by Mary Hughes
She startled at the phrase. “My journal is part of a key.”
“Good start. What else?”
“The idiot prophecy.” Gabriel raised the leather-bound book and gave it a shake as emphasis. “The key to night? It’s not a key to magic at all. It’s for a jail. This is why I hate prophecies.”
Pan said, “Of course we’ll destroy the key, like the others.”
“Hmm.” Jayden looked at the ceiling and tapped an overly thoughtful finger to his chin.
Gabriel narrowed eyes at him. “Cut the usual dramatic bullshit. If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
“I wouldn’t destroy the key quite yet, if I were you. Now, there’s someone at the door—”
“Why not?” Gabriel grabbed the groomer by the collar and yanked them nose to nose.
Jayden only grinned. “A jail key might prove useful, seeing as your sister is in one.” His black brow quirked.
“This key isn’t to Sophia’s jail, and even if it were, we only have two pieces.”
Both black eyebrows rose. “You think that matters? You don’t have two pieces of any old key.” He tapped the wolf, now a bas-relief decorating the journal’s cover. “This is two pieces of the Great Key.”
“How the fuck did you know that?” Gabriel shook him.
“Threaten later, my boy.” Goodwin touched Gabriel’s taut back. “Hear the explanation now.”
Gabriel released Jayden with a shove. The groomer delicately brushed off his collar.
“That writing was locked,” Gabriel said. “How’d you know it’s called the Great Key?”
“How do you think?” The other witch’s grin was taunting.
“You and your games. I’m not playing. The Great Key. Big key, opens the jail of the worst Infinite One in history. So what?”
Jayden’s grin dissolved in a look of disgust. “The key is not great because of that. It’s great because it’s a master key. That’s why it wasn’t destroyed with the rest.”
Goodwin blinked. “I retract my previous statement, Gabriel. How does he know—?”
“Who cares?” Gabriel said. “If it’s a master key, what the crunchy fuck are we waiting for? Let’s jailbreak my sister.”
“Hold your horses, Lone Ranger.” Jayden held up a palm. “There are some problems. First, as the master key, breaching Sophia’s jail will also crack all the other prisons. Now, Sophia can probably skinny out an opening that wouldn’t admit an Infinite One’s big toe, but they’ll be hopping mad—and that anger will leak. Don’t use that key until you can stop the other prisons from cracking. We don’t want the Infinite Ones’ anger let loose on the world, do we?”
“How do you know all this?” Goodwin demanded, but Gabriel’s urgency overrode him.
“Sophia first. What’s the other problem?”
“Using the key as a key will reset everything and everyone attached to it. You have to figure out a way to keep that from happening.”
Emma, with her heart-tie to the journal, understood first. “The writing will disappear?”
“Everything,” Jayden said. “But there’s more.”
“Isn’t that enough?” The Singer family tree, her heritage. Her father’s painting, the only thing she had left of his beautiful art, gone forever.
“When I say everything, I don’t mean just the key. Yes, it’ll destroy modifications to the journal, the medallion, the lock spell. But more, it’ll erase active magic connected to the key’s creators and its current caretakers. Zeroed out. Gone.”
“Spells?” Pan asked. “Amulets?”
“M-mating bonds?” Emma croaked.
“All of those,” Jayden said.
“Noah and Sophia’s mating?” Goodwin blinked.
“Yes. Among others.” Jayden shot Emma a black glare. “Rendered null and void.”
I’ll lose Gabriel? Her heart stuttered.
Gabriel echoed, “Sophia will lose the babies?”
“No, that’s physical. But their mating bond will snap.”
Losing her father’s beautiful art was one thing, but the thought of losing Gabriel hit Emma like a fist to the breastbone.
She loved her father, but he was dead. Her love for Gabriel was a living thing. Sure, living things weren’t always beautiful. They were messy and needed to grow to live. They took time and energy…and sometimes sacrifice. Tears welled in her eyes. A blink cascaded wet down her cheek. The truth was, sacrificing her father’s art and all it meant to her would be hard.
But sacrificing her tie to her mate? She wasn’t sure she could manage that.
