by Alisa Woods
One moment, his hand was holding hers, reassuring and warm; the next, he was bounding across the room in wolf form, snarling and snapping at someone. Arianna stumbled back, stunned and confused.
Then she saw Jak’s target: Mace.
A full-body shiver gripped her. Mace shifted to wolf just as Jak reached him, and they went down together in a bundle of fur-flying and fangs-gnashing. But Mace wasn’t alone. His two betas, Beck and Alric, emerged from the kitchen and immediately shifted to wolf to join the fight. Marco and Kalis surged past her, already shifted, loping across the room to attack, one each going for the two betas. Sarra stood stock still in the middle of it, hands clenched, looking over the melee with shock. Terror seized Arianna’s heart for all of them: Jak was too weak to fight, Kalis was too young, and Sarra carried Mace’s wolf inside her.
Arianna leaped forward to pull Sarra back from the fight, but she shifted before Arianna’s disbelieving eyes. Since when could Sarra shift? Arianna watched as Sarra leaped into the fight, teeth sinking into one of Mace’s betas who had his jaws clamped into Marco’s side.
Arianna stumbled back and whirled on Circe at the threshold of the door. “You need to do something!” she yelled to be heard over the growls and roars of the pitched battle raging in front of them.
The witch pressed her lips together, seeming uncertain.
“Please, just… stop the fighting,” Arianna begged her.
Circe gave her a short nod and strode forward, but just then… someone else emerged from Sarra’s art room. A female, tall and gorgeous. It took a moment, but Arianna realized she had to be a witch. The way Circe stalled out in the middle of the room, she must know who the woman was.
The witch scowled over the brawling wolves. “Circe,” she called out, “I thought you were done with this business.”
“Hecca, what are you doing here?” Circe said, her shoulders tense.
“Cleaning up your mess, apparently.”
“It doesn’t need cleaning.”
The witches’ bickering wasn’t doing anything to stop the fight. Arianna braced herself, undecided whether she should shift and join them or keep trying to get Circe to use her magic to put a stop to it… then one of the wolves broke from the fray and shifted human. He was naked and skinny, and Arianna recognized him in an instant: Mace. He was diving for a pile of clothes off to the side… oh no.
“Circe!” was all she got out before Mace came up with a gun.
It fired.
The shot blasted through the air of the apartment, shocking everyone to stillness, including the fighting wolves. Mace swung his gun around to take aim again. Two blurs of fur leaped into action, surging toward him, trying to stop him.
“Enough!” Hecca’s voice rang out, terrible and strong, like a lightning bolt through the air… then it was followed by some kind of actual lightning pulse. It was a shock spell of some kind, and it brought everyone down, including Arianna.
She found herself on the floor, body twitching, immobile for a long, agonizing moment. She forced her body to roll over and crawled on her belly toward the other wolves, trembling from the after-effects of the spell and searching to see where the bullet had gone. With everyone down, it was hard to tell who was injured and who was just knocked flat by the witch’s shock spell. The others shook it off, slowly rising, except for one wolf who was lying on his side. She recognized his shiny brown coat and flopped ears even before he shifted human in front of her: Kalis.
“Oh God no.” She managed to get to her knees and scrambled across the floor to reach him faster. Blood pumped out of the gaping hole in his side, spilling over his naked body and onto the floor. “Oh, God. Oh, God.” Her hands were shaking, but she pressed hard on his wound to stop the bleeding. He moaned and curled into her, making it harder to keep pressure. The blood was quickly covering her hands, and she could barely see him through the tears welling up in her eyes. She blinked them clear and looked up to see if anyone else was hurt. One by one, the wolves were shifting human again: they were all naked, their clothes left behind on the floor when they shifted the first time. No one else seemed injured. Jak stood face-to-face with Mace. Marco was holding Beck and Alric at bay with Sarra at his back. None of them were done fighting by the looks on their faces.
But the gun was no longer in Mace’s hand—the witch had liberated it from him. It hovered in the air above her waiting hand. She looked at it as if it were a disgusting piece of trash, then twirled her fingers. The gun melted like metallic paint dripping from its place suspended in the air down to a pile of sludge on the floor.
