by May Dawson
“Setting a trap for Maddie?” I said grimly. We should have seen that coming. Before Chase could ask, I said, “Maddie is fine.”
Relief flashed across his face. I wished I’d rushed to give him the bad news first, before he had the chance to feel the release of tension just before it all came crashing back.
“Silas is gone,” I said. “You were on the brink…he healed you.”
Chase scrambled up, his eyes wide. “Gone how?”
“Just…gone. Everyone’s searching for him. But he went into the river.”
Chase froze, as if he couldn’t process what I’d just said.
There were footsteps in the hallway, and I jumped to my feet, fight-or-flight instinct setting my heart racing. Chase might not have been the true target, but it was still my job to protect him, just in case.
But it was a bedraggled-looking Penn, Jensen, and Lex who squelched into the room, leaving a trail of water across the slick hardwood floors from their boots and their sodden clothing.
“They called off the search,” Lex said, his voice flat. But his eyes brightened when he saw Chase. “You’re okay.”
“Thanks to Silas, apparently,” Chase said.
“Yeah,” Lex said. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Jensen cocked his head to one side, then abruptly stepped into the hall, as if he’d heard something. His voice was loud even from outside the room when he said, “Good afternoon, sir.”
“Incoming,” Lex said. “Why don’t you guys get out of here? I’ll wait with Chase until we can get back to the house. Then, team meeting.”
“With what’s left of the team,” Penn muttered.
Clearborn came in then, followed by Cormac. He glanced around at us, his expression as considering as always, as if he was trying to read us. But today, he lacked the air of amusement he carried most of the time. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I came to hear what Mr. Freeman remembers about what happened in the woods.”
“Do you mind if I stay?” Lex asked.
Clearborn glanced at him. “That’s up to Mr. Freeman. I don’t mind if you make yourself useful.”
If it weren’t for how well I knew Lex, I might not have seen the way his posture stiffened, even though his expression never changed.
I followed Penn into the hall, and then Jensen, Penn and I headed silently through the empty, quiet halls of the building.
When we were outside, crossing through the driving rain with our heads down, no one able to hear us above the roar of wind from the sudden fall storm, Jensen said, “We fucked this up royally.”
“Yeah,” Penn said. “Lex was right. We should’ve gone to Clearborn.”
“I’m going to fucking murder Duncan,” Jensen said, his jaw so tight that I was sure he meant it.
“Can’t,” I said. “He’s already gone. Back to Garmond’s pack.”
Jensen’s lips narrowed. I was pretty sure he was considering the logistics of murdering Garmond instead. But knowing Jensen, he’d have some cold, dark plan to do it ten years from now, when suspicion wouldn’t fall on any of us.
I’d really come to appreciate Jensen over the past few months.
“How’s Maddie?” I asked. I didn’t want to see her. I knew she’d be broken over Silas. And even though I knew it didn’t make sense, logically, the guilt that twisted through my stomach made it feel like I was responsible for Silas’ death too.
She might be my half-sister. She was supposed to be the one I looked after no matter who she was, but I’d gotten her hurt. And then, I wasn’t there when she needed me, when Silas needed me. I’d been useless, in the fucking infirmary, because I couldn’t make sense of my magic.
“Ty?” Jensen and Penn were a few feet ahead of me when they turned back, and that was when I realized I’d come to a stop, lost in my own thoughts.
“I can’t stay here.” I checked there was no one around us—again—before I dared say, “Sooner or later, I’m going to fuck up again.”
“We’ll figure it out together,” Jensen said.
“I better figure it out from back home,” I said. “I’m going to keep making things worse if I stay here.”
Penn raked his hand through his wet hair. “Stop being so fucking dramatic and come back to the house. We’ve all got a lot to talk about.”
“Oh, is that an order?” My voice came out tart.
It wasn’t Penn that I was pissed at right now, but that didn’t stop me from taking it out on him.
“I don’t want to give you orders,” Penn said evenly. “That’s why I’m telling you to stay here.”
