My heart skips a beat as if it’s trying to tell me something, but I ignore it to focus on the task at hand. Rubbing my hands together to warm them up to charge the trap, I’m just about to let the wielding of my magic distract me from my thoughts when I hear footsteps on the grass behind me.
Turning around as if I’m expecting to see Brooks, even though he’s out patrolling the perimeter tonight, the smile is wiped off my face when I see Laura instead. Groaning internally, my eyes flicker to my surroundings, wondering how on Earth she found me out here.
“Rissa Rudolph,” Laura calls my name bitterly as she stalks forward as if she’s a model making the catwalk. “I thought I’d find you out here.”
“I’m busy, Laura. What do you want?”
Laura’s lips curl into a sadistic smile. “You think just ‘cause you’re a witch, you’re deserving of Brooks,” she scoffs. “You’re still an omega, Rissa Rudolph. The only one fit to be Brooks’s mate is me.”
“Get over yourself, Laura,” I shake my head in disbelief, turning back to my task. “Brooks already told you to leave me alone. I don’t have time for this.”
Laura snickers behind me. “You see, that’s the thing that makes you weak. You need Brooks to protect you. Without him, you’re nothing.”
I roll my eyes in irritation, my palms tingling with the need to release my magic. Expecting that ignoring her will send the message that she needs to go, I’m startled when I’m suddenly pushed over.
The force is so strong that I fall onto my face, activating the trap when my hand triggers it. My eyes widen in horror asI realize that the trap was just activated, and it will inevitably signal the demon to Girdwood.
“What have you done, Laura!” I exclaim as I flip myself over and glare at her.
“Just teaching you a lesson,bitch!” she spits as she leans over and guffaws in my face, sending shockwaves of red, hot anger surging through me. “You shouldn’t have messed with me!”
“And you shouldn’t have pushed me!” I roar as an uncontrollable surge runs through me, and without thinking, I lift my hands and strike Laura with my magic.
She spins through the air and falls into a pathetic pile in a fit of dramatic cries and wails.
“Help me! Somebody help me!” she cries just as an anguished wolf howl rings out from the edge of the woods.
Oh, no!
Something must have happened out there.
Quickly pulling myself together, I try to turn off the trap using my magic, but my hands are trembling too much. I can hear the sounds of howling and whimpering cries from the patrol wolves at the edge of the forest, while Laura squeals behind me.
“She attacked me! The witch attacked me!” she wails, and my heart is pounding when I turn around, only to find that a group of Snehvolk wolves follow the finger Laura has pointed at me, glaring at me accusingly.
“She pushed me first!” I defend, but it’s pointless, because this looks really bad.
It’s even worse when the patrol guards come racing toward the commotion, emerging from the depths of the woods where something terrible must have happened.
I can sense it in the hostility in their beady eyes that keep me pinned in place.
What’s worse is that amongst them, there’s a pair of silver eyes that come toward me.
Brooks shifts into human form as he marches forward, taking note of the activated trap before grabbing the cord that powers it and ripping it from the device.
“What the fuck happened?!” Brooks bellows as he stares down at me.
“She used her magic to hurt me!” Laura cries out from where the other pack members are helping her to her feet.
“Shut up!” Brooks roars at Laura while he glares at me. “I’m asking you what happened.”
Brooks’s gravelly tone as he grinds out the question through gritted teeth has my pulse racing, and a shiver of fear skitters down my spine.
“Sh-she pushed me, and it activated the trap,” I mumble shamefully, hanging my head when it becomes impossible to look into his furious eyes. “I retaliated by pushing her back. Using my—my magic.”
I hear Brooks’s furious intake of breath as he slowly turns toward the chaotic group where Laura stands.
“A member of our pack died at the hands of the demon near the river.”
