by Bella Jacobs
I wince and know I would be throwing up right now if there were anything in my belly but water. “Oh my god. We have to get him out. We can’t let that happen.”
“I’m going to try my damnedest,” he says in a gentler voice. “And my allies, too. But you can’t be one of them. There are spells active in the camp to make the virgins easy to spot. The moment you walked through those wards, every witch there would know about it. We’d lose the element of surprise and any chance of getting in unnoticed.”
My thoughts race, but despite my exhaustion, my brain comes to the only logical next step with alarming swiftness.
It’s alarming because this man is a stranger and Jacob’s brother and a full-grown man and not even close to my type—I like men with a sense of humor, who ask before they tie people up. I also like to know a guy’s name before I consider getting naked with him.
But Cranky’s the only other human around, so I guess he’ll have to do.
“Then let’s go,” I say, pushing on with more bravado than I feel when his brow furrows in confusion. “Let’s take care of the virgin thing, genius. Should take what, five, six minutes tops? And then I’ll be able to help Jacob. Problem solved.”
But the problem is not solved, of course.
I’ve known this man all of ten minutes, but it’s already obvious that he’s a bossy control freak who will not be giving me what I want without a fight. But I’m not about to give up on Jacob just because Cranky says ‘no’ the first time around.
I will do whatever it takes to save the boy I love—even sleep with his brother.
Chapter Ten
Maxim
Willow’s parents greet me with a warmth that makes me hope even harder that my father hasn’t been permanently damaged by his long association with Cam.
Because Dad would love these people. I don’t have Diana’s gift for reading auras, but from the moment Willow’s mom pulls me in for a big hug and her dad slaps me on the back with a grin, I know I’ve won the in-law lottery.
“Thank you for loving our baby girl,” her mom—Wendy—says, pulling back to gaze up at me with teary green eyes the same color as Willow’s. “And don’t even try to deny it because I can see it all over your face. You’re crazy about our Willow.” She nudges her husband—Harvey—in the ribs. “Isn’t he, honey? It’s just like that day in the park when we first met. You remember? How your friends teased you for having hearts in your eyes?”
“I do,” Harvey says, his grin widening. “Still have ’em forty-two years later.”
Wendy laughs, beaming as she wraps one arm around her husband and one around her daughter, squeezing them both tight. “I’m so glad we get to be a family again. Who would have imagined? I feel so lucky.”
Willow, who was already a little green around the gills, looks like she’s about to lose our very expensive lunch. “Well, Mom, the truth is…” She pulls in a breath, but I cut her off, wanting to take this blow for her.
She’s certainly taken enough for me.
“The truth is, we’re in a hard spot,” I say to Wendy. “My pack is in danger and we’re pretty sure you’re the only person who can help us.” I briefly explain the situation, pushing boldly ahead when I mention Wendy’s pack gift, pretending I don’t know she’s apparently kept it a secret from her husband for their entire, very long, hearts-in-their-eyes marriage.
By the time I’m finished, Wendy is the one who’s green and Harvey has gone so pale I can trace the path of the veins on his round, bald head.
“I’m so sorry,” he says in a tortured voice. “But we can’t help you. There must have been some misunderstanding. Wendy doesn’t have a pack gift.”
Willow catches her mother’s gaze with a meaningful look.
Wendy shakes her head and swipes a trembling hand across her upper lip. “No, I don’t. I thought I might have had one, once, but it was a mistake.”
“No, it wasn’t, Mom,” Willow says, her eyes beginning to glow, causing both her parents to stumble back a few steps. “You have a gift and you’re going to use it to save the North Star pack. And Dad will forgive you. He loves you too much to hold a grudge.”
“Is that what I…” Her father trails off, glancing between Willow and myself before pointing to her eyes. “We haven’t had a Pathfinder Parallel side in decades.”
