by Aileen Erin
Samantha was hurt. This was my fault. I’d gone to her for help.
Her mother hadn’t spoken to us. She’d gone straight back to the room, but she’d shot me a look before she headed down the hall. One that said I did this. That it was my fault. And she was right.
This was my fault.
A nurse came to get me from the waiting room. “Dastien? She’s asking for you.”
Michael started to get up, but the nurse shook her head. “Just this one.”
She turned without a word and started down the hall.
Michael shoved a candy bar in my hand before I could move. “Eat it. Your control is shot.” He added a warning glare as if his verbal one wasn’t enough.
I ripped the wrapper open—not caring what it was—and took a bite, chewing as I followed the nurse through the maze of the hospital. Past rooms and rooms of sick people. People crying. Stinking of pain and illness. I tried to ignore the smell, but I was already too close to the edge.
And then the nurse stopped in front of a door. “Samantha’s in here.” She pushed open a door. “You can go on in.”
The lights in the room were dim, and there was constant beeping from the machines. The scent of blood and death and disease seeped into every atom of the hospital, but Samantha was sitting up in bed. She was okay.
Her face was still ghostly white, and she had a bandage wrapped around her head. But she was awake, and I’d been so afraid that I’d gotten her killed.
I let out a sigh of relief as I stepped close to her bed.
“Don’t worry. I have a concussion, but I’ve had worse.” She gave me a half-assed smile. “They’re just keeping me overnight as a precaution. My mom just left to get me some better food, so this is my only chance to talk to you. She’s kind of pissed.”
I ran a hand down my face. “I’m so sorry. I—”
“I said, don’t worry about it.” She smiled, but it looked pitifully weak. “Whoever has Tessa is like mondo powerful. The magic on your bond—it’s not demonic, and it’s not witchcraft. It’s got something else to it, and if I had to guess, you’re probably spot on with the fey thing. But I found something that I thought might be useful. The new ones—the ones you said were council bonds—those are cool. Powerful. I could feel the fey in there—which was kind of neat. But the pack bonds were different than I remembered. I don’t think the new bonds you’ve gained should’ve changed your pack bonds. This…”
Samantha’s eyelids grew heavy and closed. For a second, I thought she’d fallen asleep, but then she shook her head for a second before hissing in pain.
She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. “I’m not explaining this well. Sorry. My head feels like it’s exploding.”
“It’s okay.” I moved closer to the bed, not sure of how to help. “You don’t have to—”
“No. Wait. I got a bump on the head to get this info for you. Just…” Her eyes fluttered open, and there was pain floating in them. “When I touched your pack bonds when you came to LA last time, they were…protected? I don’t know enough about the bonds to say for certain, but I could see them there before. I could touch them. And I remember the bond you had with Tessa. It was glowing and golden and special. I remember the others to your pack. It’s a messy web. Lots of different colors. Some were thicker than others. Some duller. I don’t know what any of that means. But they’ve changed. Now, there’s like this fungus on them. On just your pack bonds. There’s this film of…I don’t know. Sludge? It dims all the bonds. It’s magic for sure—bad magic—but the weird thing is that it’s woven into the bonds.”
“What does it mean?” I didn’t feel anything weird from my pack bonds.
“I don’t know exactly. It isn’t on the bonds I first touched. The ones you said were to your council or whatever.” She paused. “I’m sorry. I’m really out of my element here. I don’t deal with werewolves—other than you guys—and never with the fey. I’ve got enough supernatural problems without borrowing from your kind.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. But I’ll take any guess you have.” I laughed, but it was a sad, helpless whimper of a laugh. “I’ll take anything at this point. Any hint of what you think could be wrong or if you have an idea on how to fix it. This is literally the most useful bit of information that I’ve gotten since Tessa was taken.”
Samantha licked her lips and then took a breath as if she were considering her words very carefully. “I think—and I don’t know, and I hate to get anyone into trouble—but I really, really think that one of the werewolves you’re connected to must be a traitor. I can’t explain it, but it feels like someone let the fey magic infect your pack bonds. The fey would need a way in, and the only way in—as far as I can tell—is through another werewolf. The fey magic snakes through the pack bonds like a trail leading back to a person. I could only grasp at the more solid bonds, but there were finer ones there that were also infected. I don’t know who that person is. It’s not one of the people that called, but I have no way of knowing who else you’re tied to and—”
I was suddenly very thankful that Michael had shoved that candy bar at me. I was going to need every ounce of control. “Someone in my pack let the fey into my bonds? Is that what you’re saying?” I squeezed my hands into tight fists.
“I think so. Or a related pack. Like something looser tied to you than those who called. Does that makes sense?”
“It does.” We’d been betrayed by one of our own. How did I not see it? “Are you sure?”
“I can’t explain it or tell you who, but I think you have to take out the bad apple in your pack. I don’t know that it will bring Tessa back, but…you need to break through the magic on your bonds, and clearly I’m not strong enough to do it. So…” She licked her lips again as she thought. “So, I’d start questioning your wolves.”
