Her mother swallowed. “Screaming.”
“I have to go,” Addie said, ducking below her mother’s outstretched arm. Her mother trailed her down the stairs, playing the logical one. Funny, because until she learned she was part shifter and part witch, she’d always been logical and smart. Now her life was a parade of bad decision after bad decision.
“Why would you go back? If Clay can get in your mind, Addie, you’re useless to the pack, at least until the link is severed,” Sarah said, following her daughter out of the house even though she was barefoot. “I wish you would’ve told me sooner, honey, because I—”
“You could’ve what, Mom? You can’t cast any spells. What would you have done besides try to take me away?” Addie would’ve whirled on her, because this was important—her mother had to understand this pack was her life now. She would not run; she’d help them until she couldn’t. And Clay…Clay would get his comeuppance.
Her mother stopped at the edge of the yard. “Then I guess you leave me no choice. I’m coming with you.”
The last thing Addie wanted was her mother in danger. Clay would surely use everything he could against Addie, including her future mates and her mother. He would toy with the lives of the pack. But she knew her mother was as stubborn as she was, and arguing with her would be pointless and a waste of time.
So Addie said, “Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty
The scene surrounding the lake was pure and utter chaos. The air was thick with a heaviness, anxiety and fright buzzing around, creating a disjointed atmosphere that rose the short, thin hairs on Addie’s arms and prickled the back of her neck. That wasn’t even mentioning the smell. The air…there was something wrong with it. Something awful.
It smelled like death.
A large shifter was corralling the others, keeping them away from the lake, pushing them back towards the park as he shouted, “Go to your homes and lock the doors. We will come around once we know it’s safe—”
The women. The elders. Those who could not fight and those who were not expected to. It was clear they didn’t want to leave, evident by the looks on their faces, but fright won out, and they started hustling away, some walking hurriedly and others sprinting at a mad pace.
Addie felt like shit after making the walk back here, but she would swallow the pain and face whatever this was. It was, after all, her fault entirely. If any shifter lost their life tonight, the loss would weigh on her shoulders alone.
Why did she keep it to herself? Why didn’t she go to someone, anyone, and tell them what Clay said in her nightmare, his demand? Why had she been so stupid? So much for being smart and logical. This was the very opposite of that, and now it was too late to change.
Through the exiting masse of shifters, Addie spotted her mates. With her mother behind her, she ran up to them, about to ask them what was going on, but Maze was the first to turn to her. His chocolate gaze was full to the brim of worry, worry for her, she realized. The thought would be comforting, but now wasn’t the time to focus on it.
“Addie,” Maze said, “Forest wants all the females out of here—”
Behind her, Sarah scoffed.
Addie shook her head as she said, “I’m not going anywhere.” She ignored the look Maze exchanged with Dylan and Landon, marching through the crowd, coming upon the pyre within a minute. Her legs froze, her stomach churning. She wanted to throw up again, and this time, not because she drowned.
The pyre burned with a flaming red fire, no longer a natural orange and yellow. It was the color of Clay’s eyes when he cast his death magic, the hue that would haunt Addie’s dreams. Alas, it was not the fire nor its color which caught Addie’s eye.
It was the skeleton facing Forest.
Held up by nothing more than magic, no skin, no eyes, no cartilage or veins. Its bones were singed and burnt, its jaw hanging halfway off—though it rectified itself by reaching toward its face and snapping its jawbone up. Magic kept it up.
Forest stood tall, glaring at the skeleton. Around him, a pack of wolves clawed at the ground, growls escaping their wide, strong chests. The skeleton was unimpressed, as much a skeleton without a face could be.
Addie pushed past her mates, moving toward Forest, but the alpha turned his head, his eyes glimmering as if he were starting to shift. “Get her out of here,” he ordered, and Maze and the others were going to listen to him. He was their alpha; he gave them an order, and they followed it.
Not Addie.