“You’re not Parallel side anymore, Dad,” Willow says, her eyes still bright. “And you won’t be ever again. You’re going to live with us.” Her voice hitches as she shifts her attention my way. “So you can spend lots of time with your grandbaby.”
My heart stops for a second and my stomach does a series of acrobatics that none of my other internal organs appreciate. “Do you mean… Are we?”
She nods, tears replacing the glow shining in her eyes. “Yeah. We are. I mean, I should take a test to be one hundred percent sure, but I…saw him, Maxim. It’s a boy. He’ll be born next summer.” A shadow passes over her face, but before I can ask her what else she saw, her mother bursts into tears. “Oh, Willow, baby, I’m so happy. And so sorry. I’m so sorry, Harvey. I was just so afraid. I never told anyone. Well, almost anyone.”
She continues to cry as Willow and Harvey huddle around her, murmuring comforting assurances that it’s all right, they understand, and that there’s no reason to hide now.
“Maxim and I will protect you, Mom,” Willow says. “We promise.”
Wendy swipes at her eyes. “That’s not what I’m worried about, honey. That was never what I was worried about. I was afraid someone would use you to get to me. That they’d hurt you or Dad or Kelley in order to force me to do what they wanted. Can you imagine if Victor had the ability to make people forget things?”
At the mention of her sister’s name, Willow looks sick again, but she doesn’t hold back. She explains what’s happening to her parents gently, but thoroughly, pulling no punches.
To my surprise, neither of them seems overly shocked by the revelations.
“We lost her years before she ran away,” Wendy says. “The first time she brought Bane home to meet us…I knew things would never be the same.”
“And that the two of them wouldn’t end well,” Harvey adds in a pained voice. “I knew that boy would be the ruin of her the day I laid eyes on him.” He glances up at me. “I’m sure you’re grieving him, but your brother wasn’t right, Maxim. There was something missing in him, something people shouldn’t be born without.”
“I agree,” I say, my throat going tight as I realize that Harvey’s right. I am grieving Bane. Not the man he became, but the boy I remember, the one who was just my big brother and my friend. “But hopefully it isn’t too late to bring Kelley back to you. Willow’s going to—”
Willow puts a hand on my arm and subtly shakes her head, but it’s too late. Her parents aren’t fools and they’ve already had a glimpse of her gift.
“You’ve seen something, haven’t you?” her mother asks. “About Kelley.”
Willow nods, misery clear on her face. “I’ll tell you about it on the way back to the city. But we should go. We don’t have much time. Kelley’s going to attempt that ritual with the sword I mentioned. Tonight. We’ll have to move fast to be ready to face her in time.”
Wendy and Harvey load back into the limo, I confer briefly with the driver—directing him to park several blocks from the tower in the garage of another office building I own—and then turn back to Willow.
“Anything you want to tell me before we get in?” I ask, holding her tortured gaze.
“The good news is, no matter what happens, our son is born healthy,” she says. “And he’s…beautiful. He looks just like you.”
I put my arms around her, the need to hold her a visceral thing I can’t resist. “And the bad news?”
“The other good news is that the ritual is going to fail,” she says, tears slipping from her eyes to stream quietly down her cheeks. “There’s something wrong with it. Something…twisted. I don’t know what it is exactly, but no matter h
ow hard they try, they won’t be able to make Kelley queen. One way or another, this ends with a Thorn on the throne, leading the united packs of Human side.”
I cup her face in one hand, gently wiping the tears away as I insist, “And the bad news. It’s okay. I can take it, little wolf. You don’t have to protect me from the truth. In fact, I would prefer you didn’t.”
She swallows hard, more tears gliding along the paths traced by the others as she whispers, “If we don’t stop Kelley tonight, you don’t live to see our son, Maxim. You don’t live to see morning.”
Chapter Eleven
Willow
The plan is simple—I pretend that I’ve been in St. Louis fetching my parents and that I had no idea Maxim was gone until we returned to the city. Then I insist to anyone who questions my appearance at the tower that I’m there to talk to Jimmy about his grandchild.
