by Alisa Woods
“I don’t want Mia in the Reds’ lair any longer than necessary,” his father said calmly.
Lucas reined in his fury. His father’s cool voice reminded Lucas that he wouldn’t get what he needed that way—and he very much needed his father’s help. And that of Llyr’s pack, too, if he was going to be successful in pulling Mia out, not just going in blazing and getting himself killed in the process.
“I know, I just… you know one of them is going to try to claim her.”
“If they know she’s a wolf.” His father seemed skeptical on that point, but he didn’t know Mia the way Lucas did. If she were in trouble, her wolf would come out. Lucas had just finished teaching her to do exactly that. He couldn’t imagine it not happening.
“They’ll know,” Lucas said. “Trust me… they’ll know.”
His father frowned, but didn’t argue any further. He just took a breath and leaned forward over his desk, which was strewn with a satellite map of the Red pack’s compound that Lev had printed out.
“We all want Mia to join our family here,” his father said. “To come home to us and to you. But the Reds aren’t going to kill her, Lucas. If they still think she’s human, we have a day before their deadline comes around. If they know she’s a wolf, we have… less time. But they’re also less likely to harm her. So the important thing is not to get there fast, but to make sure we can succeed in getting her out. We’re only going to get once chance to do this.”
Lucas curled up a fist and pressed it into the table. Then he stabbed a finger at one of the outlying houses. “She’s here, in Mace’s house.”
His father cocked an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”
“I know him. He’s the one orchestrating all of this.”
“He has been vying to take over his brother’s place as favored son for some time.” His father nodded. “But why would he keep her there?”
Lucas took a breath. His wolf was still snorting and howling inside him to get Mia now, but his human side had calmed enough to know planning was necessary. At least they were talking specifics now.
“The main house has too many eyes,” Lucas said. “Even if this is approved by their alpha, that doesn’t mean they want every minor wolf and housekeeper to see what’s going down. The outlying houses afford more privacy.” His wolf growled at the idea of what Mace would do with that privacy: even if he hadn’t claimed Mia, Mace had a reputation for sexual predation, with a special taste for unsuspecting human females. He was the kind of wolf that gave shifters their rep for being brutal criminals and thugs. Lucas squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and forced himself to not think about Mia in Mace’s hands. Otherwise, he’d be rushing off in a blind rage at any moment.
His father looked up from the map. “All right. We’ll focus on Mace’s house first, then have contingencies for scouting the other outlying houses, if she’s not there. First we’ll have to breach the outer security. I believe they’ve electrified the perimeter, but we need to find out what other security systems they have installed. Llyr’s pack will take point on that. Lev, I want you and your wolf-brothers to secure some weapons for us. We’ll be entering the house as wolves—I don’t want to leave any DNA traces, if possible—but we may need weapons on the way in and on the way out. Lucas, you’ll stay here and help me work out the strategy.”
The men surrounding them were restless, flitting looks to one another and tossing their heads as if they were already in wolf form. They were as eager to get started as Lucas was.
His father straightened and addressed them all. “This isn’t a game. I want exactly as much aggression as necessary to bring the girls home, and no more. If nothing else, a massacre at the Red Wolf estate would draw police attention that none of us can afford.”
The pack members dipped their head in agreement, but Lucas could smell the spike in testosterone. They were itching to draw some Red pack blood.
“I mean it.” His father’s voice had grown very quiet. Every wolf perked to listen. “Any wolf who does more than his share will answer to me.” That chilled the air a little, but they still seethed, ready to go. “That being said, no one gets captured, and no one gets left behind. Including the girls. We succeed at this or we fail as a pack. Understood?”
The packs yipped at that, and then broke apart, heading for the door and their respective assignments. Lucas’s father held up a hand to stay Llyr and Lev before they trotted out with the rest.
“Meet back here by dusk,” he told them. “We’ll be ready by then.”
