“Help me help him. Please,” I whispered. This time, the heat that coursed through me was uncomfortable. I felt like I was burning from the inside out. I pushed through the pain, remaining focused on what mattered most in that moment: keeping Knox alive. My limbs shook, and I could smell the burning of flesh—my flesh—as I soldiered on, maintaining my hold on the wolf's arm, unwilling to break contact with him.
“Piper,” a male called to me. “Piper, you have to let go now.” Freezing cold hands pried mine away from Knox easily. I opened my eyes to find Merc kneeling beside me, the same look of sadness in his gray-blue eyes. “It will kill you if you don't control it,” he said softly, a hint of understanding in his voice. I stared at him, not knowing what to do or say. Thankfully, a pained cry from Knox distracted us both.
“Knox! Knox, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.” I took hold of his hand, hoping that he would do as I'd asked. All I received in return was more of the same horrific cries.
“He is suffering for his pack—taking their pain away,” Merc observed.
“I can't help him enough. I don't know what else to do,” I said, beseeching the vampire beside me. “Will you help him...like you helped me? Will you ease his suffering?”
He stared at me, giving nothing away in his gaze.
“You love him,” he said, his voice calm and controlled.
I said nothing.
“You are falling in love with him.”
I bit my lip, nodding once.
He assessed me for a moment before leaning close, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear.
“For you, I will do this.”
Without further ado, he leaned down to Knox and murmured something unintelligible until the werewolf calmed, his body relaxing into the ground beneath him. Once he did, Merc stood, giving me a long, wistful look, before turning to walk back toward his brothers, who were now standing, albeit with Kat's help, off in the distance. She had fed them, judging by the pallor of her skin and the fact that they were upright at all. Her loyalty to the enforcers had been proven tenfold that night. Jensen would be proud.
My heart tightened as he continued past them, heading off into the darkness. I wanted to say something to him—anything—but couldn't find the right words. We had so many unresolved issues looming over us. So much damage had been done that I questioned if it could ever be repaired—or if I wanted it repaired at all. Losing Merc to the madness had been like a death to me. I'd grieved his loss and moved on. I'd found someone else. Or had I?
Watching him walk away, I wasn't so sure.
Fear had kept my emotions at bay for the past few weeks, allowing me to move past how I felt about Merc. But that night, seeing him again with the veil of twisted magic lifted, feelings rushed back in, clouding my decisions and leaving me confused. I felt slightly traitorous—like an adulteress. He'd helped Knox for me—to help me. His guilt had been palpable as he’d stared at me before he walked away. He hated himself for what he'd done, and it hurt to see it.
He loved me so much that he was willing to walk away.
My heart ached at that realization.
“You need to keep working on him,” Kat called to me as she approached, pulling me from my downward spiral. I looked up to find her bearing the weight of a brother on each shoulder—a wobbly threesome. “If you keep healing him, you'll heal the others. Look around. They're getting better.”
I did as she said and once again scanned the carnage of the battle. Some of the wounded wolves were now sitting up; a few of them were standing. Feeling restored and refocused, I channeled the energy back into Knox at a more even and controlled pace. What seemed like an eternity later, I felt him move under my hands.
“Knox?” I called, hopeful for a response. When his green eyes fluttered open, I screeched with delight.
“Anyone see that freight train that mowed me over?” he asked, rolling over onto his side.
“You're okay!” I shouted, throwing my arms around his neck, knocking him back to the ground. I fell awkwardly on top of him, burying my face in his neck.
“I'd be better if you stopped choking me,” he replied with a laugh.
“Oh. Sorry,” I apologized, scrambling off of him.
“I didn't say run away!” He pulled me back down on top of him, resting me comfortably on his chest. “Much better.”
“I need to go check on the others,” I said, kissing him lightly.
“No you don't,” he argued, squeezing me against him. “I can feel them when they're near. They're all alive and accounted for, thanks to you.” His earnest expression made me flush with embarrassment. I was the reason they'd nearly been killed in the first place. Praise seemed unnecessary.
