The conversation playing out upstairs was music to Ivy’s ears. Although, she thought for sure Cade would be with the rescue party.
“Cade. Are you here with Elias?” she asked Cade through the mating connection.
“I’m here, but not in the house. Elias wanted me and Ezra to stay back. He was worried we might do more harm than good. Just relax, princess. He’ll have you out of there in no time flat.”
“But how will he find me if there is a cloaking spell on me?” Ivy asked, worried the Alpha’s search through the house would have the same result as it had for Cade and Ezra. They hadn’t been able to find her, and she was still stuck with the damn silver collar locked around her neck.
“Felicity gave Elias a talisman that will reveal what has been hidden.”
“Thank God!”
Her dad’s voice pulled Ivy from the telepathic conversation with Cade.
“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joseph argued, not wanting to let Elias and his men in the door.
“Barnette, take him into custody until we’re finished searching the house.” Elias pushed his way past Joseph and entered the house.
“I demand to know what this is about!” Joseph yelled.
“I’m not going to ask again. Where is Ivy?”
“Elias, I don’t know what this is about. Ivy isn’t here. She stopped by earlier, then left,” Joseph tried to explain.
“Is that so?” Elias asked.
“Yes.” Joseph was adamant he was telling the truth. Even Ivy could tell he was lying. Did her father really hope to fool the Alpha? The man had a built-in lie detector. Everyone in the pack knew that.
“Care to explain why her mate said you and your wife were holding her here against her will? That you planned to sell her off to Jonas Markson to cover a bad business deal you’d made with him?”
“Sorry to have to do this, but you know the law,” Barnette said as he pulled on a pair of heavy-duty gloves and opened a black leather bag.
“No. I won’t stand here and let you accuse me of this utter ridiculousness.” Magic started to swirl around Joseph as he tried to unleash his wolf.
“We’ll have none of that,” Elias said, grabbing him by the neck and preventing his shift.
Barnette slapped silver shackles on Joseph and backed away.
“You stay here with him. The rest of us will look for Ivy.”
* * *
“You keep your fucking mouth shut and don’t even think about saying so much as one damn word.” Madeline pointed a gun in Ivy’s direction. “You will not mess this up for us.”
Ivy glanced at her mother, undisturbed by her latest round of threats. Footfalls sounded on the stairs. They were headed right for her. Cade must have told them where to find her.
Madeline slid the gun between the cushions of the couch where she sat, before she stood to greet Elias and his men.
“Elias, I had no idea you were here. What brings you by this evening?”
Ivy was amazed how calm Madeline was under the circumstances. She acted as if she didn’t have someone chained up in the basement.
“Cut the shit, Madeline. I know what’s going on. Felicity gave me this to break Georgia’s spell.” Elias pulled a small stone from his pocket and tossed it to the floor. A quick tap of his foot and the stone turned to dust.
“What is that?” Madeline asked, her eyes widening at the action.
“Ivy, give us a minute to deal with your mom and we’ll get you out of that collar.”
“What are you—?” Madeline started to say as Barnette approached her with silver shackles.
“She hid a gun in the couch cushions,” Ivy alerted Elias, who moved to block Madeline from retrieving the weapon.
“You don’t understand what he’ll do to us if we break our deal. We have to hand Ivy over to him. It’s the only way,” Madeline sobbed as the silver scorched her wrists.
“You would sell your only daughter out to a monster? Woman, have you gone mad?”
There was no denying the anger in the Alpha’s voice. Ivy had never heard him so worked up.
“She’s not my mother,” Ivy said, wincing as Barnette removed the collar from around her neck.
“What?” Elias asked.
“Madeline was nice enough to inform me all about it. Apparently, my real mother is some, and I quote, ‘some dollar store whore my father had an affair with’.”
“Jesus Christ! Is that the truth, Madeline?”
“Yes.”
At least she had the decency to hang her head in shame when she had admitted the truth.
“Are you okay, Ivy? Do you need to see a doctor?” Elias asked.
“I’ll be fine. I just need to get out of here.” Ivy pushed herself to a standing position, feeling better already. Her strength would return now that the silver had been removed.
If she never stepped another foot inside of this house, it would be perfectly fine with her. If she never laid eyes on Madeline again…
Even. Fucking. Better.
18
“Do you feel that?” Cade asked Ezra.
“Yeah, I do. What the fuck is that?”
Cade’s hackles rose. “I have no idea, but whatever it is, I don’t like it.” His wolf worked overtime sniffing the air around them, trying to figure out what the threat was, but kept coming up empty. Wickedness was closing in on the house below and there was little he could do to stop it.
The door to the house flew open. Elias emerged holding Joseph by the neck. Barnette followed close behind, with Madeline cowering behind the Alpha. Both were shackled in silver, taking away their ability to shift into their wolf forms.