Thank God. At least Mace couldn’t shoot anyone else. Arianna prayed none of his betas were armed. But everyone seemed to be tensely holding their positions, waiting to see what the witches would do next.
“Why are you here, Hecca?” Circe’s voice was tight.
Hecca stepped over the puddle of metal that used to be the gun, sauntering to the center of the room, near her sister. “Your pet has been naughty, Circe. He took something that didn’t belong to him.” She gave Mace a nod. “Our associate from the Red pack said your pet had been injured in the process and had a healer living nearby. I urged him to visit the healer first. I was hoping, dear sister, that you would be, shall we say, finished with your little pet before we found him. I was protecting your back and trying to clean up the mess you’ve made with your little obsession.”
Circe threw a disgusted look at Mace, whose chest was heaving, red in the face, clearly ready to go again with Jak standing in front of him. “Your associate is an asshole. And I’m not in this for the reasons you think. I’m involved because I’m trying to right a wrong, Hecca. Once upon a time, you cared about such things.”
“I care about our business… something you might take a moment to attend to at some point.” Hecca sniffed. “Your little crusade is costing us, sister. What the wolves do with their mates is none of our concern. No matter how many of them you decide to circulate through your bed.”
Circe’s eyes narrowed. “If it’s none of our concern, then why are you involved?”
Hecca threw a disdainful look at Mace. “When a son of the Red pack accuses my sister of helping a rogue wolf steal his mate, well, you forced me to get involved, didn’t you? I thought maybe you were just having your fun and the two things were unrelated.” She gave Arianna a bitter look. “But I see I was wrong.”
“Steal is not the correct word here. Rescue is more accurate. Besides,” Circe said with an arched eyebrow, “she is no longer his mate.”
Mace’s glare jumped from the witches to Arianna, and she felt a shiver run through her… but nothing more. She was truly free of him. He frowned, confusion flitting across his face.
“That’s right, asshole,” Jak said, the growl in his voice full of satisfaction. “You have no claim on her now.”
The rage on Mace’s face reached epic proportions—Arianna thought he might actually have a heart attack, but he merely swung his fury to Hecca. “This is dark magic. Witch magic. Nothing else could break a mating bond like this. You are responsible for this. Undo it. Now.”
Hecca’s voice went ice cold. “Take care, wolf. You presume too much.”
Marco edged in front of Sarra, so he was protecting her from Mace’s line of sight more so than his betas. Arianna knew him well enough to know the red in his cheeks was him being embarrassed. He was naked next to Sarra, and he studiously kept his back turned to her bare form. But he stood ready to protect her with his life. Or at least shield her with his body. Mace would have to go through him to get to her. But that small motion… Arianna prayed Mace wouldn’t notice, but of course, he did. He flicked his gaze to Sarra and narrowed his eyes, examining her. Then he flitted his gaze between Sarra and Arianna.
Finally, he raised a hand and pointed a furious finger at Sarra. “The bond has been… transferred. I don’t know what dark art your witch has done, but this one… she carries the bond now. I can feel it.” He turned back to Hecca. “Jak can keep his tr
ash. I claim this one instead.”
A jolt went through Arianna. Oh no. If somehow Mace got hold of Sarra and truly claimed her, he would find out she had little magic of her own… not enough for shifter pups in any event. And then Arianna could only imagine his rage. He would have no use for her, and he would kill her, for sure.
Arianna couldn’t move—she was still trying to keep Kalis from bleeding out, and her hands were still steeped in his blood—so she threw her words at Mace instead. “You have no right to claim anyone! You’re a sad excuse for an alpha, Mace, and if there were any justice in the world, you would be going to jail for the things you’ve done.”
It felt amazing to say those words to his face, to feel the liberation of knowing he had no hold on her, not anymore… but her words just enraged him even further. He lurched toward Arianna, apparently forgetting that Jak was right in front of him. Jak shoved him back, his claws coming out.
“You’ll have to go through me before you get to either of them,” Jak growled.
