by Tasha Black
The key.
Sadie had buried the key in Ainsley’s rhododendrons.
Ainsley knew every second was precious. She needed to get the key before the warlocks did, or risk the whole future of Tarker’s Hollow.
But Charley was already at the edge of the flower bed, bending over to see where the dog was digging.
She could blast him, but she didn’t dare use her magic in front of Ophelia.
Garrett began to murmur a familiar spell at Ophelia.
Ainsley had just enough time to protect her alpha.
Or to protect her pack.
Episode 3
Chapter 0
A low growl built in Ainsley’s throat as she set Camilla Parker Bowles down on the grass. What the hell were these two doing back at her house? And why was Charley carrying a shovel?
Camilla Parker Bowles made a bee-line to the rhododendrons in the flower bed.
Ainsley finally realized what the little dog had been trying to tell her all along.
The key.
Sadie had buried the key in Ainsley’s rhododendrons.
Ainsley knew every second counted. She needed to get the key before the warlocks did, or risk the whole future of Tarker’s Hollow.
Charley was already at the edge of the flower bed, bending over to see where the dog was digging.
She could blast him, but she didn’t dare use her magic in front of Ophelia.
Garrett began to murmur a familiar spell at Ophelia.
Ainsley had just enough time to protect her alpha.
Or to protect her pack.
Chapter 1
Ainsley summoned her magic with an evocation so powerful, she felt like a black hole trying to suck in the sun. She didn’t want to reveal her magic in the presence of a Federation alpha, especially one with the power to disband her pack for such a grievous act, but she was left with no choice. Before the light ball could fully form in her hands, the words slithered out of Garrett’s mouth.
“Subsisto lupo mutatis!”
Ainsley recognized the spell – the one that stopped wolves from shifting. Garrett had aimed it directly at Ophelia.
She didn’t even try to dodge.
Could Ophelia’s reflexes really be so slow?
The alpha of alphas only gazed coldly at Garrett, her pale skin glowing in the moonlight and her dark eyes glittering with satisfaction.
The brilliant wave of red magic washed over Ophelia’s unmoving form, wrapping her in its malevolent embrace.
She gave a small shudder, like a dog shaking off a wet coat, and the magic rose off her in a hissing crimson fog.
Ainsley was riveted, trembling with amazement at her alpha’s mightiness.
Ophelia remained still, but her eyes flashed a deep amber, like honey on fire.
Garrett sucked in a breath and began to draw his form inward.
Ainsley clenched her fists. She had seen Garrett do this before. He would collapse into a covey of inky black birds and elude their grasp once more.
Ophelia crossed the front yard so quickly that even Ainsley’s own alpha senses could barely follow. When Ophelia reached Garrett, she clutched the warlock’s lapels in her long fingers and yanked the pulsing blur of birds back into a man shape.
No sooner did the shape have a mouth, than the lips began to move, forming another spell.
Ophelia lowered her gaze, then once again, pulled hard on his lapels, thrusting the crown of her head forward as she yanked him in.
Garrett’s jaw snapped with a loud crack of bone and teeth, and his spell dissolved into an inarticulate gurgle.
All of a sudden, the rich smell of overturned soil pulled Ainsley’s attention back to the rhododendrons.
To her horror, Charley dug frantically under the foliage. She couldn’t let him get to the key first.
Ainsley knew the price she would pay if she used her other gift. Wolves hated magic. There was no way Ophelia would let Ainsley remain alpha once her secret was out. But there was more at stake here than that. Ainsley gritted her teeth and pictured her high school self throwing the perfect softball pitch as she let loose the ball of energy that still hovered at the tips of her fingers.
The visualization trick Grace taught her worked like a charm. The blue sphere flew out of Ainsley’s hands, knocking Charley off his feet and sending him sprawling halfway across the front yard. He skidded to a stop when he hit the boxwood hedge.
Ainsley darted into the rhododendrons and began to dig with her hands in the spot Sadie’s dog, Camilla Parker Bowles, always seemed drawn to.
The rich black soil soon packed under her fingernails, slowing her progress. Her human hands just weren’t meant for this type of work, but she couldn’t risk shifting, she might need her magic again.
Ainsley continued to scrape futilely at the hard packed earth. As she dug, she imagined the effectiveness of her wide, strong wolf paws. To her amazement, her hands began to sprout silky red fur. She continued her work as they melted into the powerful claws of her wolf, while the rest of her held onto her human form.
That was a new trick. She’d never seen anyone partially shift before. Was it some sort of alpha ability? Being a wolf really needed its own instruction manual.
Ainsley dug furiously, chunks of loose dirt spraying in all directions, until her paws scraped against something cold and hard.
Working as carefully as she could without slowing down, Ainsley uncovered what turned out to be a metal lunch box. She allowed her furry, dirt-caked paws to slip back into human hands and lifted the box from the hole.
For an instant she was dragged back to the memory of another buried lunchbox. When they were kids, she and Erik had dug a big hole under the sycamore and stuck a metal lunchbox in it as a time capsule. They’d filled it with drawings and cool stuff they’d found in the woods.
