I can’t allow that.
With a wild shove on Rickon’s shoulder, I haul myself upright and stagger down the steps. Callisto lunges, but I jerk away from his grasp to collide with the handrail. Pain flares in my ribs, and I spin away, crashing into a reporter. Don’t stop, Red. Never. A gap appears in the milling crowd, and I shoot through it. I searched the country for Zack and rescued him from prison, so I have to find him again. Now.
I move faster and faster until I’m running down the sidewalk. With every collision of my shoe on the asphalt, the memories flood in, working backward through my timeline. Zack screaming my name for the first time. Zack asserting his dominance. Zack tasting cake. Zack in a cell . . . minutes away from his death.
Cars honk urgently, somehow in my path now. Tires screech as I dodge around a looming metal monster. I need to follow Zack, rescue him from that fate. If he dies, I’ll die. I can’t let my alpha think we’ve abandoned him. Pain burns through my legs as I runand run, matching the violent pain thrashing in the bond as my alpha panics.
Hands close around my waist, lifting me off my feet. “Let me go!” I shout hoarsely. “I have to save him!”
Agent Pierce’s voice wheezes beside my ear. “Not this way, ma’am. You’ll get hit by a car.”
I flail, trying to kick back into his knees as he drags me off the street, but nothing connects. “No! My Zack. I need to get to Zack!” Any hope for the future withers as my vision blurs. “He can’t go back into a cell,” I whimper. “He can’t. They’ll kill him.” I choke, searching for a breath that won’t come.
Agent Pierce hands me over to someone, and Callisto’s woodsy scent folds around me. I cling to the lawyer’s broad shoulders and dive my head into his neck, chasing more scent to drive away the foreign alpha musk sticking to me. A headache blooms painfully in my temples, but this time it’s not from voices in my head. It’s from despair.
“We have to get her home,” Callisto says, gasping for breath.
“Please.” I sob into his shoulder, fists twisting his shirt. “Please don’t let him go to prison!”
Callisto swears and rubs my back. “I’ll go right to the police station, Red, and get him out on bail. He’s legally under our protection, so they can’t do anything without notifying us. I promise I’ll take care of this.” He grabs my cheeks, forcing me to meet his eyes. “But I need to take you home first, okay? We can’t be worried about you as well as Zack. You ran into fucking traffic, girl.” His fingers dig into my jaw, and his voice breaks. “I thought I was going to lose you too.”
I want to argue, to tell him I won’t cause trouble, but I know full well the ghost is in control, not me. Slowly I nod, not wanting to be exposed out on the street any longer. I need Zack’s scent, and Rickon’s too. I need my alphas.
The bright light diffuses as we slide into a car, Callisto not releasing me. Rickon’s vanilla musk already fills the vehicle, and I reach for him, shivering. Rickon folds me into his arms, and the car lurches forward.
“They took him,” I whisper to my alpha, desperate for him to contradict me, to wake me from this nightmare.
He shakes his head, his platinum hair tickling my ear. “Red, I’m sorry. So sorry.” His arms tighten around me. The hum of Rickon’s distress echoes in our second-hand bond, and my alpha jerks with every breath, the loss physically painful for him.
Another whine slips through me, and I rock back and forth on his lap. After everything I did to get Zack free, he’s back in custody again. What if I can’t rescue him from euthanasia this time?
My broken pieces, carefully glued together, shatter again. I can’t breathe, can’t think. Uncontrollable shivers wrack my body. My heartbeat thumps loudly in my ear, an infernal doomsday clock warning me the end is near.
Darkness closes in, and I whimper as the black memories rush in with the shadows. Ray leering at me in the windowless room, his foul body pressuring mine, his licorice scent filling my nose. I choke. The scent that struck us isn’t Ray’s, but it clings to me, lingering with a potency like Zack’s unrestrained alpha musk. I spasm and claw at my skin, trying to rid myself of the stench, but it’s everywhere.
Rickon catches my hands. “It’s just the elevator, Red. We’re almost home.”
Home? Home is where my alphas live, and I know Zack’s not there. “Zack,” I whisper, my throat raw. I gasp out dry sobs, the tears refusing to flow.
Callisto’s warm hand presses onto my back.
The elevator doors swing open, revealing the entrance to our once peaceful apartment. Callisto tucks his arms under myknees and swings me up into his arms. I dive my nose into his neck, searching for relief from the hateful odor clinging to us. As he carries me inside, my gaze catches on the section of fresh paint covering up my writing.Gone to see a man about an alpha.
It seems like a lifetime ago I wrote those words. But now I’m here without Zack, as if I imagined him.
Voices sound behind me. “I’ll come down to the precinct with you,” Agent Pierce says. “To find out what’s going on.”
I growl, Zack’s rage adding to my own. With a strangled shout, I ram through the icy confines of the ghost leaching my strength. Struggling out of Callisto’s hold, I launch myself at the agent. “If you’d done your job, he’d still be here!” I hammer my fists into his broad chest. “What the fuck were you doing?”
He blinks down at me in shock, barely rocking from my attack.
Where’s my fucking fork when I need it?
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the agent says, expression twisting with sympathy.
“Sorry?” I shout. “How does sorry help? My alpha—”
Rickon throws himself between us, catching my flailing fists. “Biscuit! We got attacked.” He wraps his arms around me, even though I writhe from side to side. “It’s not their fault.”
