I closed my eyes and drifted in the gentle sea of bliss as we lay together, our magic still intertwined.
I was half asleep when it happened. I purred like a fucking kitten. His body stilled, and even his breath stopped for a moment. “Was that-”
I sat up abruptly. “No, it was definitely not,” I said defensively.
To his credit, Trevor tried to hide his smile. I scowled but let him pull me back up against him. His hand stroked my side, and the feel of it was comforting. It made me feel safe and…loved?
“We should probably check on the other guys,” I said softly.
His kisses were gentle and in stark contrast to our frantic mating only minutes before. “Five minutes,” he murmured.
I relaxed into his warmth and just enjoyed the feel of him. In this moment, I could see a future with us together. But I knew this feeling would fade, and I would get bitch slapped back into reality. Life wasn’t full of true love and happy endings.
My mother had told me that my father had been her one true mate – her other half that she was fated to be with. She had thought that the two of them would be together for the length of their long lives. I had seen the adoration in his eyes every time he looked at her, so I knew he felt the same. But there wasn’t a happy ending for them. Their deaths had come fast and brutal and left me alone. I had lost everything that night when I was cast out into a cold world and realized that the happy bubble that I had spent my childhood in wasn’t real. I couldn’t make the same mistake again. I wouldn’t survive another loss like that – it had almost destroyed me the first time.
Chapter 19
The next morning, I regretted all the alcohol that I had consumed during the party. My only consolation was that I wasn’t the only one. Trevor had dark circles under his eyes, and his gaze wasn’t as sharp as usual.
“Ugh,” I said with a groan. “I have the worst headache.”
Trevor threw a bottle of Gatorade in my direction, and it hit me in the shoulder before falling to the floor and rolling under the table. I glared at him for a few heartbeats before I chased it down.
“The fun’s over,” Trevor told me heartlessly. “You should have hydrated while you were drinking last night.”
I took Davis’s aviator sunglasses from where he had left them unguarded on the kitchen counter and slid them on my face. “I thought we would be getting a break from training, you know, since it’s Christmas.”
Trevor scowled at me. “You had a break last night at the Christmas party.”
“Sam’s right,” Rich added as he came in the room, his bloodshot eyes on his phone as usual.
I took the opportunity to gulp down some of the Gatorade. Shifter healing meant that my hangover wouldn’t last long, but it still sucked.
The sound of a heavy box hitting the table with a thunk got my attention. “That’s a shame you aren’t training with us today, Sam,” Trevor said with a shake of his head as he opened the box to reveal a new rifle.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him but couldn’t help drifting closer to see what he was doing. He put a second box on the table and took out a new scope that looked just like the one Davis had on his rifle. Mike came into the room to add a third box to the table. “You might wanna open this one yourself,” he said with a grin.
“No way,” I said in disbelief, excitement bubbling up inside of me. “No fucking way.” “Way,” Quinn said with a laugh as he leaned on the door to the kitchen.
My covetous hands reached out to pick up the shiny new NVGs with their advanced technology that I soooo craved. “I thought the deal was that I could get them when I signed on the dotted line.”
Trevor snorted. “Let’s not pretend you aren’t staying.”
Davis put his hand on the small of my back as he stood beside me. “You don’t have to say it out loud,” he teased me. “Just pick up your new toys so we can head to the range.”
“I got new explosives for Christmas,” Rich said with a glint in his eyes. “I can rig the model airplanes to explode in a huge blaze of fire when we hit them.”
“Dammit,” I said as a wide smile stretched across my face. “You guys are just too good at knowing how to get a girl all hot and bothered.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Davis murmured into my ear before he gave it a nip.
I aimed a sharp elbow into his ribs, but he laughed and stepped away before I made contact.
A knock on the door interrupted our fun and games, and I tensed before recognizing the familiar magic of one of Seaside’s wolves. It wasn’t unusual for various pack mates to stop by the house to see Trevor or the other guys. But today it was a little surprising because I expected the majority of the pack to spend their day off recovering from last night.
“Hey,” Blaze said as he walked in to give Mike a first bump before leaning against the counter. Blaze was one of the Seaside Wolves who had been stationed overseas in the Middle East before Austin made the decision to bring them all home. He had been the leader of the teams while they were over there and still wore the mantle of authority. I could sense some tension between him and Trevor, and I wondered if it was because they were so close in power that it was a hierarchy thing.
“What brings you to our humble abode on this lovely Christmas morning?” Davis asked with a grin.
Mike held up a hand. “You overheard us talking about blowing shit up, didn’t you?”
Blaze gave a light laugh, but his eyes scanned all of us before resting on me. “You know
I’m always up for a good time, but I just came here to talk today.”
Trevor stood and angled his body to make it clear he was positioning himself between me and Blaze. I really wanted to roll my eyes at the blatant show of testosterone, but I held it in because I knew how significant dominance games were to wolves. Neither Trevor nor Blaze would be able to relax until they knew who the top wolf was.