That was something. Wolves I could hunt. That was something I could fight. “Thank you. I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
I’d already paid her medical bills in full. There were some outstanding ones, and I paid those, too. When I did, I talked to Michael. We were going to see what we could do to help her. If she’d accept the help. I would’ve done anything to help her regardless, but she’d gotten hurt because of me, and she’d given me a clue.
This was still a debt I needed to repay.
I wasn’t sure if I should touch her, but I reached for her hand. She took it, giving it a squeeze.
“I don’t know how to thank you, but I’m grateful for your help.”
“I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me.” She let go of my hand. “Will you keep me updated? Let me know what you find or when you find her?”
“I will. And thank you. This is more information than we’ve had before.” I turned to go, but she called out to me.
“There’s one more thing.” She looked down at her hands and started messing with the blanket. “I’m not sure if I should tell you this. If it’ll help you or just make it worse or—”
“Anything would help.” I stepped closer to the bed. Samantha had already given me so many answers, and I was grateful for them. But if she had more, I’d take that, too. Even if it made it worse. Although I wasn’t sure how that could be possible. “Anything helps.”
“I’m not sure how—because it didn’t happen with any of the other bonds. I never ever saw anything when I touched them. But for the second I held your mate bond before I went flying, I could see Tessa.”
I sat down at the end of her bed and held her hands—gently. Gently and with every ounce of control I had left. “What did you see? Is she…was she hurt?”
Her misty gray eyes met mine. “She’s okay. She’s not hurt. It was quick—just a flash of an image really—but I saw at least that much. She was reading. She seemed okay.”
I took a breath. Tessa was fine. Wherever she was, she wasn’t hurt. That was everything. I gripped her hands tighter for a second before letting go. I wanted to hug her, but I didn’t want to make her head h
urt worse. “Thank you. If you ever need anything…I will do anything for you.”
“I’m going to take you up on that. You’ll probably regret it, so—”
“I won’t!” The words snapped out. I took a breath. I needed that control back. “Sorry. I’m a mess right now, but please call me. I gave your phone to your mother earlier, but I added my number to it. If you hear anything else or have any ideas, just call me. And if anything comes up and you need my help, I’ll come. I promise. Anything at all.”
“You got it.”
I walked out of the room and barely stopped myself from running back to Michael. Running in the hospital would get too much attention, so I forced myself to walk.
When I reached the waiting room, Michael saw me and immediately stood up.
I waved him forward and started moving toward the exit.
“What did she say?” Michael said as he came up beside me. He sounded hopeful, and this time, there was a good reason for him to be hopeful.
I had a lead. A good, solid lead.
“Time to go hunting.” My wolf was close, making my voice a half-growl, but I couldn’t shove it down.
“We’re getting closer?”
“Yes.” We were getting much closer. “Text the pilot. Tell him we’ll give him a destination soon, but we’re on our way.”
For the first time since she’d been taken, I had real hope that I’d be with my mate again soon.
Chapter Eight
DASTIEN
Thirteen Days, Twenty Hours Missing
It didn’t take long for me to relay to Michael what I found out from Samantha. I was finished by the time we reached the car in the underground parking lot of the hospital.
The car doors unlocked as I touched the handle, but Michael’s hand slammed down on the door, keeping me from opening it.
“I’ll drive.”
“What? Why?” I usually drove, even when we were just going to the store in Texas.
Michael was usually pretty calm and easygoing, but he didn’t like cars or traffic. He kept to rural areas and—until recently—rarely left St. Ailbe’s. He always said he was too old and too set in his ways to deal with the frustrations that came with driving in a big city, and this was Los Angeles. The traffic here was epic.
And yet, he had his hand on the driver’s door. Why?
“Move,” I said. “I’ll drive.”
“No. You won’t be focusing on the road, and you need to plan. By the time we get to the airport, we’ll need our destination.”
“Okay.” Michael would drive slower than I would, but he had a point. I wasn’t going to be able to focus on driving when I wanted to figure out where to go.
I walked to the other side of the car and got in. “Who do you think could do this?”
Michael concentrated on getting around the tight curves as we drove up a bunch of levels to the exit. “I don’t know. We’ve questioned every Alpha already.”
“Do you think Samantha could be wrong?”
“No.” He left it at that.
The whir of the window lowering filled the car, and Michael moved to pay the parking fee.
I stared at my phone, waiting for service to come back online. As soon as I had reception, I was calling everyone. We’d missed someone. Some Alpha somewhere had lied. Clearly.
Three tiny bars showed up on the top of my phone, and I called Chris. “I have info. Start looping everyone on the line,” I said as soon as he answered.
“Finally.” Chris’ raspy voice came through the line. “Hang on. Let’s switch services. I’ll call you back in a few.”
“Wait. What—” The line went quiet, and I pulled my phone away from my face to look at it. “He hung up.”
“Just give him a second. This is good,” Michael said. “We have information. Focus on that.”
I was trying, but I wanted to find her already. We were making progress, but it was too slow. Way too slow. I wasn’t built to do this kind of digging around. I liked to fight, to do, to move. It felt like the last two weeks were filled with too much waiting.
There were a bunch of texts on our group chain, and then my phone started buzzing.
