“We have enough evidence to suggest it is,” Theo insisted. “The scorch marks, the sudden fires everywhere? We’re getting restless, worn thin, Mase. We’re a good pack but a small brigade. We don’t have the resources for the frequency of these attacks.”
At that, I was in the dark about what to do. He was right, but I didn’t care for his tone.
“We’ll keep looking into it,” I muttered, passing him, but I was stopped from taking a small breather as I dragged off my helmet.
“Hey!” Jackson’s voice called out. His team had successfully cleared the storage room, and the other team had the water blasting. Things were under control. “We have another emergency. We gotta leavenow, Mase. Give me a team.”
“What’s happened?” I checked my pager but had nothing. I frowned, but Jackson was looking at his own phone. His dark buzzcut made him look sharper, especially with the ash on his face. His eyes, so painfully green like his sister’s, the girl I had been trying to bury in my head for seven years, stared at me with dread.
“It’s Bryce,” he said. “She’s in danger.”
His sister.
Bryce Calloway.
Emerald green eyes flashed through my head, and everything in me surged. My blood roared in my ears.
“Let’s go,” I snarled. “Theo, carry on here!”
“Wait, Mase—” Jackson put a hand on my chest.
“I’m going with you,” I told him, my voice commanding. I was his alpha; he’d follow my orders to no end. But he wasn’t my second for nothing. He looked ready to fight me on it, but I let the streak of protectiveness flare, letting him see that these seven years could be forgotten between Bryce and me if it meant getting her out of danger.
I couldn’t picture her vulnerable and scared, in whatever emergency situation she was in, and not going.
But beneath that was something else: something primal, something that the wolf in me howled for.
“Get your team together,” I told him right as I pulled away. I was barely into the treeline before I was shifting, my body stretching to accommodate my other form. Soon, I was no longer Mason, but a black alpha wolf that pounded through the trees, heading for the next town of White Bay, where Jackson had once told me that his sister had moved out to.
I would find her, and I would protect her, even if I had broken her heart seven years ago.
Chapter 3 - Bryce
We were still hiding in the cellar, and I was once again thinking of taking my chances with Cassie if I could stack enough boxes to climb up on. The demon was still wreaking havoc upstairs, and I was sure that if my heart beat any louder, then it’d burst right out of my chest.
Cassie was clinging to me so hard that her fingers dug into my skin almost painfully, but I never once tugged her grip away. Not when she wouldn’t know anything that was going on. Hell, I didn’t.
“It’s okay, baby,” I whispered to her, kissing her temple. “Uncle Jackson’s on his way.”
Cassie stilled, a hopeful brightness on her face. “Uncle Jackson?”
“Yeah.” I mustered a smile at her. “He’s going to come and make everything all better. You’ll see.”
“Can I show him my birthday cake?”
My heart ached when I thought of Cassie’s cake on the dining table, uneaten. Had that been eaten up in the ifrit’s flames, too?
I nodded. “I’m sure he’ll love that, but let’s just focus on getting out safely first, okay?”
“Sure, Momma,” she said. “Knowing he’s coming for us makes me feel a bit less scared.” Her eyes were still wide, but she cuddled into my side, and although the tremors hadn’t quite left her, she breathed less labored.
“Momma,” Cassie whispered, minutes later. “Will I still have my room—”
She didn’t get to finish her full sentence because an ear-splitting roar cut her off, coming through the ceiling. The banging on the cellar door stopped, and I felt the energy retreat—only to be replaced by something else that sent skitters down my spine.
“Momma—”
“Stay here,” I whispered. “Don’t come out until I tell you.”
