Chapter 32
EMME
When we ate in the dining room, we used about a fifth of the full table, preferring to remain close together at one end. Tonight, it was maxed out, as multiple alphas filled the chairs.
After their win, Kellan and Finley had raced through press and got home around the time everyone else arrived.
Constantine was the only one who’d declined dinner, as he wanted to focus on sorting and cataloguing the items Hunter had brought back.
I’d run into him on my way down, and he mentioned an idea of how to track Blaine, which put an extra pep in my step all the way into the dining room.
The first person I greeted was Kassidy, who stood next to Kenzo.
After her hug, Kellan’s brothers moved toward me for three brief seconds, before rumbles from my pack had them backing up.
Suppressing my smile, I nodded at the few strangers in the room, who felt like powerful alphas.
They must be the allies we were attempting to bring into the fold.
On my way to my spot at the table, a familiar face had me grinding to a halt. He’d been sitting so I hadn’t noticed him until I was almost at his side.
My eyes burned as I stared. “Warrick?” His name was a ragged, broken thing on my tongue.
He stood slowly, and I couldn’t see any anger in his serious expression. “Hey, Emme,” he replied, and when he opened his arms to me, I choked back my sobs.
As he closed me in his embrace, it felt the same as always. Both of us ignored the low rumbles, which sounded far less menacing than those for Tyson and Julien.
My alphas were making an exception for Warrick, and I appreciated it.
“You’re here,” I rasped as I pulled back to see his handsome face. “I wasn’t sure when we’d see you again.”
His eyes were shiny, and there was so much pain in those dark depths that it felt like he’d stabbed me. I wished I could take his hurt away.
“Sorry we haven’t seen you, Em,” he said, his voice as rough as his appearance. “We’ve been healing together, as a pack. Cores wanted me to send her love though, and tell you she’s thankful for your quiet support. Your cookies are healing, my friend.”
My lower lip trembled even as I told myself not to fucking cry—this was not about me.
“I wish there was more I could do, but I wanted you to know I was here. I am here. Supporting from the sidelines.”
He sucked in a ragged breath, rubbing a hand over his face. “It means a lot. We’re lucky to have friends like you and the rest of your pack.”
He leaned forward, as if to hug me again, but Hunter’s hand on his shoulder slowed the move. “Time for dinner,” he said calmly.
There was no obvious warning in the tone, but Warrick smirked anyway. “You’re right, Hunt. Let’s get to business. I need that witch ended.”
When he took his seat again, I raised an eyebrow at my possessive mate. “Subtle,” I murmured, and Hunter shrugged.
“Grieving or not, it goes against every instinct to let another alpha touch what’s mine. He got one hug. That’s the maximum our beasts can handle.”
“Overly generous of us,” Slade noted, overhearing the conversation. That dragon gave no real fucks about Warrick’s grief. He put pack first. Everyone else didn’t even exist.
Hunter pulled my chair out for me, and then slid me in under the table.
Kellan was on my right as usual, with Slade, Talon, and Finley across from us.
Conversation continued until Florence and Gerald entered the room with massive trays hefted across their shoulders.
The trays went down the center of the long table, which was already set with plates, cutlery, and glasses.
It was a late dinner, and they’d opted for homemade pizzas, garlic bread, and portioned bowls of pasta. When I saw the meat-filled pizza, and equally meaty pasta, I was happy enough to dance a little in my seat. There was nothing green on this tray, and it was a glorious time to be alive.
Jewels’ bullshit notwithstanding.
Hunter piled up a plate for me, and I put a hundred and ten percent of my focus into inhaling my favorite food groups: carbs, meat, fat, cheese.
Cheese was in a group all on its own. Of course.
When the rest of the table—except my alphas—started to eat, I felt through the bond their desires to ask the entire room to pause so I could eat first. “Don’t you fucking dare,” I mumbled around a bite of bread. “You’re acting insane.”
Kellan smirked as he took a sip of his beer, and I started to eat so fast I was in real danger of choking. All so my psychopathic alphas didn’t snatch slices of pizza from our guests’ hands.
Of course, the faster I ate, the more amused my pack of assholes looked, and eventually I had to pause for a breath. And some damn wine.
Is this what they meant by stress eating?
A few seats down from me, Kassidy snorted, and when I leaned forward to see around Kellan, I found her silently laughing into her pasta.
“I swear,” she said, holding her sides, “just when I think I might be ready for a pack, my brother demonstrates the very real reasons why I’d have to kill them all in their sleep. ”
I gulped down more wine while trying to figure out if I had indigestion or was in the middle of a mild heart attack.
“None of them will eat until I’m all but stuffed,” I told her.
“I know they’re about to ask all of you to wait as well.
I’m fighting for my life over here so you can eat while the food is hot. ”
Kellan’s bottom lip popped out. “Baby, I would literally die for you. Don’t ask me not to ensure your needs are met first.”
I patted his cheek. “I would never, hence why I’m turning into a professional eater over here. Everyone is happy that way.”
One—or both—of the dragons reacted to that, as heat filled the room.
“No one’s happiness matters but yours,” Talon told me, his cold gaze trailing along the table of alphas. “I could kill everyone in here before any of them even realized I was stalking their last breaths. It’s not too much to ask that they wait for you to eat first.”
Every alpha except Kassidy stilled, dropping whatever food was in their hands.
Throwing my arms in the air, I declared loudly, “I’m full. Ignore these alphas. I will personally stand protectively in front of any of you if they so much as breathe heavily in your direction.”
For some reason, the males in the room trusted my word, and started to tentatively eat once more. Kassidy continued to chuckle, but I was too busy glaring my pack into eating to glance her way.
