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I stood quickly, my half-shift overcoming me. I growled at the Alpha across from me. She was going to kick my ass, but I’d go down swinging.
I rushed toward her.
And slammed into an invisible wall as a burst of magic sprang up around me.
I fell back, nose bloodied and broken. It began to knit itself back together, and I wiped the blood away, flicking it onto the ground. I pressed my hand against the barrier. It felt familiar, just off enough to be unknown, but still recognizable.
It felt like Ezra.
I tried to push through it, but it was unyielding. I slashed at it, my claws sending out bright sparks. It didn’t change no matter how hard I struck.
“Yeah,” a voice drawled from behind me, “that’s not gonna do anything. Jesus Christ, kid. You can’t still be that stupid.”
I whirled around.
An older man stood at the other end of the bridge. The tattoos on his arms were bright in the low light, lines and symbols that meant old magic. A raven on a bed of roses on one of his arms fluttered its wings, beak opening soundlessly. The man had one hand raised toward me. The other was—
His arm ended in a stump at the wrist.
“Witch,” I hissed at him. I ran toward him only to smash into another barrier. It knocked me back, but I stayed on my feet. I snarled in anger.
He rolled his eyes. “Or maybe you can still be that stupid. Good to know some things don’t change, no matter—”
A low growl came from the shadows behind him.
The witch sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I hear you, you overgrown mutt.”
I recoiled as a large brown wolf stepped onto the bridge. Its eyes were violet.
An Omega.
It pressed up against the witch, bumping its snout against the stump of his arm.
“I know,” the witch said. “Hand, sanity, blah, blah, blah. Look. It’s him. It’s really him.” All the bravado seemed to fall away from the witch as he looked at me. His eyes were wet as he shook his head. “Christ, kid. Aren’t you just a sight. All that hair, man. You used to keep it short. Still have the glasses, though. Figures.”
“Let me out,” I snarled at him, banging my hands against the barrier. “You can’t keep me in here forever!”
The witch laughed, though it sounded hollow. “I know,” he said as the brown wolf tilted its head. “But better to be safe than sorry. Especially after….” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Not now.” He was plaintive when he said, “Kid. Robbie. Look at me.”
I bared my fangs.
“You know me.”
I slammed my hands against the barrier again. “I don’t.”
He said, “You do. You know me very well. Somewhere deep inside, you do. It’s there, I think. Still. Locked away behind a door. My name is Gordo. And I’m the witch of a wolf pack. Your wolf pack.” He took a step toward me even as the brown wolf growled in warning. “We’ve waited for this moment for a long time. We… tried, kid. We tried so hard to find you. To get to you. You know me. You know me.”
He dropped his hand.
The barrier fell away as the magic dissipated.
I charged at him.
He didn’t stop me as I wrapped my hand around his throat and lifted him off the ground. The brown wolf snarled in fury, but they smelled like each other, their scents mixed in, all dirt and leaves and rain and ozone. They were mated. I squeezed the witch’s neck tightly as I glared at the wolf. “You back the fuck off or I’ll tear out his throat.” It was stupid to threaten the mate of a witch, but I was out of options and in a full-blown panic.
“I think,” the witch gasped, “he’s kind of got a point. I’d rather keep my throat as is, if it’s all the same to both of you.”
The brown wolf wasn’t having it. Before I could sink my claws into the witch’s neck, the brown wolf slammed into me with its head, knocking me off my feet. The witch fell to the ground as I rolled into the side of the bridge. I was up on my feet immediately, ready to lash out at the Omega.
