Series Firsts Box Set

by Laken Cane

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The last thing on her mind was sleep, but the next thing she knew, her mother was shaking her awake. And it wasn’t because Eli was better.

  “Chaos has found the pocket,” Basilia stated.

  Her voice was so matter-of-fact that at first Abby, disoriented and foggy, had no idea what she meant.

  “Eli?” she said.

  “Alive. But Abby—”

  “She’s trying to tell you that bad people have entered your precious pocket,” a man said. “And the threat is dire.”

  The voice was so out of place, yet so familiar that Abby believed she was still lost in her dreams.

  The spell room was dark, the moon still hung in the sky, yet she knew it was morning outside.

  Confused, she jumped off the bench she’d pushed up against Eli’s cot. “Daddy?”

  Basilia gripped her arm and gave it a painful squeeze. “Get hold of yourself, Abigail. It’s not your father.”

  Abby shook her head, hard, and stared as a man stepped out of the shadows and stood a few feet away, watching her.

  The man was Mel Damon.

  “Hello, Abby. I’m sorry about this. I don’t want to destroy you.” He pointed his chin at the man on the cot. “Only him.” Then he grinned. “Oh, and the demon child you’ve been hiding. That kid can get me Acadia Desrochers. Did you know the Damon’s have been hunting that old whore for decades? I want her almost as much as I want to hurt my brother.”

  She felt a weak grip on her hand and looked down at the alpha. He watched her with glittering eyes.

  He swallowed, tried and failed to speak, then tried again. “Run.”

  She winced at the rawness of his voice, sure it felt to him as though he’d swallowed glass. “Never, alpha.” She clutched his hand.

  Mel smiled, but his eyes were full of a dark sadness. He tugged at the strap holding a shotgun over his shoulder. He also wore a gun at his hip, and likely had stashed a few knives somewhere on his body. “What do you see in him, Abby?”

  “It’s fate,” Basilia snapped. “There’s no use fighting it.”

  Mel snorted. “The alpha is her destiny. How sweet.”

  “He’s an honorable man,” Abby whispered. “He’s…” She looked away from Mel and once more at the alpha.

  Everything.

  “He can’t even see the real you,” Mel said. “He can’t love you, Abby. Why would you do that to yourself?”

  “You killed Brooke,” she murmured. “You used her to get the talisman and then you killed her.”

  He inclined his head. “I couldn’t trust her. She would never have kept her mouth shut.”

  “How did you get in here?” She looked at her mother, who stood frozen beside her. “Mother, how did he get in here?”

  She still didn’t feel the danger.

  And then she saw the truth in Basilia’s eyes.

  “No,” she said. “No.”

  Basilia nodded. “Becky Bates.”

  “You’re Becky’s love,” Abby said to Mel. “You’re the one.” She would have pressed a hand against the pain in her heart but Eli held one hand and her mother had the other.

  “Yeah,” Mel said. “Abby, we’re not the bad guys here.”

  Abby stiffened her spine and gently extracted herself from Basilia’s grasp. She slid her hand to her pocket. “What do you want, Mel?”

  Mel said nothing for a long, long moment. And when he answered her, she wished he hadn’t. “I came to Waifwater for him. I want him to suffer. I want him to suffer the way I’ve suffered. I want him to know how it feels to have everything he ever wanted and needed and loved ripped away from him.”

  “But why?”

  He glanced at her free hand as she inched it down her body. “Looking for this?” He held up her wand.

  She gasped in dismay. “Mother?”

  “They tricked me, Abby. I’m sorry.”

  “They tricked the alpha, too,” Abby muttered. She narrowed her eyes at Mel as hate and horror filled her. “You will die for what you’ve done to him.”

  Eli squeezed her hand. There was fury in his eyes, as well. And such helpless frustration she had to look away.

  “I told them not to kill him,” Mel said. “I should get points for that.”

  “Mel,” Abby asked. “Why?”

