“Dad.” Myla turned to stare at him. She’d been silent up until this point, and I wondered what they’d done to get her here and keep her quiet, but now she openly glared at her dad. “Let it go.Please.”
“I can’t.” Haylen sighed. “You still need a partner if you’re going to run our pack, and a member of the paranormal police will command the required level of respect. It doesn’t matter whether Jake is part of Xen’s pack or not. In fact, it probably works in our favour that he’s not. Jake can join our pack and then you’ll bond. This changes nothing.”
Any hope I’d had drained away. Pulling Jake to me, I wrapped my arms around him, ignoring the twinge in my side and holding onto him like I could physically stop them from taking him.
“How can you look at them and still go through with this? Theyloveeach other,” Myla implored, pointing at us. When Haylen refused to acknowledge her, her chin tilted up, defiant. “And I love Izzy.”
He glared back at her. “The pact stands.”
“Not if it was based on a lie.” Axel melted out of the forest, Chylath and Dathal on one side, Talis on the other. Wyn and Nick walked behind them. They all came to stand beside Rys.
“Molhieth,” Xen sneered. Any compassion I still held for him vanished as he looked at Axel with distaste. “This is shifter business.” His lip curled even more when he noticed Dathal and Chylath. “The fucking fae have no place here.”
I caught the glint of sun on metal as both Chylath and Dathal called for their daggers. Talis growled, slipping into his half-shift, and Rys snarled, skin rippling as magic crackled in the air around him.
Fuck, he was going to shift any second if we didn’t calm him down. Sasha and Syl, reacting to Rys’s building rage, matched Talis in their half-shift.
Xen’s gaze slid to Nick and Wyn. He sneered. “The old laws might allow you to protect your pack, but they don’t permit you to use magical attacks.” He altered his stance, moving away from the car, and his pack flanked him.
“I’m aware,” Rys growled, fingers twitching at his side. “I don’t need magic to fight you.”
“Mase,” I hissed, looking over at him. “Do something.”
“Trying,” he gritted out, body trembling. “I can’t get through to him.”
Letting go of Jake, I hurried over to Chylath. “Can you calm them down?” I asked, praying we were close enough to the gateway for his magic to work.
Chylath glanced at the three alphas, eyes wide. “Which ones?”
“All of them?”
He hesitated, looking all kinds of uncomfortable, and I remembered his words from that day in my office, but now wasn’t the time to debate whether this was ethical or not. “If one shifts, they all will, and then someone is going to die.” If Xen and Haylen decided they were still on the same side, then that someone was going to be Rys, and I wasn’t fucking having that. “Please.” I grabbed his arm.
I almost whimpered in relief when Chylath nodded and closed his eyes. His daggers vanished and fae magic brushed against me. I shuddered at the unfamiliar feel of it, but I didn’t give a shit because that meant it wasworking. Hot on its heels was another whisper of magic as Wyn cast a protective shield over him. He glared at me, defiant, but I wasn’t about to tell him to stop.
Axel grabbed my attention, his hand landing on my shoulder. “I know what happened that night,” he murmured softly, but the urgency in his voice pulled me up short. “Stay back.” He gave me a wry smile. “You’re in no state to fight, and this will either calm things down or set them all off.”
“Fuck.” I nodded, knowing my limits. Grabbing Jake, I tugged him back behind Rys and the others. I would’ve worried for Axel’s safety, but Dathal stood beside him, brandishing his daggers like he couldn’t wait to use them. Nick hung back behind them, watching. Waiting. If it all went to shit then I had no doubt he’d step in, whatever the consequences might be.
Rys and Xen looked slightly less murderous now, thanks to Chylath, but I didn’t know how long that would last given Axel’s news.
With Talis moving to hover protectively at his other side, fangs bared, Axel started to speak. “It doesn’t matter if you want to break the pact or not. It was forged under false pretences and is therefore not binding.”
All eyes swung to Axel.
Talis growled.
“What do you mean?” Rys straightened, seemingly in control of himself again.
Axel looked directly at Xen. “John Allen didn’t kill Lee Faris.Xendid.”
Stunned silence.
Then…
“Fuck off,” Xen spat, but he didn’t hide his shock quickly enough. “You have no idea what happened that night.”
“Yes, I do.” Axel tapped the side of his head, and I could’ve kissed him. “As afucking fae, I have magic. And that magic allows me to read minds.”
