Austin’s eyes heated as I stepped closer to him and I knew he had picked up on my dirty thoughts. Emily cleared her throat nervously, and I suddenly remember why I was really here. “Uh, Austin,” I said as I tried to pull my mind out of the gutter. “Emily and I wanted to share our thoughts on what we should do when Justin gets here.”
I quickly explained my plan as Austin listened closely. After I had finished, he looked thoughtful and tapped his fingers absentmindedly on his desk. “That’s a good idea, Anna.”
Suddenly, my entire body hummed with the threat of imminent danger. I exchanged a look with Austin. That was our early warning system - Justin must have just crossed over the border.
I stood up, already knowing that Justin wouldn’t be able to cross over the threshold of the house, we were going to have to meet him outside. Austin’s thoughts were closed off to me and his body was tense. I wasn’t surprised that Justin turned out to be a bad guy, but it was different for Austin. He had grown up with Justin as his brother, and it must be tough to realize that the man who should be your closest ally was actually an enemy.
We made our way outside to the front of the house to wait. Justin should be here in just a few minutes, and I wanted to be ready to face him. I glanced over at Austin, but I knew that sympathy wasn’t what he needed at this moment. Austin needed to see that he had all the family that he would ever need right here. I sent him my love and my strength through our bond. He flashed me a smile but stood tall and strong. He wasn’t the type of man who would ever allow anyone else to see his doubts or his weakness. No matter what, he would always place himself in between an enemy and his pack.
I could feel James and the twins prowling around us in their wolf forms, they were staying out of sight but preparing for an attack. Cody stayed close to Austin, and I smiled. If Justin thought he was going to come on our territory to start a fight, he had better be prepared to lose.
A black SUV pulled up in front of us and Justin exploded from within, slamming the door behind him. He stalked angrily to where we were standing and reached for Emily. Austin held up a cautionary hand before Justin could even touch her. “Calm down brother,” Austin said smoothly. “We need to talk first.”
Justin snarled. “Talk about what? You have one of my females. You had better believe that the council will be hearing about this.”
“They’re already well aware of the situation,” Austin told him confidently.
Justin looked at him suspiciously. “You think that they’ll take your side? You might be on top now, but your time is coming,” he threatened.
Austin raised an eyebrow. “You know that our laws allow for a female to seek sanctuary with the council if she feels threatened.”
Justin looked like he was about to explode. “You’re just keeping my seat warm, temporarily sitting in that chair does not make you part of the council.” Justin’s eyes flicked towards me. “And you’re gonna lose a lot more than just that council seat.”
A low growl vibrated from Austin. “You think you can come on my territory and threaten my female? When all I’ve done is give sanctuary to one of your runaway wolves?”
I could feel a lot of power emanating from Austin. He usually had such tight control that most people never knew what lay beneath his friendly exterior. Justin must’ve felt it as well because he flinched back in surprise. Seeing both of the pack masters standing across from one another let me see the differences between the two. Justin brazenly advertised the power that he had to intimidate others. Whereas Austin kept his hidden, to make others more comfortable around him and only brought it out when he needed it.
“You’ve grown, brother,” Justin sneered. He cocked his head and looked over at me in consideration. “I wonder why,” he murmured.
Justin’s eyes glazed over as if he was communicating with someone else, but I didn’t see a similar look on anyone else’s face. Who was he talking to?
Justin took a step closer to me, but Austin moved to block Justin’s view of me completely. But I wasn’t going to stand by and let anyone else fight my battles for me, so I walked around him to face Justin directly. I reached out with my magic, and what I found surprised me. There was something about Justin that sparked a memory inside of me. When I searched deeper in him, I realized what it was, and my heart skipped a beat. He had a darkness inside of him that was reminiscent of Drake.
When Drake had used his magic on Cody’s mind, it had been with an intricately made web of many individual strands of magic. This felt different, it felt like the darkness was actually a part of Justin. A chill ran down my spine. I didn’t know what this was, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Emily,” Justin called to the girl standing behind us. “Sariah’s worried about you, you left without saying goodbye to her.”
I turned to see Emily’s face pale, and she took a step forward.
“No,” I said urgently. “It’s not safe.”
“Anna,” Austin said gently through our bond. “Justin might come off as an arrogant ass, but he won’t actually hurt Emily.”
“You’re wrong,” I insisted. “I can feel something inside of Justin, something dark and fae.”
Austin acknowledged what I had said and intensified his scrutiny of Justin.
“Justin,” Austin called to his brother. “Do you remember the eagle’s nest?”
Justin scowled, but his eyes softened. “Hawks,” he corrected Austin. “They were hawks.”
The two brothers stared at each other, and the rest of us watched in silence. Austin hadn’t spoken much to me about his childhood or his brother, and I had been hesitant to bring it up, knowing that his father was still a sore subject. We had recently found evidence that Mr. Zilker had orchestrated several attacks against our pack. He had disappeared before Austin could confront him, and we still had no explanation for the motivation behind Mr. Zilker’s actions. Reagan, Austin’s mother, had left the Zilker pack out of shame and gone back to her father’s pack. Justin had stayed and picked up the mantle of pack master, but he had been disappointed when Austin had been invited to sit on the council instead of himself. Well, disappointed was a mild term. It would be more accurate to say enraged.