Her chest tightened as she thought of Erik. Her mate was gone, sent off on Federation business. And it was looking more and more likely that he wasn’t coming back.
Ainsley shook herself out of the dangerous grip of the past and spun around to check on Charley.
He was still out cold.
Her gaze returned to the metal box that rested in her dirty hands, humming with energy. She found herself fiddling with the latch before she had actually decided to open it.
A flash in her periphery brought her attention to Garrett.
He was unsheathing his sword from his cane.
Ophelia wouldn’t know about the silver.
Before Ainsley could warn her, the sword sliced through the air toward Ophelia’s head.
As the arc of the swing reached her, Ophelia’s head vanished.
Ainsley’s first thought was magic, but then she realized the alpha had shifted down into her wolf form, just in time to avoid the slice of Garrett’s sword.
Ophelia’s wolf teeth flashed white, and then the sword clattered to the ground.
Garrett moaned in agony through his mangled jaw.
His right hand was gone — bitten clean off.
Garrett clutched at the bleeding stump of his wrist as he slumped to the ground.
The moment the threat to her alpha was gone, Ainsley’s attention snapped back to the box. With shaking fingers, she managed to open the clasp.
A shard of midnight black crystal rested inside.
The key. Not what she expected it to look like.
It called to her.
Against her better judgment, Ainsley reached out a tentative finger to touch it. The smooth surface felt almost oily. Without warning, the blackness began to grow—
Or maybe she began to shrink?
—as first her finger, then her whole hand passed into the crystal, pulling the rest of her body behind it until the whole world was nothing but blackness.
She fell further still, into the creature below the Field House.
Into the moroi.
Immediately, its hunger overwhelmed her, turning her inside-out with emptiness. Her very soul ached with dry need.
Some of the people flickered like birthday candles. But emotion made others brighter. A college student swooned over a boy and her light glowed seductively. MacGregor’s light burned orange in anguish. Ainsley wondered briefly if he was still humiliated from her snub the night of the full moon.
But she hardly had time to spare for him when she felt the throbbing brilliance of a truly radiant light. Julian. Was it his magic? Yes, she knew it was.
And Grace. Her Grace. How she shone, like the sun, eclipsing all the light around her. A meal like that would fill the void. Ainsley almost couldn’t look.
She followed more strings until she saw herself, glowing with power and passion. And Ophelia, and Garrett, and ...
Where was Charley?
Charley.
Ainsley managed to rip her finger off the key and slam the lid down on the lunchbox, snapping herself back to the reality of the battle scene that was her front lawn.
But it was too late.
Charley was gone.
Chapter 2
Erik stood in the parking lot of the Copper Creek Community Library. There were no cars except his truck and the gray station wagon he assumed must be Bonnie’s. Good. He was hoping to talk to the librarian alone.
Cold air whipped his jacket as he headed to the door. The valley acted like a tunnel. The mountains sheltered the worst of the wind, but when it hit at just the right angle, the valley magnified the force until you felt like you might blow away.
The door opened to reveal the cozy interior of the library, with its polished wooden floors and musty, old book smell. He didn’t see Bonnie but he could hear her humming softly as she puttered around in the stacks.
“Hey, Erik!” she called from behind one of the shelves. Has she heard him, smelled him? How he missed having the heightened senses of a wolf.
“Hi, Bonnie,” he replied.
She emerged from the stacks and smiled at him, her green eyes twinkling. She wore a long brown skirt and a green sweater that clung to her womanly figure and reminded him, as almost everything did, of his Ainsley.
“I found something,” he told her, looking at the books in his hands instead of ogling her curves.
“Oh, wow, you found them.” she said. “Nice work.”
Erik looked around, even though he knew they were alone. The library was silent except for the ticking of the big wall clock.
“I found something else too,” he told her, as he flipped through the pages of Native American Symbols and Meanings to find the drawings.
“What did you find?” Bonnie asked.
She moved a little too close to him. She smelled like soap and flowers.
Erik held the book open for her mutely, showing her the strange symbols Jake Miller had scrawled in its margins.
“Wow.” She let out an appreciative whistle. “What do you think that’s about?”
Her voice was pitched higher than usual. He figured she must be shocked at Jake’s behavior.
“I was hoping you might know. Have you ever seen anything like this before?” he asked.
She shrugged and shook her head.
Again, Erik had the feeling she was unnerved. But, why?
She bent her head again to study the symbols and he watched the overhead light reflect in the shining waves of her hair.
After a moment, she seemed to sense that he was studying her and she looked up and barked out a short little laugh.
“I’ll do some research, okay Erik?” she asked him, putting her hand on his upper arm lightly.
“Sure, but I want to hang onto the books a while longer,” he said, suddenly suspicious, though he couldn’t say why.
“No problem,” she answered, removed her hand from his arm to pull a cell phone out of the pocket of her skirt.
While he watched, she took a picture of the open page.
“There! Now I can look it up and you can read the book,” she smiled up at him.