“Both of you, knock it off,” Jensen said. “Let’s get back to the house. We all need each other right now.”
I shook my head.
“Saint fucking Cain bless us, you’ve got Jensen over here doing the Care Bear Stare to bring us all together and you’re still throwing some kind of pity party for yourself?” Penn demanded.
“I’m not pitying myself. I’m being realistic.” I headed toward the house, but with a mission now. I could get my shit, check myself out of the academy.
We could all leave any time. We just couldn’t come back.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Penn warned me.
“You’re not going to stop me,” I told him.
“Yeah, I will.” He grabbed my arm and tried to swing me around.
Penn and I had grown up fighting. Since we were three and four, and the big kids cheered us on while we pummeled each other.
This wasn’t the first time instinct took over and I slammed my fist into his jaw. We’d always fought like brothers.
But as he staggered back, it felt different. As soon as I hit him, I regretted it.
Penn caught himself, his feet slipping in the mud. For a long second, he stared at me, his chest heaving.
Jensen scrubbed his face with his hand. “Can we be done?”
Penn slammed into me, catching me around the waist, carrying me down to the ground.
“Apparently not.” Jensen muttered.
Penn and I fought for position, grappling on the ground, getting in a punch whenever we could. I pinned him, then he managed to flip and pin me.
Penn stared down at me, his face streaked with the mud I’d slammed his head into a few seconds before. He was still breathing hard. “Stop being such an asshole and just stay.”
“I might be an asshole, but you’re delusional if you think I can stay at this fucking place with magic that’s out of control. You’re letting your emotions take over. I’m the one who’s still thinking.”
Jensen cocked his head to one side. “Pardon?”
“Nah, you’re falling apart.” Penn told Tyson. “When we can’t afford to lose you.”
“If I stay, people are going to keep getting hurt,” I said. “You guys don’t need me.”
“Yeah, we do,” Penn said.
I snapped my arm out and heaved my hips, breaking his grip. He flew off me into the mud, and I scrambled to my feet at the same time as he did. The two of us stared each other down, staggering in exhaustion, but still raising our fists to watch our faces.
“I need you, all right?” Penn confessed. “Maddie does too.”
Maddie. Just her name wrenched my heart right now. I had to stay away from her.
But I still had to protect her.
Did I protect her by staying? Or by going?
“Just come back to the house,” Jensen said wearily. “Penn’s right. We all need each other right now. We’ll talk about this magic business and figure out what to do next. You can always leave tomorrow, Ty, if that’s the right thing.”
“Fine,” I said.
Penn pressed his fingers to a new bruise on his cheekbone. “Fine? You couldn’t have said that five minutes ago?”
“Sorry,” I said lightly, as if it were a joke, as if I didn’t mean it.
But I did.
I was so sorry, for all of it, every bit of it, ever since that day in the woods when I was just a kid.
Maddie
I changed into a dry sweatshirt and a pair of PT shorts, towel-drying my hair mechanically even though I avoided the sight of my tear-streaked face in the mirror. I’d tried so hard to keep anyone from seeing me cry at the academy. Now in the last forty-eight hours, was there anyone left who hadn’t seen me red-eyed and blotchy, if not actually sobbing and broken?
I’d have been humiliated if my ego mattered right now.
Someone knocked on the bathroom door. “Any day now, Northsea. Team meeting.”
It was a familiar, rough voice. Chase.
I knew he’d survived, but that was different from hearing him, from seeing him. I threw the door open and launched myself into his arms.
Chase hugged me, burying his face in my hair. “God, Maddie. Silas…”
I couldn’t say anything to that, so I just clung to him. “You would’ve done the same for him.”
“If I could,” Chase muttered. He shook his head. “We’ve got a lot to talk about in the team meeting.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I pulled away from him, but kept my hands on his broad biceps. “I just…”
I trailed off, but kept studying his face. The last time I saw him, his face had been so still, his mouth slack. It had looked like he was dead. I felt a wave of relief that I got to see him again, and I couldn’t stop staring at him.
