She asked Jax if it’d always smelled like that. He snorted and told her it was stale coffee. She promised him she’d get it professionally cleaned once this was all over and he laughed. He wanted to go inside with her, but she didn’t know how to explain his presence to a room full of cops. He’d been helping her, rather illegally, with her investigation and no one in the station could find out.
It had to stay that way. So, she slid out of the SUV and turned toward the station. It was a small building on the edge of town. Patrol cars lined the side of the building in a sporadic manner, some of them out on duty while the others waited for drivers. The sun glinted off the lights in a way she’d never seen before, and it caught her off guard for a moment.
Shaking her head, she forced herself forward through the doors. All heads rose as she entered. Eyes pinned her to the spot, each one of them blaming her for Trisha’s death. The force of it slammed into her and stole her breath. She hadn’t been prepared for this, no matter what she’d told herself to get there.
Swallowing down the grief and shame she felt rising through her throat, she pressed forward. Her wolf squirmed and growled in defense. It would take on everyone in the office. She had to work to remind the wolf that many of these people were still on her side. The hunters were only a handful of people.
The receptionist smiled, thin and distracted. Her eyes fell away from Sydney’s before too long, moving to something on her desk. The woman pressed a button on her head set and began talking to the incoming caller. Something about a fender bender on County Route 56.
The wolf growled. It yipped and made Sydney’s head ring. The voices in the room grew into a loud din, a sound she couldn’t drown out. Before, it would have been a low drone, but with the new senses everything was heightened to the point of pain. As she succumbed to the roar of voices, the smells slowly began to assault her.
First, it was stale coffee again. Then body odor and cheap cologne. She could smell their shoe polish, their uber-masculine body wash, and old take-out cartons. It rose and mingled into a stench she could barely handle.
“Are you alright, Syd?” The receptionist asked.
As if that was the signal, everything fell away. All she could hear was the soft ring of the woman’s voice and the strange familiarity of it. Sydney focused on her, on the fall of her russet hair around her shoulders, the bangs pinned away from her eyes.
Sydney smiled. “Everything is fine. Why do you ask?”
The woman fought for a reply but came up with nothing. Sydney pushed past toward her desk. Trevor waited, squatting in his rolling chair near her desk. He smelled of stale milk and dusty sugar, most likely the bowl of cereal he’d had before work even if it did make her stomach roll. The young man smiled up at her, and she could now see the hopefulness of it.
She didn’t have time for Trevor and his eagerness to get into her pants. Her eyes went back to the receptionist, facing away from her. Sydney put her feet on her desk and contemplated how she would approach her later. Would she corner her in the parking lot? Or, would she track her home so that she was truly alone?
The wolf growled in agreement, eager to get the woman alone. She was the one who’d snuck into the cabin in the middle of the night. They both knew it, the sound of her voice bringing the scene back like a punch in the stomach. The wolf wanted to end it all, to follow the woman back to the hunters and kill them.
The thought struck her. It was a bucket of ice-water through her system. It made Sydney lean back in her seat, her breath shallow as her eyes dropped to the top of her desk. Her job wasn’t about killing people, but the wolf’s fierce sense of justice warred with her humanity. Sydney had joined the police force to help people, but this new part of her wanted to hear howls of pain. It wanted to break bones and bleed them dry.
It took her a long moment to catch her breath. Trevor watched her with a strange caution, as if he wanted to ask if she was okay, but had been too afraid to. When she looked up again, the receptionist’s chair was empty.
“Where did Nora go?”
“Huh?” Trevor asked.
She jerked her head toward the seat Nora vacated. “She was there only a second ago. Where’d she go?”
His brows knit together as he shrugged. “I don’t know. To her car to get something? Probably her phone charger the way she’s been on it all morning.”
She wanted to ruffle his hair. For a paper pusher, he was surprisingly attentive to detail. Sydney shot from her chair and raced for the door. Trevor called after her, but she didn’t have time to waste. If Nora had been on her phone all morning, she was most likely texting her cohorts. Even if Nora claimed to have been disenchanted with her cohorts’ mission, Sydney couldn’t afford to believe her.
Sure, they hadn’t gone to school together as most people in Fangway had, but Sydney had gone to precinct picnics and played on the station’s softball team with Nora. To think that she’d been hiding something this dire form them for all these years made her head spin. Sydney had eaten her coleslaw, for heaven’s sake. People didn’t share coleslaw and keep secrets like that.
They didn’t go around killing those they deemed unfit to live.
Outside, the spring sun beat down on her face, the weather at war with the storm inside her. She was angry at Nora for her secrets. Confused by Nora’s confession. Repulsed by herself. It was almost too much until she found Nora’s vanilla scent in the air.
The woman was rooting through her truck, throwing things about in search of something. Before she could find it, Sydney slowly crept up behind her. She knew she should wait for Rhylan or Jax to back her up, but her instincts told her she was safe. They didn’t tell her if she was safe because she could hold her own better now, or if she was safe because Nora told the truth.
That kind of information would have been convenient. Especially since she knew Jax would be furious with her later. He would have to deal with it. If he were going to be her mate, her forever, he would have to learn to let her be herself sooner or later.
