“But then there were red flags,” he continued. “Keegan answering his phone in the middle of the night and not telling me who it was, or running off for days on end and not telling me why. I was convinced he was having an affair, and he made me feel crazy … like it was all in myhead.”
Ouch. That was harsh. I understood keeping the skyborn a secret was important, but making your partner feel crazy because you wanted to keep the lie was low. Still, it didn’t sound like Keegan had muchchoice.
“I’m sorry,” I offered. “So, you don’t think you can forgive him?” I didn’t want to pry but Keegan seemed pretty beat up over it, and if they got together maybe that meant his stupid “no dating in the pack unless you were mated” rule would die out. Nadine and Gear could even give their relationship atry.
Danny shrugged. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I want to. But I’m sopissed.”
I was about to reply when the sound of crunching gravel pulled my attention to the dirtroad.
“My car!” I jumped up. Driving up in my silver RAV-4 was Gear. In the passenger seat satEva.
‘Gear and Eva are here with my car!’I shouted into Logan’s head using our bond. He’d been planning our trip back to the elf’s house with Dominic, going over routes and making sure we were wellstocked.
How the hell had Eva met up withGear?
I took off running, and one side look told me Danny was right next tome.
‘Eva?’Logan was as shocked as Iwas.
The second Eva got out of the car, I knew something was wrong. She was holding her arm at an odd angle, and crusted blood was dried to the side of herface.
“Eva!” Logan called out behind me, and before I could move to help her, he was there taking her into a light hug. It was evident how much he loved her. Like a son embracing hismother.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t call. They burned down my bar…” she said with cold hard grit in hervoice.
Logan frowned as Danny and I gasped behind him. “Was anyone hurt?” Iasked.
Her supernatural bar in Flagstaff was her home and source of income. How dare they? I assumedtheywere the druids. My dragon pulsed with anger then, and Logan looked over his shoulder at me with green lizardeyes.
‘Calm down. You shifting right now, would be the worst possible thing tohappen.’
I hated being told to calm down when I wasn’t calm. It made me want to throw a fit like a toddler just to prove I could. Grabbing every ounce of maturity I possessed, I took a deep breath and felt my nerves calm. Being in heat made me edgy as allhell.
Eva shook her head. “Everyone got out. They’ve been tracking me ever since. I was able to glean from your voicemails that Gear was out of town, so I did a spell to find him. Together we lost them and got backhere.”
“Lost who? Steven?” That Irish bastard was getting on my nerves. My dragon wanted nothing more than to rip off his meatyhead.
Eva shared a look with Gear. “Get the pack together. Things havechanged.”
And just like that, a cold dread washed over me. If Eva was asking for a pack meeting, there wastrouble.
Ten minutes later the pack was assembled, including Isaac. We all met in one of Isaac’s many “dwellings,” this one a large recycled cloth yurt. The thick canvas cloth was stretched around some woven sticks, and at the top was an opening to let in light. I hadn’t gotten around to telling Isaac how talented and amazing he was with sustainable building design yet, but I wanted to. One side of the cloth was zippered open and tied back so that the pack could spill out into theforest.
Isaac, Logan and I were in the front row, looking at Eva, who sat down on a polished wooden tree stump. She looked old and frazzled. In pain. Things I’d never seen her look before; it broke myheart.
She looked at Isaac. “Ardan is initiating all of his hunters, making them into druids. They’re fighting in packs now. Packs ofdruids.”
Isaac hissed and Logan stepped forward as if he was hoping he’d heard herwrong.
“What? What does that mean?” I had yet to receive my supernatural dictionary, so I was stilllearning.
Eva swallowed hard, holding her injured shoulder. “Hunters are pretty harmless, sweetie. They are glorified humans until their druid master initiates them and bestows power onthem.”
“Okay…”Just spit itout.
Isaac stood, resting one hand on his staff. “So instead of having one powerful druid and his pack of idiots to fightoff…”
“We have a pack of powerful druids,” Logan finished as Keegan let a curse wordfly.
