Aurora smirks. “Do we care about what she likes?”
Tyler frowns. “Tell me what the benefit is.”
“They’re close—they have territory in south Cali, so maybe next time we have a dragon in the preserve, we’ll have help killing it,” Lucas says.
“It lends us some credibility,” Chase adds, “And it could be helpful to have an ally in our back pocket after Lucas finishes his to-do list.”
Tyler’s quiet, watching him, and Chase stares back, wishing like hell his boyfriend was home and not in fucking Canada building a house.
“Ok,” Tyler says quietly.
Chase feels some of the tension run out of him. He nods. “Ok.”
~*~
Formalizing the alliance is surprisingly mundane, done over a plate of fries at the diner instead of a chalice of blood in the light of the full moon, and Chase is almost disappointed by it.
The Lewis Pack leaves after that, with a list of phone numbers and a promise to be in touch, the wards around their territory ringing a musical farewell when they pass through.
~*~
Ben proposes to Brielle on Thanksgiving, and Chase watches, lit up with happiness for his best friend and aching for what he knows is coming.
~*~
On the first day of December, Aurora calls Lucas at three in the morning and screams, voice loud enough it pulls Tyler from sleep and Lucas goes almost feral when Chase confines him behind wards and rowan. It’s only Aurora’s shaking voice saying she’s coming home early that calms the werewolf, and even that—it’s a tenuous calm, a glass sheet over a raging sea, and he thinks it would take very little for Lucas to break.
~*~
He’s sleep deprived, strung out with nerves, and not even a little surprised when Andre Drake stops him at the door to the police station.
“Chase.”
“I’m too tired for this shit, Drake. What do you want?” Chase demands, shoving his hands in his pockets and watching the older man impatiently.
Drake’s face does something complicated. “My nieces and father are coming to Harrisburg.”
Chase goes very still.
“Brielle wants them here to celebrate the holiday and her engagement. My father hasn’t even met Ben yet.”
“Your coven is not welcome in our territory,” Chase says.
Andre makes a frustrated noise. “It’s Christmas. Can’t you make an exception?”
His fingers tingle and the wind is screaming, cold and bitter and familiar. Chase smiles. “Yeah. Fuck, it’s Christmas.”
Relief flickers in Drake’s eyes and Chase turns away, dragging out his phone and texting.
>>She took the bait.
>>Bonus: the old man is coming with.
He exhales, his breath a frozen white cloud. He smiles when he sees the response.
<
Chase pockets his phone and wonders if it’ll be done in time to celebrate the holiday with Tyler.
Chapter 24
Aurora is shivering when Lucas pulls up to the house. She spills out in a graceless tumble, scooped up and tugged along by his arms and Chase’s voice. She’s barely standing, her hair a messy tangle around her face, her eyes wide and almost blank. She’s so far from the strong beautiful girl they know and love that it’s almost terrifying.
“Come on, darling. Tyler has a nice warm blanket for you,” Lucas hums in her ear, pulling her into the house.
She snarls softly. “I don’t want a bloody blanket, Lucas. I want this fucking hissing to stop.”
Lucas looks at Chase over her head and the Shaman sighs. Aurora twists, giving him a searching glare.
“Eat first, Aurora,” Tyler orders, nudging the plate of cheese and crackers at her. She huffs but nibbles at the cheese and sips her tea obediently until Tyler relaxes, looping an arm around Chase's waist.
“Tell me,” she orders.
“You’re a Medusa, Aurora. A handmaid of vengeance,” Chase says, “And I’m a Shaman to a werewolf Pack. I don’t know if it’s because of me or because of Lucas, but I do know that you’re Pack.” He licks his lips. “You dream, don’t you?”
Her eyes narrow. “You three have been running around my dreams?”
“Darling girl, you’re smart. You know we have.”
“Then why do I want to scream?” she snaps, “What changed?”
Chase sighs as Tyler ducks to inhale against his hair, eyes pressed closed.
“The Drakes are in Harrisburg,” Lucas says simply.
~*~
It was Chase’s idea. He knew Ben, knew he’d propose soon, and knew Brielle—the Drakes—well enough to know that when she did get engaged, it would be the excuse Mia and the cousins needed to come back.