Blaze got the message, because his gaze shifted to Trevor. “A lot has changed since I’ve been gone. We now have a white wolf and a guest panther, fae attacking the pack, and apparently sometimes have fae living among us.”
Trevor kept his face expressionless. “Yes.”
I saw a flash of annoyance on Blaze’s face and wanted to chuckle. That apparently wasn’t the answer he had been hoping to get.
“Talen was cool, sometimes,” Mike told him. “He was a badass with the sword, and he was giving us all lessons.”
Blaze shrugged. “But why? The sword is a thing of the past. It’s something fae that doesn’t belong in this world.”
“If there’s a weapon out there that’s useful to me,” Davis interrupted. “I want to know how to use it.”
The other guys nodded in agreement. “And we’ve all been in situations where technology doesn’t work the way it should,” I added.
“And we have Anna to defend us against the fae,” Quinn spoke up from the corner of the room.
Blaze’s mouth twisted down. “Defend us? Or make us a target? We still don’t have an explanation from leadership as to how Blendel died.”
Trevor shook his head and took a step closer to Blaze. “You haven’t been back long. Give yourself some time to get to know Anna, and you’ll see that she is exactly what this pack needed. Blendel’s death is terrible, but you know things like that happen in our world. James is looking into it, and you know he doesn’t back down from anything.”
Blaze frowned, but after Trevor held his gaze for another moment, he stood up from where he had been leaning. “I just stopped by to say Merry Christmas, and let you know that a bunch of the guys are heading to the Tavern tonight if you want to stop by.”
No one spoke as we waited to see Trevor’s reaction. Would he let this go?
Trevor reached out his hand to grasp Blaze’s in a friendly shake. “We’ll be at the range this evening so Sam can adjust to her new scope setup, but we might stop by later.”
Blaze flashed a smile at us, and we all murmured goodbyes as Trevor walked him to the
door. The room stayed silent until we heard the growl of his engine fade down the street.
I raised my hand. “Did anyone else think that was super weird?”
Mike rolled his shoulders. “Yeah, he’s trying to stir shit up.”
Davis nodded. “He was feeling us out to see if we would jump on the ‘I hate Anna and the fae’ train.”
“Is anyone else really worried about this?” I asked with a frown. “Austin is the best pack master I’d ever seen, and you guys aren’t that bad for wolves, either.”
Quinn rolled his eyes. “High praise, Sammy. But I get what you’re saying.”
“Our job is to protect the pack,” Trevor said with a worried look in his eye. “We defend against threats from within as well as from the outside.”
“It’s not that easy when the threat is one of your buddies,” I said quietly.
“No, it’s not,” Mike agreed.
“Sorry, Sam,” Trevor grumbled.
I read between the lines. “No range today, huh? We’re going to head to the pack house and make battle plans with Anna and her fabulous six.”
Quinn cleared his throat. “I object to straight wolves being given the title of ‘fabulous.’ I need at least one thing that’s just mine.”
I laughed and clapped him on the back. “You have the title of the best sharpshooter in the pack.”
Instead of laughing along with me like I had expected, Quinn frowned. “There’s more to me than that.”
“Yeah, dude,” Mike said. “You also have the title of worst cook.”
“Nah,” Quinn drawled. “I passed that title onto Sammy the second she tried to bake a lasagna. Even using Anna’s recipe didn’t help.” He had a smile on his face, but I could still see tightness around his eyes.
Davis laughed out loud. “Ha! We had to throw away the pan because we couldn’t get that blackened hunk out with a utility knife.”
“Laugh it up,” I said with mock offense. “I’ll remember that next time Anna asks if I want to bring home an extra pan of brownies for you assholes.”
“As long as you didn’t have any part in baking them,” Rich laughed.
I let myself be the butt of the joke because we all really needed a laugh right now. I had found a lot of good in Seaside, but it looked like the bumpy ride wasn’t going to even out anytime soon. Not as long as we had an unsolved murder, discord in the pack, and enemies circling around our territory.
Chapter 20
“Sam!” Anna’s voice called to me from afar. I looked over at the house to see her leaning out of a second-story window and waving at me with her signature smile looking a little less bright than usual.
“Coming!” I shouted back at her.
Austin had added extra patrols around the pack house, and I had opted to tag along since it was Davis and Rich on duty tonight. I loved teasing them while they were in their wolf forms and I was a panther. I especially loved dropping out of trees and scaring the shit out of them. They were catching onto my tricks, so I constantly had to challenge myself to get those looks on their wolf faces.
I jogged up the stairs to Anna’s room to see what was going on. The guys had been whispering whenever they thought I was out of hearing range, but I was aware that there had been another murder. The pack was really on edge now that it looked like Blendel’s death had been an attack on our pack specifically.
“Hey, girl,” I called as I walked in her room.
Anna greeted me with a smile. “I have Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream and an extra spoon. Come sit.”
I enthusiastically took the spoon she offered and dove in. Chocolate ice cream, marshmallow, caramel, and fish-shaped chocolate was a sugary heaven that I was happy to lose myself in.
