“No shit.” Max had my phone to his ear, calling it into our office.
But no way would they get here in time, and if Talis and Rys were on a fucking rampage then… I didn’t want to follow that thought through.
“What’s the plan?”
“Get in there and hope like fuck they don’t kill us.” He glanced at me. “You got your knives?”
I reached back and pulled them out.
Talis roared again, and this time another joined him, louder, angrier, and I froze. I’d never heard Rys roar like that, but I knew it was him.
Knew it in my bones.
Max was already at the door, not stopping as he barrelled through it, taking the wood clean off its hinges.
I charged in after him, coming to an abrupt halt at the sight of Tombs with a knife of his own at Rys’s throat. Just like the image on Zane’s laptop.
Rys wasn’t in his full wolf form, but he had huge fangs, and sharp-looking claws protruded from bloodied fingertips. Chains wrapped around his legs and his arms, obviously keeping him from shifting fully, but they were loose. They wouldn’t hold him for long.
Talis paced in front of a still-unconscious Axel, fully shifted. His silver-grey wolf was huge and menacing, and there was no sign of recognition in his eyes as he watched us.
“Clever trick.” Tombs sounded grudgingly impressed. “I almost fell for it. But even a wolf high on Blue Alhuirn recognises pack to some degree. And however close you and Calder have gotten this past week, you aren’t pack, Gabriel.”
He doesn’t know.
“Why him?” I asked, stalling for time. “I don’t understand what any of this is about.”
“Revenge. Surely that’s not too hard a concept for you to grasp. They never looked at me the same after you walked out like that. The other groups, myownfucking men. None of them respected me the way I fucking deserved. You ruined my life.” He shrugged. “So I’m going to ruin yours.”
I lunged for him at the same time Tombs dropped the knife and hauled the chains from Rys’s body.
With nothing to stop him shifting, the change was instant. I stopped in my tracks, staring in awe at the shimmer of air before me, the crackling of magic as Rys’s body morphed and shifted into a huge black wolf.
I stood-stock still as its gaze swung towards me.
Was Rys still in there?
Did he recognise me?
Tombs took advantage of my distraction to edge behind me toward the door. “He’s going to kill you, Gabriel. The call about a feral wolf has already been reported. I’ll arrive in time to put both him and Talis down. Too late to save you, though, because you underestimated the power of an alpha.”
He was almost at the entrance now. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, but I daren’t move a muscle.
“There’s enough Blue Alhuirn in your house to implicate you. And Zane will offer up the footage of you, Nick, and Callum together. You knew them all, Gabriel, and Nick helped you disguise yourself enough to administer it. Without you alive to defend yourself, the fae will look to your mother. Your supplier. Using poor Tehlin as a scapegoat.”
I shook my head. “They won’t believe that.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll arrest her while they investigate. They’ll have to. And who knows how long that’ll take?” His voice turned to pity. “I’ve heard the fae prisons are soul-destroying.”
He was right about that.
Something snapped inside me.
Caleb Tombs had ruined everything once. I refused to let him do it again.
He didn’t know about my bond with Rys, but he was about to.
I ripped my shirt off and turned my back on Rys, counting on the sight of my scars to trigger something inside him.
