Page 63 of Bad Blood Panther

The guy’s phone beeped again, and he checked his messages. “Wrong again,” he said. “As of this moment, they are.”

Xander felt red rage overwhelming him in waves.

Blood. Kill. Die.

He pressed the knife harder, and a thin trickle of blood ran down Bledsoe’s neck.

Flynn’s phone rang again.

“They got them,” Sloan said, sounding exhausted. “We’re all okay, but they fucking got Jenny and Brandon.”

“What the goddamn hell happened?” Flynn demanded.

“They had some kind of sorcerer with them. They punched through the boundary magic and attacked. She created illusions…shit. We didn’t know how many they had, or where anybody was…she just kept us running after shit that wasn’t there. And it was all a diversion…”

His voice cracked. “I’m sorry. Tell Xander…fuck.” He broke off.

The red rage receded, and Xander felt cold fury take its place. He stared at that fucker Carruthers. “Now I’m going to kill him,” he said, giving the man in his death grip a little shake. “And then I’m going to kill you.”

“No, you won’t,” Carruthers said, still with that arrogant sneer on his face. “You’ll come to Broken Hill and answer for your crimes.”

“My crimes?” Xander said. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“You tried to steal our future alpha, claim him as your own.”

“He is mine,” Xander said. “I have the DNA test to prove it.”

The asshole glanced negligently at the torn paperwork. “Tests can be faked,” he said. “If you really believe this boy is yours, then prove it like a man. Like a true panther.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Flynn was shaking his head. “Trial by combat,” he said in disgust.

“That’s right,” Carruthers said. “Come to Broken Hill, and fight for your so-called family.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then the woman will die.”

It was all Xander could do to keep his shit together. Flynn wanted to refuse to let him go, and then he wanted to come with him. The Broken Hill contingent shut him down at every turn.

“You have nothing to do with this,” they said. “Stay out of it.”

Xander knew there was nothing Flynn hated more than being over a barrel, with no way out. He always had a contingency plan, but Broken Hill had fucked with them both.

Xander’s only consolation was that Flynn was not going to let them get away with it.

“I’m his fucking alpha,” Flynn said. “He’s pledged to me. That makes me involved whether you like it or not.”

“He was Turned by Broken Hill. He’s under our jurisdiction.”

Flynn gazed at them long enough, with enough hatred burning in his eyes, for them to start shifting uncomfortably. Then he said, “Xander?”

“I have to go with them,” Xander said. “It’s my family.” He didn’t know what the fuck he could do for them out there alone, but he had to go.

Flynn turned that penetrating gaze on him, then gave a short nod.

Xander let his prisoner go, sheathed his knife and handed it to Flynn. No sense in letting these guys take his favorite knife. Bledsoe backed away from him, wiping blood off his neck.

Flynn clasped Xander’s hand. “We got your back,” he growled.

Xander felt something hard and round pressed into his palm, about the size of a quarter.

One of Flynn’s damn tracking devices.

The darkness around his heart lifted just a little.

He closed his hand around it and shoved his fists in his pockets. “Fine,” he said, looking at the fuckers who had his mate and his son. “Let’s do this.”