Addie sidestepped them all, and Sarah dashed between her daughter and her mates, letting out a growl of her own. Maze, Dylan, and Landon glanced between Sarah and Addie, probably not understanding why Addie wanted to stay.
She didn’t want to. She had to. Key difference there.
“I’m not leaving,” Addie said, taking a step toward Forest and away from the others. The masse of fleeing shifters were mostly gone by now. It was just Addie, her mother, her mates, Forest, and the few burly wolves standing above their torn clothes as they circled the skeleton.
Forest turned to face her, to yell at her or something equally as infuriating, but he shouldn’t have, for the instant he gave his back to the skeleton, it let out an inhuman, high-pitched screech and lunged for him. By the time Forest returned his focus to the creature, it had already raked its skeletal fingers down his back. Blood oozed from the claw marks, four long, straight slashes traveling diagonally across his back.
The alpha barely winced, which would have been impressive, if he didn’t retaliate. But he did, and with a smack of the skeleton’s hand, Forest went flying, landing on his back ten feet away.
Addie called out to him. She didn’t like seeing anyone hurt because of her, and just because she knew Forest was tough didn’t make the situation any better. Dylan was already beside his alpha, helping him back to his feet. Forest did his best not to let the pain show. A series of growls echoed from the shifted wolves, and they advanced on the skeleton.
“Tell your friends that if they attack me, I will rip their heads from their bodies and permanently stain your lake with red,” a light, feminine voice came from the skeleton’s head, its body alighting with a similar red flame, like the pyre behind it. It was a voice Addie had never heard before, but the others had, for it froze each and every one of them in their tracks. Even Forest.
And suddenly, though she’d never heard it before, Addie knew: it was Hannah’s voice. The only voice that could make their alpha widen his blue eyes in shock and despair.
Finally getting to his feet, Forest waved the others down. The wolves kept growling, but they no longer advanced on the skeleton. They backed up, putting more distance between them. What had shrunk to five feet was now back to fifteen. A respectable distance, though distance didn’t matter when it came to Clay and his magic.
“What do you want?” Forest asked, his teeth sharper than they should be. Claws were on his fingertips, his veins bulging and his chest heaving. It must’ve taken every ounce of self-control to not turn, to not shift and attack the skeleton on the spot, for it was only due to Clay’s magic.
But then, from what it sounded like, Hannah had been Forest’s weakness, which Addie could not blame.
Addie threw a glance to her mother, who looked on with a stern expression. Though she was her mother, Sarah also knew that this was her fault, her problem. Addie would have to clean it up. Beside her mother, her mates were ready to attack, ready to pounce or do whatever else Forest commanded, but now was not the time for posturing.
Turning her gaze back to the skeleton, she found the singed ivory head tilting, as if it studied her. The red flames dancing across its form seemed to burn brighter as Addie stepped closer.
“Me,” she said. “Clay wants me.”
“He will not have you.” Forest moved between Addie and the skeleton, blocking her view of the pyre with his large frame. Just as well, because all she could see, the only thing she could focus on were the deep grooves in his back, the blood seeping from ea
ch wound and staining his black shirt. All of this chaos, his injuries, for her? She wouldn’t let this continue.
Addie set a hand on Forest’s arm, causing him to look at her, more like glare at her, as she moved to his side, meeting the eyeless stare of the flaming skeleton. The way the skeleton watched them, watched her, she didn’t like it.
“How sweet. Maybe this body and this voice no longer hold the power they once did,” the skeleton spoke.
Addie’s hand fell to her side. She wanted to let Clay know that a skeleton was not the same as a body…and also ask him just what the hell he meant by it. It was more than obvious Forest still felt something for Hannah. Love didn’t disappear because one of the two died. There would always be a part of Forest that loved her.
But the thing before them was not Hannah. It didn’t even look like her. It might sound like her, but behind that skeletal form was Clay, pulling all the strings.
“You will not take her,” Forest addressed the creature, hands balling into fists.
