Page 160 of Poet & Protector

Lumine ignored Emile. Her gaze was wintry and disdainful as she looked first at Naomi, then Stephen.

“This will be much more pleasant if you stand down, Stephen,” Lumine told the alpha.

Stephen shifted to human form and bowed his head to show deference. “Mistress, please. What happened? Where’s my daughter?”

Lumine’s lips pulled back in a sneer, but beside her Efron smiled.

“That is something we’d all like to know.” He flicked his wrist and Emile lunged forward, knocking Stephen, still in human form, to the ground.

Naomi flattened herself to the earth, whimpering as Emile kept her mate pinned. Stephen didn’t resist. His steady gaze remained on Lumine, waiting for her to give him some kind of reprieve.

“I won’t fight,” Stephen told her. “I am your servant.”

“We’ll see about that,” Lumine replied. “Emile, release him.”

Emile snarled.

“Do it,” Efron ordered.

Emile backed off, growling.

“Stephen, Naomi, follow me.” Lumine turned and strode away.

Naomi shifted into human form. Stephen took her hand and the Nightshade alphas trailed after their mistress, casting worried glances at the rest of us.

Suddenly we were surrounded, corralled by snarling Bane elders.

One of them stepped forward, baring his fangs. Shift forms. Shift and surrender or we attack.

Surrender? We weren’t fighting anyone.

What do we do? Ansel’s panicked voice entered my mind. Why are they threatening us? Where is Lumine taking my parents?

I don’t know, I replied. But we need to do what they say. Your parents didn’t resist and neither should we. If we fight, we die.

Ansel whined.

Fuck this, Fey snapped at Ansel. Tell us where Calla is. Get us out of this mess.

I don’t know where she is! Ansel snarled back.

The hell you don’t! she snapped again, and this time Ansel had to jump back to avoid her teeth. She’s your sister.

I shifted forms. “Stop. Both of you. We’ll figure this out.”

Lifting my hands to gesture surrender, I spoke to the bristling Bane who’d given us the order. “Don’t attack. We’ll do what you want. Whatever is happening, we’re not part of it. We don’t understand what’s going on.”

My packmates followed my lead, shifting to human form and likewise lifting their hands. Two of the elder Banes shifted. The others remained wolves, circling and growling.

“Follow us,” one of the Banes ordered. “No trouble or we’ll take you down.”

I had to stop myself from snarling at him. We’d done nothing to antagonize them and they were treating us like the enemy, but if I so much as bared my teeth he was sure to interpret that as ‘trouble.’

They led us away from the clearing, in the opposite direction of the altar. I soon realized we were retracing our steps to the location of the Blood Moon ball. The two Banes in human form stayed in front of us, while wolves remained at our sides and behind us. There was no mistaking that we were viewed as prisoners.

When we emerged from the forest, a pair of SUVs were idling on the road in front of the building where our Mountain School peers were still dancing and celebrating.

One of the Banes opened the car door. “Two of you in here.”