Chapter 10
Chapter ten
Twenty minutes later, the pack was dressed, strapped, and gathered around the circular, clawfoot table in the library.
Dominic didn’t know exactly how it had started, but calling the sunken den a library had become something of an inside joke among the pack. While brightly lit and lined with shelves, in reality, the only books in the room were a handful of grimoires.
Mostly, the space was filled with weapons, tactical gear, and surveillance equipment.
In the center of the table, a large LED screen illuminated the stained oak as Saint swiped two fingers across the glass. An image of a large manor house—older, but not that dissimilar from La Madriguera—appeared, its peeling paint awash in fading sunlight.
“Where?” Dominic asked.
“Southwest of Savannah,” Saint answered. “It doesn’t look to be a permanent residence, but the sentry team estimates a couple dozen vamps inside.”
“What about the shifters?”
Saint shook his head. “Some scent trails leading toward the property, but no visual confirmation.”
“Reports show minimal security around the perimeter, but the house itself is warded,” Chapel added.
Dominic nodded that he understood. More time to gather intel and plan their attack would have been ideal, of course, but the full moon had already passed. If the pattern held, this might be their only window before people started dying.
“Do we have a drop zone?”
Chapel swiped the screen to bring up a satellite view of a dense forest beyond the estate. Then she drew a circle with her index finger approximately half a mile beyond the grounds.
“Here.”
Dominic nodded again. “Kennedy and Thierry, go with Saint. Chapel, you’re with me.”
Making a jump halfway across the country wasn’t difficult, but the more people he tried to bring with him, the more taxing it became. Sharing the strain with his brother made sense.
“Boone, you’ll stay with Sammy.” Calm. Confident. No hint of the tension buried beneath the words.
The wolf nodded and took a step back, separating himself from the group.
Sammy had been hovering near the doorway, fingers tangled in the hem of his shirt, pretending not to listen to the preparations. At the sound of his name, however, he jerked his head up, his full attention on Dominic.
“Oh.”
He didn’t say anything else, but that single syllable felt heavier than it should have.
“Problem?”
“I…uh…” Trailing off, Sammy glanced past him to the other wolves, then back. “Never mind.”
Without looking away, Dominic called over his shoulder, “Head out.”
One by one, the pack filed out of the library to wait for him on the front lawn. Boone hesitated, silent communication passing between them in the form of eyebrow raises and posture shifts. Then he, too, exited the room.
“Spit it out,” he said once they were alone, his tone gruffer than he’d intended.
“I don’t need someone to stay with me.”
“Yes, you do.”
“The house is warded,” Sammy argued. “Besides, who in their right mind would try attacking this place?”
No one in their right mind, and that was kind of the point.
By now, rumors that Dominic Rivas had a new mate would have begun to spread beyond the pack. And there were plenty of people—enemies, dissenters, opportunists—who would happily exploit what they considered a weakness if given the chance.
Assigning someone else to protect his mate had never been his first choice. In fact, every instinct he possessed actively rebelled against the idea.
Such was the burden of being a leader, though. As much as he might want to, he couldn’t send his pack into a house full of vampires while he stayed behind.
“I heard what Saint said,” Sammy pressed. “It sounds like you’re outnumbered. Is it really a good idea to leave someone behind?”
That was the fear talking, and while he had sympathy, he didn’t have time to indulge it. “You understand this isn’t up for debate, right?”
Sammy lowered his head, and his shoulders fell forward as he rounded in on himself. “Yeah, I know.”
When he started to turn away, Dominic caught him by the elbow and whirled him back around, gripping his jaw firmly but gently to force his head up. “I’m not dismissing your concern,” he clarified. “One extra body isn’t going to change much, though.”
“But—”
“It’s a risk I’m comfortable with. Leaving you here alone isn’t.” A heavy sigh billowed from his lips when Sammy’s eyes misted with a glossy sheen that reflected the overhead lights. “Stay inside the house,” he said, his tone softer now. “I’ll be back before sunrise.”
“Promise?”
Instead of agreeing to a promise he didn’t know if he could keep, he kissed his mate hard on the mouth, then pulled away. “Try to get some rest.”