Her mates gathered behind her, along with her mother. Addie had a mini pack behind her, standing with her, but none of them knew, save for Sarah, this was all her fault. She could not let this continue, could not let any other shifter get hurt because of her stupid choice to keep it to herself.
The skeleton’s boney shoulders shook in silent laughter. “She will either come to me willingly, or I will take her after draining each and every shifter in this town dry. What’ll it be, Addie? Will you come with me of your freewill, or are you in the mood for some mass murder tonight?”
Before Addie could answer, Forest growled, “I said you will not take her, and I meant it.”
If a skeleton could smile, it surely would’ve. As it was, the expressionless face it wore said enough. “I don’t think myself too unnecessarily cruel, and I think I’ve mellowed out over the years, so I’ll give you until dawn.”
As the skeleton spoke with Hannah’s voice, the pyre began to move. Shifting and rolling, twenty-three other figures of bone and fire rose from the ground as they got themselves off the pyre, which was next to ashes, now. The wolves closest to the first skeleton took a few steps back, and beside her, Landon muttered a string of swearwords that made Sarah glare at him harshly.
Now is not the time to scold for cursing, Mom, Addie thought. Now wasn’t the time for anything but a bunch of oh, shits.
“Say your goodbyes,” the skeleton added, “do whatever you have to. But know that this is the last chance this pack has to survive. If Addie does not come to me before the sun graces the sky, I will annihilate this entire town.” The skull cocked, bones cracking as it did so.
Forest breathed hard, his chest rumbling with growls, but Addie whispered, “We can’t fight them. Assuming we can even get close enough, they’d just tear us apart.” Not to mention the fact they’d be able to reassemble with magic.
As for her magic, Addie was too freaked out. She wouldn’t be able to do shit against an army of flaming skeletons, and the mere sight of them was enough to make her forget her practicing.
Forest glared at the skeleton, ignoring the small army behind it, staring at the one that held Hannah’s voice. Her bones. Though Addie had never met her, she knew the shifter didn’t deserve to have her corpse desecrated in this way. Hannah, all of the shifters who’d lost their lives to Clay, deserved more.
“Back to the house,” Forest said, and no one argued. How could they, when the hulking, flaming skeletons of their dead trailed after them. He looked to the shifted wolves, saying, “Go home. Make sure your mates and your children are all right. Stay with them. Protect them, no matter what happens.”
The wolves gave their alpha a nod before taking off, darting past them and running through the park at a speed only an animal was capable of. A mad dash, a sprint with everything behind it.
“Uh,” Maze spoke, glancing behind them, at the creaking, flaming skeletons who trailed them about twenty feet back, “just for clarification purposes, whose house?”
“Mine,” Forest said. Around Addie, he shot her mother a look. “Sarah, you should leave, before this gets worse.” Still looking out for her, even though she’d run off with a warlock. He was a good alpha who cared for everyone. He should have a quiet pack, not Clay constantly breathing down his neck and kidnapping and murdering his packmates.
Sarah huffed, “If you think I am going to leave my daughter during a crisis, you are wrong, Forest.” Her voice dripped disdain; she still wasn’t fond of him, which Addie didn’t understand. Forest was everything an alpha should be. What wasn’t to like?
Not that she was trying to set her mother up with Forest. Setting her mother up with anyone would be crossing a line Addie never wanted to reach, let alone see.
Forest grumbled, his blue gaze flicking to Addie as they headed down the street where his house was. “You should both go. To be safe.”
Arguing with him was pointless, so Addie kept it to herself. She wasn’t going to run away. If she did, Clay would still come after her, after decimating the Crystal Lake pack. She couldn’t live with that many lives on her shoulders.
They filed up the porch, greeted by the shifter who’d been watching the basement. “What’s…” The man’s voice drifted off as he spotted the skeletons. “What’s going on?” He stood aside, letting everyone else into the house first, his gaze locked on Hannah’s form. The other skeletons shuffled away, probably to stalk the whole town.