Kat hovered beside us, then dropped the boys rather inelegantly to the ground beside Knox.
“You two are going on a diet when we get home,” she groused, plopping down between them, breathing hard.
“We're a sad-looking lot,” Knox joked, though there was far more truth to his observation than he wanted to admit. “Anyone able to tell me what the fuck happened? All I know is, the second we entered the woods, that fucking force field or whatever the hell it was went up and we were shut down...stuck watching the shitshow.” The pain and anger in his voice let me know that it would take him awhile to get over what he'd witnessed that night.
He’d thought he was going to watch me die.
“Everything happened so fast,” I said, trying to remember how everything had played out.
“Where did you ghost off to?” Knox interrupted, looking at Jase like he'd deserted us to save himself.
“The amulet,” Jase started, shifting to make himself more comfortable. His burns were markedly improved, but not yet fully healed. “I saw it poking out from under Kingston's jacket. It looked familiar, but I could not be certain. I thought it was the one Reinhardt had always worn—the one that he did not have on the night that Merc...” His voice drifted off, realizing that he was navigating a delicate topic. “Anyway, I needed confirmation that I was indeed seeing that. I knew just the person to go to to find out.”
“Who?” I asked, thinking that if Reinhardt had been overthrown, he wasn't likely to be in a position to tell Jase, and if the king didn't know what was going on in the first place, Jase certainly wasn't going to turn to him for answers.
“Sylvia,” he replied with an evil grin. “That bitch has been screwing Kingston off and on for decades. I knew for fact that she went to him the night of your bonding to Merc. She was so angry.”
“Hell hath no fury,” Dean added, collapsing onto his back, exhausted.
“At any rate, she sang like a canary when I had her by the throat. Kingston had bragged of his plan to take over the warlocks, and in his arrogance told her all about the prized amulet. How it worked. The power it held. How delicate it was...”
“I'm going to strangle that little shit when I get home,” Kat snarled.
“I think I'd like to see that,” Jase replied with his trademark smile.
The two of them shared a look and then laughed—hard—both of them falling back to the ground to join Dean, clutching their bellies.
“Knox,” Foust called, walking toward us. Jagger and Brunton flanked him as they crossed the lawn to reach us. “We're all clear.”
“That we are,” Knox replied, standing slowly. “Thanks to Piper.”
“That was some serious shit, Piper!” Jagger blurted out, scooping me into a hug. “You blew the fucking ground open! Who does that? Seriously bad ass, girl.”
Knox shot me a curious glance, and I smiled at him. He could get the low down on that later.
“I do what I can,” I said with a shrug.
“Yeah ya do. Talk about cleaning up.”
“Speaking of cleaning up,” Foust said, looking at what remained of the lodge. “Do you think you can heal that?”
We all turned our attention to the home, or what was left of it. Fire had destroyed the first floor, leaving parts of the
second story sagging down into it. The roof was all but gone.
“I'm so sorry, Knox,” I said softly, taking his hand in mine. “Your home...your things...they're all gone.”
“But we're all here,” he countered, stepping in front of me to eclipse my view of the house. “That's what matters. We can build another place.”
“Piper,” Dean called from behind us. “The sun is going to be rising on the east coast soon. We have to go.” He looked at me with pleading eyes that begged for me to understand the implications of what he'd said. Even with Kat's help, they were in no shape to dematerialize and needed my blood to help them.
“Here,” I said, rushing over to them, wrists extended. They both latched on and drank greedily, forcing themselves to let go before they took too much. When they stood, they looked as they always did, but even more lively. Invigorated.
“That's some serious juice you're packin' in those veins of yours, P!” Dean shouted before realizing the volume he'd used.
“Indeed,” Jase agreed, a look of awe in his eyes.
