Inside the building, Constantine ambushed four more guards stationed in the entrance. Like the ones at the gate, they went down so quickly there was no way they’d had a chance to send out an alert. The witch in their ranks had hit the ground the hardest.
“How’s your magic and energy levels?” I asked Constantine. “You were semi-drained coming into this recon mission.”
I’d continue to call it recon, even as we skirted Emme’s rules by entering the warehouse. But we needed to confirm that Jewels was here before we returned with the pack. And if by some chance we ended up facing her today, we would deal with it. Maybe it would be better that way, never having to bring the most precious piece of our quintet into danger.
Constantine waggled his shoulders, as if he was tense. “I’m fine. So far there are no magical protections on these guards, so it’s taking almost none of my strength to knock them out. I might only be a half-breed, but I’m from an original magical line.”
Slade grunted and waved the witch-wolf on, since he was so far the most adept at silently taking out the guards. He didn’t even need to get that close to them.
“The warehouse is a cover,” I noted, glancing around the empty space. “They’re not using this area for anything, but there’s security here? There’s no way this isn’t her safe house.”
It took us close to an hour to find the hidden entrance that led below ground, and when we stood before the dark hole, Slade met my gaze. I already knew what he was going to say—even before the full quintet bond we’d often been on the same wavelength. “You want to get closer and see what we’re up against, don’t you?”
His response was immediate and without hesitation. “What if we can take these fuckers out now and never have to bring our omega even remotely close to danger? All of this magical protection… they have to be here. We know it, and we are the strongest members of our pack. We can do this.”
My wolf twisted in my chest as we considered breaking ourpromise to Emme. Slade spoke logic, and with two dragons and a witch-wolf by my side, I couldn’t think of much that would take us down, but it still went against my instincts.
“Em, Kellan and Finley are strong,” Talon said, as he stared at me, and I wondered if he could sense my indecision. “But they’re not going to be much help to us here. We’re the ones who can stop this and keep our pack safe, unless of course we tap into Emme’s essence, and we don’t want to do that.”
As our entitled alpha, my entire fucking reason for existence was to keep my pack safe. I cared little for the rest of the shifter world, but for my family I’d step over every moral line that existed.
“Let me put out a call to our allies,” I said, needing a compromise that Emme might be able to live with. After the fact of course, as we couldn’t run this by her in advance. “We have a dozen or more allies in Silver City, already outfitted to fight magic and enforcers.”
Slade held his phone out since I’d left mine on the plane, and I dialed the one shifter I knew would take care of it for me. She answered on the second ring, and I wasted no time on pleasantries.
“Casey, it’s Alpha Hunter. I need you to send out these coordinates to the Silver City allies.” I rattled them off and then paused for her to read them back to me correctly. “That’s it,” I said. “Tell them we need them to head this way, outfitted for battle.”
“On it, boss.”
When she hung up, I had no doubts that backup would be here soon. My assistant was proficient and would not let us down.
“What if we aren’t strong enough on our own?” Constantine asked, looking between us. “Emme is going to be so upset that we took this risk without her. I don’t want to lose my daughter again. She’s only just starting to trust me.”
Slade rumbled. “We’re strong enough. And as long as Emme is alive, I don’t care if she hates us. It won’t last forever. One day she’ll understand that we will burn everything down to keep her safe, even ourselves.”
It was the truth, but I also knew Emme wouldn’t want to live without us. Which was what made her so fucking precious. No one had ever loved us the way she did, and we would fight literally the entire world to just feel her soft touch one more time.
Constantine didn’t argue, but his concerned expression remained. We all stood at the top of the stairs that disappeared down into theunknown. This was where the shielding really started, and the bursts of magic against our skin were painful.
“You weren’t kidding about the earth dulling magic,” Talon muttered. A fluttering of scales slithered over his arms before he got his beast under control again.
“It’s one of the most thorough blankets I’ve ever experienced,” Constantine said, the unease from his expression creeping into his voice. “Do you plan on waiting for the backup before we go down there?”
Slade didn’t bother to answer him, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to find that whatever respect the witch-wolf had garnered with his earlier actions was gone now under his hesitation. The dragons feared nothing and no one, and when their mate’s life was on the line… He would not wait any longer.
Checking on Emme once more, I found her safe and in Finley’s chair, getting her tattoo finished. Their game was an early one today, and I’d already arranged for Kassidy to be there.
If Emme decided to go, she wouldn’t be alone.
“Let’s just get closer,” Slade suggested, his movements uncharacteristically agitated. “We need to know what we’re up against. We need to find that witch and destroy her.”
My brother was untethering under the threat to his pack, and I already knew he’d destroy half this warehouse if we didn’t do something. “Okay, we can move closer, but we don’t attack until our backup arrives.”
That way I could promise Emme we did everything in our power to win this battle.
Slade agreed with a nod, already striding down the stairs. We all followed behind, and Constantine cast a very dim light above us, which I didn’t think we’d need until we were in the narrow tunnel that had been carved into the rock. Down here, the darkness was like a black hole, as if all light had been swallowed.
It took us over an hour to reach the end of the tunnel, and the magic stench was thick enough that we knew it had been constructed by witches. No doubt above our heads would be the very spot we’d met Talon and Slade before; right on the co-ordinates of the power usage Slade had been tracking.
