“A curse. Now there’s a damn curse we have to deal with?” Zeke sputtered, his voice flooding the cars speakers.I turned the volume down a notch, wincing as I glanced over at Asher. He was chiseled from stone, his arm rigid as he held the wheel, eyes narrowed on the highway ahead.“I told you what the Shadows said. There’s no way to ‘deal’ with it. Even if there was, Cordelia and Rowena can’t sense anything on him. You’d think two powerful witches could sniff out a curse.” I grumbled, sinking deeper into the seat.My bottom was on the verge of becoming numb, but we didn’t have much longer to go before we’d hit our meet-up point. Fifty miles away, at a small gas station with one of our own wolves posted as cashier, we’d find the others. Breyona, Giovanni, Tristan, Sean, Mason, and Clara had taken a different route to avoid suspicion. Going off of Breyona’s idea when she rescued us from Ember and Tessa, we borrowed a work van from a local company in the pack for them to use.There wasn’

Several seconds passed, flitting into the ether as we all stared at one another, shock written clear across our features only in different fonts. Any and all laughter vanished from the room, it’s absence letting silence leak in like a drug.Asher and Deacon were the first to break free of it’s hypnotic gaze, barking out orders that were both awe-inspiring and terrifying.“We must’ve been followed, but I’m betting it was Lola’s appearance that made them act so soon. It would’ve been smartest to attack during broad daylight. We’d be sitting ducks that way.” Deacon snarled.Asher’s eyes momentarily glazed over, caught in a mind-link that left him biting back a growl.“Witches are close to the border of town. They’re close to breaking through. I’ve got six wolves stationed here. Four are currently fighting, two are rounding up every child and elderly person in town.” His grimace deepened, and my blood ran cold from the sheer harshness of it. “There’s a witch setting things on fire. That w

I didn’t hesitate to bound into the forest, chasing the sound of Breyona’s voice, the taste of her fear ripe on my tongue.There was something wrong, something so very wrong with the way her voice coiled around my thoughts and squeezed the life out of them. It wasn’t through mind-link that I was hearing her, I was sure of it. No matter how hard I tried to dig past her wailing, to the connection that spanned between us, I just couldn’t.Thoughts refused to form, each and every one shattering under the grip of her pleas.‘It hurts, Lola! It hurts so bad—so bad.’ She sobbed and screamed.I couldn’t think, not even to figure out where the hell I was going or whether or not I should slow down.The forest cracked and trembled beneath my feet. Limbs like outstretched arms reached to grab me, tearing away bits of my fur and drawing blood. Even the pain was dull, like it too was smothered by Breyona’s voice.Suddenly, she went silent.It should’ve occurred to me that the wrongness in the air w

“Shit.” I cursed.Breyona’s sharp gaze softened. She pursed her lips and murmured, “You didn’t even realize you did it, did you?”“No.” It came out as a whisper. “I didn’t.”“She wants to kill that one since her twin got away. Brandon actually ran into the fire witch on his way here. He’s got a nasty burn on his shoulder to prove it.” Breyona pointed out, her eyes still on the mess ahead.“Well, lets go intervene. Shall we?”Turns out, there wasn’t much I had to do to turn Dina’s attention away from Tessa. My mere presence was enough to have her hackles raising and lips pulling back to show rows of sharp teeth. Breyona situated herself in front of me, standing off to the side incase I needed her. Standing a healthy distance away, keeping a firm watch on Tessa, was Clara, Mason, Sean, along with a mixture of Vampire’s and warriors.“Dina…” I said in greeting. “You look good.”Breyona snorted but covered it up with a well-placed cough.“She’s uh, she’s trying to mind-link you, but since

I didn’t have to be linked to Zeke to feel his hurt. Even if he did hide it perfectly, it was there just beneath the surface, bubbling and festering away like an open wound. Things between Asher and I weren’t always perfect, and I knew from experience how badly it could hurt to be cast aside by your mate.Zeke didn’t dignify her with a response. He shook his head ruefully and left the room. When he emerged into the observation room, he made a beeline for the door and left without a word. The urge to storm in there and smack the hell out of her was strong, so strong that I had to take a few deep breaths to keep calm.‘Zeke interviewed Tessa. He just left, so you might run into him.’ I mind-linked Asher, giving him a heads up before he found out some other way.Asher’s disappointment trickled down the bond, mixed with his concern for Zeke.‘She didn’t tell him anything, did she?’‘No, she didn’t. She actually said that she’d prefer torture over having to talk to him.’ I scoffed, glaring