“What about Merc?” I asked, knowing that he'd arrived via a portal that I couldn't recreate.
“He's already gone.”
“What? How?” My heart raced at the thought of him being gone.
The brothers shared one of their annoying moments before answering me.
“He can dematerialize, too. Family trait, I guess,” Dean explained with a shrug.
“We'll see you at home? Soon?” Jase asked, pulling me into an embrace that Dean quickly joined.
“I...I don't...”
“She's staying with us,” Knox answered for me.
Unfortunately, I wasn't so sure he was right.
“Knox...”
“Don't say it, Piper,” he interrupted. I pushed away from the boys to face him. “You can't forget what they did to you, not to mention what's going on down there. They told you that it's a shitshow. You can't go back to that.”
“I don't know that I can stay here either, Knox. You're the one always telling me not to run. Well, I have a ton of stuff I ran from back in NYC, and I think it's time that I go back and deal with it all,” I told him. “Besides, if there really is a war going on, they might need me, especially if I can figure out these powers of mine.”
“Looked like you had pretty good control over them to me,” Kat added sarcastically.
“I couldn't recreate that if I tried, Kat. I’m not even sure who that was. That's the whole problem. I need to practice. You said so yourself, Knox. What better place than in the middle of chaos? It seemed to work out pretty well here. Maybe I need that kind of pressure.”
“That's insane, Piper. I know you've been in the mix of supernatural bullshit before, but not a war. It's nothing like what you've endured. It's insidious and covert. You won't see it coming.”
“There are other things I need to go back for.” I said, hesitating. I didn't know how to explain to Knox that I needed to resolve things with Merc. To him, he was an abusive, nearly murderous, ex of mine. I didn't want to be that girl—the one who couldn't walk away—but in light of what I’d learned that night, my resolution seemed to be wavering. Merc was not the monster I had made him into in my mind. He was a puppet, one manipulated by an evil warlock. To hold that against him seemed cruel.
If nothing else, I owed it to him to hear him out—absolve him of his guilt that was so plain. One way or another, we needed closure.
“You're right,” he said softly. “You should go.” Once again, my heart sank at hearing him so easily cave, not that I wanted him to argue with me. I just wanted him to understand, not give up. I looked up at him to find a dark expression flash through his eyes. It held a realization—one that he did not seem to like. “We're coming with you, Piper. Where you go, we go. We're a family—a pack. There's no escaping that fact. War or not, you're stuck with us.”
“You can't, Knox! You all nearly died tonight, and all because of me. You can't walk into New York, knowing what awaits you.”
“I can't?” he asked, quirking his brow. “I thought I told you, I like danger.”
“You're insane.”
“And you love it.”
He smiled wide, enjoying how flustered I was.
“You're serious, aren't you? You're really going to pack up the boys and come to New York?” I asked with utter disbelief.
“I think I can handle city life for a while,” he replied with a shrug.
I threw my arms around his neck, squeezing him tight.
“And you think Grizz is the one with balls...”
“You can stay with us,” Jase said. “We owe you a debt of gratitude not easily repaid.” Knox nodded in an official manner to the enforcer, accepting his offer. “Now I'm afraid we really must go. See you soon, Piper.”
I watched as Jase and Dean disappeared into thin air, satisfied with the knowledge that I would indeed see them soon.
“I'll call Jensen and get him to make arrangements to get us all back to the city,” Kat said, taking out her cell phone and walking around the house.
A muzzle jammed into the small of my back, alerting me to the fact that Grizz was still there. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about the big ball of fur lying nearby.
“Buddy! I'm so sorry. Are you okay?” He grumbled at me but shook his head yes. “You did great tonight.” He exhaled heavily and stomped, chasing after Kat for a bit, then turning back to look at me.
“Kat? What about her?”
He lumbered back toward the pack and then wedged himself between Foust and Jagger, staring at me indignantly.
“Of course you're part of the pack, Grizz.”