Maybe there was another way. “Can the bonds be redone?”
“If Sophia and Noah make it out of this alive, they can renew their ties. But if anything happens before they do… ” Jayden stared at her, so intensely it almost zapped the realization directly into her head.
If Bruiser got hold of her, she’d lose her connection with Gabriel forever.
“Any other little problems we should know about?” Pan growled.
“The usual random issues with triggering a partial key. You won’t know what until you use it. But I believe cracking the Infinite Ones’ prisons far outweighs any other concerns. Speaking of cracks.” He opened the door in time for everyone to hear a huge bam.
Emma jumped. “What’s that?”
“Trouble. Soundproof booth, you didn’t hear it before. There’s a very steamed alpha wolf shifter parked outside. He tried to get in, but I’d locked the place tight. He took to beating fists against the door, but all he has to do is go back to his truck and…oh, yes, there he goes. I think he’s getting a tire iron.”
“Steamed alpha?” Gabriel frowned. “Noah?”
“No. Someone calling himself Bruiser.”
A truckload of acid dumped in Emma’s stomach.
Pan snarled, “Why is he here?”
Jayden’s gaze snared hers. “I believe he’s come for Emma.”
Chapter Twenty
Gut churning, Emma hurried out to see Bruiser’s compact, muscular body raging in the doorway, his ugly shovel mug red with anger.
Her bowels dropped out her toes.
“Let me in!” He raised a crowbar behind his shoulder and swung. Metal whacked into the door’s glass.
She flinched against the burst of splinters sure to follow…surprised when only a small crunch reached her ears.
Opening her eyes, she saw a divot sparkle in the glass, like a stone-chipped windshield. “How—?”
“Magic shield,” Jayden spat. The males had followed her out. “But it won’t last forever. Damn it, does he know how much a commercial glass door costs?”
Bruiser wound up and delivered another hit. The crowbar glanced off the shielded glass, spitting out another divot.
“Damn it on toast.” Gabriel rubbed the bridge of his nose one-handed, nudging up his glasses, then dropped his hand to glare through the lenses at the he-wolf. “Why now?”
The question fired Emma’s blood. Gabriel had gone to great lengths to get her away from this slaver brute—and her mate had plenty of his own troubles to deal with. Bruiser dared show up here, now?
Enough. Chin jutting, she stalked up to the glass. “Bruiser, you ass. This isn’t Bearstrangler sacred grounds. You’re out of your jurisdiction and violating about a hundred traditions and treaties. Go home. You’re not wanted here.”
The shovel-faced wolfman responded with a sneer and a spit to the side. “Maybe this isn’t my realm, but I’m welcome. Scottville has a pact with Matinsfield. You don’t like it, tough.”
“You might have had a pact with your scum-buddy Scauth, but there’s a new alpha, or hadn’t you heard? Noah’s a good person, and when I tell him what you tried to do to me, what you’ve done to your harem—”
“You haven’t told him yet? Why is that, Piglet?” He doubled the sneer. “Hmm. Could it be because you’re the wolf who gave up Blackwood’s mate? Ha. Him, run me off? You’re the one he wants to get rid of. He’ll probably help me stuff y
ou in my truck, wave buh-bye, and throw a party after you’re gone.”
Emma winced. If Bruiser only knew the alpha’s full grievances against her. Last she’d seen Noah, he’d been out cold on the floor because she had put him there. She tried to rally. “Pact or not, you can’t come unannounced into another alpha’s territory.”
“I can if I have just cause—like my property being here. I only came to take it back, all lawful and legal-like.”
She scowled. “I’m not your property.”
“You sure as hell are.” Bruiser shoved his snarling face against the glass, startling her into jerking back.
“Enough.” Handing her journal to Pan, Gabriel shouldered in front of her, brow lowered like a thunderstorm. From the set of his back and tightness of his fists, it was amazing he’d stood aside this long. He snarled, “You heard her. No woman’s your property, especially not Emma.”
“Oh, please.” The wolfman leaned back with a sneer. “Like she’s yours, witch? Oh, yes, I know about you now, nerd boy.” He poked one finger into the glass, stabbing at Gabriel. “I don’t care if you are a witch. I’m alpha and Emma’s my pack, so she’s mine.”