  He wrestled with his demons—it was there in his tormented eyes. “I’ve been groomed for this day since my birth. I don’t expect you to understand how it feels to be the forgotten child. The hated child. He got everything. He got our father, a family, wealth…he’s the fucking alpha of his own pack, for Christ’s sake.” He swiped at his eyes, but laughed. “I got a bitter, vicious mother whose only dream was for me to avenge her. To avenge us. And that’s what I’m going to do. He could have…” His voice broke and he took a deep breath. “He could have changed things.”

  “He didn’t even know about you,” Abby said.

  “Yes,” Mel said. “He did.” Then he shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t know about me, but he did know there was the promise of a sibling out there. He heard the gossip about the woman who was beaten and sent away with a baby. Didn’t you, brother? But he didn’t care. He didn’t want to know the truth. Even when I showed up, he didn’t want me here.”

  Abby glanced down. Eli gave a long, slow blink, and when he looked at her again, his eyes were full of guilt and pain.

  Mel smiled. “As I was groomed to hate him, he was groomed to hate his father’s indiscretions. And to ignore the part of his family that could never be good enough.”

  “I’m sorry.” Eli’s voice was nearly too hoarse to hear, but Mel did hear.

  “Too late, brother. I’m afraid it’s much too late for sorry.”

  “He would have made amends,” Abby said. “He let you into his pack. He was trying to get to know you. To trust you.”

  Mel snorted. “He hated me, princess. The time for bonding was long past. He thought of me as just an interloping, hungry stranger to whom he was duty bound to toss a skinny little bone.”

  Pity squeezed her heart, despite everything. “Mel. I’m sorry for you. But you can’t come in here and take my mother and me down because you hate the alpha.”

  “I can, though.” His face went blank, and his eyes turned cold. “I really am sorry, princess. I thought about getting you on my side, but you were too wrapped up in him. You and I…we could have actually been pretty damn good together.”

  Becky Bates materialized from the shadows. “You love me.”

  “Becky,” Abby murmured. “You’ve broken my heart.”

  “It’s love,” Becky cried. “Love did this.”

  “No. He used you to get what he wanted,” Abby corrected. “Mel can’t love.”

  Mel inclined his head. “Sadly, sweet Becky, Abby is right. Love was beaten out of me long, long ago by my abandoned, rejected mother. You know everything about scorned women, don’t you, Abby?”

  “Yes.”

  “Still, in spite of your lot in life, you’re…good.”

  “You could have been good,” Basilia told him. “You didn’t have to let your mother win.”

  He nodded. “I wish I had fought. But I didn’t, and now, even as I stand here wishing I was part of your lives, I want only to crush Eli Dean—and that’s what I will do.” He snapped her wand and she felt the fracture in her very soul. “Get in my way, Abby, and I will kill your mother. And then I will kill you.”

  “Mel,” she begged. “Please!”

  “I can’t turn back now,” he screamed, his face contorting. “I can’t turn back.” He let the pieces of her wand fall to the floor and held up a hand beseechingly. “I can’t, princess.”

  The evil won, just like that. Overpowered him. She saw it happening. His eyes grew dark, and his face became a pale mask of hatred.

  And as his hatred solidified, Becky Bates withdrew into herself. Mel wasn’t the only one who’d gone too far to turn back.

  “Mel,” she murmured, and stepped to hi
s side. “You’re not alone.”

  Becky couldn’t love either. Not really.

  He nodded.

  Abby almost understood the empath. Mel was damaged and broken and sad. Abused and abandoned.

  Just like Becky.

  And she felt all his pain.

  Eli struggled against his injuries and fought the weakness that held him, the strain on his face. He needed to shift.

  More than anything, he needed to shift.

  He couldn’t.

  But he was the alpha, and he wouldn’t lie there while the innocents around him were in danger.

  While Abby was in danger.

  Becky hung back, refusing to look at either Abby or Basilia, but Mel took a couple of steps closer to watch the alpha’s struggle.

  Eli groaned as he grabbed hold of the side of his cot and dragged himself to a half sitting position.

  Mel clapped his hands and hooted. “You can do it, brother!”