“What are you looking for?”
Nora shot up straight and spun around. Sydney’s heart flashed cold at the sight of what the woman held in her hands. Even though they shook, Nora pointed the pistol at Sydney’s heart.
Well, her instincts had been wrong.
Sydney’s hands went up. She glanced back at the station doors. From this angle, no one inside could see what Nora was doing. Trevor might grow curious if she didn’t come back soon, but by then it might be too late.
Because she knew what would be loaded into the pistol’s magazine. It wouldn’t be the standard issue bullets, but the silver kind that hurt what Sydney had become.
A shifter.
“You lied,” she hissed.
Nora’s face was wrought with guilt. Every inch of her face was lined with it. Her eyes were filled with pain, her lips twisted with the sourness of her actions. If Sydney could get her to talk, perhaps there was a way she could get the gun down. Maybe even get her to put it away.
She had to hope there was a way. Sydney had to survive. She had to see Jax again. His face filled her mind, the smile he so rarely showed, the laugh she could feel rumbling through her spine as they cuddled.
“You came to me,” Sydney pressed on. “You’re the one who came and tried to tell me about how you hated what you were doing.”
Nora’s eyes flicked from side to side, making sure there was no one watching them. Sydney looked around, but there was no one there.
“Why would you tell me something like that? Why lie?”
Nora’s eyes returned to her. The pistol shook. Her finger moved from the side of the pistol and toward the trigger. Sydney’s stomach clenched. Days ago, she would have thought this poetic justice. Now, she regretted letting the wolf drive her. She regretted being so damned headstrong and dumb.
“I didn’t lie,” Nora whispered.
She pulled her finger away from the trigger again.
“But, you weren’t what you are now when
I visited.”
Sydney’s lips curled from her teeth, a small bit of the wolf showing through. “That’s your own fault. The creature you made of Becca attacked me. I almost didn’t live through it.”
Nora’s eyes widened, and she clamped her hand over her mouth to smother the sound of despair she made. “When did this happen?”
“The day after you visited. She had no soul left.” The words started sweet and ended in a guttural growl.
Nora’s eyes drifted closed, guilt making her face sink into the shadows as if it might devour her from the inside out. Sydney might have felt for her, might have pleaded with her a few days ago. Now, her wolf howled with anger. It screamed for justice. It watched for an opening, for a break in her form.
It bided it’s time.
“I didn’t know what they were doing until recently.”
“You didn’t know they were killing people?”
“Well, I knew they were hunting shifters, things that were dangerous. At least, that was what I’d always been told.” Her face crumpled further. Her eyes slammed shut against the world, a grimace overtaking her as she swallowed. “Then something happened… I can’t explain. I just know things have changed. My eyes are open.”
Sydney studied her, wishing she could scent a lie. The woman didn’t smell of sweat, but anxiety rolled off her that was hard to read. Nora hurt, something cutting her in half even from this distance. It looked almost like how Sydney felt when she was away from Jax, only amplified by a thousand.
Could it be?
Sydney had no idea. She was new to this world, unable to read the signals and signs that Jax might be able to see at first glance. Not for the first time, she wished he was here. It was surprising that he wasn’t lurking nearby. The bond between them had drawn tight during her change, the fear of her death pulling them tighter than she could have imagined.
Sydney rocked back on her heels. Despite the gun still aimed at her heart, her initial fear was fading. Nora had no intention of shooting her. Not if the way her fingers stayed outside the trigger said anything.
They’d shared coleslaw.
It was a silly thing to think, but there was a small amount of history between them that Sydney drew upon. “I didn’t come out here to hurt you.”
Nora slowly cracked open her eyes. The gun lowered, dropping toward the ground where it was hidden behind her thigh. On cue, Trevor’s head popped around the side of the building. Nora offered him a nervous wave as he gave Sydney an openly questioning look, his mouth in a small O and his brow nearly in the skies above.
Sydney waved for him to go back inside. “I asked her to bring me something,” Sydney told him when he lingered too long. “I left it at her place the other night.”
Slowly, he nodded. He looked wholly unconvinced. Trevor was human, right? Sydney gave a sidelong look toward Nora, and she shook her head. He wasn’t working with her. The guy was just overly nice.
She hoped he would find a nice woman sooner rather than later. He would be a good man for someone, just not her. Her mind filled with Jax’s dark, silken skin. She could almost feel it beneath her fingers.
“I think far more than a change happened the other day.” Nora’s shoulders slumped, and she placed the gun back into the back of her truck.
Sydney peered past her to find a small bin full of weapons and silver as she tucked it back beneath the passenger seat. Her stomach flipped, and she had to remind herself Nora was on their side.
Right?
“A whole lot happened.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jax didn’t like this. He watched the auburn-haired woman move around, her body packed with lean muscle beneath her work uniform. She was dangerous, and he could see it, even if his mate saw her as an ally. It would take nothing for this human woman to turn on them.
He needed to find out why this woman wouldn’t turn on them. A plan was forming, but all Jax could see were the ways she could betray them. The woman pointed out the hunters’ den on the map, a place they must have circled a few times in the mountains. His stomach churned as he thought about the magic that cloaked it.