Llyr gave him a short nod. Colin, stood next to him, face gaunt and serious. Llyr gestured for Colin to follow him, which he did, fists clenched. Lucas had won the right to claim Mia, but he knew what Colin must be thinking: that Mia may yet turn Lucas down. That Colin could still win her away. And whichever wolf saved Mia would likely win more than just her appreciation. Every instinct of hers would point her toward the stronger wolf as the better mate. And Colin understood instincts as well as Lucas did.
The idea made all the fur on Lucas’s inner wolf bristle out, but to his human side, there was only one thing that was important: getting Mia out.
Lucas watched Colin leave, then caught Lev’s arm before he reached the door. “Back in a minute,” Lucas said over his shoulder to his father, then he followed a surprised Lev out the door. He pulled his little brother to the side, out of the crowd of wolves threading through the common room.
Lucas ducked his head, so only Lev could see the expression on his face. “Lev…” he started, then his throat grew thick. He cleared it out. “They might be hurting her.”
Lev’s look of surprise quickly faded into a stone-cold expression. “They damn well better not.”
“But if they have…” Lucas stared up at the ceiling for a moment. He wasn’t sure he would survive if he found her hurt. He knew for certain Mace wouldn’t survive….but Lucas might lose his mind soon thereafter.
“Lucas, Dad’s right,” Lev said with a lighter, soothing voice. “Mace isn’t going to hurt her. Especially if he knows she’s a wolf. She’s too valuable—not to just any given pack, but to wolves everywhere. No wolf in his right mind would hurt a female, especially one as young as Mia. She’s got lots of years of mating still ahead of her.”
Lucas brought his gaze back down from the heavens. “I’m not entirely sure Mace is in his right mind. But I know for certain he’ll claim her. He might have done it already.” That thought made his teeth grind and his wolf’s jaws ache with a desire for Mace’s throat.
“I know,” Lev said quietly. “If that’s the case, we’ll just have to make sure we kill Mace.”
It was enough to pull Lucas out of his seething rage. He gave his brother a small smile. “I was kind of planning on that, actually.”
“I recommend we do it just as a precautionary measure.”
Lucas snorted a short laugh. “I don’t mind going to jail over it, Lev. But I don’t even want you on this mission. You stay away from Mace, you hear me?”
“Look at you, all giving orders! One fight with Colin, and you think you’re my alpha again? Just you try to stop me, brother.” Lev’s voice was light, but his face was dead serious.
Lucas shook his head, but Lev’s words swelled something inside him. Lucas had screwed up in the past, but he was a different wolf now. He had to get Mia back first—nothing else came close in priority—but if he could do that, things felt possible again. From the moment she came into his life, she’d had that effect: making him feel things that had been long dead. Challenging him to be a better wolf. A better man. Maybe, with her by his side, he could reclaim the other things he’d lost. The other parts of himself. Maybe he could actually be a true alpha again.
First things first.
Lucas put a hand on Lev’s shoulder and gave him a small smile. “Just make sure you’re in wolf form while you’re doing stupid things. I don’t want your DNA all over the place if I have to kill Mace.”
Lev nodded. “Yeah, okay, boss. But it
’s going to work out. Mia’s strong. Whatever happens, we’re going to get her out of there, and you’re going to have her back.”
Lucas smiled as his younger brother’s optimism. He could feel it working its magic on him as well. With his brothers by his side, they could do this.
Lev tipped his head toward his waiting pack-brothers. “I’ll see you in an hour?”
“An hour.” Lucas watched him go, then took a breath and headed back to his father’s office.
They needed to be smart about this. Like his father said, they would only have one chance. And for Lucas, everything hinged on saving the girl who was saving his life.
The witch swaggered into the room where Mia was being held prisoner. She was dressed in a way Mia could only call upscale goth: curve-hugging, slinky purple dress with a flame-like hem flitting around her shapely legs, a plunging neckline that accented her ample cleavage, and a black beaded-chain choker around her neck. The woman’s hair hung in tumbling waves to her waist, a sheet of midnight black except for the wide swath of purple-tint. Her stiletto heels made her as tall as the wolves who stayed back by the door.
