Those words had been like a punch in the face. I couldn’t even be mad about it. Because she was right. She was devastated and had no way of getting her frustrations and heartache out, so she sat in her room in silence.
I looked across the table at Dad. “Well?”
Dad shook his head and ran a hand through his beard. “I’m sorry, son. I never even thought about her friend Abi. That’s on me. I should have had someone on her friend. This is my fault.”
In the corner, Sebastian sat with Felipe and Luis, who’d finally gotten back home the night before. Since finding out about Abi, he’d been fuming. He slapped his thigh and put his face in his hands. “I should have thought about it. I was too busy being a dickhead. Fuck,” he hissed and slammed a fist into the armrest of his chair.
“Did you find out what happened with Maddy’s parents?” Dad asked.
I gritted my teeth and nodded. “Yeah. The guys I hired to watch them were found floating in a lake about a mile from their house. Throats were slit. They were professionals. Whoever they sent after Maddy’s parents knew exactly what they were doing.”
“Did you read the file I sent you about this Viola chick?” Felipe asked.
“Yeah, she’s a real sweetheart,” I said.
Viola Monroe was well-known in certain circles. Pretty famous actually, but not in the way celebrities were famous. The general public would have no idea who she was, but she was famous in rich and powerful circles. If billionaires had their own celebrities, she’d be right at the top. Everything Felipe had dug up showed that she and her family gave millions of dollars every year to causes for the needy and downtrodden. They even funded orphanages all over the world. That last little tidbit pissed me off. The only reason they funded those was to find the descendants of Edemas and then kill them in their fucking beds. They were like saints. We couldn’t find any dirt on them, not even a whiff of scandal. I was sure there had been something over the years, but the type of money they had could buy away their troubles.
“We’ve got the fight of our lives on our hands,” Dad said.
His words hung in the room like an omen. He was right. Our pack was strong, but against this? Against a centuries-old family with more money than God, and decades of practice at killing and covering it up? It sent shivers of anxiety through me just thinking about it. I looked around the room and wondered if any of the people here were going to get out of this alive.
“We’re running out of time,” Luis said.
That was also true. Inside the envelope, along with the pictures, had been a note saying we had until the next full moon to hand Maddy over. There was an address and nothing else. We all assumed the royals had already opened the tomb and brought whatever vessel the vial of blood was in. They’d get Maddy there and bleed her dry trying to open it. I’d be damned if I let that happen.
I nodded at Luis. “Yeah. Less than four weeks. One thing I still don’t get…why are they so desperate to get into this vault or whatever? They’re already more powerful than almost anyone on earth. Is this vial of blood really that big of a deal?”
“I think there has to be something else inside there. Other than Edemas’s blood,” Luis said.
“Maybe,” I said.
Dad held up his hands. “We need to take a step back here. We’re getting caught up with all the extraneous stuff, but we need to focus on Maddy. She still hasn’t shifted yet. We need her at full strength, whatever that is. She can’t do that without you,” he said, nodding toward me. “You’ve got to focus on her. We can plan afterward.”
As though fate heard my father’s words, I found Maddy in the kitchen a couple hours later. I’d come down from my room for a snack, and she was standing at the counter, making herself a sandwich. I froze and stared at her. It was the first time I’d seen her in almost a full day. My wolf whined at the sight of her. Itwas desperate to go to her, to hold her. I hesitated to act on those desires. I didn’t know how she’d react to me. The last words she’d spoken to me weren’t the loving kind. I didn’t blame her for that, but it terrified me that something between us had been broken.
Maddy noticed my presence and turned from the plate she was working. I stood in place, unsure what to do. She surprised me by dropping her butter knife and crossing the room. She swung her arms around me and pressed her face into my chest, hugging me tightly. I almost sobbed in relief and put my own arms around her, pulling her close. Nothing had ever felt so good as having her body pressed into mine.
“I’m sorry,” Maddy whispered.
“For what?”
“For what I said to you. I’m sorry. I was panicking and freaked out and scared. I didn’t mean to say what I said to you. You have kept your promises. I wasn’t thinking clearly. All I could do was picture my family and Abi in those pictures. I just want to save them, Nico.”
I gently pulled her away from me and looked into her eyes. “We’re going to figure this out.” I didn’t make another promise. No matter what she said, I knew I hadn’t done a very good job at making good on my promises. “I love you. Losing you is not an option. I’m not going to hand you over to them so they can do God knows what to you.”
“I think I have a plan to help.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You do? Let’s hear it.”
“I want you to claim me. I think I’ll be able to shift after you do. If the royals are afraid I can become some big powerful beast, then maybe I can. Once I’m a full shifter, I can train and get stronger. Put the fear of God into them. If I can control the power inside me, then maybe we can use it.”
I frowned and thought for a second before answering. “Maddy, I plan on claiming you. I want you forever, but becoming a shifter won’t make you all-powerful. The guys and I are scared that we won’t be enough as it is. One more shifter won’t make that much of a difference.”
Maddy pulled her lower lip into her mouth and nibbled at it. I could see she was trying to think of what to say. Then she looked me dead in the eye and said something I wasn’t prepared for. “I don’t think my wolf is normal. I think she’s…much more.”
“Huh?”
“You guys talk about feeling sensations and emotions from your wolves, but my connection isn’t anything like what you guys describe. Hervoiceis so strong, almost like it’s another person standing beside me, whispering in my ear. I noticed it the night of the full moon. She’s powerful, Nico. Very powerful. If we can finally break her free, she might be the secret weapon we need. It’s only a hunch, but I think I’m right.”