Without waiting for a response, he strode out of the room, his eyes fixed straight ahead as he made his way down the hall. The weight of Sammy’s stare followed him, pressing down on him, and it took everything he had to keep moving forward.
Looking back felt like admitting his mate had good reason to be worried.
Outside, he pushed thoughts of Sammy to the back of his mind and locked his feelings away in a dark corner of his heart before joining his pack. Right then, he wasn’t a mate or a protector. He couldn’t be.
Until he’d finished the job, he was a wolf, a mystic, and an alpha. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“Saint.”
His brother nodded and stretched his arm out in front of him. Kennedy and Thierry did the same, placing their hands on top of his. A heartbeat passed, then with barely a disturbance of the air, all three disappeared.
“Ready?”
Dressed in a pair of loose-fitting cargo pants and a black sports bra, Chapel looked more like an extra in a nineties music video than someone about to battle a bunch of bloodsuckers. Well, except for the multiple blades strapped to her body, their polished metal gleaming in the security lighting.
While the rest of them opted to limit the amount of exposed skin available in a fight, Chapel said the tight leathers and long-sleeved shirts they preferred felt too restrictive.
In fact, her only real concession had been to pull her hair back and secure it at her crown to form a wild halo of thick curls.
Dominic grunted, a brief warning before clapping his hand on her shoulder and initiating the jump.
Magic surged, warm and electric beneath his skin. For a moment, his entire body felt leaden before instantly morphing into a sense of weightlessness. The world dimmed, blackened, and when it swam back into focus, he found himself in a clearing surrounded by towering evergreens.
Joining the rest of their team, he did a perfunctory scan, his gaze sweeping the darkness of the forest floor where the moonlight couldn’t reach. All seemed still—a little too still—likely the result of the local wildlife reacting to their presence.
It was a warm night in southern Georgia, the air thick with moisture that clung to everything. Only a light breeze managed to penetrate the dense tree cover, carrying with it the scent of pine needles and distant seawater.
“Move out.”
While they had traveled hundreds of miles, they had done so in a matter of seconds, and as such, he saw no reason to waste time with greetings or niceties.
Saint took the lead, flanked by two shaggy-coated wolves—one black, one silver, and both standing over three feet tall at the withers. The other two sentries, also in their shifted forms, fell in behind the group and fanned out, keeping downwind as they weaved through the trees.
The rest of them moved as a unit, swift but cautious, passing through the forest like shadows. They met no resistance, magical or otherwise, and they reached the old manor a few minutes later.
Regrouping along the tree line at the top of the hill, they stuck to the darkness as they stared down at the house below.
It sprawled across the yellowed grass as if it had grown straight up from the ground, the illusion made more pronounced by the ivy that snaked up the walls toward the roof.
Chipped and weathered, the boards gleamed pale against the dark sky, and every window glowed with careless confidence.
The vampires inside weren’t trying to hide.
“Can you see the wards?” Chapel asked.
Dominic nodded. Not clearly, but he detected a faint distortion of the air near one of the windows. He could sense them, though, faint vibrations that surrounded the place, but they felt fragile. Not what he would expect from protection runes or more advanced magic.
“Barrier spell?”
“Maybe.” He would need to get closer before he could be sure.
“Why have wards on a feeding den?” Thierry shook his head, his brow furrowed. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Dominic agreed, but it didn’t change anything. Whatever was going on inside that house, they were there to put a stop to it.
“Let’s go.”
They descended the slope at an angle while keeping to the edges of the moonbeam. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stiffen at being so exposed, but unfortunately, the layout of the property offered little in the way of cover.
As they neared the corner of the house, he motioned for Saint, Kennedy, and two of the wolves to go left, then sent Thierry and the other two sentries to the right. Next, he focused his attention on the wards.
Definitely a barrier spell, useful at keeping out humans and maybe a few low-level Otherlings. Even this close, however, they felt feeble, not nearly substantial enough to offer any sort of meaningful defense.
Chapel crouched beside him, her back to the house. “Can you bring it down?”
He glanced at her, but he didn’t waste breath with a response.
Redirecting the current of magic that coursed through him, he sent it down his arm so that it sparked from his fingertips. With a careless flick of his wrist, he sent the excess toward the outer wall, testing the integrity of the barrier.
The reply was immediate.