The smile went all the way to her emerald green eyes this time, and he suddenly felt silly for worrying about her.
“Is there anyone in the pack who might know what this means? Anyone Jake might have shared this with?” he asked.
“All the high ranking males were in the mine,” Bonnie said, her smile gone.
“Oh,” Erik said, wishing he were a real psychologist. He couldn’t pull his Dr. Phil stuff on Bonnie.
“Wait!” she exclaimed, grabbing his bicep again.
Erik fought the instinct to flex, as he would have done to delight Ainsley, who loved his muscles.
“What is it?”
“There is someone,” Bonnie said. “Teresa Simkins, she’s the oldest member of the pack. Jake was close with her.”
“That’s great. Where is she?” Erik asked.
“She’s got a place by the river,” Bonnie said. “But, Erik, I have to tell you, she’s not all there anymore. Jake worried about her a lot. He tried to get her to live in town, but she insisted on keeping her place — even though she’s half-blind now. He used to visit her every Sunday, to check on her.”
“Do you think he would have said something to her?” Erik asked doubtfully.
“He might,” Bonnie said, biting her lip. “Teresa is... special. And of course she knows more pack history than anyone. On her good days.”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday, I’ll go talk to her then,” Erik said.
He wanted to go now. But they were sending a camera down into the mine today. So he needed to be on hand in case anything went wrong.
He wondered what the Federation would expect him to do if the camera showed wolves in the hole instead of men.
Chapter 3
Before Ainsley could fret over having let Charley slip away, she felt the tug of her pack, rushing to her aid. Her skin prickled at their widening green rays of submission.
Cressida rounded the hedge and came at Ainsley so fast she nearly crashed into her. Javier was hot on her heels.
“What’s going on?” Cressida hissed. She was already pulling off her hoodie to shift.
“Someone needs to get Volker,” Ainsley said, touching Cressida’s arm to stay her.
Cressida’s attention moved to the porch, where Ophelia stood over Garrett’s prone body.
“I’ll get Volker, my alpha,” Javier said quickly.
Ainsley wasn’t sure if he wanted to impress her or to escape Ophelia.
“Thank you, Javier,” she said.
He started to move, then paused.
“Which one is Volker?” he asked.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Cressida rolled her eyes, then turned to Ainsley. “Are you okay?”
Ainsley nodded.
“Come on then, I’ll show you where Volker lives,” Cressida said over her shoulder to Javier.
She had already turned the corner before he caught on and jogged after her.
Ainsley joined Ophelia on the porch to examine Garrett.
He was passed out on the wood floor, his face pale and slack. Ophelia had tied the belt from her leather jacket around his arm in a makeshift tourniquet, but blood was oozing and pulsing from the stump anyway.
“So when were you planning to tell me about this?” Ophelia asked, one eyebrow raised.
The sound of feet pounding down the sidewalk toward the house saved Ainsley from answering. It wasn’t wolves.
“Ainsley!” Grace gasped, rounding the hedge.
Julian was right behind her.
“Charley got away,” Ainsley said grimly.
“The key?” Julian asked.
Ainsley lifted up the lunchbox in reply.
“You found it,” he whispered.
Grace had spotted Garrett and was already hunched over hi
m.
“He’s going to bleed out. Get me a stick,” she said.
“No need,” Julian replied.
He muttered a spell and the wound glowed with a blue flame. The magical fire sizzled and the scent of charred flesh filled the air, but the bleeding stopped.
Garrett moaned softly, but didn’t wake up.
Footsteps announced the arrival of Volker with Cressida and Javier.
“That was fast,” Ainsley said with relief.
“I was already on my way, my alpha,” Volker said in a somewhat offended voice. “You called for me.”
Of course she had. She hadn’t even realized it. She was just so new to this. And that point was being driven home to Ophelia, of course.
“Thank you, Volker,” she said with a chilly smile.
Just because he was right didn’t mean he could speak to her that way. She’d deal with that later.
“He needs to go to a hospital,” Grace said.
Volker had already made his way up the steps and knelt on the front porch, examining the prone warlock.
“He’ll be fine,” he said.
“Really?” Grace asked.
“Well, he won’t play the piano again,” Volker chuckled.
Grace sniffed.
“I can give him something for the pain,” Volker offered.
“No,” Ainsley replied immediately.
Ophelia had been standing in the shadows of the porch watching the scene unfold with pursed lips. But she smiled at Ainsley’s answer and nodded her approval.
Ainsley’s chest filled with a warm glow.
“We need him lucid,” Ainsley explained. “He has some questions to answer.”
She left out the part about wanting to see Garrett suffer after the havoc he had wrought. A tiny voice in her head reminded her that the old Ainsley would have been horrified.
“No, Ainsley, I have to bring him in. I’m sorry, but there’s no way to sweep this under the rug,” Grace said.
“A cell is not going to hold this guy, you’ve seen what he can do,” Ainsley said.
“Ainsley, it would be highly unlikely for this man to work any magic in the condition he’s in,” Julian interjected. “He can’t manage the somatic components.”