  And while Mel’s attention was on Eli, Abby sidled closer to her broken wand. It didn’t matter that it was broken. The wand was part of her. All she needed to do was get her hands on it.

  She looked away from the wand and saw Becky watching her.

  They stared silently at each other while the alpha struggled and his brother watched, fascinated.

  Finally, Becky lowered her gaze and stepped back. She would not interfere.

  Abby wasn’t even angry at the empath. She was hurt, yes, but she wasn’t angry. She’d let Becky into the pocket, even though her gut had urged her to reconsider.

  She’d know something was off with the girl.

  She’d made a mistake, and she would own it.

  But if Becky Bates got in her way…

  As though she’d heard Abby’s thoughts—as she likely had—Becky glanced up again, her eyes widening.

  She knew Abby would not hesitate to destroy her to protect Basilia and the pocket.

  And Jewel.

  Jewel. Where the hell are you?

  Maybe Becky had already found a way to incapacitate the demon. If so, she must’ve plucked the knowledge out of Jewel’s head, because Abby knew of no secret weakness Jewel possessed.

  But then she paled and looked away from the wand to find Becky studying her, and she suddenly realized exactly how Becky had restrained Jewel.

  She’d lured the girl into a trap by giving her very own living, breathing doll to mutilate.

  Then Eli captured all her attention as he roared in pain and defiance. With every bit of the strength Abby and Basilia had returned to him the night before, he rolled off the cot, fell to his knees, and then, with everyone’s stares upon him, he climbed laboriously to his feet.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Get behind me,” he told Abby and Basilia.

  He swayed on his feet, his face deathly white, black circles surrounding his eyes as he stared down the enemy.

  Even Mel looked momentarily shocked, and Abby could have sworn she saw a flash of pity in his hard gaze.

  “Abby,” Eli ordered, his voice hoarse and rusty, “behind me.” And though he was weak and naked and his body had been almost completely destroyed, he was the alpha for a reason.

  Mel looked at Abby, his stare considering. “The best way to hurt the alpha is to hurt those he cares about. I guess it’s obvious to everyone here that who he cares about is you. Ugly or not.”

  “Don’t you touch her,” Basilia said, stepping in front of Abby. “And don’t you touch the alpha!”

  “I’m going to make you watch while I torture the ladies, brother.” But he didn’t look at Abby.

  Abby took Basilia’s hand as the alpha lurched toward his brother, his weak growl still frightening enough to raise the hair on the back of her neck.

  “Mother,” Abby muttered, “we’re witches.”

  Basilia looked at her, her face pale, a hand to her chest. “Yes.”

  “Then let’s act like it.”

  Basilia nodded, but the fear was there.

  Harnessing enough power to defeat a man with a gun was dangerous. He could shoot them as they chanted. As they called forth death and destruction, he could simply pull a trigger.

  But they would die anyway.

  She’d rather they go down fighting.

  Mel punched the half dead alpha in the face, and Abby flinched at the crunch. Eli hit the floor with a crash that thundered through the spell room.

  Becky jumped backward. “I don’t want to do this,” she cried.

  “Once again,” Mel said, grinning through his anger, a spark of mad delight lighting his eyes, “it’s too late. You’re already doing this.” But he had a lifetime of anger and pain built up inside him. He turned toward her and shoved her so hard she hit the rock wall, bounced off it, and fell to the floor a few feet from Eli.

  Then he ran his hands through his hair. “No one is true, Abby,” he cried. “No one is real.”

  “Keep hold of your fury,” Basilia told her. “Do not soften, or we’re lost.”

  Mel kicked the fallen alpha.

  If he hadn’t done that, Abby’s soft heart would have been seized with pity for the broken and tormented demon hunter.

  She tightened her grip on her mother’s hand and let power she’d been born with gather in a small knot in her stomach.

  It began to swirl and grow.

  Like a storm.

  A storm bringing death.

  Mel knelt beside Eli. “Did you know, brother, that the lovely little Abby killed your precious grandfather?”

  “Fuck you,” Eli rasped, and tried once again to struggle to his feet.

  Abby swayed and lost half the powerful energy she’d amassed.

