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Gravel cut into my bare feet as I walked to the where he was now sitting. “You beg mercy after you break my wards and challenge me?”
“I was greedy. I wanted what you have,” he admitted.
“You’re no alpha,” I said. “I should kill you and give your pack the gift of someone better than you.”
“Please, I’ll offer a trade,” he said, his hands clasped together in prayer.
It was disgusting to see an alpha act this way. I should rip his head off and be done with him.
A hand touched my shoulder, and I felt a tug. I knew it was Zoe, wordlessly asking me to lean down to her level. I adjusted enough that her lips could reach my ear. “We need more information. If you let him live, we can follow him. Follow his witch. They might be connected to everything else.”
I glanced at her and caught the slightest nod. She was right. This wasn’t the first time our wards had been breeched. Something bigger was coming. He was a distraction. His witch might be a distraction as well. We had to find out what was really going on.
It was possible we were playing right into his plans, but I took the bait. “What could you possibly offer in exchange for your pathetic life?”
“I have a daughter. Her life for mine,” he said too quickly. As if this had been his plan the entire time.
Behind me, Zoe didn’t react, which meant she approved of this. This waste of oxygen was either offering up his daughter as a sacrifice, or she was part of it. In which case, Zoe could get everything we needed from her mind.
I hesitated, not liking the idea of letting him live.
“She’s a decoy,” Scarlett said quietly. “The witch is a decoy.”
I hadn’t even noticed her approach. “What do you mean?” I stared at the strange witch. Her face an emotionless mask of indifference.
“She doesn’t have the skills or the strength to reach a mind,” Scarlett clarified.
“She’s right,” Zoe said. “She’s not the one we’re after, but she might lead us there. Or he might. One of them is the key, but this witch doesn’t have mind magic.”
I growled at the bloody alpha. “You give your own daughter for your pathetic existence?”
“She’s beautiful,” he added. “Single. But wild. She’s of no use to me.”
Those words tore at me, breaking open something dark and angry. I fought against the rising shadows, keeping myself in check. This shifter knew some of our secrets, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him know more.
“Please, my pack needs me,” he said.
“What about your daughter? Doesn’t she need you?” I challenged.
“She’ll protect her pack as is her duty,” he said.
Something roared within me, rage that threatened to tear me apart. I was furious that he would hand over his own flesh and blood this way, but I also had an odd conflicting emotion that was difficult to place. It almost felt like I needed to protect this strange female. This offering. Living somewhere where her own father would hand her over to her enemy couldn’t be any kind of satisfying life.
“Do it,” Zoe whispered.
That was enough to push me. “Fine. We’ll take her.”
The woman he’d arrived with stepped forward, her arms extended. “It is done. A life bond.”
“What?” I demanded.
“Fuck,” Zoe hissed.
“Sneaky,” Scarlett sounded impressed.
The fallen alpha picked himself up off the ground, a smile on his bloody face. “She’s your problem now.”
“What the fuck is a life bond?” I asked.