It was easy, the work of only an hour, to take down his wards, to clear the way for the bitches to strut back into their territory, then less time than that to convince Ben that Thanksgiving was the perfect time to propose.
It was easy and flawless, and Lucas had smiled at him, slow and proud, so dangerous he shivered when Chase told him the plan.
~*~
Mia is smart. She’s evil, psychotic, a fucking rapist—but she’s smart, and no matter how many bodies Lucas drops and taunts her with, she isn’t going to come back. She would never come to them on even footing.
Not for a sociopathic werewolf with revenge fantasies, and Chase knows it. She doesn't even know Lucas is awake, which makes Chase wonder sometimes who she thinks is killing her accomplices and coven.
“So we bring her here for another reason. We give her a reason that’s got nothing to do with us, with the car wreck, and while she thinks we don’t care or notice...” Chase starts.
“We rip her throat out,” Lucas finishes easily.
Aurora has stopped shivering, but her narrow eyes are assessing, and Lucas drags her close, eating the slice of cheese in her fingers.
“Ben doesn’t know, does he?” she asks.
Chase shakes his head.
~*~
“Are you really ok with this?” Chase asks later that night when Tyler slips into his bedroom and curls behind him on his bed. It’s not small but it always feels like it is when Tyler is in it with him.
He’s quiet, so Chase tilts his head back and says, “You don’t have to. We can find another way.”
“I’m ok. We need to do this,” Tyler says.
Chase nods. He touches the runes tattooed on Tyler’s ribs, the ones he marked Tyler with, and Tyler arches into the touch. “Remember you’re mine, Tyler. Whatever happens, whatever she says, you’re mine. And I won't let her hurt what's mine.”
Tyler shuffles into him, presses his face into Chase’s throat, and they cling to each other as the night deepens around them.
~*~
Chase is normally with him when he goes to the bakery and grocery store. There’s many reasons—because Chase likes the shy blonde girl at the bakery, because Chase is particular about their vegetables, because he has to shop for the Chief, and most of all, because Chase likes doing things like this together, likes being domestic and normal after all the years isolating themselves in house in the woods, when Tyler worried about being seen, about how a boy as young as Chase would be viewed in his company.
But today, oddly enough, Tyler’s alone as he steps out of the bakery. He’s got a bag with fresh baguettes and peppermint chocolate chip cookies in one hand, his phone in the other. When he looks up from the shopping list on his screen, he freezes.
Mia Drake is lounging against his Mustang, clad in skin-tight black pants and high boots, a thick peacoat buttoned over her chest and a smirk on her lips.
For a moment, as he inhales the sticky sweet scent of her perfume laced with aconite and gunpowder, all he can smell is blood, ash, and death. He sways, the bag swinging precariously at his side.
“Hey, handsome,” she says, sly and wicked.
He shudders. He hasn’t seen her since before accident, when she let him fuck her in a quiet hotel room, whispering how m
uch she loved him and taking every secret that she could—and then she used it all to rip his world to the ground.
“Look at you, Ty—all grown up and still so pretty.” She pushes off the car and stalks toward him. He plants his feet because if he doesn’t, he’s going to bolt.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says dully.
She laughs. “Oh, c’mon, Tyler. My niece is here. You can’t really think you can keep me away forever? Besides, you used to want me close. Couldn’t get you to leave me alone even if I tried.”
His stomach twists. “What do you want?”
She smirks. “Wanna see how my pet grew up, Ty. And I want to know if you’re going to be a problem while I’m here.”
Tyler shifts his bag and glares. “I’m not interested in you, Mia. I’m not interested in anything but taking care of my fucking catatonic brother and living my life.”
Mia hums and tilts her head consideringly. “And your pet Shaman? What about him?”
Tyler’s gaze flicks away and he falls back a step, giving ground and hating himself for it. “Humans don’t stay in Packs, Mia. Not for long. They find a better offer with a coven, or they get tired of the supernatural.”
