by Aileen Erin
“How much did they see?” And please don’t say everything…
“From the moment the cars rolled onto the compound, until your dad turned off the cameras. It’s all on there. Three cop cars. Three angles.”
My heart pounded in my ears as the realization hit me. “The whole world knows about us.”
“It gets worse.”
I swallowed. “What do you mean it gets worse? How could it possibly get any fucking worse?”
He put his arm around me. “You have to calm down.”
I wiggled free of him and stood. “Don’t. Don’t tell me to calm down. Just tell me what’s worse.”
He cleared his throat. “The demon didn’t appear on film. At least, not how we saw it.”
It took a second for that to skink in. If the demon didn’t show up on film, then it was just us werewolves, a fey, and a bunch of dead cops. “What do you mean?”
“It’s better if you see.” He rewound the news, stopping in the middle of the fight.
The video was a little grainy, but I could make out something moving in the middle of a ring of snarling wolves. I moved closer to the TV as the demon swiped at Kelly. The demon’s motion turned it toward the camera and I stopped breathing for a second. The camera hadn’t been close enough to pick up the red eyes, but I should’ve been able to see its skin color. Its nails. And its proportions that were anything but human.
Except, the thing in the center of circle, surrounded by wolves, didn’t look like a demon. If I didn’t know—if I hadn’t been there myself—I wouldn’t have known it was a monster. From the video, it looked like a hunched over man. If you looked close enough, you could tell because it didn’t move like a human, but I doubted anyone was looking that closely.
I closed my eyes and sank back down on the couch. “So what now?”
“Your dad and Michael are with the police. They’re trying to get it sorted, but…”
I buried my face in my hands. “This is so messed up.”
“It is.”
“What’s everyone saying online?”
“It’s bad. You don’t want to check.”
He had to say that. Now all I wanted to do was look.
“Since you didn’t shift there’s a lot of speculation whether you’re a Were, but because you grew up human, your records are out there. Maybe someone from your old school will talk or they’ll match your photos, but it’s only a matter of time before the media gets your name. And when they do…”
“I’m going to be hounded.” Forget “Freaky Tessa.” This was going to be a whole new level of crazy.
“Cosette too, but she’s MIA. We’re not sure when—or if—she’s coming back.”
She’d be back. She had to be. We needed her, especially if she was that good against demons. I didn’t know anyone else who could whip weapons out of thin air mid-battle.
“Lots of theories about the vials and the explosions. They know it wasn’t us who killed the cops, and the footage shows the body getting sucked into the ground—but we’ve still got problems.” He leaned back against the couch. “The local cops are freaking out because the FBI came down and now… It’s like they just learned the X-Files are real.”
This was too much. My mind was blown. I pulled my knees to my chest and held them as I watched the soundless TV. “So, what now?”
“Donovan, the Seven, and the rest of the alphas are in the conference room. They’re talking to every pack alpha they can get on the phone, discussing options. So, it’s going to be a while before anything gets decided. Until then, everyone’s confined to campus.” He sighed. “Which is probably a good thing. Your dad had a problem getting here. Apparently there’s a mob at the gates.”
“I don’t know how it’s possible, but everything keeps getting worse.”
Dastien tucked me against his side as I reclined on the couch. He turned the volume back on, and we sat there listening to their crazy commentary. Most of it was painfully wrong. I was half-convinced I should call in and correct them, but that was probably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.
It kept bothering me that there were people at our gates. Would they go home at night? And if not, would Luciana still attack? How could we protect them when we could barely protect our own? And we couldn’t have cops on campus if we were at war with the evil bitch.
A war that they weren’t remotely equipped to fight.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Come in,” I said without asking who it was.
“Teresa?”
Oh no. Claudia.
I raced to the door. She was wearing clothes that didn’t really fit—not her usual skirt and peasant shirt. Her hair popped out of her braid and her eyes were rimmed with red.
She already knew.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, even though sorry didn’t even begin to cut it.
She started sobbing and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I don’t understand how this happened. I saw the news, and I just—” She hiccupped, and I patted her back.
“Come inside. Sit down.” I pulled her over the threshold.
It wasn’t until then that I noticed the man behind her.
He was one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen—which was saying something. He radiated power, and I knew in an instant that he was an alpha. So much energy vibrated around him, he might even be more powerful than Donovan. His dark eyes met mine, and I couldn’t look away. It was a dominance thing, not attraction. I wouldn’t be the one to look away first.
He gave me a wink and started looking around the room.
Technically he’d looked away first, but with that wink, he was telling me he wasn’t playing the game.
No fair.
Dastien hit mute on the TV and stood as Beth, Shane, Adrian, and Raphael came in after them.
The brujos spotted the footage and were captivated.
Dastien crossed the room, reaching a hand out to the new guy. “Dastien Laurent.”
The man wore simple track pants and the arms of his long sleeved T-shirt bunched at his elbows. If I couldn’t feel his power, I would’ve thought he was just a normal guy. “I’m Claudia’s mate,” he said, and my jaw nearly hit the ground.
How in the hell did she get mated already? There hasn’t been enough time, let alone a full moon. I yelled through our bond.
