by Emma Dean
Edith went upstairs with the raccoons and Selene stayed near Finnick, never once falling behind.
He didn’t bother telling them they were being stupid. Hunter was too busy basking in the bloodlust to notice. His alpha had gotten to the stage where he was now using his bare hands to snap their necks – his strength going unchecked. Which meant heads came right off and blood went everywhere.
Hunter didn’t even notice. He simply kept moving, kept searching each room for Kenzie or any sign of her. And he trusted Finnick and Ash to handle the rest.
Gritting his teeth, Ash checked the bodies that weren’t missing a head to make sure they were actually dead and wouldn’t wake up to fuck with them later.
Finnick was lost to them as well, but at least he had the sense to stick by Selene. The witch broke through a hundred wards, something new in each room, like it was nothing. If she wasn’t already the Matriarch of the Kavanagh clan, Ash would ask her to join their team on future jobs.
She was definitely more than capable.
Heat sliced through his arm and Ash snarled, cursing himself for not paying attention – focusing too hard on the others. They needed him to be alert, not worrying about everyone like a damn mother hen.
Ash turned and shot the guard twice in the skull, pushing him off as they went deeper into the house. Shots from above could be heard as the raccoons cleared the upstairs.
Where the fuck was she? The locator spell said she was here.
So where was his mate?
Ash snarled, grabbed another guard, and snapped his neck. He felt himself getting lost in the blood and pain and chaos – spiraling out of his careful control the longer they fought without finding her.
Where was she, where was she, where was she?
Finnick
The taste of blood in his mouth was satisfying and distracted him from the relentless chant in his head that kept telling him he was a terrible mate – that he wasn’t good enough for Kenzie – that everything up to this point had been a sham and a lie…
That he’d fucked up like he’d known he would.
How had he not noticed his mate leave the fucking house?
He didn’t deserve her.
The only thing keeping him from running into the forest to live out the rest of his days was that bond. It held him together – kept him just sane enough to follow orders, to kill the men in the paramilitary uniforms.
Ash started to lose control as the pain permeated the air like a gas. It was delicious and strong like a good wine. Finnick sniffed and hated that he couldn’t smell his mate anywhere. Growling he nudged Selene, wishing she could read his damn mind and do witchy shit to find her.
The longer this fight went on without discovering Kenzie’s location – the more danger they put her in.
Whoever was holding her hadn’t made an appearance which meant they were probably with Kenzie.
Which was not good.
Because someone who had the money and power for a proper paramilitary on an estate like this? Was powerful enough to get away with anything.
“The spell says she’s here,” Selene said. “I don’t know why we can’t find her. Can you smell her?”
Finnick shook his head and Selene grimaced. A few words and a flourish and suddenly there were a million more scents – the salt of the ocean, the plants, the cleaners used on the house, the fabric of the uniforms, one for each person walking through this house, and magic…
Someone had wiped clean all the scents and they’d all been too distracted to notice.
Hunter and Ash snapped their gaze to him – eyes glowing gold and they both snarled, canines out and their faces barely more than human. The bloodlust and pain was affecting all of them – the panic as each second ticked by was what made them barely more than the animals inside them.
Under all the trash in the air…Finnick smelled it. He could smell the burnt candy and cinnamon that was his Kenzie. She’d been here. Finnick followed that scent and let the others handle any remaining guards.
He didn’t bother with listening as Jace reported in, or how Hunter was asking about explosives. All Finnick needed at that moment was to find her.
The trail brought him to a door that looked like a closet, but her scent was stronger here – and another that made him curl back his lip. He glanced at Hunter over his shoulder, silently asking if he recognized it too.
“Brad,” Hunter spat. “And our kidnapper.”
“Yes, and he’s…a dragon – smells like the ocean,” Ash stated.
Fuck. They were in trouble.
“Eisheth still hasn’t responded to our texts.” Ash reloaded his gun. “Neither has Jessica.”
“Looks like it’s up to us,” Hunter muttered. His alpha didn’t even bother pulling up his rifle. Not when Finnick knew he needed to feel the death with his bare hands right now.
Not when he needed her.
“The door is locked,” Selene said, testing the doorknob. “Move.”
They all took a few steps back as her fingers moved in a complicated pattern. A second later the door blasted open.
They were going to find her. They had to. And they were going to find her alive.
Alive.
She had to be alive – he could feel her, but he wasn’t exactly in his right mind at the moment.
Finnick snarled and raced down the spiral staircase – he would find her alive and then they would make this asshole pay.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kenzie
Dust fell as the explosion rocked the earth, but Phineas didn’t even look up. He ripped the cuffs from her wrists with barely a thought and suddenly she felt like she could use the magic tucked away deep inside.
“Go ahead, take my power,” Phineas snarled, hauling her up with him. “Take it.”
Kenzie didn’t even bother trying. If he wanted her to…then it probably wasn’t a good idea.
“My mates have come for me,” she spat, knowing that explosion could mean only one thing.