Her smile is bright and sharp. Tyler has to force himself to remain still as she leans in and places a lingering kiss on his cheek. His side warms, runes aching along his flesh. He doesn’t bolt when she pulls away.
“Good boy,” she murmurs, then laughs and saunters past him into the bakery.
Tyler slips into his Mustang and starts driving. He makes it four whole blocks before he has to pull over, vomiting up his breakfast all over the side of the road.
~*~
When he spills out of the Mustang in front of the house, Chase is there to catch him, arms tight around him. Tyler whines into his throat, burrowing close, and Chase lets him, lets him push him into the wet leaves on the cold ground and rub against him until the shaking eases.
“So good, baby, you did so good,” Chase whispers, and Tyler makes a choked noise in his throat.
“Get him inside,” Lucas says, and Chase peers up at him. There’s a shadow of regret in Lucas’s eyes, but he doesn’t apologize. He wouldn’t.
Chase nods. They wrestle Tyler, limp and shivering now, into the house and a hot shower. Lucas watches as Tyler clings to Chase, watches as Chase gentles him with a hand on his neck and their foreheads pressed together, a constant murmur of reassurance spilling from his lips.
“Stay with him, pup,” Lucas says.
He gets to the door when Chase says, “It’s worth it, right?”
Lucas glances back and his mouth is a tight unhappy line. He leaves without answering.
~*~
He feels empty.
He goes to his father’s house and stays there, distancing himself from the Pack. He ignores the magic humming under his skin, the siren song of the Standing Stones. He avoids Ben and Mia.
“Do I want to know?” his Dad asks, and Chase shakes his head. He sighs. “Will someone die?”
Chase shrugs. “You probably shouldn’t ask questions that I can’t answer.”
~*~
He wakes to the scent of ash and aconite, to searing heat, the press of wards, and a pounding heart. The fire hasn’t taken the whole house yet, but he can feel the heat. He howls, furious and heartbroken, and throws himself at the door.
It explodes into the night under his weight and he howls again, terror leaking in as he slams into a warded barrier.
Mia grins from the driveway, eyes shining and hungry. Three of her sisters stand behind her, chanting.
“Don’t—” Tyler chokes out. “Don’t, Mia, don’t do this!”
“Aww, Tyler,” she coos, “You had to know I would eventually. You weren’t supposed to survive, sweetie. It would have been easier on you that way, you know. A nice little puppy like you, what are you going to do without a Pack? You’ll go feral.” Her eyes are flat now, hard and cold, and he howls again, flames licking along the floorboards and over the couch where he likes to cuddle Chase.
“You’re a dog, Tyler, and dogs like you—they’re dangerous. Gotta put them down.”
“You psychotic bitch,” Tyler snarls and she tuts, disapproving. “You won’t get away with this!”
She smiles, slow and cruel. “Ty, sweetie. Who the hell is going to stop me? Your Alpha that doesn’t want you? The Shaman that left you? Lucas? You’re all alone. No one cares.”
Tyler smiles then and she goes still, eyes narrowing.
“You’re wrong,” he says, eyes glinting like steel as a Medusa screams and the forest explodes around her.
~*~
As much it itches along his skin, waiting and keeping his magic leashed, not killing Mia Drake where she stands—this isn’t his to do, so Chase stands near the tree line and simply watches, Aurora leaning against him.
It’s fast.
It’s so fucking fast it feels almost anticlimactic. Lucas uses Mia’s confusion to dart across the glade, slamming into her. A gun goes off and Aurora makes a pained whimper, turning into his shoulder, but she doesn’t scream. Lucas’s howl is vicious and victorious as he holds Mia down. A white hot flare of magic slams into the three witches that came with her, and the wards shatter as they go down screaming.
“Chase,” Tyler snarls, and Mia’s gaze snaps to him as Chase steps away from Aurora, moving into the firelit clearing. He brushes the remaining wards aside and Tyler spills out with a wet snarl, stalking to his brother’s side. He pauses, almost matter of fact about it as he rips open the throats of the witches writhing in pain on the ground. Chase pauses to send a pulse of magic toward the house, banking the fire.
“You—” Mia chokes under Lucas’s grip and her gaze, shocked and a little bit pleased, flicks to Tyler. “You lied to me.”
