CHAPTER 27
SLADE
Energy crashed through the house right when we were neck deep in a spell to use our alpha essence to bolster Kellan’s. Volatile, unpredictable energy. “We need to get upstairs,” I bit out, my dragon restless and uneasy at the thought of Emme up there without us to help her.
I’d already been walking a fine line of control in convincing my beast to release our essence, and it was only for Kellan that we’d ever share our precious power. Power that would regenerate within a few days, but when we claimed anything, dragons became unparalleled possessive bastards. Me and my beast.
“What’s happening up there?” Hunter asked as we picked up muffled screams. His gaze cut to the witch. “You have two seconds to finish the spell. Emme needs our help.”
The omega’s heartbeat and breaths were rapid, but she wasn’t in mortal danger. Yet. “She’s hanging on,” I told them. “Hurry and finish the spell because I think Kellan’s… awake.”
Finley almost jerked his head off his shoulders as he turned toward the stairs, his desperate need to see his brother creasing his face. “If he’s awake, this might be our only chance to say…”
His voice broke and he couldn’t finish.Goodbye.
Jewels’ entire focus remained on the spell she was in the middle of weaving, visible light forming in the center of the pentacle board she carried around specifically for spell work. Our energy was held within that magically contained center, unable to be influenced or stolen by another.
“Almost done,” she finally muttered, face wreathed in annoyance. After this was all over, the once easy relationship we’d shared with her would be no more. We’d already used up all good-will that had been banked. Not that I gave a single fuck.
I could count on one hand the shifters I cared about not seeing again.
My pack.
Everyone else was so insignificant to me that I didn’t even bother to stalk them via security cameras or their banking information. Except for the Rogers pack of course. Those fuckers were absolutely under surveillance so I knew exactly what it would take to rid the world of their existence.
“Done!” Jewels declared a second later, drawing closer the ball of energy, now freed from the spell board. “You three are very powerful. I barely skimmed your energy, and this spell is maxed out on what it can hold.”
“Why didn’t we try this earlier?” Hunter oozed his annoyance and dominance without even trying.
Jewels shot him a droll stare. “I’ve been under a lot of pressure from you already to form this counterspell. That’s where my thoughts and energy were. Not to mention this is a long shot. You can’t share power in a quintet, but this might bolster Kellan long enough to kickstart his own alpha strengths. There’s a small hope?—”
I was gone before she finished her sentence, taking the stairs four at a time to make it to the second level and Kellan’s room. In the hall, the scent of blood grew stronger, and it wasn’t that I waspanicked, but I did burst into the bedroom like it was an enemy force I had to plow through.
The scent of vomit mingled with blood, and I ignored it all to focus on the pair on the bed. Emme was unconscious, straddling Kellan, her face buried against his neck. With gentle hands, I lifted her off my pack brother, noticing the deep bites both now bore.
Kellan was awake, eyes open wide, jaw still partially shifted. When his beast sank back inside, fading from his features, he said, “Holy fuck.”
I wasalmoststartled by how strong he felt, his energy sufficient now to power the counterspell and destroy the foreign magics.
“What the fuck happened?” Hunter snarled as he entered the room like a force of nature. “What’s wrong with Emme?”
“They bonded,” I said shortly, holding the tiny omega against my chest as I focused on Kellan, cataloguing the changes within him. “It strengthened him somehow, and now he’s about to destroy the spells.”
The blond strands of Kellan’s hair lit up as energy exuded from him in a rapid wave, powerful enough that Hunter took a step back. The magic easily flowed around my dragon resistance, unable to touch me, but I still turned to block Emme in my arms.
“What happened to the Ice Queen?” Finley asked, and I almost detected a note of concern in his voice, which was rapidly hidden by his scowl. “Bonding doesn’t usually render one unconscious, right?”
Ice Queen. He called her that to remind us all she was cold and unfeeling. My nickname for hercouldtechnically fall into the same category, but to me it represented the opposite. Snow transformed the world into a wonderland of beauty. Fresh and pure.
Like the white of her wolf, and the purity of her soul.
Far too fucking pure for my darkness.
Still, I couldn’t find the strength to release her from my arms, no matter how destructive my dragon and I would be for her.
“I swear that somehow she shared her wolf with me,” Kellan bit out gutturally, energy still expelling from him.
It almost looked like his hair was lifting as he powered up; our brother was about to go Super Saiyan Ultra Instinct, and the fact that I even knew what the highest level of powering up a Saiyan inDragon Ball Zwas had me needing to kick Hunter’s ass.