Maces fangs came out. “With pleasure.” He lunged for Jak. Arianna’s heart seized up: fear for Jak, fear for Sarra, terror that her baby brother was bleeding out under her hands while her ex-mate tried to rip the throat of the man she loved…
“I said enough.” Hecca’s voice jerked Jak and Mace to a stop.
They shoved each other away and stood glaring at one another.
Jak wiped the blood from his face. Arianna’s body twitched. She couldn’t tell if it was his or Mace’s. Mace glared his hatred for Arianna over Jak’s shoulder. Jak moved to block Mace’s line of sight.
“Walk away from this, Mace,” Jak said with surprising calmness. “It’s over. Arianna’s free of you. And no one here is going to let you claim Sarra. Walk away while you still can.”
Mace looked like he wanted to take a bite out of Jak, but he held back and turned again to Hecca. “I will have a mate out of this.” He was practically spitting the words out. “You promised to make this right!”
“I promised nothing of the sort.” Her voice was cold again.
He shoved past Jak to stalk closer to Hecca, eyes blazing. “What would it take to ruin Morgan Media? A well-placed rumor? The fact that you’ve helped bury more bodies than I’m sure you would like dug up? I can make life as difficult for you as I like, Hecca.”
“You are walking a very thin line, wolf.” Hecca’s voice glittered like ice. “I would take care, if I were you, not to step over it.”
Mace’s face was turning red again. “I want the female.” Each word was underscored with anger.
Hecca glanced at Sarra. Marco had moved again, tucking her behind his back, shielding her from the witch, Mace, and even Mace’s two betas, who were watching everything with sharp-eyed readiness. Jak edged between Mace and Sarra as well. The two of them were a wall of naked, brawny shifter muscle. They looked imposing, even if Arianna knew Jak must still be weak from the spell. Arianna felt completely helpless at her brother’s side, but she prayed for this standoff to end quickly. She needed Sarra to stitch up her baby brother before he lost too much blood.
“It would appear the female does not want you,” Hecca said with a voice filled with boredom. “And I’m tired of your wolfy games, Mace Crittenden. Be gone.”
Mace’s jaw worked. He stood, impotent before the witch for a long moment, and for a flash instant, Arianna thought he might actually attack her. Which was pure suicide. But instead, he growled and turned on his heel, stalking to where his clothes lay in a heap on the floor.
Arianna sighed in relief. She dropped her gaze to Kalis. His face was pale and sweaty. Her heart clenched. She wanted Mace to clear out quickly so Sarra could tend to her brother.
“If I can’t have her…” Mace’s voice was soft and dangerous. “Then no one can.”
Arianna gasped and looked up. Mace had another gun in his hand, but it wasn’t pointed at her. It was pointed at Sarra, straight through Jak and Marco as well.
An explosion rent the air, so loud and forceful that it knocked Arianna backward, flattening her to the floor next to Kalis. Her eardrums ached, and her body shook in response. That wasn’t a gunshot… more like a bomb going off in the apartment.
A fine gray cloud hung in the air, like smoke curling in wisps up to the ceiling.
What in the world?
Arianna squinted in the haze. The only ones still standing were Hecca and Circe. They both had their hands raised toward Mace… only Mace wasn’t there. The gun, Mace, the clothes he had been holding in his hand, that he must have retrieved the gun from—they were all gone. Only the smoke remained. And a small pile of ash on the floor.
Hecca and Circe exchanged an arched-eyebrowed look of surprise, then glanced back to the place where Mace used to be.
“Well,” Circe said with amusement, “that was rather dramatic.”
“We do have a certain flair when we work together, sister.” Hecca had a smirk on her face. She shrugged. “I was tired of working with wolves anyway.”
Everyone else started to stir, recovering from the explosive spell. Marco helped Sarra up from the floor, still keeping his eyes averted from her nakedness. Jak stood slowly, wide-eyed and staring at the spot where Mace had been moments before. Mace’s betas stayed hunkered on the floor, but they had edged closer together, staring at the pile of ash, maybe fearing they were next.