“Seemed appropriate,” Lucas murmurs.
She laughs, a wet gurgle. “My grandfather will kill you for this,” she hisses.
Chase shakes his head. “He really won’t.”
Tyler crouches and smiles a mean mouthful of fangs at Mia, and she flinches. “He’s dead, Mia. We killed him three days ago, when he had dinner with Brielle’s sweet new fiancé. The poison will kill him by morning.”
Chase grins. “Ben can’t cook. It’s not hard, not really—but Ben? He’s the worst. So I offered to make dinner. A little poison in the casserole? Bet he didn’t come tonight because he’s been throwing up and feverish, right?”
There’s a slow dawning horror in her eyes, and Chase smiles coldly.
“You little shit, you killed Brielle.”
Chase snorts and looks away. The fire is almost out now, his magic burning in his veins as it smoothers the heat. “Brielle and Ben have been warded since I knew what runes were for. Do you really think I’d hurt them? Brielle might be a Drake but I’m not the sociopath who thinks one person’s mistakes makes everyone related to them bad.”
Mia snarls and Lucas digs his claws into her throat, just enough to make her still while Tyler dips down.
“Your niece? She’s going to marry that boy—the one my Shaman claims as brother. She’ll be Pack by the time she gets pregnant, and her child will grow up in my Pack, raised by ‘wolves and magic.” He smiles meanly. “I want you to die knowing that.”
Mia screams and across the glade, Aurora wails. Lucas sighs, soft and content, as he rips out her throat.
~*~
“Matthew Drake was found dead in his hotel today,” John says, and Chase just looks at him.
He’s exhausted. The fire didn’t do as much damage as Mia hoped, as Tyler feared, because Chase’s magic was good at protecting what was his—but it did enough. He’s spent the past three days helping make the place livable again, and knows they have a long way to go. The RV has long since been sold, but Tyler and Lucas are buying a new one to use until they finish the house.
“That’s nice,” Chase mumbles, collapsing on the couch.
“Mia and her sisters are still missing, too.”
> “Thought Brielle got an email about being called away?” Chase says into the pillow.
“Andre Drake thinks it was faked.”
Chase doesn’t respond.
“Chase,” John says, exasperated.
Chase pushes himself up to stare at his father. “Dad.”
John stares at him, then nods slowly. “Ok. Yeah, I think—she must have been called away by work.”
His heart aches, but he nods and drops back into the couch.
~*~
It takes until February to remodel the house. Chase thinks it would have taken less time, but Tyler decides to add a second floor, and the only reason it goes so quickly is that he throws his own money and all of his people into the project.
Chase thinks it’s a coping mechanism, but since Tyler wakes up shaking and sobbing into his chest more than he doesn’t these days, he doesn’t complain. Tyler can have any and all coping mechanisms as he wants.
It’s past time for an addition, he thinks, as he watches Lucas Skype with Aurora. Their tiny pack of three has already grown, and he thinks of Ben and Brielle, and his father, and doesn’t say anything at all about the additions.
~*~
Andre Drake walking into his bookstore isn’t surprising. It’s overdue, so he straightens from where he’s slouched over the counter and steadies himself.
“Where are my nieces?” Drake asks abruptly.
Straight to it then.
“Burned and dumped in a hole beyond our territory,” Chase says, unflinching.
Andre goes pale, like having a theory confirmed is more than he expected, more than he knows what to do with.
“When Tyler was seventeen, he fell for a pretty new librarian,” Chase says, watching him. “She fucked him and let him fall for her. When he was eighteen, when he was celebrating the Solstice moon with his Pack—he slipped out to see her, to tell her his secrets. But she was already gone. She and her sisters organized an accident, and warded the car to ensure even a supernatural like a werewolf wouldn’t survive. No one did—no one except his oldest brother, who was catatonic for years after.
“Do you understand that kind of loss, Drake? Do you understand your nieces didn’t abide by the code when they followed your father’s orders to fucking rape an underage boy and kill his entire fucking family? We killed her, Andre. My Pack deserved that retribution, and your Witch Council gave us that.”
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