As the witch approached, Mia stood up from the bed, motioning Jeeter to stay seated—if at all possible, Mia wanted to keep her roommate out of this.
The witch’s red-glossed lips curved into a smirk, and her eyes devoured Mia. “So this is your new plaything, Mace?”
“No touching, Hecca,” Mace said. “Spells only.” He had followed her into the room, closing the door and leaving his betas outside. Jak remained in the room, although Mia thought maybe Mace had forgotten about him, standing to the side, quiet.
Mia’s heart was pounding, but she managed to hold her ground against the hungry looks from Hecca the Purple Witch. Then she reached out to lift Mia’s chin with a single, long, purple-nailed finger. A shock ran through Mia’s body, like the witch’s finger was a lightning rod, and it had just conducted a thousand watts through her body, head to toe. Mia jerked violently, more a spasm of her muscles than any actual pain, but it made her gasp, nonetheless. An instant later, Mace knocked the witch’s hand away.
“I said no touching,” he growled.
The witch gave him an elaborate pout, but her black eyes dance. “But she’s such a strong one. Are you sure you won’t sell her to me?”
Mace got in the witch’s face enough that her smirk faded and a hard, flinty look replaced it. “Don’t push me, Hecca. I’m paying you well enough as it is. And I’d hate to have to tell my father that Morgan Art and Media can’t be trusted anymore—and not just as partners in acquisitions, but in all our activities.”
Mia had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded like Red Wolf was involved in more than just investments. Somehow that didn’t surprise her at all.
The witch curled up a lip. “No need to get testy, little wolf.” Then she turned to examine Mia more clinically and with less greed. “A simple shifting spell is easily done. Then you can have your playmate, and I’ll be on my way. I have an important social media branding meeting in an hour anyway.”
Mace’s voice was cool again. “I appreciate you coming on such short notice.”
Mia braced herself as the witch looked her over. Jak was still standing quietly in the corner, watching. He said Mia could draw out the shift by resisting, so that’s exactly what she planned. But she flinched when the witch reached toward her face again. Mace growled a warning, but Hecca only pinched a single strand of Mia’s long hair between her fingers and plucked it out.
Mia’s heart hammered. A smile grew on the witch’s face. She rolled Mia’s single hair between her palms, balling the long black strand into a tiny tangle, then she held up her palm in front of Mia’s face with the ball resting in the center. The witch’s eyes glittered as she focused it, and her red lips moved, but no sound came out. Then she smirked… and a half second later, the hair burst into flame. It was quickly consumed, and the witch gently blew the drift of smoke into Mia’s face. It made her eyes water, and it smelled of burnt hair, but also of mint and lilac and a musky under scent that was pure…wolf.
Pain wrenched Mia’s gut.
She doubled over with it, choking and coughing out the smoke of the witch’s spell.
“Mia!” Jeeter’s voice behind her was quickly followed by her roommate’s hands on her shoulders, propping her up. Something sharp dug into Mia’s thighs, where she was bracing herself. When she looked down, she could see her claws had come out, her hands already half wolf.
No, no, no. Mia shrugged off Jeeter’s help—she didn’t want her roommate getting too close, in case this went badly—then she closed her eyes and fought against the shift. It was like wrestling a vaporous snake that was seeping into her mouth, her nose, her every pore… the spell was a toxin let loose upon her body, sending tendrils of change throughout her system. The tiny shifts, the parts of her that were forced to be wolf, crashed against the parts that were still human. It wrenched a moan of agony out of her. Even her wolf was crying, confused and in pain, tucking her paws up and shaking her head to ward off the force of the spell.
It’s okay, we can do this, we can do this… she was speaking straight to her wolf. She whimpered but calmed with Mia’s words. You’re already part of me. That seemed to relax her wolf even more, and the pain subsided, leaving an echo in the form of twinges and cramps that made it tough to stand up straight.
But Mia forced herself to.
