I never wanted him to.
I had never felt more awake.
I allowed myself to have this. To have it last as long as it could. To pretend that there was nothing out there coming for us.
It didn’t last, of course.
A bright light arced through my head, like a comet.
I stiffened.
He did too. “I felt that. Is it…?”
I said, “The wards. Something just hit the wards.”
IT WENT LIKE THIS:
The sky was dark, stars like ice.
The moon was a sliver as the year hurtled toward its end.
They moved around me. My mother. Gavin. Mark. Jessie. Rico. Chris. Tanner. Dominique.
It was at the covered bridge that we found them.
Wolves all.
Betas. Their eyes were orange in the dark.
I counted twenty.
I recognized half from Caswell.
They would be the first. I would make sure of it.
One of the wolves said, “Where’s the king?”
I said, “I know you.”
He grinned. “Do you? Quite an honor to be known by a prince. It’s—”
“You’re Santos. Robbie told me about you. Always in charge of the prisoner you kept locked away like a good little lapdog.”
His smile twisted into something toxic and dark. “Yeah, I guess I was.” He looked back at the others gathered around him before he turned once again to us. “Got a bit of a promotion. And a new Alpha.”
I nodded slowly. “I heard.”
“I don’t see Robbie.” The wolves behind him laughed. “Where is he? Poor little lost boy. You don’t know how hard it was for me to keep from killing him every time he stood before me.” He spat onto the ground. “Thought we could take care of that now.”
I shrugged. “Don’t think you’ll get that chance.”
He didn’t like that. He looked to my mother and said, “I’m going to kill your sons. Green Creek will have a new Alpha. We’ll spare Gavin because that’s what our Alpha wants. But I’m going to save you for last. I’m going to take everything from you. And while they bleed out in front of you, begging for you to help them, Mommy, please, please, Mommy, I’m going to—”
Jessie said, “Bored now.” The crack of gunfire was loud in the dark. Santos stared at us with wide eyes as blood trickled down his face from the hole in his forehead. He fell to his knees. His eyes flickered orange and then went dark. He was already dead when he landed face-first on the ground. Jessie turned her gun on the others, a lock of her hair falling onto her forehead. “Anyone else want to threaten her?”
The wolves snarled in anger.
“Yeah,” Jessie said. “I thought so.”