“You think they can best me?” The thing laughed then and licked the side of her face. His tongue was long and forked and Kenzie jerked away.
“What the hell are you?” she asked, trying to get out of his grip.
But this guy wasn’t just paranormal strong. He was stronger than anyone she’d come across before in her life. Her bear shifter strength did nothing. Phineas just laughed and laughed as she struggled. He wrapped his arm around her, holding her in place against him.
“I am Mo’o – the dragon Kuna,” he whispered. “I am practically a god.”
Kenzie had to keep him talking, keep him distracted until her mates could make it down, though what they could do against this thing she had no fucking idea. Kenzie shoved every bit of power into him that she’d taken from Brad, hoping to at least shock him into releasing her.
But nothing.
He chuckled and held her tighter. “You’re adorable, Mackenzie. Now watch as your mates come to meet their doom.”
Kenzie felt terror then – a kind of terror she hadn’t felt since she was a little girl lying on a table as her family sliced runes into her body, watching a knife so sharp it could cut through bone like butter coming towards her eye…
“Run!” she screamed, hoping someone would listen. But they never did.
A fox came down the stairs first, snarling and growling and absolutely massive. He looked three times his normal size with the fur standing on end like that and Kenzie struggled again, trying to get her feet under her to do a proper throw, but whatever this dragon, Kuna was, he was a thousand times stronger than a bear shifter.
Hunter appeared next – silent with every movement calculated and prepared. He was covered in blood and Kenzie bucked against Phineas as panic hit her.
Was he hurt? Was any of that blood his?
Ash’s wild look came next with Selene right on his heels – she was already building power between her hands with a ball of light so bright it nearly blinded Kenzie.
Her sister had come – and none of them had known what was down here with her.
“I have the portal,” Selene said as her mates started circling.
Phineas’s grip on her throat tightened and Kenzie could have sworn she smelled smoke. “And yet you felt the need to barge into my home and kill everyone you could find instead of making the exchange at the drop like I said. Seems like our deal no longer exists. Why should I trade you for it when I can just take it now?”
Her sister looked to Hunter helplessly as Kuna’s grip kept getting tighter and tighter. Kenzie could barely get in air. She struggled even though she knew everything she’d learned in her life up to this point was utterly useless against something that was practically a god.
Spots started to appear and Hunter barked something that just barely made it through the pounding in her head.
“Stop hurting her,” he growled, taking just one step forward with Finnick snarling and bristling beside him. “Whatever you want – I’ll do it. Just stop hurting her and let her go.”
Kenzie tried to shake her head, she tried to call out to him to tell him no, he would not – but her legs were already collapsing and she felt herself grow faint from such little oxygen.
“Anything?” Kuna asked, perking up.
Hunter stared right at her as he answered. “Yes, anything.”
Kenzie didn’t know what Kuna could possibly want from her mate, but it terrified her regardless. Tears spilled and Kuna released her so she could take a huge gasp of air, nearly fainting from the sudden rush of oxygen.
The dragon’s hand gripped her hair instead and yanked back – hard. Kenzie didn’t yell or scream. She refused to give him the satisfaction. So she gritted her teeth and shoved the pain down.
“Prove it to me,” Kuna said, and then he pointed to the others. “And if anyone does anything stupid, I’m ripping Ms. Mackenzie’s heart out.” That tongue flickered against her cheek again, long and forked. Kenzie flinched.
For the first time in her adult life – she was truly helpless. There was nothing she could do against Kuna’s strength. Her foxes were going to die because they loved her. Selene might get out of this if she did actually have the portal – all she had to do was step through a door.
Kenzie glanced at the pack on her sister’s back and tried to think of a way for all of them to get out of this alive.
“If you will do anything for this,” Kuna said, shaking Kenzie hard enough she flinched. “Then prove it to me. Point your gun at that one.” The dragon jerked his chin at Ash.
No. No he couldn’t do this. But that look in her mate’s eyes told her he would. “Please Hunter,” Kenzie begged. “Please don’t.”
But Hunter had already obeyed. His gun was pointed right at Ash’s temple – his face completely void of any thoughts or emotions. Even through the bond he was empty.
Ash nodded at their alpha and gave Kenzie the smallest smile. “It’s okay. We knew one of us might not make it out of here. Remember, I love you, Kenzie.”
Tears were streaming down her face now and Kenzie thrashed against the dragon. “Finnick, please don’t let him do this.”
The fox just looked at her with the most mournful eyes, but he didn’t move to stop Hunter. The only person who seemed unsure was Selene, though her sister seemed frozen by the indecision.
“Cock it,” Kuna instructed.
There had to be something she could do, but Kenzie felt just like she had when she was five – when each new day brought a new kind of torture. Helpless and angry.
So angry.
“If you do this Hunter, I’ll never forgive you,” she spat, no longer struggling. If she was going to get out of this she had to be smart. The more it was drawn out the more time it gave her to think.
Kuna wanted her to take his power which meant she probably couldn’t hold it – and Eisheth had warned her about this. But…it would be better than watching one of the foxes she loved so desperately die right in front of her eyes by one of the other foxes she loved.