Eventually, everyone was full, relaxed, and had topped-up drinks.
Hunter placed his whiskey down and addressed the shifters: “Thank you for being here tonight. I’ve spoken with many of you individually, and you’re all aware of the current situation and dwindling timeline we’re racing against. As I’ve explained, I won’t be taking this to the Alpha Council, so it’s up to us to start preparing for what is to come. ”
Slade nodded, staring at his brother. “We’re hunting the witch named Jewels,” he said, picking up where Hunter left off.
“She’s from the Termaine line and is considered both powerful and unstable.
Her family have been directly involved in more than one of our wars.
The only way to end her curse is to destroy her before the next full moon. ”
“Which she is well aware of,” Talon added. “Hence why she’s working so hard at staying hidden.”
“How do we find her?” Warrick asked, his voice brittle. All of him appeared brittle, as if a gentle tap would shatter him. “Do we have any witches in the circle of trust who might be able to help?”
Hunter’s beast moved toward me in the bond. We are not disclosing your heritage. Not now or ever.
“There are no witches anywhere,” he said out loud. “We’ve had friends and allied packs searching, and no one can find a single magical being.”
“They’re clearly all together,” Tyson muttered, a scowl slashing his handsome face. “They must be combining their magic to keep the shielding strong and impenetrable.”
“That’s our theory too,” Hunter confirmed. “But we might have found a way to track Blaine Rogers. Our assumption is that Jewels’ shifter allies are also wherever this magical stronghold is.”
“How do you plan to track him?” Warrick asked, his focus unwavering. “Surely if she’s got everyone under this protection, his scent or essence will be blocked.”
Hunter’s eyes darkened. “She might have him under magical protection, but the shifter side isn’t hers to control. Not yet anyway. There’s a way to track shifters using their blood.”
“How do you have Blaine’s blood?” I asked.
“You followed my plan?” Warrick answered before Hunter could, and I turned to find the other alpha’s gaze filled with fire. “I suggested he check out Fletcher’s house, since I figured that a serial killer would have trophies.”
Okay, clearly Hunter had been keeping Warrick updated, which made me feel a little better. Even if neither of them had spoken to me about it.
Hunter’s expression softened when he met my gaze.
“Yes, it was War’s suggestion that we check out Fletcher’s, but I would have gotten there eventually.
” His voice grew harder as he addressed Warrick.
“As you suspected, he kept samples and tests from all his children. Blaine had a lot, especially from the years he was with Emme’s mother.
There were a few newer samples that we might be able to use. ”
That’s what Constantine is trying to do in the library, I asked through the bond.
Hunter’s wolf pressed against my side. Yes. But not in the usual way of tracking magic. It’s specified to shifters, and Jewels’ shielding should only have minimal effect.
His tone told me that it was a long shot, but it was more than we’d had yesterday.
“If the spell works, will you need us all to fight with you?” one of the other alphas asked. From his neutral tone and expression, it was hard to tell how he felt about it. “If this witch does have all the magical community and her ally shifters together, you will most likely be outpowered.”
Hunter waved his hand around the room. “This is why we brought you all together. If we end up finding them, we will need our allies with us. We really don’t know what sort of powerful army Jewels is amassing.”
Warrick jolted in his chair. “Wait, what if there’s another way to track her? If Blaine’s spell doesn’t work?”
The room fell completely silent, and he took that as encouragement: “If she’s building an army,” he said, “they’re housed somewhere behind her shielding, right?
But shielded or not, they’re going to use resources.
Be that water, electricity, internet. And if this is a new gathering of hundreds to possibly thousands of shifters and witches, surely there’ll be a spike in one of those resources. Can that be tracked?”
Slade slid forward in his chair, his smoky scent growing stronger.
“It’s possible,” he said, and I could see him calculating already.
“I’ll start searching through all the networks and see what I can find.
My instinct says they’re close to one of the shifter cities, so I’ll focus my search there first to try and find a surge of power that wasn’t present a week ago. ”
Warrick looked pleased as he sank back into his chair, like he could finally relax.
Another one of the alphas, older than us, with brown skin, a bald head, and striking green eyes spoke up.
“The more avenues we have to search, the more chances we’ll find her.
” He raised his whiskey glass to Hunter.
“My pack is ready to assist in whatever way you need. We received your magically resistant plates and weapons yesterday.”
“Excellent, Lionel,” Hunter said as he dropped his palms on the table and leaned forward. “Okay, so we know the plan moving forward, and all of us are prepared to move if we track any location. Before we finish up, Slade has some more information to add.”
“I’ve been deconstructing Fletcher’s research,” Slade began, not bothering to look at the non-pack members in the room.
“And while most of it is irrelevant now that he’s dead, I will say that he was playing in spaces he should never have ventured, by manipulating bonds and our beasts.
All in the hopes of manufacturing an army of shifters who bore strengths and abilities beyond our norm.
” The silence was heavy as we processed Fletcher playing goddess in his lab of horror.
“From what I can tell, none of his test subjects survived, but he was getting close. I’d say within the next two years, he’d have perfected a hybrid version of our beasts, with wolves the size of a bear.
It was lucky that his arrogance blinded him to Jewels’ deception, as he could have been a force that destroyed our world. ”
“Why does Jewels hate shifters so much?” I asked, my mind fixated on the witch.
“Why was she even so involved in the shifter world? I mean, as evil as it was, I understand what Fletcher hoped to achieve, but Jewels’ motivation isn’t as clear.
She already has tons of power and controls the magical world… ”
What more could we really give her?
My questions were met with silence, and I wasn’t surprised, since the only one with those answers was the witch herself. In the great scheme of things, her motivation probably didn’t really matter, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Why was she trying to destroy our race?