Soul magic.
People’s lives fueled their mission, lives they saw as consumable and erasable.
Jax grabbed his mate and pulled her out the sliding glass door. She looked up at him with annoyance, her cop face in place as they planned their attack.
“What?” she snapped.
He glanced back through the window, watching Rhylan lean against the wall opposite Nora. “How do we know we can trust her. She’s used the soul magic on us. It clearly means she has no shame.”
“I’m not sure if that’s true.”
He growled. “She. Used. Someone’s. Soul.”
Sydney sucked in a breath through her nose. Her wolf was probably close to the surface. When was the last time they’d gone on a run? When was the last time her wolf had hunted? He reached for her to pull her into his body and she danced back. The wolf was probably setting her on edge, and she didn’t know the first thing about dealing with it.
“You should shift,”’ Jax told her.
Sydney shook her head. “There isn’t time. If we’re going to rescue Theo, we need to do it soon.”
His jaw clenched. She would put someone she didn’t know before herself. If she didn’t learn to live in balance with her beast, she wouldn’t be able to do the things she fought so hard for. This rescue mission would fail, falling through their fingers and costing lives.
His fingers tingled with cold as he thought about losing her. It made him reach out to her, grasping her hands in his. The warmth of her skin warmed through him and chased away the fear. Looking down at her hands, he ran a thumb over her knuckles. It made him wonder what she might think about having a ring on one of those fingers.
If they lived through this, if everyone lived through this, he would do it. When he’d left Stonefall, he’d had no direction. All he’d wanted was to outrun the ghosts that clung to him. He wanted to escape their damning voices and knew the rush of the wind in his ears was the best way to do so.
Now, he had a reason to stop. The voices were distant, fading the longer he stayed in Sydney’s presence. She helped him realize he’d done the best he could. Because of him, others had lived. If he’d gone in to save his alpha and failed, the one’s he’d guarded would have died.
He’d saved lives.
And they were going to save more.
They would save Theo and the others the hunters held for their souls. He gripped her hand, hoping they could do this. He thought of how they might not be whole, but at least they would be free. Nora had told them of the number of creatures they held, batteries for their hunting magic.
Devastation had been clear on Sydney’s face. She shouldered the guilt for the numbers, unknowing of exactly how many had disappeared from her jurisdiction. It explained why there was no Alpha in the area. The hunters worked hard to make sure their area was free of wild shifters.
As they slowly made monsters out of those they’d caught.
When his eyes closed, he could see Becca’s snarling muzzle. He saw the emptiness of her eyes and knew she’d wanted him to kill her. He couldn’t let that happen to anyone else. It was almost worse than what Killian had done. He’d broken his Pack, but there was a way to come back from that. There were therapy and love.
No one could replace someone’s soul.
The lights flickered. Everything stopped as they looked up at the lights. Nora’s face twisted. She knew what was about to happen. Jax growled, ready to leap across the table and rip her throat out for betraying them when she jumped out of her seat.
Nora grabbed her gun, loading it with a clip of regular bullets and grabbing a small, velvet bag. His stomach flipped. She hadn’t loaded it with silver. Even in the flickering light, he would have recognized the silver. It would have made his skin itch just to be near it.
Their eyes met, her face growing steady. Conviction made her feet spread apart in a
fighting stance, and her hands grow still on the gun. Jax gave her a small nod just before the lights vanished altogether.
He didn’t know who Nora was, but he had a feeling she would mean a lot to their small pack. She had something to fight for. Maybe even someone to fight for. Jax would let her fight alongside them until she proved him wrong. He could give her that, at least.
The woman’s immediate threat shoved aside, for the time being, he turned to find Sydney. His hand clasped hers, even through the impenetrable darkness. She trembled. He should have prompted her to change earlier. The stress was driving her wolf wild. How long would it take for the creature to fight its way out of her? He didn’t want her to go through that, but she would.
He’d failed her.
He was supposed to be taking care of his mate. The voices howled at his stupidity, at his inability to care for those around him, but he swatted them away. Sydney did not need him lording over her for the rest of her life.
Leaning into her, he whispered in her ear. Told her to change. Let the wolf out before it hurt her. He squeezed her hand, hoping she would listen.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Darkness spilled through the room. It swallowed the lamp, the ceiling light. Sydney couldn’t see past her own nose. Her heart thumped, the wolf rising with a wave of panic. Jax and Rhylan cried out in irritation and fear, respectively. She tried to swallow her fear, but her insides were barraged by claws and teeth, the beast ripping its way through her.
It would not listen to reason when Sydney reminded it she’d lived through this before. It only wanted to fight, to survive. Beside her, Jax squeezed her hand. She tried to hold on to him. She tied to cling to her humanity.
But, as the silence dragged out, she wasn’t sure how long she could.
“You turned your back on us, Nora.” The voice rang through the darkness, familiar.
Sydney had heard the same voice in her bedroom the first time the hunters visited her. The wolf shoved its way to the surface. It needed to survive, to fight. The feeling hurt, twisting her with the pain of the forced transformation. She wanted to hold back, to keep her voice, but the wolf didn’t see a need for it.
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