Emily stepped around me, but I grabbed her hand before she was entirely past me. “Emily, wait.”
She yanked her hand away, and her eyes burned with anger and an edge of desperation. “You can’t stop me from leaving.”
“You came here for a reason,” I desperately reminded her. I couldn’t force her to stay if she didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stand by and say nothing while she walked back into a dangerous situation.
Her eyes grew shiny with unshed tears. “I was wrong, I belong back with my pack.”
I gritted my teeth, wishing I could shake some sense into her. Justin must have used their pack bond to threaten her or a family member. There was no way Emily would have gone through the trouble of escaping if she hadn’t been desperate.
“She’ll be fine for tonight,” Austin assured me. “I’ll call Reagan and have her check on the females tomorrow. Justin has always had a soft spot for our mother.”
“I’m not sure that’s really your brother,” I told him cautiously. I had zero trust when it came to the fae, and even though I had spent time among them, I still wasn’t sure just how much they could do with their magic. Talen had been teaching me things that young fae learned at the same time they learned reading and writing. It was an understatement to say I was behind.
Emily avoided the hand I stretched out to stop her, and I was only seconds away from using my magic when Austin sent a warning through the bond.
“We’re not ready for him to know what you are,” he cautioned me. “Stand down.”
I knew Austin was just being cautious and trying to protect me, but after everything that happened with Gemma, I wasn’t ready to just let this go. Emily reminded me too much of myself when I was younger. I had gone back to my uncle’s house every night thinking that I didn’t have any other
option. He had beaten me down and robbed me of my self-confidence so much that a part of me had thought that I deserved to be treated like that. I had made it out and escaped from a vicious cycle, but I couldn’t stand by and watch it happen to someone else now that I had the power to do something about it.
I lunged forward and grabbed onto Justin’s hand. His eyes widened in surprise for a moment, and then I felt his darkness reaching out for me. I quickly put up a barrier to protect myself, but darkness dissolved into a fine mist and started to seep through.
Find the dark inside of her.
Tear away the light.
Let go of everything and join us.
Disjointed whispers floated through my mind, and I tried to break free of them, but they only grew stronger. I could feel the hopelessness I had experienced in my childhood trying to drag me back down into the black pit of despair. I struggled against the pull with everything I had inside of me, but I could feel my magical reserves quickly draining. I couldn’t keep this up for long, but I was afraid to open myself up to the ambient magic around me, unsure if that would leave me even more vulnerable.
Give in to your desires.
Embrace the dark.
“What are you?” Justin gripped my face as he spoke, only the voice that echoed through my mind wasn’t his - it was sultry and female.
“I’m a white wolf,” I snapped back with gritted teeth. “And if you don’t know what that is, then you need to look a little closer at our history.”
I heard a female laugh before my body froze at the pain of having my memories yanked out of my head. This felt worse than anything Drake had ever done to me, it felt like darkness was seeping into the very fabric of my mind, tainting everything I held dear. All of the painful emotions I had experienced during the most horrible moments of my life bombarded me and I struggled to fight them off. But I was surrounded by darkness and despair on every side, unable to escape. The worst part of it was the emptiness and longing for everything to just end. I wanted to give into the cold darkness – almost like it was luring me to jump to my death with the sweet promise of nothingness.
When the foreign presence finally retracted from my mind, my entire body shook with cold. I blinked, and the world around me came into focus again. Austin had taken a step forward and was threatening Justin for putting his hand on me. That’s when I realized that what had seemed like an eternity for me had only been a quarter of a second to everyone else.
“Austin,” I croaked out. “I need you.” I felt frozen all the way to the inside of my bones, and my mind felt like it had been raked over by rusty nails. Austin was close enough to me that I could feel the warm glow of his magic, but I needed him closer. I needed to breathe in his warmth to ease the intense pain of the cold. Whatever was inside Justin had tried to take hold in me and it had cost me a lot to stay in control and fight it off.
Austin rushed over to me as I fell to my knees. I could feel the warmth from his hands, but it was going to take much more than that for me to thaw out. My jaw chattered as I struggled to speak. “Justin…fae.”
Austin gritted his teeth and looked into my desperate eyes. I could see him struggle with the decision before he shouted out his orders. “Let them go!”
My eyes widened in horror, but I could see an apology on his face. “You come first,” he murmured to me. “You will always come first.” I felt a surge of power leave his body and hit the rest of our pack mates. It was rare that Austin ever used his power as our pack master to force anyone to obey him, so he must have been desperate.
Cody let go of the arm of Justin’s driver, and the twins backed off from where they had been circling Justin and growling.
“James!” Austin shouted. “Back off.”
But the large black wolf kept advancing towards Justin, a low growl emanating from him. If James had seen me fall to the ground, then there was no way he was going to back down from this fight. James didn’t let things go, and he certainly wouldn’t just walk away if he thought Justin had harmed me.
