War of Hearts (True Immortality 1)

“As your reinstated lead warrior”—Callie tipped her chin back—“I hope you know I’m coming with you.”

He wouldn’t dare deny her. His sister was one of the fiercest wolves in his pack. And she was saved—alive. Thea had done that. Thea gave him that gift. Emotion threatened to overwhelm him, but he pushed it down.

“Thea told me to tell you who betrayed you.” Callie glowered at Sienna.

Conall turned to the American.

Sienna flinched. “It was Richard, Conall. I tried to stop him.”

Richard Canid. Fuck.

“Why?”

“Richard gambled away a significant amount of the pack’s assets, which is a catastrophe on top of the pharmaceuticals fiasco. He hoped he could play hardball with you for our betrothal. That he could get enough money for my dowry that would cover the debts so that my father would spare him. But with the betrothal broken, Dad told Richard that when we returned home, he was to be demoted to enforced omega status. Early this morning, I awoke and found Richard sneaking back into the Coach House. He had a package with him, and he told me he’d gone to Castle Cara to make a deal with Ashforth. Ashforth would give him the money we needed in exchange for Thea.” Her gaze turned pleading. “I tried to stop him. But he attacked me. I just came to … I’m so sorry.”

“No.”

The word was harsh with grief and torn out of the mouth of another American.

They all whipped around to see Peter Canid at the entrance to the Coach House, his pallor ashen from overhearing his daughter’s tale.

“Dad.” Sienna’s face crumpled. “I’m so sorry.”

Peter’s expression hardened as he turned to Conall. He seemed lost for words.

“Where is he now?” James demanded.

Sienna shook her head.

Peter said, “I can’t find him anywhere.”

Conall respected Peter … but his rage was too great. “You find him, you tell him he comes back here. I have his scent so I can find him, but it would be in his best interests not to make me hunt him down. Get him back here, Peter. When I have Thea back, when this business with Ashforth is dealt with, your son will meet me in Challenge.”

Canid suddenly looked haggard as Sienna whimpered. But he nodded his consent.

“I’ll understand if that means you want to withdraw your warriors.”

The older alpha shook his head. “The least my pack can do now is offer you aid.”

Conall looked to Callie and James. “We had a plan to rescue you—now we use it for Thea. Get familiar with it, and quickly. We leave in ten minutes. Even that is too long.”

Ashforth would die today. Conall knew he’d promised Thea she’d be the one to drop the killing blow but Conall was a six-foot-six mountain of wrath, and Jasper Ashforth would never survive the avalanche about to be set loose upon him.

That’s what happened when you kidnapped an alpha’s mate.

Thea … Conall wished she could hear him through the bond. Thea, I’m coming for you.The drug wore off completely and her wrists no longer burned from where the iron shackles had been.

She was at full strength.

Thea had thought that very unwise of Ashforth, even if she’d said she’d play nice (a lie), until her captor pushed her into a chair at the dining table and said, “If you try to escape, I’ll destroy your mate’s pack. Every single one. I’m not bluffing, Thea. And you know I have the means to tear their world apart. There are certain people that would be happy to receive information that the owner of GlenTorr Whisky turns into a dog every full moon.”

She bared her teeth at him.

“God, he’s turning you into one of them.” Rage flashed in Ashforth’s eyes. “How dare he try to take what belongs to me.”

Thea shuddered. “No matter what you do to me, I will never belong to you.”

He harrumphed. “I assume you will not cause me trouble?”

If it meant protecting the pack, she’d let him think so. Just long enough to kill him. “No, I won’t cause any trouble.” She sneered at him. “All this because you want to open a fucking gate.”

Ashforth raised an eyebrow. “It appears you’ve learned some things in the six years we’ve been apart.”

“I know what you think I can do.”

He pulled out a chair and sat beside her, casual, as if they were sitting down to dine.

She wanted to rip off his head.

“As a child,” Ashforth said, his expression hard, “I was powerless. I had to watch as my father beat my mother daily. When I was ten years old, he accused her of sleeping with our neighbor, and then he raped her for it on the kitchen table, in front of me.”

Despite herself, horror filled Thea.

Ashforth studied her carefully. “As I got older, I started to fight him, but he was a big man, my father, and I never won. Not even having youth on my side. So, I decided that I would have to take him down another way. Find a different kind of strength and power. I studied hard, got a scholarship, and from there I used every opportunity put in front of me. None of it went to waste. My plan was to become wealthy and influential, give my mother a house of her own, give her freedom, and do everything I could to squash my father beneath my thousand-dollar shoes.