Chapter 10
Chapter ten
Ryan
“Clear,” Derek called from the bedroom.
“Clear,” echoed Waylen from the far end of the house.
I stood in the guest quarters’ living room and took it in.
The Thornwick Pack—or whoever the hell they were—had cleared out.
Food wrappers littered the countertops. A half-eaten granola bar on the rug.
A half-empty mug of coffee sat on the table, still warm to the touch.
Outside, six of our enforcers lay tucked into the bushes like discarded dolls.
Out cold, not dead. But they were some of my best. How the fuck had the Thornwicks got the drop on them?
“They can’t have been gone more than thirty minutes,” I said, clenching my hands. The mug shattered, coffee splattering over my fingers and the floor.
Derek came out of the back room, his face hard. “They planned this.” He held up a crumpled piece of paper with a sketch of the Alpha House, entry points circled. “All of it.”
My house was their target. Fuck! I spun, heading for the door as my phone rang. Sofia.
“Ryan!” Her voice was breathless, panicked. “They’re here! Those Thornwick fuckers—they’ve taken over the House!”
Every muscle in me went wire-tight. “Where’s Mai?”
“They threw us out the fucking window! There’s some kind of magical force field around the house. We can’t get back in, and Mai’s still inside!”
The world narrowed to a single point. Mai. In labor. Trapped. With them.
My wolf roared up, claws raking beneath my skin. He wanted out. Wanted to hunt and kill. I wrestled control from him, shoving him back. “Is she hurt?”
“I don’t know. Thomas says we don’t have much time; we need to get back in there now!”
I didn’t waste breath on any more words. I was already sprinting, boots hammering the porch, keys in hand, Derek and Waylen on my heels.
Hold on, Mai.
I’m coming.
The drive from the guest house on the outskirts of town to the Alpha House took an eternity. Headlights cut tunnels through the black, trees rushing past like shadows reaching for the road. I floored the accelerator, pushing the SUV to its limits, the engine screaming in protest.
My wolf was going feral, howling to be released, to run to her, to protect her.
It took everything I had not to Shift right there in the driver’s seat.
I sent my awareness to my mate bond; there, I could feel Mai’s pain—sharp, intense waves that made the leather wheel bite into my palms, stitch by stitch, until I could feel every thread.
She was alive. Still in labor. It did nothing to calm me, though.
This was everything I had ever feared. Mai in pain, Mai in danger, and me not there to stop it.
“I’ve lost track of the six unknowns. I’ve sent some enforcers to the eastern perimeter to investigate.” Waylen’s eyes were glued to his laptop.
“Which enforcers?”
“Marshall’s team. But I’ve got movement at the Longhills gate.”
They were attacking us in multiple directions, forcing us to split our forces.
“Send Sasha and her lot to the gate. Tell them I want updates every five minutes.”
“On it.”
Derek glanced at me. “It’s gonna be okay, bro. We’ll get her back. We’ll stop them before the pups are born.”
I ignored him. Nothing would be okay until Mai was in my arms again.
We ripped past the old compound walls and fishtailed to a stop in front of the Alpha House.
Around the entire house shimmered a faint translucent dome.
Fuck!
We needed Esme here yesterday to tell us how the fuck to get through it.
Derek was already on his phone. “I’ll find out how far out Jem and Esme are.”
Sofia hammered the invisible wall with the hilt of a knife, the blade sparking against the barrier as she methodically searched for weak spots. Her red curls were wild, blood snaking down her face, her green eyes blazing with determination.
“I’ve tried everything,” she called when she spotted us. “This fucking thing won’t even scratch!”
Derek was by her side in a blink, checking her over for other injuries.
Wally was limping around the perimeter, his arm in a makeshift sling fashioned from what looked like his pink silk scarf, hurling whatever he could lift—garden gnomes, rocks, a wrought-iron chair. Each object bounced off the shimmering dome with a dull thud or sharp clang.
“This is high-quality Italian ironwork,” he seethed, hefting another chair with his good arm. “I know because I ordered it. Hand-forged and obscenely expensive. If it won’t break this abomination,” he launched it, “nothing will!” The chair bounced against the dome and thudded to the ground.
Thomas, gentle, steady Thomas, was hammering at the barrier with both fists, his kind face transformed by desperate fury. Each blow would have shattered concrete, but the dome didn’t even waver.
Near the front porch, I spotted three figures sprawled on the grass—Evelyn, Holden, and Ruby. They were alive—I could see their chests rising—but unconscious, their bodies limp, cuts and bruises visible on their exposed skin.
I took it all in with one glance. I didn’t stop to ask questions. I didn’t need to. If they wanted Mai alive, they wanted something from her—and my money was on what was growing inside her. My pups. These fuckers were after our children.
I charged straight at the barrier. It was like hitting a mountain. Pain detonated across my shoulders, and I ricocheted backward, slamming into the ground, all my breath knocked out of me.