“Oh, yum,” I said after my first bite. “Should I be worried right now? Phish Food usually only comes out for desperate times.”
Anna slouched. “I don’t know how much the guys have told you…” “Nothing,” I said, trying not to sound frustrated or bitter.
Anna gave me a small smile. “That’s not personal. You know that op-sec is ingrained in the very fiber of their being. They also want to keep you safe and happy.”
I rolled my eyes. “I need them to respect me as a badass warrior and a valuable member of the team. I’m not some damsel in distress that needs to be kept hidden away in a castle somewhere.”
Anna laughed. “No one would ever get that confused about you.” “They better not,” I grumbled.
“I’m using my executive power as top female in the pack to fill you in on what’s been going on around here.”
“That’s right,” I said with a grin. “Use those executive powers.”
Anna rolled her eyes at me. “Be nice, or I’ll take the ice cream back.”
I pulled it closer to my body and hunched over it. “You can try.”
Anna laughed and got comfortable with one of the pillows from the excessive pile on her bed. “You were a part of the team that went north a while back, so you remember Ingrid?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Well,” Anna said with a sigh. “My aunt is here in town.”
“I know,” I said before taking another bite of deliciousness. I had sensed her the moment that I stepped foot on pack grounds. She wasn’t as powerful as Anna, but her magic signature stood out from the other wolves around us.
“She’s here to help us because we think she might have some expertise on the deaths that have occurred among our pack members.”
I raised an eyebrow in interest to encourage her to continue.
“Ingrid told me that you were able to feel the darkness that infected her pack,” Anna said without taking her eyes off mine. “We think Justin was infected by the same thing, and James has also been attacked.”
“Is James-”
“He’s fine,” Anna interrupted to reassure me. “I cleansed the darkness from him, and we’ve strengthened our mate bonds, which should help protect him from future attacks.”
Damn, Anna was even more powerful that I thought. She had also come a long way from the wolf I first met in the hospital who had no idea she was a magical powerhouse.
“I want to explain what we think the darkness is.” Anna handed a journal over to me. “My mother had left these for me in the heritor box. The authors talk about my duty as a guardian to protect the world from dark fae that were banished to a prison in the North.”
My jaw dropped. “Dark fae?”
Anna gave me a sad nod. “We think that the binds on the prison are weakening and allowing them to influence people in this world so that they can feed off the power generated by hate and manipulate people to let them out into the world.”
“And you think that’s Justin’s goal?” I asked with a frown. “Why is he murdering pack members? Why not just go to the prison and let them out?”
Anna shrugged. “Maybe because he’s not powerful enough yet? I think he’s draining the magic out of other wolves to boost his own. Blendel might not have been his first victim because several other wolves from within Justin’s pack have gone missing as well.”
“Well, shit,” I said. “How do we take this asshole out?”
Anna smiled at me. “We’re going to the council tomorrow to ask them to intervene with
Justin.”
I frowned. “Why even give him that chance? If he’s murdered people, drained their magic, and is crazy enough to let a bunch of dark fae out into the world, then shouldn’t he just get a bullet in the skull from a sniper?”
“He’s Austin’s brother,” Anna said stubbornly. “And we’re going to do this the right way.”
“Sometimes you’re too sweet for your own good,” I warned her. “You’re giving him the opportunity to retaliate against you and to bring you down into his pile of shit.”
Anna stabbed her spoon into the ice cream I was holding. “I’m not sweet enough to let you have the rest of this. And if we just murder him under the cover of darkness, how does that make us any b
etter than him? Our packs will just go to war, each continually avenging deaths that the other side caused. His crimes need to be brought to light. They should be handled in a public manner to put an end to all of this.”
“I guess I can see your point,” I said reluctantly. “But I still don’t like it.”
Anna played with her spoon absentmindedly. “Me neither, but I really do think it’s the best option we have right now.”
“But if this doesn’t work?” I pressured her. “You realize that we might have to take more drastic steps?”
Anna nodded, but I could see the pain in her eyes. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my guys, the pack, and the rest of the world safe from Justin and the dark fae. But I want coldblooded murder to be our last option.”
I considered Anna to be a close friend, but it was times like this that I could see how our moral compasses differed. I’d been to war, and I’d seen how taking out an enemy with a sniper could save a lot of lives. I understood Anna’s side of the argument, and I’d have to trust that she and Austin were working within a bigger picture than the small window I was looking through. Let’s hope this worked out the way they wanted it to.
Chapter 21
Nothing worked out the way Anna and Austin had planned.
“Anna’s gone,” Davis told me as he ran around the house, packing shit up. “Get your gear together, because we’re going after them.”
A sharp pang of regret hit me hard. “I should have followed them to the fucking council meeting and put a bullet in Justin’s head before he even stepped into the building. Fuck long term plans.”
“Austin did the honorable thing,” Trevor growled at me.
“I have to side with Sammy on this,” Quinn said as he dropped a heavy bag of weapons on the living room floor. “Anna’s gone. Again,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “Lucky for us,”
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