“You can’t take her if she’s mated. Check her eyes.”
Bruiser barked a nasty laugh. “Contacts. I’m not that dumb.”
“Says who,” Emma muttered.
“Says me.” The wolfman wound up and delivered another whack to the door. A long crack popped into the glass.
Another few smacks like that, and he’d be through.
Emma’s stomach knotted. She was angry and afraid and at the edge of her control. Her friends were being threatened because of her—and she couldn’t stand that.
Her berserker stirred. Use me.
No. It had ripped out Delmar’s throat when she was only eight and would’ve done worse if her mother and brother hadn’t stopped it. It took Gabriel, Pan, and Mason to keep it from tearing out Noah’s.
But if not the berserker, then what? Her iota wolf was a pretty, fluffy thing, no threat to a sinewy alpha. Except her claws. Maybe she could scratch him to death, or at least distract him a little.
Probably not.
“Maybe he’s right.” She touched Gabriel’s shoulder, as knotted as a tree’s gnarl. “Maybe I should go with him, at least for now.”
“Never.” He half-turned and took her by the arms. “I love how you want to make everyone’s lives easier, better. But you sacrifice your own needs too often.”
The love and respect in his eyes warmed her to the bone and made her want to cry. “But Gabriel, he’s not your problem—”
“He’s everyone’s problem. Enslaving a harem is wrong. No one deserves Bruiser’s tyranny, and no one should ever put up with his cruelty. But especially you deserve better.”
“You shitting me?” Bruiser banged a fist against the glass, making it shudder. “She deserves better than my harem? Fuck, my harem is better than she deserves. Fucking traitor.”
Heat suffused Emma’s face. She opened her mouth to deny it.
Gabriel snarled, “Take that back.” He flared like a living shield.
“Hell no. Everyone here knows it. The Enforcer even named her!”
“He said Singer.” Gabriel shook his dark head. “He meant her brother.”
“Doesn’t matter what you believe. What matters is what everyone else believes. Now I’m coming in.”
Emma peeked around Gabriel’s bulk to see the he-wolf swing the crowbar so hard he lifted from the pavement.
With a loud crack, a fracture like jagged lightning lengthened across the entire pane.
Bruiser’s snarl was triumphant. “Next hit, she’s mine, nerd boy. I’m taking her, and you can’t stop me.”
“Oh, can’t I?” Gabriel drew a deep breath, his shoulders lifting and his back flaring before her, big as an SUV.
Eyes widening, even Bruiser fell back a step.
But then a mean glint entered the he-wolf’s eye, and he swung the crowbar, short but sharp.
The pane shattered.
“Jayden,” she began, turning to the shopkeeper.
“Why’d I go with the largest insurance deductible?” he asked the ceiling. “I’ll get the broom.” Muttering, he stalked away.
“Goodwin?” Her stomach dropped out of her feet. The auburn-haired familiar was nowhere to be seen.
Emma’s heart pounded double time. “Pan?”
The panther familiar nodded. As the wolfman reached through the broken glass for the lock, Pan tucked her journal in his belt then slid up beside Gabriel.
Two men and an iota against a very pissed off, mean, trash compacter of an alpha wolf. She readied her claws.
Then Bruiser’s fangs and snout extended, his muscles bulked up, and his body sprouted patches of fur.
Yikes. Correction, two men and her against a supercharged half-wolf. She wavered on the balls of her feet. Can it get any worse?
As if he’d taken her thoughts as a personal challenge, Gabriel barred his panther familiar and her back with an arm. “I have to do this myself, or he’ll never leave us alone.”
Emma’s heart thumped hard. The insane man. The insane, wonderful man.
He was going to fight for her.
Her wolf wagged its tail, and even her human self was impressed. But a man against a half-shifted alpha? Bruiser would cream him.
She had to use the berserker.
And after it kills Bruiser, what’s to stop it from slaughtering Gabriel?
She remembered Noah’s blood, running hot and sweet. Her berserker wanting more. Gabriel, flinching from her…
She’d die before she’d hurt her mate.
