“Because if you don’t, I’ll make sure hell rains down on this mountain in more ways than one.” It’s not a threat. It’s a promise. I don’t fuck around when it comes to my family, and it’s not this one I’m speaking of. It’s the club. It’s Carina.
My mother opens her mouth to say something, only to have my father beat her to it. “She’ll lift the damn spell, son,” he says, shocking the hell out of me.
“I will not,” the woman snaps.
My father turns to her and growls deeply. “You will because if you don’t, I’ll kill you myself. The boy has never come for help with anything. He’s our boy,and you’ve treated him shitty. Forced me to do it, but you know what, Esme, as we were fighting before he showed, it ends now.”
“How dare?—”
“Enough,” my mother’s dad clips out. “You might be the powerful witch you are, but you are still no match for me, daughter.” He turns to me, speaks the language I haven’t heard in a long time, and steps toward me while slicing into his hand.
The scent of his blood fills my nostrils and has my dragon on alert. We know the words of the language, so he’s not fucking with us. It’s been a long time since we’ve been a part of a spell of any kind.
My grandfather reaches up and presses his bleeding hand to my face. “It is done. You will not be bested today or any day when it comes to your mate.”He then turns to my mother. “Now, tell my grandson the rest of what he wants to know. Where’s the girl?”
When we came here, I had a plan, and it’s definitely not going the way it should be. I thought I’d be paying the price, but it seems my father and grandparents have grown sick of my mother’s shit finally.
Strange.
Never saw it coming.
“I will not tell you. I refuse to help him or anyone. Not without him paying the price,” she snarls.
“You will help him,” my grandmother snaps, rounding my father and getting in her face. “For years, years on top of years, I’ve kept my mouth shut. The only good thing about my son mating you, is Magnus, otherwise I’d have told my son to kill you so many years ago.”
“He can’t kill me. I’m his mate.”
“Stop lying,” Grandfather snaps at her. “You spelled him to be your mate because you wanted him, and he was able to keep you from aging. He knows the truth now.”
What the hell?
“I’ve also met my actual mate,” my father snarls.
“Talk about family drama,” Heat mutters next to me.
“You can say that again.” I grunt, clear my throat, and speak up. “Look, y’all can have at this bullshit family drama. I’ve got shit to do. If you don’t want to tell me where the fuck they’re keeping Kinley, fine, we’ll search the whole damn range.”
Without looking in my direction, my father speaks up, “I’ll find out and get that information to you after the challenge.”
“It’ll be too late.” Mother sneers and laughs bitterly.
“What does that mean?” I demand.
“That they’ll have been notified the moment youentered this mountain.” She grins mercilessly. “They will have left by now. You’ll never find that girl.”
Rage fills me. Hinders me blind to anything else. She’s not my mate, but she was one of us. One of ours and my own mother ruined it for me.
There’s no stopping the shift. No stopping what I do, and everyone scatters around me, getting out of my way.
Fire burns in my throat. My dragon has taken over control as he roars, eyes on my mother. The only thing we can think of is making her burn.
Roaring again in her direction, I see her laughing.
“Your fire will not burn me. It’s a part of the spell.”
I didn’t care what she said as I breathed fire in her direction, hotter than I’ve ever felt burning.
Her screams fill my ears.
