“My office is through there. He can use the couch.” Peter waited until he was certain Quain was fine and moving without any issues before he turned to check on the psychopath who had almost killed them. Scott was still dangling the idiot by thethroat.
“What’s wrong with him?” Peter asked. He eyed the stranger with an almost clinical detachment. Silverfollowed.
“I don’t know. He was carrying this gun.” Callen waved the weapon with his left hand while keeping an eye onScott.
“Did you plan to come in here and kill everyone?” Peter didn’t know what question to ask except why. As far as he knew, none of his people had ever exchanged more than a few words with the preacher until the other day, much less antagonized him enough to deserve being shotat.
No response. Scott shook the shooter again and banged his skull against thewall.
“I think you’ll have to stop strangling him if we want an answer.” Callen didn’t even try to hide the amusement in hisvoice.
“If you insist.” Scott let go. The gunman dropped to thefloor.
Pushing up against the wall to stand, the preacher started raving again. “All of you freaks make me sick,” he choked out while rubbing his neck. Peter could already see Scott’s fingerprints bruising hisskin.
“What do you think you know about us?” Peter hated to kill, but he wouldn’t leave a psycho running around and threatening the pack. Before he could ask another question, the energy level in the room spiked and all the hairs on his body crackled uncomfortably withelectricity.
“Anthony’s annoyed,” Silversaid.
If that amount of energy indicated Anthony’s ire, Peter didn’t want to truly anger theman.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you all. You are unnatural beasts,” the shooterscreamed.
“Wait. I recognize the energy in him,” Anthony said, coming up beside them. He examined the screeching assailant with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “Keep himstill.”
Scott spun the preacher around and latched on both of his shoulders to keep him steady for Anthony’sexamination.
Anthony stepped closer and pressed two fingers on the preacher’s temples. He closed his eyes as he concentrated. No one dared speak while heworked.
A few minutes later, he opened his eyes and stepped back. “He’s beeninfluenced.”
“What do you mean?” Peterasked.
“I think the wizards sent him here.” Anthony’s expression didn’t change as he studied the preacher. “His mind was being controlled. Even now, there still are traces onhim.”
“How do you know it’s the wizards?” Silver asked the question on the tip of Peter’stongue.
“I recognize the magic from when we went to their manor. We should bring Oliver in to double-check, but I’m pretty sure I’mright.”
“I believe you,” Petersaid.
“What do we do now?” Quain asked. If the wizards were willing to do this type of thing, what would stop them from doing itagain?
He leaned against Peter who quickly wrapped an arm around him to supporthim.
Silver scratched his cheek as his eyes flashed an eerie gold. “Well, there are a couple of things we can do. You can go into hiding. It will take a bit more effort on their part, but they will probably find you in theend.”
“Or?” Peter could tell from the feral cast of the Alpha’s face that his ideas didn’t stopthere.
“Or we can show them why it’s a bad idea to mess with a pack.” Silver’s toothy smile promised pain andretribution.
“They didn’t know I was part of your pack when they kidnapped me,” Quain pointedout.
“You were still a shifter and they knew that,” Silver countered. “We might only be one pack, but I like to think we represent the shifters of this city. A city that should be safe for everyone, especially now that we mostly eradicated themutants.”
“We have to be careful,” Anthony warned. “It’s one thing to threaten them, but if we directly attack, they could recruit other wizards to join them. We don’t want to have an all-out war if we can avoidit.”
“So we do nothing?” Quainsaid.
