A dull thump led me deeper into the building, and we crept past reception to find Sloane twitching on the floor with five—no,seven—feather-tipped syringes sticking from her neck and chest where Mindy must have been firing them from a tranquilizer gun as fast as her finger could pull the trigger in order to beat Sloane’s charmed instantaneous shift into her wolf.
Tingles burst into prickles that coasted down my arms, and I spun to find Jess exploding from her clothes as power spilled into the air. She hit the floor on her hands and knees, and I had no choice but to skitter back to give her room as she grew and grew andgrew. I had never seen someone shift so fast without a charm to help them. No. That was a lie, wasn’t it? Rían embraced his dragon in a blink. This was more of a slow blink, but still. The entire clan couldn’t have this much power.
No matter. I had no time to ponder the mechanics. I had to act, or I was going to be squished by a polar bear with a shoulder already forming higher than I stood tall.
The commotion brought Mindy running, and Jess bared her teeth as she finished her transformation.
“Who the hell are you?” She stared the beast up and down. “Who sent you?”
A roar that forced me to slap my hands over my ears was Jess’s only answer.
That was when I realized I had scooted so far over that Mindy couldn’t see me. She didn’t know I was here too. That could work in our favor. I just needed a second to decide how to use my advantage.
“Idiot.” She lifted a weapon halfway between a handgun and a rifle that must be the tranquilizer gun and fired once, hitting Jess in her foreleg before she could lumber aside. “You’re too big to maneuver in such a tight space.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Mindy was right. Jess was a whole lot of bear trying hard not to wreck my home away from home. But I had insurance for a reason. Things could be replaced, but people were one and done.
Quicker than I credited her for, Jess swatted at Mindy, connecting with her left arm and shredding it from shoulder to elbow. Too bad she was right arm dominant, and it didn’t stop her from firing off two more shots, one of which landed.
Anger boiled in my gut, fear for my friends causing it to bubble over into something hotter, brighter.
A familiar tugging sensation whirled through my chest, flowing through me in time with my breathing.
Magic.
Mymagic.
That wellspring within me was rising, just as it had the day I connected with Rían, and I began sweating. The lake—and Rían’s quick thinking—had saved me then, but there was no going back as raw power ignited in my chest, and my palms glowed with red and gold light.
“Are you trying to smoke me out, bear?”
The bear in question twitched her nose, checking the scent, but she didn’t dare cut her eyes toward me.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Another puff of forced air, another grunt from Jess, and I lost it.
No.
Ierupted.
A seismic shift shuddered through me as my palms ignited into flamethrowers, which, yes, looked cool, butohmygodIwasgoingtokillusall. The twin gouts of flames had Mindy swearing and backing toward the employee exit. I ought to be hustling in that direction too, toward the yard and the hosepipes, but fear I would burn GSG down around us consumed me.
Until Sloane’s whimper hit me, then that same fear galvanized me. “What did you dose Sloane with?”
Rising slowly, I held my palms up in front of me, hoping I gave off menacing vibes instead of panicky ones.
“Ana.” Mindy’s lips parted like she couldn’t decide on how to play it. “I didn’t see you there.”
Indecision flickered across her features, a million answers parting her lips before she locked her jaw. That she hadn’t shot me too left me queasy with cold certainty that what she had in those vials was stronger than a sedative.
Cursing myself for not bonding into the Walsh clan, for not giving myself a tether to yank to draw Rían’s attention, I could only keep her talking while I figured out a new game plan. “You’re the mole.”
“I’m here to keep you safe.” She placed the gun on the counter. “That’s all.”
Much as I would like to return the good-faith gesture, for the sake of my ceiling, which was blackening, I couldn’t extinguish the dancing flames.
“You’re here to bide your time until you can return me to Carmichael, and in case you didn’t know, he’s never kept me safe. He killed my parents and God only knows how many othersto kidnap and control me. Does that sound like a situation I would ever return to willingly?”
