Fi’s lip curled in a sneer as my half brothers moved closer, maneuvering me toward their van. “I don’t need you to help me voluntarily. We can truss you up like a pig if you give us grief. I’m going to use your gifts to boost mine. I’ll be able to use my green magic to strangle Melisande with the vines of an ivy, and force every member of the coven to bow down to me. The Iron Claw will give me the muscle on top of the magic to make sure I get everything I need to make it happen. We’ll all work together, and we will own this town!”
Horror threatened to choke me. If the Iron Claw pack won, what would happen to Killian? To Maeve, to Sarah? I’d tried to save Killian by leaving him, and now I would be his destruction.
Aurora approached Fio and I. She had been standing far back, watching us. Lovely. What a time for a family reunion.
She looked at Fio. “So she only needs to be kind of close to me for it to boost my magic?”
Fio nodded. “Closer is better, more potent.”
Aurora approached me, and I took a step back and bumped into Royal. He grabbed me by the arm and his fingers sank in like a vise.
She focused in on some bushes in the distance. She threw her hand out and those bushes erupted in flames. Not some sparks, but a full-on blaze with an impressive initial burst of heat.
The Iron Claw hooted and hollered at the sudden display of pyrotechnics in front of them. Aurora stared at her hands.
Then she looked at her brothers. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Since when do you think, period?” Duke sneered.
“You’re going to drag our pack into an all-out war.” She shook her head, looking frustrated. “People will die for no reason, and we’re not guaranteed to win. What if we lose? What then?”
“I cannot wait to get you married off,” Earl snorted. “And you just wait ’til you see who we pick for you.”
“You rock-brained dipshit,” Aurora muttered. “You’re going to help me do something I’ve wanted to do for a long-ass time, Daphne.”
I snorted in disgust. “I’m going to do what now?”
Aurora threw her hand forward, pointing three fingers at her brothers. Their clothing erupted into flames.
Oh. Well, I was happy to do that.
The three of them yelped. “What the fuck, Aurora?!” Duke screamed. They fell to the ground, rolling to smother the sudden flames that were covering them.
Earl managed to strip off his burning clothes first, baring his fangs and stamping his feet. “Dammit, Aurora, we were doing this for you! Killian rejected you! He made a fool of you in front of everyone!”
Aurora reignited the shreds of clothing beneath her brother and he hotfooted it away from it. “Oh please, Earl, are you trying to pretend you thought I cared about him? You wanted me to marry him, get him close, and then betray him.”
“What?” I cried out, disgusted.
I looked around wildly. There was no escape here.
“Let’s get her back to our pack house now,” Duke shook his head in disgust. “Aurora, you pull any more shit, we’ll end you, sister or not.”
I was going to have to shift, fight and die.
There was no other option. I wouldn’t let them use me as a weapon against the White Fang.
As I closed my eyes, I heard the rumblings of engines in the distance. A dozen cars, all riding in formation, rushed down the narrow country road toward us.
They screeched to a halt a hundred feet from us, and the doors of those cars flung open.
Killian. Gage. Talon. Max. And dozens of White Fang pack members.
Standing tallest was Killian, fangs bared, fists balled.
Twenty-Three
Daphne
