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“No,” I said. “We’ve waited long enough. We don’t know what he’s done to the wolves in Caswell. The kids. We don’t have more time. You did what you could, and I’m thankful for it. Even if you’ve dug around in my brain again.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness from my voice.
Aileen knew what I wasn’t saying. “We aren’t like him. Our magic is white. His is black.”
“Worse,” Patrice said. “Absence of color. Sucks all da light in. And he’ll use it ta his advantage. Can’t forget dat.”
“He won’t,” Gordo said.
Aileen glared at him. “That goes for you too, boyo. I know you’re in this up to your neck. Hell, we all are. But it’s more for you, given that it’s your daddy and what he did to your Robbie here. Don’t lose sight of what’s important. It’s not about revenge. It’s about the greater good and bringing an end to all this madness. It’s personal. I get that. But don’t make it about just that.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“Dale.”
Gordo ground his teeth together. “Yeah, well. Maybe that one’s personal. But if he’s as gone as Robbie told us he is, then it doesn’t matter.”
Aileen sighed. “Be that as it may, you shove that down as far as you can, Gordo. We can’t have you going off half-cocked because you’re pissed at your mate’s ex.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Gordo retorted. “He betrayed us. He used Mark to—”
Aileen held up her hand. “I know. But we’ve got bigger fish to fry here. Remember that. Your father will use it to distract you. Don’t let him.”
Gordo looked like he was going to argue further, but instead he scowled. I wanted to reassure him, tell him that I didn’t think there was any coming back for Michelle’s former witch, but my mouth was dry, my tongue like thick sandpaper.
Kelly stood up behind me, helping me up as he did so. He came around and stood in front of me, searching my face as if he was looking for evidence of what the witches had done to me.
Before he could say anything, Ox was there, looking at all of us. “Did it work?”
“Yes, Alpha,” Patrice said. “Tink it did. Robbie is… you have found harmony again. Unity. It’s fragile. But it’s holding. If we’re to move, it must be now.”
“Can you do anything for Kelly?”
Aileen hesitated before shaking her head. “I thought we could. But it’s beyond us. The only way to break the magic is to destroy it. And the only way to do that is….”
“To kill my father,” Gordo muttered. Ox grabbed his arm, but Gordo pulled away. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve known it would come to this for a long time.” He looked at Mark at the edge of the clearing, standing next to Elizabeth. “I promised him I would fix this. Make things right. And I’m going to do just that.”
“We are,” Ox told him quietly. “Because we’re in this together.”
Gordo laughed hollowly. “Until the end.”
Ox nodded. “Until the end.”
It was strange, really.
Leaving this place behind.
Which is why I felt a mournful tug in the middle of my chest when we gathered in front of
the Bennett house for the last time.
We had a dozen wolves. The strongest fighters. Two additional Alphas. Eight Betas. The two Omegas who had the most control. They were itching for a fight. One of the Alphas said that he’d known Malik for years. He wanted blood.
We all did.
It was a pulse just underneath our skin.
In addition to Aileen, Patrice, and Gordo, there were three other witches. Two of them had dug around in my head. The third was young, a boy who assured me he was twenty, though he barely looked like he’d started high school.
And there was our pack. All of us. Standing together.