A wave of pure, primal rage surged through me. I was up before the breath came back, the embers the Dark Goddess left in my blood flaring to open flame. I threw myself at the dome again, harder. Shock knifed up my arms. The shimmer didn’t even tremble.
Hold on, Mai.
I would break this. Or I would burn it down.
“Ryan, wait—” Derek started.
But I was beyond waiting. Beyond listening. Another contraction tore through the bond—Mai’s pain, bright and bladed—and something in me snapped.
I backed up twenty feet, shut my eyes, and reached for that other power within me—the one I’d gained through my deal with the Dark Goddess.
The True Shift roared through me, a surge of excruciating, exquisite force.
Bone lengthened. Muscle rebuilt. Fur burst. My mind honed to a single point: get to Mai. Protect the pups.
Wally’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit. I will never get used to seeing that!”
I hit the barrier at full speed, nine feet of werewolf fury slamming into the shimmer. The dome shuddered—and held.
I roared, the sound rattling the trees, and drove into it again. And again. And again.
“Ryan, stop!” Derek shouted. “This isn’t working!”
I didn’t stop. My world was impact and refusal, the dome refusing to break, and me refusing to let it stand.
“We need a plan,” Derek pressed.
Hit the wall until it breaks. Kill everyone inside. That was the fucking plan.
I dug claws into my palms for focus and smashed my fists against the magic until my arms sang.
An engine roared up the drive. Esme and Jem. The truck hadn’t fully stopped before Esme was out, sprinting, hands up.
“Dark magic,” she whispered, her fingers tracing the barrier in the air. “Old magic. Very powerful.”
“Can you break it?” I growled.
“Not… not alone.” Esme glanced between me and Jem. “I’ll need blood. Pack blood.”
I didn’t hesitate, offering my wrist. Esme pulled out a small knife and made a swift cut across my wrist. Blood welled, then dripped down my arm.
With a snap of her fingers, it rose, weightless, and hung between us.
She closed her fist, and the floating beads hung suspended in the air in front of her.
What the actual fuck?
I glared at Jem. He’d been keeping things from us. Esme’s powers were growing, and we were going to have to talk about it later.
He shrugged at me, entirely fucking unapologetic.
“Jem, I need your blood too.”
He held out his arm. Another cut. Another lift of blood. Esme’s hands cupped the air, and our blood merged together, bright as garnet, pulsing with its own light. Her eyes took on a distant look as she muttered words that seemed to distort the very air around her.
“Like sticky shadows all twisty together. Bad magic, it’s bad, bad magic. But this, this is pure.”
The floating blood began to move on its own, swirling and reshaping itself into complex patterns. It orbited around her hands, faster and faster, until it was a dark blur.
She thrust both hands forward, slamming the woven blood into a single point on the dome.
“Ryan,” she said. “Hit hard. Hit now.”
I felt another of Mai’s contractions peak. Her pain fueled my rage as I charged the exact spot Esme had targeted.
I exploded forward, claws out, every muscle snapping from coil to strike. My fist slammed into the mark. Shock roared up my arm as I shoved everything I had into the blow.
The barrier shuddered. A hairline crack winked into existence.
“Again!” Derek barked.
I struck again with everything I had, my roar shaking the trees. The fissure spidered like ice on a thawing pond.
Sofia was there in a blink, the tip of her knife biting into the fracture. “It’s working!”
Another contraction hit Mai, and I felt my own muscles tense in response. The connection between us had never been this intense before; it was like her body was calling to mine, demanding I be there.
I threw myself at the barrier again, my claws tearing at the edges of the crack. The fissures deepened, webbing outward in all directions.
“Keep going!” Thomas urged. “It’s breaking!”
I staggered back, drawing breath, drawing power. The cracks were spreading faster now; the barrier’s magic started to slough off in glittering flakes, ember-sparks that died midair. Just a little more, and I’d be with Mai. Just one more blow.
I tensed, ready to charge—
“Ryan!” Waylen’s voice cut through my focus. “We’ve got movement!”
My head snapped up, searching the tree line. Shadows shifted between the trunks.
A car screeched into the yard, and Carlito jumped out. “Multiple hostiles approaching from the east and north.”
Fucking hell! This could not be happening. Not now.
Through the trees behind the house, figures materialized from the shadows—not rushing, not hesitating.
More slipped between the neighboring houses, their movements silent and precise.
They didn’t signal each other, didn’t look for direction—each one simply knew their place, like pieces of a deadly machine clicking into position.
They spread out, blocking escape routes.
Derek stepped between us and the approaching threat, his back to the barrier, creating a protective wall for Sofia and me.
He would hold them off so I could keep hitting the barrier if that was my choice. My brother, always reading the situation, always making the tactical call without needing to discuss it.
The newcomers tightened their circle around us, their faces expressionless. The rest of the Forgotten Pack.
“Ryan,” Sofia said quietly, her knives ready at her sides, “what do we do?”
I glanced at the crack, at the sparks dying in the air, at the Shifters closing around my Pack.
I had to reach Mai. If I had to take down every one of these fuckers to do it, I would.
“We fight.”