Ivy was the last to walk out of the house. She looked no worse for wear, even with a fresh round of tears trickling down her face.
“Thank God!” Cade breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his mate.
“Barnette, take these two to the holding cells. I’ll see that Ivy finds her way back to her mate,” Elias commanded.
“Elias, old friend. That won’t be necessary. I asked her parents to hold on to her for me.” Jonas stepped out into the clearing.
Dread washed over Cade at the sight of Jonas. The Alpha’s greasy black hair hung down his back in what appeared to be matted clumps. A fresh coating of mud covered his worn jeans. Any hope that he’d had of getting out of there without confronting Jonas disappeared.
“This is bad,” Ezra said.
“Where the fuck did he come from?” Cade asked in disbelief. He and Ezra had been watching over the area. There was no way Jonas could have snuck past them without being seen.
“I have no idea,” Ezra growled, his wolf ready to attack first and ask questions later.
“Why are you here, Jonas?” Elias asked.
“I thought I made that perfectly clear. Is your hearing starting to fail you, old man?” Jonas taunted Elias.
“I don’t see your mate anywhere near here. It’s best if you run along, back to your own territory.”
The Alpha bullshit posturing was getting on Cade’s last fucking nerve. He wanted to trot down there and tell them both to shut the hell up, then grab Ivy and go home.
“Senility must be right around the corner for you. Maybe it’s time to step down as Alpha and let a real wolf take over,” Jonas continued to bait Elias.
“The only female present besides Madeline is Ivy, and she’s already mated. So, again, I ask what the fuck are you doing here?”
Cade didn’t miss the change in the Alpha’s tone. Elias had gone from annoyed to pissed in a hot second. He was done fucking around with Jonas.
It was music to Cade’s ears.
“Time to stop fucking around and get down to business,” Cade’s wolf said in his mind.
“That’s impossible. Ivy was promised to me—to be my mate,” Jonas growled.
“Her parents shouldn’t have made a promise they couldn’t keep. Now you need to get the fuck out of my territory.”
Cade’s nose burned.
The smell of magic coated the air around him.
“That is not one of Felicity’s spells.” Ezra nearly choked on the thick pungent odor.
“No. It isn’t. We need to warn them.”
Cade let out a long howl followed by three shorter yips at the end. His pack would know exactly what the problem was.
A thick gray cloud circled Ezra and Cade. The ground beneath them disappeared, everything around them turning black. A few seconds later, they reappeared a few feet away from Jonas. Cade staggered at his sudden change in location. He closed his eyes, gathering his wits and waited for the world around him to stop spinning.
A woman with a short blue pixie cut appeared next to them. “I found these two mutts hiding in the woods.”
Her high-pitched voice grated on Cade’s nerves.
Ezra growled, ready to launch himself at the woman who clearly wasn’t human.
“Another witch,” Cade said. This new development was not a good one. He eyed those standing around, looking for Felicity. She was nowhere to be found.
“Good work, Amber,” Jonas said. He glanced at Ezra before moving on to Cade, sizing him up.
Cade growled at the Alpha of Raven Claw Pack, warning him that he wasn’t about to play whatever game he’d cooked up.
“My my, what do we have here? A three-legged mutt who needs to be put down. It seems as if your Alpha is weak and doesn’t know how to do what needs to be done. A wolf with your deformity only weakens the pack.” Jonas lunged at Cade.
Cade easily sidestepped Jonas and snapped at his arm, tearing into flesh.
Jonas tried to yank his arm away but failed. Cade’s bite was too strong.
“Let go of me, you fucking mutt!” Jonas yelled.
Cade growled, tightening his bite. Blood poured from Jonas’s arm onto Cade and into his mouth. He had to stop himself from gagging at the taste. Blood from a fresh kill normally tasted like the most delectable treat known to wolves. Jonas’s blood, however, tasted retched, like a month-old carcass left to rot in the summer heat.
“Cade, watch out! He has a gun!” Ivy screamed.
Ezra didn’t hesitate as he leapt for Jonas’s other arm, and bit down with full force.
“Elias, stop this madness!” Jonas demanded. “Do you really think these two mutts can kill me? I’m a fucking Alpha!”
“You come to my lands and make demands. Try to steal one of my wolves, who has already been claimed by her mate, and think to walk away. Unharmed? You claim to know my pack’s strengths and weaknesses. My weaknesses. You don’t know shit about this pack or me,” Elias said as he stepped down from the porch to face Jonas.
“I won’t let you do this!” Amber screeched as she readied another spell.
Cade was helpless to stop the witch if he wanted to maintain his hold on Jonas. If he and Ezra let go of Jonas, all hell would break loose, and there was no telling who would pay the price. No matter what, he had to keep his focus on Jonas.
* * *
Ivy couldn’t just stand by and watch some stupid-ass witch obliterate her mate and brother. Before she even had a chance to give it a second thought, she sank to the background and let her wolf take control.