“Well, then, Circe dear,” Hecca said, brushing the dust from her finely tailored suit. “I trust you can handle things from here. I have actual work that needs doing back at the office. Our office, if you recall. Perhaps you’d like to show your face there sometime soon, once you’re done playing with your pets.”
Circe gave her a small smile and hooked her arm in a very friendly fashion around her sister’s. “You know what, sister dear? I think I’ve had my fill of wolf for a little while.”
Arianna stared, mouth-open, as the two witches sauntered out of Sarra’s apartment together. They didn’t even look back.
“How about you clear out, too?” Jak’s words were directed at Alric and Beck. They hastily scooped up their clothes, avoided the small pile of ash that used to be their alpha, and scurried out the door. Once they were past the threshold, they checked their pace. Arianna guessed they didn’t want to catch up to the witches on the way out.
She could hardly believe it. Mace was… dead. Vaporized really. With not a DNA snippet left to prove anything. And with him dead… Arianna scanned the room for Sarra. She was running off to her art studio. Which seemed strange—maybe she was getting some clothes? Jak and Marco were hastily retrieving their pants and pulling them on in her momentary absence. But Sarra returned just a few seconds later, bringing the black bag she had used to stitch up Jak. She was still naked as the day she was born, but she didn’t seem to care. She knelt by Kalis’s side and rolled him over to get a good look at his wound. His eyes went wide, and he struggled, unsuccessfully, to not stare at Sarra’s breasts dangling above him.
“You can stare all you like, kid,” Sarra said with a smirk. “But you’re about to feel a bit of a pinch.”
He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as she probed his bullet wound.
Marco came up behind Sarra and handed her a t-shirt. She took a moment to slip it over her head but ignored the rest of the clothes he brought over as she went quickly to work, stitching up Kalis. Arianna stood, giving her room to work.
Jak was at her side in an instant. “Are you all right?” he asked, taking her hands and wiping them clean of Kalis’s blood with a shirt he found lying on the floor. It was probably his.
Arianna managed a small smile. “I am now.” She looked to the ash pile again. It made her shiver, and Jak pulled her into his arms.
He murmured into her hair. “He’s never going to hurt you, or anyone, ever again.”
Arianna nodded and huddled close to him, needing the comfort of his arms to tell her that all of this was real. When Sarra was finished stitching her brother, Arianna finally forced herself to
pull away.
“Is he going to be all right?” Arianna asked.
Sarra stood, still naked from the waist down, but covered in so much of Kalis’s blood that you could hardly tell. “He’s going to be fine. Let’s get him to the bed, though. I’d like to see him rest for a few hours before you try to transport him.” She left unspoken where they might go or what they might do from here.
And, honestly, Arianna had no idea. All she knew was that she, and everyone she loved, was finally, truly safe. unoccupied either.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The longer they drove, the more nervous Jak got.
They’d left North Bend behind over an hour ago, taking Sarra’s Jeep through the mountains on I-90. Now they were on the Eastern side of the slopes, with the sun starting to sink over the mountaintops and bringing an early dusk. Sarra was driving, and Marco was in the passenger seat, stealing looks at her, while Jak and Arianna snuggled in the back seat. Kalis was still recovering—he had slept for most of the ride, leaned against the window, snoring.
Marco was pointing out the sights… which consisted mostly of mountain peaks and the occasional deer. They were definitely in the country now, heading toward Arianna’s family ranch, and Jak’s one chance to make a good impression on her mother. Arianna nestled against him, her hands still touching him at every opportunity. He was doing the same. Her brothers didn’t seem to mind, and Jak was still recharging from the spell that had nearly killed him just this morning… although it seemed like a lifetime ago. But every moment with Arianna by his side, he could feel the magic inside him growing stronger. Sarra had said it was his own magic, regenerating, coming back basically from the dead. Arianna’s magic was bolstering him as he healed—that was why every touch from her felt like a new surge of energy—but soon his magic would be back to full strength again. Then he would have the magic of both of them inside him, and that made his heart soar. But every moment his wolf healed inside him, it insisted more strongly that he needed to claim Arianna for his own. Now that it was possible, Jak could hardly stand the moments between now and making that happen.