I don’t know. But we can definitely ask.
“Lucas Reyes,” he said as he took Dastien’s hand.
For a split second, Dastien froze before shaking Lucas’ hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
Who is he? It was the first time I’d ever seen Dastien react to someone like that.
Alpha of the pack in Peru. A very, very strong Alpha. But he hasn’t left Peru in ages.
I had so many questions for Claudia, but first things first. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out this way. I wanted to tell you in person when you got here—not over the phone—but I woke up a bit ago and the news…”
She nodded. “What happened?”
I stood in front of the now turned-off TV and waited until everyone had found a place to sit in the small room before I started. I didn’t stop when they started sobbing, but my throat got scratchy. I had to tell them. From beginning to end. Drawing it out wasn’t going to make the truth any easier.
Still, as Beth leaned into Shane, and Claudia sobbed into Lucas’ chest, my throat grew tight and tears rolled down my face. Raphael stood behind the couch, taking the news like a good little soldier, but he was grinding his teeth so hard that his jaw was white.
When I finished, I sat on the coffee table. “I’m so sorry. I told you that you’d all be safe here with the pack. I promised to make sure you’d be okay, and I’ve broken my word. First with Raphael, and now this…” I swallowed. “I hope you know that I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. And the compound… I’m sorry. It’s burned, and I tried to stop it, but they were—”
“Covering up. Yes. It’s procedure,” Lucas finished for me.
Claudia covered her face as she started sobbing again, and Lucas moved to kneel in front of her. He whispered to her in Spanish, sweet nothings. Affirmations that it would be okay, even when we all knew that it wouldn’t be okay. There was no way that any of us could ever make this right.
With each sob of pain from my cousin, it felt like someone was stabbing my heart. I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t spare her from this, so I waited. She was going to have questions, and I needed to be here for her.
After a while, she wiped her eyes. “It’s too much. This is too much. God. I just got my brother back. I thought we’d have some room to breathe, and now this. I can’t—It’s too much.” She clutched her hand to her chest. “Everyone I knew, my whole life, it’s all gone. Even after Luciana is dealt with, what am I supposed to do? Where do I belong?”
Lucas ran his hand down her cheek. “You belong with me. We’ll make sure everyone here is safe, and then we go on with your plan. You don’t have to worry about abandoning anyone anymore. Everything we talked about is still possible. Focus on that and we’ll get through this.”
I smiled through my tears. He was nice, this guy. He was good for her, and that at least was one thing that Claudia could count on.
When she finally calmed down, Claudia met my gaze, and I knew something was coming. Her eyes were rimmed with red, but something else flushed her cheeks. I recognized the spicy scent coming from her. Pure rage. I just hoped it wasn’t directed at me. “Where is she?” She nearly spat the last word.
Luciana. She wanted to kill Luciana. “We don’t know. I don’t even know where to start looking. All I know is that she’s got more than enough power to do whatever she wants, and… She’s made life complicated for us. It’s not like we can just pop out and look for her. Not now.”
“But we have to go after her,” Raphael said. “She can’t get away with what she’s done. She’s murdered everyone we know.” He gripped the back of the couch. “I don’t know what’s happened to her, but if she can do that, then she’s not the Luciana we knew. She’s pure evil.”
I nodded. “I agree. All I know is that we’re stuck here. The alphas are trying to decide what to do next, and until then—I guess we wait.”
Shane nodded, and I looked at Beth. A steady stream of tears ran down her face, but she wasn’t looking at anything. More than any of them, she was the one who seemed utterly broken by this.
“Is she okay?”
Shane squeezed her. “We’ll take care of her.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
“Don’t. This isn’t your fault. There’s nothing for to apologize for. Luciana did this, and we’ll make her pay.” His words were so final that I couldn’t do anything but nod.
“She will. I think we’re all agreed on that.”
Claudia wiped her face, and cleared her throat. “What did you do with the bodies?”
I blinked as I tried find a way to answer Claudia’s question that wouldn’t upset her more. “I think they were burned at the compound.”
“No. I mean of Elsa. And Yvonne. Tiffany. They weren’t at the compound.”
“I—” I wasn’t sure. We’d run off so quickly. “I don’t know.” I turned to Dastien, who was leaning against his kitchen counter.
“I think Dr. Gonzales has them. I don’t think she’s done anything yet.”
“I want to see them.”
Shane nodded. “Me, too.”
“We should all go,” Raphael said as he stepped toward the door.
“I should warn you. They don’t… They look…”
“How bad?” Lucas said.
“I couldn’t really look at them.” I squeeze my eyes closed for a second as the image of Elsa on the floor of the library came to mind.
“Adrian?” Dastien said.
“Yeah.” He stood up from where he was sitting—at the foot of Dastien’s bed.
“Can you take them to see Dr. Gonzales?”
“Sure. Of course.” Even he seemed a little pale. He moved slower than normal as he opened the door.
Claudia pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry, too. This had to be so hard for you.”
I huffed. “Me? No. I really am so sorry. If I knew—if there was something I could’ve done—I would’ve.”
