”
He leveled his gaze on Declan. Without saying anything, we all knew Lane was referencing Raven. The implication of everything he was saying hung heavy in the air. It felt very much like inviting a fox into the hen house except we were the hens and Lane was the fox. We were relying on the man to help protect us, but there was a very good chance that one day, the man would also be our undoing.
Chapter 116
Genevieve
You need to sleep,” Gabby said all over again as she fluffed the pillow in my bed. I opened my mouth to argue, but she didn’t give me a chance. “It’s been an emotional fucking day, GiGi. You can’t run on fumes. Killian isn’t going anywhere. I’m here, the Byrnes are here, and that stupid magician is here.”
I giggled as she called Lane that. I had a feeling he’d be either pissed off or amused by such a nickname. Except the giggles turned into full-blown laughter as I flopped back on the bed. Okay, maybe I was more tired than I thought. A pillow smacked me in the face.
“Go brush your teeth or whatever fucking things you do before you sleep,” she ordered.
“What do you do before you sleep?” I asked, tipping my head back to stare at her.
“I fuck a hot guy and then kick him out,” she replied. “Which you’re not doing. Go, go, go. I’m putting your ass to bed, and then I’ll go sit by your husband and watch over him like a hawk in your place.”
“Fine,” I whined as I rolled my butt off the bed, dramatic in every way possible. I wanted to go back downstairs and sit next to Killian until he woke up, but I knew my sister would do as she promised.
I cut my bedtime routine in half. Well, more like, I went to the bathroom and that was it. I didn’t have the energy to do anything else. In the hall, I ran into Lane—rather, Lane just sort of appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m going to sleep for a little bit. Feel free to make yourself at home.” I wasn’t sure if I was inviting trouble by saying that, but the hostess in me knew it was the polite thing to do. The man had saved Killin’s life.
“You need to leave Cedar Harbor,” Lane caught me by the elbow when I tried to pass him by, “now.”
“What?” I frowned. “Why? I’m not leaving.”
“In the backyard, my magic didn’t work on you the way it worked on the two idiots back there,” he said. “There’s exactly two reasons why my magic doesn’t work on wolves. The first is because their wolf hasn’t woken yet, and the second is because their wolf is dormant. There’s only one reason a wolf goes dormant.”
Pregnancy.
The only reason a wolf went dormant was pregnancy.
“No.” My heart practically fell out of my chest as I shook my head rapidly. “There’s no way…”
I racked my brain, trying to figure out the last time I felt any real connection to my wolf. I could remember fleeting moments, but did that really count? Had I been so wrapped up in everything that I’d missed the biggest sign?
