She would need to be reminded.
* * *
Danica
Kyla left her car in the parking garage beneath Samael’s tower and we took my car to Alchemy.
I bullied my way through Main Street and glanced at Kyla. “Did Willow do anything except take a walk yesterday?”
She shook her head, wincing as I narrowly missed colliding with a goblin in a Mazda who shook his fist at me.
“You okay? You seem a little… on edge.”
I scowled. “I want to put this to bed, you know? I want to know who would betray the coven, but that’s mostly for them. I want to know who would betray Evie, and that’s for me.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Still asleep. Whoever is hunting her will know she’s in Samael’s tower, but she’s safe there.”
I pulled up down the street from the hotel’s entrance. Close enough that we could see who was coming and going, but far enough back that they wouldn’t immediately spot us.
Then I slid my seat back, stretched out my legs, and settled in for a few hours of boredom.
Kyla did the same, unbuckling her belt and twisting in her seat to face me. “What I don’t understand is why they’d kill the witches. Why not just leave and start a new coven?”
“That takes money, relationships, and power. It’s not unheard of, but Gemma would never allow it in her territory. And honestly, neither would the other large covens. They’d have to move somewhere without a large witch population.”
Kyla nodded. We were both silent for a moment and then I slid her a look.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Nathaniel said you had a few… authority issues.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you know what it’s like to have to sit in the hall while a man, yourAlphaasks someone to hire you? To keep you out of trouble?”
I winced. “No. Why did you put up with it?”
She was quiet for a long moment. “I never really needed anyone, you know. Not really. I was mostly a loner, with the exception of the occasional boyfriend. And then I was turned into a werewolf, and once Nathaniel found me, I had this sudden longing for family. Forpack. It’s not something I want, and if I could rip that need out of me, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ve tried to leave a few times, but each time, Nathaniel just kept dragging me back. It’s notsafefor a female werewolf, after all,” she sneered.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like.”
“No? Not even with your demon?”
“It feels different. Maybe because there are all these other feelings involved. Samael is my lover, but before that, he didn’t even make me go to his Monday dinners until recently— other than once when he first bonded me. Don’t get me wrong, I resented the hell out of the bond— out of the fact that hecouldmake me if he wanted.”
I frowned, working it through in my head. “He hasn’t changed the way he acts with anyone else. He’s still the same domineering psycho who expects everyone to follow his orders or accept the consequences. But he’s trying withme.
“I guess what it comes down to is he wants me happy. And he knows I’ll never be happy if he wraps me in cotton and makes me stay in his tower. I’m guessing Nathaniel can’t afford that kind of leniency.”
“No. Not if he wants to remain Alpha.” She waved a hand. “No one here would attempt to take his position; he could easily fight off most challengers. But there are a few other Alphas looking at our pack. We’re one of the larger packs, with a reputation that’s survived since the portals opened. If an Alpha from New York or Chicago could take Nathaniel, they’d have our pack as well as their own.”
“Do you mind if I ask how you were changed?”
She gazed out the window. “I was living in Michigan at the time. My boyfriend liked to hunt and he’d gone away on a guys’ trip with his closest friends. They were attacked by a feral wolf. He was the only one who survived.”
Her face had turned ashen, and I reached behind my seat for an unopened bottle of water, handing it to her. “You don’t have to talk about it. I was just being nosy.”