I looked at my phone and saw that Chris was Wi-Fi calling me back from an app. I hit the green button. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Chris said. “You’ve got Cosette, Van, River, Kyra, and Elowen here.”
Meredith joined the call. “Heya! I’ve got Donovan with me. You’re on speaker.”
“Anyone else ringing in?” My knee bounced as I waited. I wanted to start filling them in so that I could figure out where we needed to go next, but I had to wait. I didn’t think I had the patience to explain everything we’d found out twice.
“Few more,” Chris said. “Just a sec.”
“Hi.” Claudia’s voice came through as she joined the call.
“How’s Axel doing?” Michael asked.
“Good. He’s on a run with Lucas right now, but he seems to be doing all right despite being worried about Tessa. It’s enough to set any werewolf on edge. Was Samantha able to help?”
“She was.” I really owed Samantha for what she’d done. Especially since helping us physically hurt her. “I have some answers, but a lot more questions. Anyone else joining—”
“Hey. What do we know?” Adrian’s voice came through. “Shane’s with me. We’re ready to roll. Just tell us what we need to do.”
“Is this it?” I ran through the list in my head. There were so many of us now it was sometimes hard to keep track, but I trusted every single one of them. We’d fought together. Bled together. We’d forged a link, and there was no hiding from it. “Where are Blaze and Beth? I don’t want to tell this twice.”
“They’re investigating something, and I’m not sure they can make it. I haven’t heard back from them yet,” Chris said. “I’ll fill them in later. Spill. What do you know?”
I hesitated to speak for a second. I was nervous that this would eventually lead to another dead end, but I couldn’t let it. I needed this to work. This was a start. This was exactly what I’d been hoping for.
Now I just needed to narrow down which wolves I was hunting. I needed a target.
“I saw Samantha today, and things didn’t quite go as expected.”
There was a gasp. “Is she okay?” Claudia asked.
“Yes. She’s in the hospital but fine. I swear. I wouldn’t have left if—”
“Come on, man. We all know you wouldn’t just leave her. What the hell happened?” Adrian asked.
They waited patiently while I explained. I tried to answer all the questions I could but took as little time doing it as possible. My wolf was urging me to run, find, hunt, and I had to keep reminding him that we needed to wait. I had to use words right now. I couldn’t be a wolf.
I watched the city go by as I talked. There were so many people on the road. So many lights and cars and sounds and smells. I’d noticed it last time we came here, but Tessa had been with me. I got to see it through her eyes, and it wasn’t so overwhelming. She’d seen it as something familiar. This had been her home.
But now, it was overwhelming.
My friends’ voices filled the car as they asked questions. My adoptive father was sitting in the car next to me, driving. And yet, I was alone.
Alone and hollow.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever not feel alone again.
They were arguing with each other now, and I was letting them for another thirty seconds, and then I was jumping in.
“No. No. We already looked into this.” Chris’s voice held a thread of frustration. “I questioned Lisabetta extensively with Cosette. You talked to the French Alpha. Right?”
I nodded, but they couldn’t see that. “Yes. I know we talked to everyone, but clearly, we missed someone.”
“How? How could we have missed someone?” Chris was almost yelling. “We’ve been to every Alpha—even alphas who weren’t quite powerful enough to hold their own pack.”
I got his ang
er and frustration—I really did—but it wasn’t helpful right now.
“We made a list, and we talked to everyone. Everyone.” Now, Chris was actually yelling. “No one knows anything. They wouldn’t be able to lie—”
He wasn’t listening. And if he wasn’t listening, then maybe no one else was. That was unacceptable. “Then we missed someone. We’re going over the list again,” I snapped. “Who’s powerful enough—”
“Wait,” Kyra’s voice came through my phone.
I didn’t know her very well—she’d been traveling a lot—but I was open to ideas. Especially new ideas. And most importantly, new ones from the fey. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure if you’ve already discussed this. I haven’t been here for most of the meetings since… But you’re talking about how you questioned Alphas. You’re assuming it was a strong werewolf that participated in her kidnapping, but that might be ruling out the real culprit.”
“You think a weaker werewolf could pull this off?” Michael said.
I turned to him. His eyes were focused on the road, and he’d been quiet. So quiet that I thought he wasn’t listening to the call.
“It’s extremely possible if I’m understanding this correctly,” Kyra said. Her words were crisp and clear. “Samantha said it was fey magic messing with the bonds. Right?”
“Right.” I wasn’t sure why that needed clarification. I’d said it plainly.
“Then the werewolf element doesn’t have to be strong,” Van’s voice came through the phone.
“That’s right.” Cosette muttered something that had to be a fey curse. “That’s actually right. I can’t believe we missed that. I was so focused on—”
“How?” I asked. I didn’t understand fey magic at all. Clearly.
“Whoever accessed your bonds just opened the door for the fey to take over. They served as a link. I’m not a werewolf, and I’ve never tried to look at your pack magic, but all of you are tied together, right?” Kyra asked. “In a similar way to how this council is linked?”
“I think that’s right,” Michael said. “We all have access to the pack bonds. Although the level of control we can exert over them depends on the strength of the werewolf. That’s why some can command, and some must obey.”