Emme’s sigh was loud. “Oh thank the goddess Kass is okay. I checked for her outside when I first came downstairs, but she was gone.”
“More than okay,” I said, “she had to go to healers for a quick check, but her vitals were strong.”
Our omega nodded, the relief clear on her face. “Jewels has been here since the battle in our street,” she said. “Warrick and Cora didn’t betray us in the same way as Chelsea, as Jewels kept them locked down and only allowed them out to further her plan. They also burst in that room to save me, risking their lives.”
“I’m not in a very forgiving sort of mood,” Finley said shortly. “I’m not sure I care that theycame good in the end.”
“Let’s burn their house down once they’re out,” I suggested, not remotely joking.
Finley nodded decisively. “We should be burning the witch’s body anyway. Her magic will linger in the blood and bones, and I don’t want her resurrected ever. In any way.”
Emme pressed her lips together, but a smile still appeared. “I have no idea why I get turned on when you act like bloodthirsty assholes. But I do.”
My dick stood at attention like we’d been called a good boy. I was about to say fuck it and take her right here amid death and destruction. Emme snorted and held her hands up. “Down, boy. Plenty of time for that later.” She looked up and down the street, and in the distance I could see more enforcers making their way toward us. “Did Hunter and the others say how long until they’d be back? Jewels kept blabbering on about how they were going up against the rest of the witches, and I’m worried about them.”
My chest tightened, and when the silence extended on for a few seconds too long, Emme looked between the both of us. “What aren’t you telling me? They’re okay, right?”
Finley’s expression was shattered as he held her tight, his words gentle. “Emme, love… their plane went down on their way back here. We haven’t heard from any of them since.”
If I thought Finley looked shattered, it was nothing to the way Emme’s face crumpled. A sobbing cry tore from her throat. “No!” She shook her head aggressively. “No, they wouldn’t go down from a fucking plane.No!”
She clawed at her face, scratching her skin, and I reached out to capture her hands. Tears burned my eyes as I tried to reassure her that they were tough enough to survive a crash, but I couldn’t speak. I hadno idea if our quintet was intact, and Finley hadn’t even told her the worst of it.
Her breaking the bond was what set that plane crash in motion.
A truth that would destroy her.
CHAPTER 48
EMME
The look of astonishment on Kellan’s and Finley’s faces when I opened the door and found them crouched behind the Bugatti would stay with me forever. Their handsome, perfect faces… jaws ajar and eyes wide.
Still, it did very little to ease the relentless throb of our missing bond, which grew more painful with each second.
Especially now they’d told me that they hadn’t heard from Hunter, Slade, and Talon, and the plane had gone down.They’re fine. No simple plane crash could kill my mates.Never.
Oh goddess.
We remained in a silent huddle as more enforcers and healers showed up to the Annandale pack house. “What was the weird thing stuck to the front door?” I asked them, as a way of distracting myself from my howling wolf and dark thoughts.
Kellan offered the answer. “It was designed by Hunter and Slade to disrupt magical shielding. It didn’t work of course, but we were desperate for anything that might get us in to you.”
I loved them for trying to save me, but I was also thankful they couldn’t get in. Jewels wouldn’t have hesitated to wipe them out, as the two least resistant to magic. Though, with our bond intact, they might have had my magic to help them.
“The spies this time were our friends,” I said, shaking my head as I stared over the gathering crowd of shifters. We remained off to theside, waiting for Hunter’s assistant to give us an update. A few minutes later, two council members and two enforcers approached us. I knew them all by face, but their names eluded me in my agitated state.
“Alpha Kellan and Alpha Finley! Can you tell us everything that happened…”
Both the boys released animalistic sounds, reminding the council to tread very carefully. “Our mate, Emmeline Anders, is the one who saved the whole fucking city,” Kellan bit out, not remotely trying to be polite.
Finley nodded. “But since we don’t want you even looking at her, we’ll explain.”
They filled them in on what they knew, in short blunt statements.
“If you need more information from us, it’ll have to be later,” Kellan finally said. “Our pack needs us, and we have to go?—”
My wolf jolted and her howls died off to be replaced with an excited whine. A beat later, Kellan’s wolf was rumbling happily, and Finley’s bear was in his eyes. My heart stopped at the sight above us: two dragons charging through the air, moving so fast that they were a blur.