“Piper,” Knox said cautiously. “I don't think that's what he's getting at.”
“What do you mean?” I asked before realization set in. He was indeed part of my pack.
And he wanted to go wherever I went.
“Kat!” I shouted into the night air. “Make sure Jensen makes arrangements to bring a grizzly bear with us.”
I heard a muffled string of swears erupt on the other side of the house, but I knew she'd do as I asked. The boys, however, burst out laughing as they all congregated around the bear who’d helped save the day. Grizz looked leery of them, but it seemed that he and Knox had an understanding where I was concerned. They would both protect me at all costs.
I just hoped they wouldn't have to once we arrived in New York.
* * *
“We've salvaged what we could from the bedrooms,” Foust reported as he walked into the charred remains of the living room. “There's barely anything left.” Knox's expression tightened, his mouth pressing into a thin line.
“Throw what you found into the SUVs, and let's get out of here. Kat said they've got everything ready for us once we get to Anchorage.”
“About that,” Jagger interjected, lurking by the front door. The rest of the pack had already filed into the caravan of vehicles in the front yard, which had managed to escape damage. Only one was lost, but even that made for tight quarters in the remaining SUVs. “I—I can't go.”
The three of us looked at the ginger-haired werewolf with a mix of expressions. I was confused, Foust was irritated, and Knox understood.
“It'll be okay, Jags. We'll sort things out while we're—”
“You don't get it. I can't go back there. The second someone finds out I'm in town, I'm dead.”
“The enforcers won't let that happen any more than your pack will, Jagger,” I said in an effort to calm him. He was fidgeting wildly, practically jumping from one foot to the other while he thought about whatever demons he'd escaped when he’d come to Alaska and Knox.
“I don't know that that's enough, Piper. Your boys said it's chaos there. That doesn't bode well for me.”
“I'm not leaving you here,” Knox said firmly, but not unkindly. “A lone wolf won't do well up here.”
“I'll be fine. I'll hole up in Piper's place until you guys come back.”
A look passed over Knox
's face. One that both Jagger and I caught. One that told us we weren't coming back.
Ever.
“I'm not leaving you, Jagger. And I swear on all that is holy and right, we will sort out whatever shit is waiting for you in New York. Okay?”
Jagger looked unconvinced.
“Would it help if I told you that I won't let anything happen to you either?” I asked, grasping at straws to calm the wolf.
Oddly enough, it seemed to work.
He looked at me earnestly, making him look younger than he already did.
“All right. I'll go,” he said, turning away to the vehicles awaiting us all. As soon as he walked out the door, Knox started to laugh.
“Like I said, Piper, you really do have a way with animals.”
EPILOGUE
Everything seemed to come together so easily.
The wolves had been given sanctuary by both Jase and the king. Nobody had been lost in the battle with the warlocks. And their threat had been all but eliminated. So why did I feel such unease at the thought of returning to New York?
I looked out the window of the private jet sent for us by the king himself and wondered. I wondered what would happen when I saw Merc again—what would become of our bond. Then I wondered what would become of my budding relationship with Knox. How could the two of them possibly coexist under one roof? What had appeared to be the solution to the wolves' housing dilemma quickly turned into a conundrum I couldn't solve. One that left me questioning my sanity when I’d agreed to the offer made by Jase.
But it didn't matter now. All that mattered was restoring the balance within the supernatural community. Without it, lives would be lost. It might not be tomorrow, or the day after, but eventually those I knew and loved would start to fall victim to the anarchy. And that was a fate unacceptable to me.
Then there was Jagger, whose past was about to revisit him the second he set foot in New York. A past that had sent him running all the way to Alaska to escape it. Whatever he had done—whoever was after him—had to be addressed. I had made a promise to him that I would keep him safe, and I intended to keep it. But to ensure that, I needed to get control of whatever magic coursed through my veins. Whatever earthly power I had access to.
From the Ashes (Force of Nature #1) Page 27