“Kenzie, none of us can live without you,” Hunter stated matter-of-factly. “Losing one of our brothers will hurt, but we’ll get over it.”
“But I won’t!” she screeched.
Hunter didn’t respond. He just cocked the gun and waited for what Kuna would tell him to do next.
“Please Selene, do something.” Kenzie turned her gaze on her sister, praying to anything that would listen to make this all stop. “Don’t let this happen.”
“If you move witch, I’ll incinerate your sister.” Kuna laughed. “You mortals are so entertaining. So much fear. So delicious.”
They were all silent and Kenzie knew she had to risk it. Taking this thing’s power was a 50/50 chance for disaster. But sitting here and doing nothing? Someone she loved was going to die if she didn’t make a choice.
“Actually, I changed my mind,” Kuna said. She could practically hear the creepy smile in his voice and Kenzie went completely still. “Put the gun in your mouth, Hunter.”
Her heart literally stopped as Hunter did so without hesitation.
Ash jerked as if he were going to lunge forward and then stopped at the same time Finnick whirled around.
Kenzie looked into Hunter’s eyes and there was still nothing in them – he would pull that trigger the second Kuna asked and gladly.
For her.
She refused to let this happen. Kenzie wrapped her hand around the hand holding her hair.
Hunter’s eyes widened and for the first time since he’d appeared she saw something flash through them.
Fear.
Kenzie pulled.
Hard.
Kuna screeched and yanked back – trying to get away from her.
But the power filling her body as she kept folding and folding…it enhanced her strength and speed. Kenzie felt it infuse every part of her – the power of something like a god. A creature so old it didn’t even remember when it was born.
The taste of the ocean filled her as she kept taking – as Kuna kept screaming.
Everyone was screaming—telling her to stop.
But Kenzie was lost in the power.
It was nothing to remove Kuna’s hand from her hair, to pull his arm off of her and turn around. The dragon fell to his knees as she kept taking and taking. He had tried to kill her foxes. That was not a game she played.
“What did you really want with me?” Kenzie asked, feeling the power crackling in her veins, boiling her blood, but it stayed in her skin. Just barely. She squeezed Kuna’s hand and he yelped in pain. “Why pretend to be a witch? Why steal me away?”
Then the dragon laughed, skin getting whiter and whiter with each pull of his power that was drained from him. “There was a lot about you I wanted, Mackenzie. I was hoping you might take my power from me just to see what you could do, and then ask you to work for me – but I really wanted that portal either way.”
When he blinked his eyes were no longer glowing and he was panting. “I just wanted to go somewhere that my mother couldn’t find. She’s been punishing me for the last six thousand years and I’m so tired. I just wanted to find some peace.”
She pulled harder – ignoring the shouts of the others. If there was anything she understood, it was the desire to run away from a family hell-bent on making a person’s life as painful and miserable as possible. “Why is she punishing you?”
Kuna laughed, but it was weak and pathetic. “My mother is a goddess. She didn’t take too kindly to me trying to kill her sister. Thanks to Maui she’s been hunting me ever since. A portal could take me anywhere—somewhere she could never find.”
There was no way she was going to let this asshole just disappear – not after everything.
Her lip curled in disgust. “Somewhere else for you to poison. Why the disguise?”
“To hide from her,” Kuna said with a shrug, practically crumbling in on himself now. “Dampening my power makes me blend in. As a witch on the Council no one thought to look twice. I had a bit
more power than most males, but I was always careful not to use too much.”
Then he looked up at her and smiled. “Your eyes are glowing blue.”
“Kenzie, stop.”
She didn’t let go of Kuna, but she did turn her head to face Selene. “He tried to murder them.”
That wasn’t something she was going to forgive or forget.
“And you’re killing him. Which I completely understand and appreciate,” Selene said gently, holding out her hands like Kenzie was waving a gun around and she was afraid of getting shot. “But you’ve never taken this kind of power before, or this much.”
Kenzie didn’t care.
It didn’t matter to her what Selene was saying.
Her sister didn’t know what it was like to finally find something that made her feel like she belonged in the world. Kenzie had three mates who completed her perfectly, who made her feel like she was worth something – even when she hadn’t had any special abilities.
They accepted her exactly as she was and loved her anyway.
Kenzie turned back to Kuna who was laughing again. “I’m so glad you decided to play,” the dragon said.
And then he stood up.
Selene gasped and took a step back.
Kuna grinned, teeth sharp as razors now and the sight made Kenzie pause. The power flickering in her veins leaned toward him as he breathed in deeply. She was so entranced she didn’t see it coming when he backhanded her.
She went flying, smacking into a wall hard enough more dust and debris rained down from the ceiling. Her sister screamed her name.
Suddenly everyone was moving.
The raccoons poured into the basement with Edith and everyone tried to get a piece of Kuna. But he was a god-like dragon who withstood the stripping of most of his power like he was just feeling a little bit under the weather.