Then she looked the witch straight in her black-sparkle eyes. “Is that all you’ve got?” Mia asked, wondering what the hell she was doing. But her words wiped the look of surprise off the witch’s face and replaced it with one of pure evil. It shuddered fear through Mia’s still-aching body.
The witch turned her glare on Mace. “I didn’t think this was going to take all afternoon.” Irritation made her voice squeaky like a small child’s.
“Sorry to break up your day,” Mace said, not sounding sorry at all. He was raking a gaze over in Mia’s straight-backed stance like it made his mouth water. “I told you she was strong.” He licked his bottom lip, like he was already tasting her in his imagination.
The witch huffed her disgust, then dashed a hand toward Mia. She reflexively leaned back, but the witch caught one of her hairs and plucked it out again. Only this time, Hecca the Purple Witch came away with several long black strands. She quickly balled them up and repeated whatever silent spell she cast to set them on fire.
The cloud of smoke was thicker, grayer, and smelled like roasted wolf on a spit. Mia tried not to breathe it in, but it didn’t matter. The pain hit her like a brick to the face, and she couldn’t help sucking in gasps of air along with it. Her wolf screamed, and Mia wasn’t sure if the sound had come out of her own mouth or not. She dropped to her knees, her arms clutched around her stomach… but then she saw that her knees weren’t knees at all, but wolfy legs. She could see her muzzle lengthen her face, and this time, the whining reached her ears. It was definitely her wolf, not her human voice.
Human, human, human… the mantra sang in her head and throughout her body. It pushed against the wolfish parts, but that only ramped up the pain more. Mia moaned, and the sound seemed to ripple throughout her body.
“Stop it!” Jeeter’s hands were on her again, so Mia knew she was close by, but her voice seemed so far away… “You’re hurting her! Leave her alone!”
Mia wanted to tell her not to bother, but she couldn’t form human words. Human words… I need to speak… I have things to say… the aching desire to tell the witch off helped Mia push through the pain. Slowly, her muzzle shortened into a nose. Her forearms lengthened and held her stomach once more. After a long moment, once she thought she was almost human again, she braced herself against her roommate and struggled to stand.
“You know,” Mia said, breathless from the struggle. “I’m really starting to hate witches.”
Mace’s grin was so wolfish she thought he might shift at any moment. Even Jak, behind them, had unfolded his arms and
was watching her with an open mouth.
The witch was aghast. “She shouldn’t be able to…” She left it hanging there, but then scowled at Mia.
Mace glanced at the witch, a sudden frown on his face. “I’m only paying you if you get the job done, Hecca. Don’t tell me you can’t—”
She cut him off with a flick of her purple painted nails. “Of course I can.” The witch eyed Mia. “But I may need to… touch her. If you don’t mind.”
He arched a brow at the witch and pressed his lips together. He seemed to mull his choices, gave Mia another hungry look, and then said, “Do it. But anything other than shifting, and I’ll have your throat for it, witch.”
Hecca the Witch snorted at his threat, as if that didn’t concern her much at all. She turned her dark eyes on Mia and slowly eased within reach. Mia couldn’t help the shakes that were rumbling through her body.
She swallowed.
The witch reached a single finger toward her.
Mia turned her head away, even though she knew it wouldn’t matter.
“Please don’t hurt her—” Jeeter’s plea was cut off by Mia’s scream.
The witch’s finger on her cheek burned like a crackling fire had ignited on that spot and was now consuming her. It spread from that point like lightning across her face, down her neck, across her back and out to the tips of her fingers. When Mia stopped screaming and gasped in a breath, she realized her face was mashed against the floor.
No, not her face. Her muzzle.
Her tongue lolled out. The bitter, scratchy taste of the carpet brushed against it. Her whole body quivered from head to toe. The shift had been sudden and complete and had burned her to the ground. She barely had the strength to whimper, but that sound came out regardless. She felt Jeeter’s hands on her, petting her, soothing her. Mia tried to lift her head, but everything ached. She let it lie back on the floor. Her wolf eyes could barely see what was happening in the rest of the room, so she closed them. But she could hear the voices.
“You didn’t harm her, did you?”