That’s it.
I don’t want anything to do with Maxim or the North Star pack, I just want my son to know his paternal grandfather. And I’d like Jimmy to meet my parents, since they’ll be sharing grandparent duties. That should get us an audience with Maxim’s father, and by default, Cam. Cam is Jimmy’s shadow and I doubt he’s letting the former Alpha out of his sight these days, even to talk about something private like baby news.
Baby news.
My baby.
He’s barely the size of a single poppy seed right now, but he’s so real to me. I’ve seen his cherub face and dark, clever eyes. I’ve watched him laugh and kick his chubby little legs. I fell so deeply in love with him during the course of a thirty-second vision, I can only imagine the love that will fill my heart to bursting once he’s born.
My son is as real to me as the trembling hands that grasp the thick door handle at the main entrance to the North Star tower. As real as the footsteps of my parents following close behind me as we step into the lobby.
As real as the line of enforcers that wait to greet us a few yards ahead.
I pull in a bracing breath, reminding myself that my son is counting on me to make sure his father lives to hold him, hug him, and help him grow up safe and strong, as I meet Hermione’s cool gaze.
Instantly, it’s clear something isn’t right about my friend. She’s distant and when I greet her with a warm, “Hey there, Hermione. Good to see you,” she seems confused by my familiarity.
But she plays it off well. “Hello, Willow. How can we help you? Maxim isn’t here right now.”
“So, I’ve heard,” I say. “Which is why I’m here.” I motion over my shoulder. “Hermione, meet Wendy and Harvey, my parents. We’re here to talk to Jimmy.” I press my hand to the still mostly flat expanse between my hips. “About the baby.”
Her brows lift and pity fills her eyes, making me think she still remembers what happened my last night in the tower, when Maxim drugged me. He warned me that most of the enforcers know the story, thanks to the chatty guard who’d led me back to my room, and that Hermione had been pissed about it, to the point that she threatened to cut ties with Maxim if he behaved that way again.
“Oh, well, congratulations,” she says in a strained voice. “Let me call upstairs. See if Jimmy is up for visitors. If you’ll excuse me.”
She steps away and pulls her cell from her pocket, pacing toward where the lobby opens up ahead, filling with light from the large windows that flood the first three stories with sun. Dimly I can make out the sounds of conversation from the restaurants in the Atrium. It’s still lunch time for normal people—Maxim and I had our feast just after ten a.m.
I cling to the thought, wringing every bit of hope from it that I can. We still have nearly twelve hours left to put our house to rights and get back to the forest to face Kelley. Maxim assured me that he can have a fleet of helicopters and a cargo plane ready to fly in less than an hour if needed—and more than enough warriors to fill them to capacity.
And Mom seems pretty sure that her pack gift will work over the phone—at least the cancelling out part. She’s never tried anything like it personally, but she’s had her ear to the ground since she found out about her gift while she was in high school.
Banishing memories is something that has to be done face to face but revealing what another person’s forgetting gift has erased is allegedly much easier.
“Apparently, it’s like throwing water on cotton candy,” Mom said on the walk over from the garage, where Maxim is waiting for the all-clear signal. “All you have to do is question whether their memories have been tampered with and the architecture of the lie dissolves.”
I pray she’s right.
It looks like we’ll have a chance to test her theory sooner than we thought. Hermione returns after just a few minutes, says Jimmy is happy to receive us at his apartment, and offers to escort us up to his floor herself.
Mom and I lock eyes as we follow her to the elevator. She nods and my heart beats even faster, so fast I have to fight to keep my breaths smooth and even as we wait for the car to arrive.
This is it.
In just a few seconds we’ll be alone with Hermione.
Time slows to a horror movie crawl as the elevator dings and the doors slide open. Hermione reaches out her arm, holding the doors as my parents and I step inside. Then she punches the button and steps back to lean against the wall of the car, her arms crossed in front of her, but never far from the weapon strapped onto her belt.