“It’s okay,” Pan murmured to her. “This isn’t a human against a wolf. It’s a wolf against a battle mage.”
She glanced automatically at Gabriel’s ankle, where the limiter was.
“I’ve trained him for all circumstances. Any magic gives him an advantage.” The familiar paused. “Though it might alert the Enforcer. Well, one thing at a time.”
But instead of calling up his wand, Gabriel tore off his glasses and held them out to Pan. After a shocked second, the familiar snatched them out of his hand, with a muttered, “Dumbshit.”
With an aggressive palm-pop, Bruiser swung the door wide and swaggered in.
From that set to Gabriel’s jaw, that glint in his eye, clearly he was preparing to deal with Bruiser the old-fashioned way.
Mate fight. Something primitive in her howled.
Everything else in her was horrified. Dumbshit was right. Idiot male pride, idiot wolf, idiot Bruiser. “Gabriel, no. You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.”
Stubborn male. Her claws curled into her palms as acid churned in her stomach. She didn’t care about pride or wolf tradition. She was going to help him win this fight.
Although she had to play it carefully. Without the power of her berserker, she only had her iota wolf. If she made her move too soon, Bruiser might adjust and kill them both. She forced herself to wait for the right time.
Bruiser snarled, “Move aside, nerd boy, before you get hurt.”
Gabriel lunged toward him, feinting a jab.
Bruiser blocked with a condescending sneer and swung his fist, crowbar still clutched in it, at Gabriel’s face.
Emma’s muscles twitched to send her into the fight.
Her mate had already dodged, sliding to one side. Bruiser’s fist swished air—but the crowbar slashed Gabriel’s cheek down to the bone. Coppery blood scent filled the air.
“Gabriel.” She surged toward him.
He waved her off. “I’m okay.” His scowl was more disgusted with himself than pained, so she faded back.
Bruiser parked the crowbar on his shoulder like a baseball bat and sneered. “Give up, boy?”
“Are you kidding? From a scratch?” Gabriel opened a waving hand at Pan, who lobbed him a small foil patch. Gabriel snatched it out of the air and pressed it to his cheek. It stuck briefly, turned
colors, and fell off. The skin underneath was whole and unscarred. The coppery scent faded.
But while Gabriel was distracted, Bruiser raised the crowbar and swung.
“Incoming,” she shouted.
Gabriel dropped onto his hands and one bent leg and swept the other through the wolf’s ankles.
His command of 3D space in fighting made even Emma’s wolf pause, wide-eyed with admiration. Her iota’s tail thump-thumped.
Bruiser tried to jump the sweep. Supernatural reflexes saved him from going down, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the mage’s leg altogether. He stumbled to one knee.
Gabriel’s muscles tensed to spring to his feet, but Bruiser’s wolf swung an instantaneous countersweep, catching her rising mate in the flank. Gabriel tried to evade the kick, but Bruiser’s half-shifted leg sledge-hammered into all too human ribs.
The crack of bone catapulted Emma forward as Gabriel stumbled backward. She caught him, his momentum sending them both crashing into a display of collars and leashes.
Bruiser came at them, crowbar raised like a bat.
Aimed at Gabriel’s head.
Terror spiked her veins. Her snout elongated and her ears rose on her head, pinned back in fury. Her berserker opened her jaws to deliver nearly four hundred pounds of pressure, enough to snap alpha spine. Shoving Gabriel to one side, she leaped.
A broom smashed into her face. Pain spangled her vision.
“Watch the merchandise. Back, back!” Jayden waded in, whacking Bruiser and Emma indiscriminately, thrusting bristles like a janitorial lion tamer.
Emma’s berserker tried to shove aside Jayden and his broom, but the groomer was fast and strong and the broom must’ve been hardened by magic. He whacked her until confusion bled through her pained haze. She yipped, snout and hair receding. He kept whacking until her berserker left her entirely, her thoughts clearing. Jayden nodded and concentrated on Bruiser.
Gabriel had staggered to his feet, hand pressed to his side, face tight with pain. She ran to him and grabbed his arm. “We need to get you to a hospital.”