When no one responded, Maze said, “Well, since no one is offering, I’ll explain everything—”
“How’s the traitor?” Landon asked, cutting through his words. The guys exchanged glares.
Addie would’ve rolled her eyes, because this wasn’t the best time to get into a fight with each other, but she locked gazes with Hannah’s skeleton. She could practically see Clay staring at her from behind those black, eyeless holes. The fire dancing along the skeleton was nearly out, but not completely, and it stood in the road, motionless, waiting.
Addie was the last one in the house, but before she went, the black sky flashed red. Not right above her, but a few miles away. An invisible energy flowed into her, and though she had next to no experience with spells, she knew what it was.
A barrier.
Only this time, the barrier would keep everyone inside.
If Addie didn’t agree to go by sunrise, Clay would use the skeletons to slaughter the whole town, and the shifters, the human mates and the children, would have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Well, shit.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sarah was in the kitchen with Dylan, cooking something that required about five pots and pans and a whole lot of spices. Distracting themselves from the life or death scenario that awaited them. Maze took the place of the other shifter, sending him home, guarding the basement, even though it seemed sort of pointless now. If Jack was going to escape, he would’ve. If Clay was going to try to use him again, he would’ve.
No, Clay was done using Jack. Clay’s only focus now was Addie.
Landon pouted in the living room, another beer in his hand—as if the jerk needed another. Like now was the freaking time to lose himself in the bottle. Oh, Addie wanted to strangle him, but she couldn’t. She would have to settle for imagining it a few times.
There was only one wolf who she had to get on her side, who she had to make understand. She couldn’t let herself get distracted by cooking, or by the long-winded conversation Maze wanted to have, or by the pouting one in the living room. Forest was upstairs, and after she gathered up her courage, she headed his way.
Her feet took the steps two at a time, and mentally, she practiced what she was going to say. Her arguments for going with Clay, the cons with a well thought out rebuttal, along with the truth—her dream, how they could’ve avoided all this if only she’d gone to the clearing before night fell.
Would he get where she was coming from? Would he understand? Addie hoped he wouldn’t be angry with her for keeping it to herself, b
ut he had every right to be. After all, it was because of her Hannah’s skeleton was now up and walking around. All twenty-four of them were her fault. The shifters would know no rest, even after death.
Forest probably hated her.
Best get it over with then, she thought, peeking in the rooms upstairs. She found him in the bathroom, his torn shirt on the floor, a first aid kit sitting open on the sink counter. He still wore his nice pants, along with a belt. They hung low on his hips as he tried to clean his own wound and dab it with disinfectant.
Addie leaned on the doorframe, knowing he’d heard her come up. She crossed her arms, watching for a moment. “You know, if you shifted, I think everyone could forgive you.” Shifting helped kickstart shifter’s already increased healing abilities. With wounds like that, no one could blame him, especially with the whole Clay thing going on.
“No” was all he said. He didn’t even turn to look at her.
That mad, already? Before they even talked? Oh, that was a great sign.
After a minute of watching him fumble, Addie let out a sigh. “Let me do it, since you’re too stubborn to shift or even get in the freaking shower.” She stepped into the bathroom, snatching the small towel out of his hand before he could stop her.
Standing so close to him, she did her best not to focus on the wounds themselves. Instead, she zeroed in other things, like his tallness. Was he always so tall? Addie thought she was on the tall side, for a girl, but shifters seemed to put everything she thought to shame.
“You never should’ve given that thing your back,” Addie said, wincing when she realized she’d just called Hannah’s skeleton a thing. She began to clean his wounds, noticing the way his muscles trembled under her touch. Not once, though, did he ever cry out, nor show the pain on his face. He was a tough cookie.
With wounds like this, practically an inch deep, Addie would be a blubbering baby.
Undying: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Crystal Lake Pack Book 2) Page 16