All the enforcers are more heavily armed than I remember and clearly on edge. I seriously doubt Hermione would fire a gun in an elevator, but as soon as we step out, we’re fair game. And who knows what Cam has done to her head? If he’s erased enough of her memory, she might not trust me at all. She might even think I’m a spy…or something worse. Kelley might have convinced her that I’m the enemy somehow.
I’m well on my way to a full-blown panic attack when Mom says, “So, Hermione, how long have you been Maxim’s second in command?”
“Over a decade,” Hermione says politely.
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Mom enthuses. “A woman in such a senior leadership position. That wouldn’t happen in my old pack, I can tell you that. I’d love to hear more about how you rose through the ranks. If you have clear memories of your time with Maxim. I assume you can recall everything that happened between the two of you. Especially recently.”
Hermione’s forehead furrows and the muscles in her throat work harder as she tries to swallow. But she’s clearly still struggling when she says, “I think I do. At least, I did until…” She presses a hand to the side of her head with a soft curse. “What the hell is happening?”
I risk touching fingers to her shoulder. “Are you okay? Feeling sick?”
“No, I’m feeling…crazy.” She looks up, her wide eyes meeting mine. Instantly, I can tell the woman I knew before is back and that she remembers me. “What’s going on, Willow? A second ago I didn’t remember how we met. Or our talk in the Atrium or—”
“It’s Cam,” I say, hurrying to explain as the car begins to slow. “He’s been using his pack gift to alienate our allies, manipulate Jimmy, and maybe even support Kelley’s bid to rule.” I motion toward her chest. “And to get you on his side, apparently. But my mom has the same pack gift. Hers cancels his out.”
Hermione curses again but rolls her shoulders back as the car comes to a stop. “All right. Hopefully her mojo will work as well on Jimmy as it did on me, and we can get Cam in a cell with soundproof walls ASAP.”
“Cutting out his tongue would also work,” my mom says softly, but cheerfully, as we step out into the wide hallway on Jimmy’s floor.
I turn to her, my brows shooting up my forehead.
“What?” She blinks innocently. “That’s what they did to all the wolves who manifested this gift in the Middle Ages. It’s one of the reasons I always hid it.” She sniffs. “Though I can’t say I really blame them. A person shouldn’t abuse a gift like this. With great power comes great responsibility. And if you can’t respect that, maybe you don’t deserve
a tongue.”
“Wow. That’s…dark, Mom,” I say as we follow Hermione down the hall.
“But an excellent point,” Hermione says, stopping in front of Jimmy’s door. She lowers her voice as she says with a smile, “Go get him, Wendy. We’ve got your back.”
And we do.
As we join Jimmy in his sunny sitting room—the one where I convinced him Maxim and I should be married—my heart is still doing its best to punch a hole through my ribs. I’m scared to death, but the entire thing is over in just a few minutes.
Cam, who’s standing by the window, lurking as always, realizes something’s up with Hermione right away. While he’s distracted trying to get her out of the room—presumably to reassert control over her memories—my mom swoops in and frees Jimmy.
It takes Maxim’s dad a little longer to recover—he’s older and not in as good health as Hermione—but once he does, he’s righteously pissed.
And Cam is…destroyed.
“Please, brother,” he says, falling to his knees in front of Jimmy’s wheelchair. “Please forgive me. I didn’t see another way. I did what I thought I had to do to protect you from Bane. And then Kelley contacted me, and she seemed like the lesser of two evils and…” His breath shudders out. “It all got out of control so fast. But I swear, you were in my heart the entire time. I only wanted what was best for you.”
“I’m a grown man, not a child,” Jimmy says, anger and grief warring in his tone. “And I was your Alpha for decades. I’m not a man who can’t handle hard choices, Cameron. And I’m certainly not a man who appreciates having my choices—and my memories—taken away.” His hands curl into fists. “No matter how ugly they are.”