The shift happened so fast, she barely had time to process the speed of her change before she found herself charging off of the porch and leaping across the front yard. The wolf’s only goal was to save her mate and her brother from the witch. In that single moment, nothing else mattered. Her mission was clear; to punish those who would hurt her family.
Amber paused the spell she had intended to use on Cade and Ezra, but there wasn’t enough time for her to redirect it toward Ivy and save herself.
One lunge was all it took for Ivy to knock Amber to the ground. Her spell dissipated before it even had a chance to fully form.
Ivy whined and looked to Elias for an order. It wasn’t her decision to make. It was up to the Alpha to decide the witch’s fate.
If it would have been up to Ivy, she would have ripped the witch’s head off and been done with it, that way she could never have another chance to hurt someone Ivy loved.
“Barnette, have one of your men take her into custody,” Elias ordered.
Ivy growled at the Alpha’s decision.
“Trust me, Ivy. You do not want her blood on your hands,” Elias said. His voice filled with compassion.
“How the hell am I supposed to keep the witch in lockup? Am I supposed to gag her so she can’t whisper any spells and kill us all?” Barnette asked.
“I’ll take her.” Felicity stepped out into the open, holding a pair of solid gold handcuffs.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing with her?” Elias asked, eyeing up the cuffs.
Felicity arched an eyebrow at his question. “Seriously, wolf? Of course, I know what I’m doing. This isn’t the first wayward witch I’ve crossed paths with, and I’m sure she won’t be the last. The cuffs will keep her magic locked up tighter than a virgin on her wedding night until we notify her coven of the crimes she’s committed.”
“She’s all yours then.”
Ivy waited until Felicity had Amber under lock and key before letting her go. Giving the witch one last growl and snap of her teeth before trotting away.
“I will kill all of you for this. Do you hear me? Every one of you will die,” Jonas threatened. The veins on his forehead bulged, his anger rising. He struggled again to free himself from Cade and Ezra, but failed.
“You won’t be killing anyone,” Elias said, turning his attention back to Jonas.
“What makes you think you can stop me? Do you think locking me up in a jail cell will keep me from killing all of you?”
“No. I don’t.”
In a lightning quick move, Elias punched his hand through the left side of Jonas’s chest and pulled out his heart.
“But this will stop you.”
Epilogue
“Are you okay, princess?” Cade asked as they walked in the door. Weeks had passed since the showdown with her parents and Jonas. She’d tried to push the whole ordeal out of her mind, but she needed answers.
She wanted to know who her real mother was. Ivy and Cade had both gone to the jail to ask Joseph, but he’d offered no help—not even so much as a name.
Ivy had even gone so far as to ask Felicity for help, and that’s where she’d gained the most help. She was working on a spell for Ivy to find her real mom.
All those years. All the lies.
“Physically, I’m fine. Mentally, that might take a bit longer.”
Cade flipped on the light switch. “We’ll find her. I promise.”
“I know we will. I just don’t know why my father won’t tell me who she is. The cat’s out of the bag thanks to Madeline. I don’t know why he’s being such an ass about this.”
“Felicity will get the spell right, and before you know it, you will have your answers.”
She knew Cade was right, but being patient and waiting for answers had never been her strong suit. She was much more of a grab life by the balls and go get it kind of girl.
“Why don’t we find something to take your mind off all this for a few hours?” Cade pulled Ivy into his arms.
His lips closed over hers. So soft and warm. One kiss from her mate was all it took to distract her from the issues that had been weighing her down.
“Mmm, I like where this is going. What were you thinking?” Ivy nibbled playfully on his bottom lip.
“Probably not what you’re thinking.” He pulled away from her and grabbed a small box off the counter and popped it open. A beautiful three carat diamond ring sat nestled in the black velvet holder.
“Cade!” Ivy’s heart skipped a beat.
Dropping to one knee, Cade asked the question Ivy had always dreamed of him asking. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” Tears streamed down Ivy’s face.
Cade stood, sliding the ring on her finger.
It didn’t matter that their relationship had started off under the worst
of circumstances or that they had challenges ahead of them. Maybe more than most couples started off with. None of it mattered, though. As long as they worked together, they could figure out anything that came their way.
“Cade, I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you’ll be mine forever,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
“Yes! You silly man. I’ve always been and will always be yours.”
“Good. Because I wouldn’t want to live without you by my side.”
About the Author
New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Melanie James is the author of more than three dozen books. She grew up in western Pennsylvania before heading off to Chicago, seeking new adventures. She found life in a big city fun for a while and even met the love of her life there. Melanie quickly tired of the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle and settled down with her one true love in northeast Wisconsin.
Melanie has two kids, three step-kids, a beautiful daughter in-law, and the cutest grand-babies. She also has one dog and three crazy cats that often make appearances in her books.
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