“I know. Me, too. I feel like this is my fault. I didn’t do enough. If I’d moved against her sooner…” She stepped back. “But we can’t know that. We could’ve done everything right and still gotten to this same place. So we have to keep moving forward. I’m going to see to my friends’ bodies, and then we can look at what I brought back from Peru.”
I nodded. “Whatever you need. I’m here.”
“I’ll call you,” she said. Lucas followed her out of the room, giving us a small nod, before closing the door behind them.
I melted down to the couch. They’d only been here for a couple hours, but it felt like years. It was like I’d been hit by an emotional eighteen-wheeler. Even if Shane and Claudia said it wasn’t my fault that this had happened, it felt like at least some of the blame fell to me. If I hadn’t ended up with the pack, if I had been with the coven, maybe I could’ve prevented all this.
My head rested on Dastien’s chest, and I let his steady heartbeat soothe me. He knew he was probably listening in to my thoughts, but I didn’t care.
What the hell were we going to do now? Everything was such a mess.
After a while, he pulled me out of the chair. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“You can play ‘what if’ all day long, thinking up all kinds of scenarios to torture yourself, but it’s not going to do any good. Do you trust me?”
“Always,” I said as I looked into his amber eyes. It was the truth. I trusted him with everything that I was.
“Then come with on.” He pulled me up. “Let’s shift. We’re going for a run.”
It’d been days since I’d had time to shift. My wolf was aching to get free. “Okay. Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Just shift, and follow me.”
In a blink of eye, his form changed. He stuck his wolfy tongue out at me, and I shook my head. I circled my finger in the air. “Turn around.”
The sound he made might’ve been a laugh, but I couldn’t be sure.
As I traded my skin for fur, all my worries melted away.
This was a fantastic idea.
Chapter Fourteen
Wind whipped against my fur as I ran through the forest. There were so many scents to chase. So many things to see. Dastien herded me where he wanted to go, with a nip here and a chase there. Finally, the forest opened up and we were standing in the middle of a clearing.
Our land. He’d taken us to our land.
Wolf-Dastien ran off behind a tree and appeared a minute later dressed in a pair of sweats. “There are clothes for you back there.”
I followed where he pointed. A plastic crate sat half hidden in the bushes behind a patch of trees. Supplies were stashed everywhere around campus—generic sweat pants, T-shirts, water, and granola bars—but I didn’t know Dastien had stashed some here.
Ever since I’d stopped fighting my shift, it had quit hurting. Now it was a sweet release. My muscles rippled, bones moving so quickly, that one moment I was wolf and the next, human.
I flipped open the top of the crate. Inside were a bunch of clothes and some swimsuits. Although if Dastien thought I was ever swimming in that pond, he was going to be sorely disappointed. I found a pair of smaller sweatpants and a T-shirt and slipped them on.
Dastien waited by the pond. “I thought we weren’t allowed to leave campus.”
He shrugged. “Eh. Who needs rules anyhow?”
I shook my head. We were so getting our asses reamed for leaving, but he was right. I needed a break from it all. Ever since my birthday, it was like the hits just hadn’t stopped coming. There hadn’t been any room to relax.
If I didn’t take a little time for myself, I might crack. I rubbed my temples as a headache po
unded. It was only just after lunchtime, and I was already exhausted. I could’ve gone back to bed right then and slept for another million years. It wasn’t just the physical exhaustion of the fight yesterday, but the emotional drain. Telling Claudia that her whole coven had been murdered by Luciana had been worse than I thought. The only good thing was that at least she had someone to lean on. Lucas seemed like a good guy. And if he was anything like Dastien and Donovan, he’d treat her like his queen.
I leaned into Dastien as he wrapped his arms around me. Being here—standing next to the pond with him—made me nervous. What I’d seen in my vision wasn’t going to happen. We hadn’t talked about it and I wasn’t wearing a white dress… But still, nerves creeped in.
“Are you okay?”
It was probably stupid to mention, but I couldn’t help it. “In my vision, we—”
“No. Don’t worry about the vision. I haven’t had an Orangina in days, no matter how much I want one.” He tickled my side, and I squirmed away, laughing. “That proves we can change what you saw.”
He moved to the ground, pulling me down with him. The grass dampened the back of my sweatpants as we sat cross-legged, knees touching. The tension in his shoulders told me he wanted to talk about something serious. I was worried I couldn’t take much more today, but he wouldn’t have brought me all the way here if it wasn’t important.
“I thought we both needed a moment. It’s been one thing after another, and it’s overwhelming, you know?”
“I was thinking the same.” It was nice when we were in sync. It made me feel safe. “I just feel so terrible for my cousins. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”
“They’ll get through it. And so will you.”
I huffed a laugh. “You don’t know that. Especially not now.” My fear of what I’d seen clung so thick it was like I was wrapped in a blanket of it.
Dastien tilted his head to stare out over the pond. He searched the calm surface like the answers to all our problems were in the murky depths. I could feel his anxiety, like he was building up to something, but I didn’t want to pry. He was always patient with me, so I’d do my best to be patient with him.