Cody picked my shivering body up in his arms. “I have her,” he assured Austin. “Get James.”
I struggled to keep my eyes open but found myself sinking into Cody’s warmth. I fought against it as hard as I could but slowly felt myself falling into unconsciousness.
Chapter 2
Justin
“Where are we?” the troublesome little bitch asked nervously.
“Get out of the car, Emily,” I answered with a semblance of calm that I didn’t feel deep inside.
Make her see how powerful you are.
Have her bow down before you.
Force her to beg for your forgiveness.
Take what it is you need from her.
I rolled my shoulders back after stepping out of the vehicle. Emily would soon learn that I wasn’t someone to be crossed. The days of our pack being led by a benevolent weakling were over. It was time that these wolves learned to respect those above them.
Emily cautiously climbed out of the car and stood in front of the ramshackle house that was hidden within the heart of my territory. A slight breeze caused her skirt to flutter and I thought about what a shame it was that she had turned out to be weak and useless. I had wanted so much from her, but her fate was sealed the moment she ran to my brother.
One of my men opened the front door to the house and waited for her with crossed arms. “I need you to go inside,” I told her with faux patience. “I’ve invited a guest to make sure you’re unharmed after your ordeal in Seaside.”
Emily looked up at me sharply, but didn’t argue, so she still had some sense in her head. The wooden steps creaked as she slowly walked up to the front door and John grabbed her arm roughly to pull her inside. I whistled a happy tune as I strode behind them.
“Chain her downstairs with the other one,” I ordered.
Kill her.
Rip your teeth into her throat.
Feel her hot blood as it sprays over you.
I laughed to myself, I had more self-control than that. Merely killing her wouldn’t help me reach my goals. This world was beyond fucked up and needed someone to set it to rights, and Emily had just unwittingly volunteered to help. My brother might suspect something, but he was too small-minded to even be able to comprehend what I had planned. I inhaled a sharp breath at the thought of his blonde-haired mate. I had thought her just a trophy to bring status to their rag-tag pack of losers, but the immense power I had sensed inside of her was intoxicating. I had wanted to crush her, but the darkness inside of me had withdrawn after only a small taste.
I closed my eyes so that I could immerse myself in the vision of what was still to come. There was a vast source of power that lay just beyond my grasp that I was going to use to remake the world into what it should be. My father hadn’t spilled the location, but the whispers inside of me grew stronger every day. A satisfied smile stretched over my face when I remembered just how beautiful his death scream had been. Soon, I would be ready to go in search of my destiny.
Jade would be here in a few hours to work on the prisoner we already held below, but I’m sure she wouldn’t object to a second victim tonight, not as long as I promised to share. But for now, I had work to do. I needed to spread the word among the other downtrodden wolves that our time was coming. I needed to give them hope that humans were about to fall so that we could take our rightful place at the top of the food chain.
Chapter 3
Anna
I shivered before I opened my eyes. I was surrounded by warmth, but I could still feel the cold deep down in the center of my bones. I didn’t even have to open my eyes to identify the two men I was wedged in between. I would know their scents, the touch of their skin, and the feel of their power anywhere. “Mason,” I groaned as I cracked an eye open. “Jason, what happened?”
I felt Mason’s breath in my hair. “You passed out, but you were so cold that your entire body was shaking. It seemed to help when Cody stripped you down and held you close to him
, so when he and Caleb got too cold to help you, we took their place.”
“James? Austin?” It seemed like a struggle to even get one word out at a time.
I could feel the twins exchange a glance over my head. “They’re…busy,” Jason said evasively. I opened both of my eyes completely so I could stare at him and Jason looked uncomfortable. “James is feral,” he said reluctantly. “Austin’s the only one who can deal with him right now.”
“What the fuck?” I tried to sit up, but Mason held me down easily.
“He didn’t take it well when Austin pulled him off Justin before he could do any serious damage,” Mason explained with a grimace. “Tony ended up shooting him with a tranq dart so we could get him contained.”
“I’d hate to be Tony for the next couple months,” Jason mumbled.
I gave up on trying to break free of them and ran my hand up Mason’s muscular chest instead. It had been a while since I’d been in bed with the twins and I missed them, especially since we were going through a rough patch.
Mason inhaled a sharp breath as I snaked my arm around his neck and pressed myself to him. “Anna…” he warned. “We can’t do this right now.”
“I know,” I mumbled into his chest. “I’m still pissed at you guys for avoiding me. You’ve been worse than James the past few weeks.”
Mason flinched underneath me and I felt Jason tense. I might have been recovering from an awful attack, but my hormones had surged into action and my blood was pounding through my veins. “I’m suddenly feeling a lot warmer,” I told him seriously.
Jason chuckled and ran his hand over my back. “You’re so beautiful. I wish I-”
The slam of the bedroom door crashing open interrupted his words. “Anna, you’re up,” Cody said worriedly.
This time, instead of fighting me, Mason helped me to sit up. “What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly. Cody didn’t look so good, he was tired, pale, and his shoulders were hunched over as if he was exhausted.
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