“You should be grateful for that,” Constantine mumbled, rubbing a hand over his wild mane of hair. “Not everyone has a family who cares enough to show up for you.”
All of us shot him ashut the fuck upstare. “I am grateful,” Kellan bit out with an uncharacteristic snarl, “but as I said, it’s dangerous around us at the moment. If I could send Emme and my brothers away too, I would. But unfortunately we’re the only ones aware of what’s happening, and who might be able to stop it.”
That was a hugemight. We couldn’t wield magic, we didn’t know how to counter a spell, and unless we tracked Jewels down and killed her before the curse enacted, there was no stopping this fromhappening. But he was correct that we were the only ones aware of the issue.
“As long as Emme and the twins are fine,” I said, still searching our bond for her. “The rest can be worked out.”
“What exactly happened in the bond?” Constantine asked finally, and while I sensed his gaze on me, I didn’t acknowledge him. “I felt a surge of energy, and it was definitely magic, but I couldn’t tell more than that. If I didn’t give you all a boost of adrenaline, though, you’d have passed out.”
“It was like our bond overloaded with power,” Hunter explained, dominance leaking from him so strongly even my bear wanted to retreat. “I think they went down under the surge.”
Constantine mulled his information over for a minute, and I was hit with an urge to spear him on the end of my claws and shake him until he spoke. He’d already left Emme alone with evil alphas for most of her life, so he had better step up now and make himself useful.
Before my beast decided he would make a great snack.
“As a near perfect mix of wolf and witch,” he finally said, “my magic is innately connected to my beast. One can’t survive without the other, and while I’m not as powerful in some ways as a full witch, in others… my beast boosts my strength. Emme is less witch than me, which made it easy to suppress her magic behind her beast. As I expected, the final bonding of your quintet likely burst all that containment to pieces. Emme’s magic could be running free for the first time in twenty-plus years.”
“I’d thought there was a faint buzz of magic when I was first hit,” I said, remembering the sensation.
Kellan moved behind me, and I turned to find him eyeballing the witch-wolf. “For a half witch, you’re damn strong. Who are your parents?”
Constantine met the blazing blue gaze of my brother without flinching. Kellan might be the sunniest of our quintet, but when he let the darkness seep from his soul, even I exercised caution. “Both long dead. My father was anAlterniwitch, which was one of the originals. Just like Termaine. There are none of us left now, outside of Emme and me. My mother was an ultimate alpha, before the formation of shifter cities.”
The silence was heavy as Hunter continued racing through the streets, his wolf’s rumbles never letting up. “How old are you?” Iasked, doing some mental math. Shifters lived for a long time, but ultimate alphas hadn’t been around for a near century.
“Old enough,” he said simply. “My parents were old when they had me, and I’ve lived for a long time after that. I’ve seen a lot of battles, and I’m worried about this one. It brought me out of hiding, didn’t it? For Emme, I will stand on the right side of history.”
Yeah, we’d see. Words were cheap and easy, as I knew all too well. When I’d set out to prove myself to my mate, after fucking up spectacularly, I knew what to say to make her believe I’d changed. But that wasn’t enough. Actions held a lasting truth, and I would always use them before words with my pack. Until Constantine proved his loyalty, there’d be no trust from me.
Hunter screeched to a halt out the front of Slade’s apartment and all of us piled out, leaving the Bentley on the street, doors open. As we entered the building, my bear pushed lightly, wanting to shoulder some of my stress. But I didn’t need to rely on him the same way as I had before.
We were a proper team now, both of us able to take on stressful situations. It was no longer his sole responsibility to protect me, and our new dynamic was one of my favorite parts of my healing journey. Along with finally bonding Emme.
Hunter entered the code to the building so fast that it didn’t register the first time, and he cursed his own damn technology before the lock finally released. As tempted as I was to use the fire escape stairs, Slade was in the twentieth-floor penthouse, which made the elevator the fastest route. We were forced to stand there, our beasts growling as we waited for the doors to open.
Kellan started reciting lines from the book he was reading to keep his mind calm, and I went over the last game we’d played against theSilver City Groundhogs. Despite their unusual choice of name, they were one of the higher ranked in the league, and I’d been surprised at how easily we’d won. We had another game tonight and were supposed to be at the rink in a few hours?—
The ding of the opening door cut off all thoughts except those of Emme, and after we all pushed inside it took less than a minute to reach the twentieth floor. Slade’s penthouse spanned across the entire level, and no one could access it without a code.
At least they hadn’t been vulnerable and passed out where thegeneral population could reach them. “Can you feel them in the bond yet?” I asked as we entered the apartment.
“No,” Hunter shot back. “But they’re alive at least. Let’s hope the magic just knocked them out.”
Constantine trailed us through the halls until we reached the main bedroom, where we found three naked bodies sprawled.
I moved in front of the witch-wolf to block him from seeing the scene. No one saw our mate naked except us. Especially not a male who was virtually a stranger.
Hunter growled over his shoulder. “Out,” he snapped through his beast’s fury. “We’ll call if we need magical help.”
To his credit, Constantine backed up quickly, his scent fading when he left this wing of the apartment completely.
I was right beside Hunter and Kellan, and when we reached Emme, I pressed my hands to her chest. The sear of her warm skin under my touch brought so much relief—she was alive and brimming with energy.
“They’re filled with power,” Hunter said, blinking down at our mate. He leaned over and ran his nose along her throat, scenting her closer. “It’s intense.”
It was clear that Slade and Talon were the same, their essences so strong that even without touching them I could feel their beasts. “It’s all of them,” I noted.
“They’re burning up,” Kellan added, his expression falling. “We need to do something. Share out the power somehow.”