Even though he was frowning at me slightly as if I’d lost my mind.
“Just what?” he demanded.
“Just wanted to look at you,” I said, my voice breaking, and he hugged me tight as if he knew how I felt.
“I was so scared for you,” he said.
“Me too,” I said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Chase.”
“Everyone needs their big goofy friend that makes them look good,” he said.
My lips pursed. He had to know I didn’t see him that way, not one bit.
I wrapped my fingers around his biceps and tugged him down to me. He resisted automatically, then leaned down. I brushed my lips against his in a soft, tentative kiss.
Chase’s arm looped around my waist, and his lips caressed mine open. His mouth was firm and demanding.
Chase kissed me like I was life.
Neither of us were going to waste a minute. We couldn’t count on having more time together, apparently.
When we broke apart, his eyes were bright. He pressed one last kiss to my cheek, and I rested my head against his shoulder, letting myself relax into him. We had places to be, we had battles to fight, and we had a friend to find. But for a second, I had peace in his arms.
A few minutes later, in the team meeting, Rafe said, “Look. We don’t know where Silas is. But we’ve got to keep faith. Silas is…”
Whatever the hell Silas is. We all had so many questions, despite what we’d been trying to put together about his past and what we’d experienced with him that seemed uncanny.
“Silas,” Rafe finished. “Whatever else he is, he’s our friend. He’s had our back. And if anyone will come back after landing in that river, it’s him.”
“We keep faith,” Penn agreed.
“Hope.” Jensen said.
Penn smacked his arm. “Listen to Care Bear Stare over here. I love it, man.”
“I should’ve let Ty hit you some more,” Jensen said, but without rancor.
“From now on,” Lex said. “No more secrets. We’re one team.”
“One family,” Rafe corrected. “However fucked up… and none of us are going anywhere.”
Ty’s lips pursed, but he nodded reluctantly.
“Faith. Hope. Family,” Penn said. “Next we’ll be live-love-laughing.”
“You always ruin a fucking pep talk, Penn,” Lex said.
But it was true, and I could see it in their faces as I looked around the room.
We were one team, one family. We’d lost one of ours today. I hoped he’d come back to us, but there were no guarantees.
There were no guarantees for us, in the middle of a war. We’d all agreed to put our lives on the line for the packs.
All we had was each other, and our training, to give us a chance at the future.
All we had was now.
And we were going to make the most of it.
Want to read the prologue to Unforgivable and discover just what happened to Silas? Join my reader group here to read the prologue before anyone else!
Also by May Dawson
The True and the Crown series:
One Kind of Wicked
Two Kinds of Damned
Three Kinds of Lost
Four Kinds of Cursed
Five Kinds of Love
Their Shifter Princess:
Their Shifter Princess
Their Shifter Princess 2: Pack War
Their Shifter Princess 3: Coven’s Revenge
Their Shifter Academy:
Their Shifter Academy: A Prequel Novella
Their Shifter Academy 1: Unwanted
Their Shifter Academy 2: Unclaimed
Their Shifter Academy 3: Undone
The Wild Angels & Hunters Series:
Wild Angels
Fierce Angels
Dirty Angels
Chosen Angels
Ashley Landon, Bad Medium
Dead Girls Club
Hi! May Dawson here.
If you enjoyed Undone, please leave me a review if you can! It makes a huge difference in connecting readers with indie books, so authors like me can keep on writing! You can review Undone on Amazon now.
Don’t forget to pre-order Unforgivable here!
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Thanks for reading!
Best,
May
About the Author
May Dawson’s first crush was Indiana Jones, and it wasn’t just for Harrison Ford’s rugged good looks. She’s always been drawn to adventure, and she found it in Bali and the Antarctic, traveling widely before she settled down to raise two red-haired munchkins/hooligans. These days you can find her embracing a very different kind of adventure: love. Living it. Writing it.
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