  “Steady,” Basilia said. “Ignore them.”

  “Ask her,” Mel said. “She won’t lie to you. Our little princess has a crush and it ain’t on me, big brother.”

  “You shouldn’t screw with witches,” Eli said.

  Mel shrugged. “I didn’t get that memo.”

  Becky crawled to the wall and sat with her back against it, a pale hand to her ribs. “Mel,” she called. “They’re building power. They’ll kill us.”

  Shit.

  Abby closed her eyes and she and Basilia chanted almost silently, in tandem, desperately.

  The power built…

  But Mel pulled the shotgun over his head and aimed it at the alpha. “Abby. Come here.”

  She stopped chanting. “Mel, please—”

  “Get over here, Abby, or I’ll blow his brains all over this strange little room.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You have five seconds.”

  “Abby,” Eli said. “Don’t.”

  He was getting stronger. Slowly, surely, inexorably.

  If the alpha shifted, Mel was dead.

  She just needed to distract Mel until that happened.

  “Five,” Mel said, and shoved the barrel of the gun under Eli’s chin.

  “No,” Abby cried. “Wait.”

  “Now,” Mel said. “Now, Abby.”

  She pulled away from her weeping mother and ran to Mel. There were no other choices. Not for her.

  Just before she reached him, he drew back his shotgun and smashed it into the alpha’s temple. “Goodnight, brother.”

  Abby leapt toward the falling Eli and covered his body with hers—half her wand was under his hip and if she had a chance in hell at surviving Mel, she had to get that wand.

  Mel dragged her off the unconscious alpha, but not before she slid the wand into the waistband of her jeans.

  She had it.

  Half of it, actually, but half an obedient wand could still do a lot of damage.

  She hoped her mother had noticed. It would give her some peace.

  Her walls were high and impenetrable—Becky wouldn’t have been able to read her, even if the girl wanted to try.

  “Where are you taking me?” Abby asked Mel.

  He frowned. “Nowhere. Oh, I see. No, Abby, I’m not taking you out of here. Becky!”

  Becky jump
ed up and strode to him. She didn’t look at Abby. “I’m here, Mel.”

  “Get the cuffs off my belt loop. Cuff Eli to…” He looked around, but couldn’t find anything to which he might attach the cuffs. “Just cuff his hands behind his back.”

  Becky hurried to do his bidding before Eli woke up. Then she jogged across the room and pulled a length of rope from a drawer. She wound it around Eli’s ankles.

  “Becky,” Mel exclaimed. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

  Becky beamed. “What about Basilia?”

  Abby’s mother had collapsed onto the bench, her face drained of color. She held her hand to her chest.

  “Leave her alone,” he said. “What’s she going to do?”

  “Becky, why?” Abby cried. “We loved you.”

  Mel pulled Abby back against his body. “You’re too trusting, Abby.”

  She shook her head. “Becky was my friend. She was a good person.”

  “Obviously not.”

  “You did something to her.”

  “I let her come out of her head, Abby. That’s all I did.”

  “No.”

  He squeezed her upper arm. “You don’t even know her. Do you have any idea how many people she’s killed? That girl is colder than I am. Aren’t you, Becky?”

  Becky said nothing. She finished tying the rope around Eli’s ankles and jumped back when he spoke.

  “You’re going to die,” the alpha told her, softly.

  Abby shuddered at the icy promise in his voice.

  “She doesn’t mind,” Mel said, his voice jolly. “She wants eternal peace.”

  “Witches are useless.” Becky went to stand beside Mel. Her face was expressionless, her voice toneless. “Without their instruments, they can do nothing.”

  And she looked at Abby.

  Abby felt her eyes widen before she blanked them. Becky knew.

  She knew Abby had the wand.

  “The alpha,” the empath continued, “needs to stay put, or he will die. Mel wants to gut shoot him. In the end, that’s what he’ll do. Isn’t that right, Mel?”

  Mel hesitated, then nodded. “He’ll take a while to die that way.”

  Abby frowned. Who was Becky trying to help?