CHAPTER NINETEEN
– KAREV –
Lea disappears from my sight with a trail of red smoke chasing after her.
I release a curse and jump into action. The shuffling of chairs and footsteps behind me lets me know my brothers are right behind me as I burst out of the clubhouse.
Glancing up, I watch my old lady disappear into the fucking clouds.
“Motherfucker,” I growl and straddle my bike.
If I shift into my hellhound form I would be faster, but I can’t risk humans seeing a massive three-headed creature running through the damn streets. When I was following Drexel it was without thinking, and we don’t have many neighbors around the clubhouse. Which is why we picked the place.
“Right behind you, brother,” Sevrin bellows as he fires up his bike.
I’m already guiding mine onto the road and I ride off at neck breaking speed.
Watching my old lady clutch the fabric of her dress as if her heart is being ripped out of her chest?
Fucking gut-wrenching. The look in her eyes, the way her voice trembled...
motherfucker. I want to rip the person responsible to shreds for tormenting my woman.
When this is done, I will tan my old lady’s ass for flying off without waiting for me. How the fuck can I protect her when she rushes off like that? My temper is flaring and yet there’s an underlying fear burning hotter than anything else. She doesn’t have a damn clue what she’s rushing into.
If something did happen to her sister it could very well happen to her. I grit my teeth and tear up the damn road to get as fast as I can to Calvania’s place. Minutes drag by with so many different scenarios playing inside my head, especially with what happened to Zara.
Finally, I ride through the open gates of Calvania’s property. There’s no werewolf in sight and I can already tell the door of his mansion is wide open. The scent of blood is heavy in the air. I bring my bike to a stop, hit the kickstand and jump over the front, shifting midair.
My claws hit the gravel and it goes flying as I launch myself in the direction of the window. Due to my size I can’t fit through the door, and taking out the window is less resistance than breaking down walls.
To my surprise I flow right through as if the windows are made of smoke. Holy shit. I’m pretty damn sure mating with my woman gave me the power to flow through it since it’s what she’s able to do.
There’s no time to question the ability when I hear Lea’s screams coming from upstairs.
The stairs creak under my weight as I run upstairs.
She’s standing in front of a room, the door is open and from this distance I can see blood surrounding a headless body.
The body is wearing the same dress as Lea, and the chest part is torn open, showing a bloody gaping hole where her heart once was.
I can feel the emotional pain Lea is being hit with through our bond. The need to comfort her is pulling at my heartstrings, and yet I can’t shift into my human form and take her into my arms. The scent of another hellhound is present, putting all my senses on full alert.
With my woman in sight, I slowly inch closer and rumble a low growl. Lea whirls around, tears brimming her eyes and staining her cheeks. Fuck. I want to close the distance and go to her, but there’s a chance Drexel is still here.
Lea doesn’t pay attention to anything and simply runs toward me.
Her fingers dig into my fur as she buries her face between two of my heads.
Muffled words flow from her as I turn one of my heads to press against her back, cocooning her with my large frame while my two other heads scan our surroundings.
“Alora...she’s...she’s dead,” Lea croaks.
A whine leaves me as I feel her grief as my own. Alora is gone.
“Annetta?” her name is voiced inside my mind.
“I can’t sense her,” Lea’s voice sounds loud inside my head.
Lea pulls back and I glance at her with the head that was just hugging her when her voice flows inside my mind again. “I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.”
Her lips stay shut which lets me know we’re able to talk to one another through telepathy. Another reminder of how damn strong our bond is.
Footsteps sound below us and the scent of my brothers lets me know they are entering the house.
“Let’s find her, and your father,” I tell her through our bond.
Without another word she jumps onto my back as I turn to enter one of the rooms. With my size it’s damn easy to be able to flow through the walls with my woman. Sadly, there’s no trace of Annetta upstairs.
I’m slowly descending the stairs when the ash on the tiles in the hallway catches my attention. No wonder there isn’t a trace of the werewolves; they were all incinerated.
“The place looks deserted,” Sevrin states.
Lea’s fingers tighten in my fur when she croaks, “Alora is dead. We couldn’t find Annetta or my father upstairs.”
Triton strides out of a room down the hall. “If your father was sitting in his chair behind his desk in the office? Then I’m deeply sorry for your loss, Lea, because I’m pretty sure he’s dead too judging from the pile of ash that’s left.”
“You guys should check out the back,” Croc states from the front porch.
My brothers walk out the door while I jump straight through the wall with Lea still sitting on my back.
“Motherfucker, that’s a neat trick,” Croc says in awe.
“They must have had a power trade upgrade when they put the fated mate bond in place,” Triton states, sounding less impressed.
I follow the others around the house and can still pick up Drexel’s scent.
Lea’s fingers glide through my fur and I hear her voice inside my head. “Drexel is still close, isn’t he?”
A grunt rumbles through me while I keep an eye in every direction.
Triton suddenly comes to a stop and I can see the red lighting crackling around his fingertips.
His attention slides to a large statue and he runs toward it.
Following him, I go around in the other direction and dig my nails into the dirt when I see a body at Triton’s feet.
The woman’s skin is like coal, head seems to be ripped off and there’s an iron rod sticking out of her chest.
Triton’s eyes slide in our direction when he says, “It’s the witch who was working with him.”
I can feel Lea slide off my back, and I’m instantly more on edge than I already was. Moving forward, I stay close to her as she comes to a stop next to Tritan.
“If she’s dead her spells would stop working, right?” Lea asks. “Wait. Can you use me to find my sister, Annetta?”
“Yes, and yes.” Triton glances over Lea’s shoulder. “VP, you okay with me touching your old lady’s hand so I can find her sister?”
The mere thought causes me to chuff with all three heads. Lea reaches for me and her fingers dig into my fur, instantly calming me.
Her voice is firm when she says, “My mate will endure because he wants to find Annetta for me as well.”
She’s damn right, I want my woman happy. Though, I hate seeing another man touch her, even if it’s only her hand. Instead of watching, I scan our surroundings and inhale deep to filter the air. The scent of Drexel still lingers in the air but it’s fading.
“Your sister isn’t here. She’s...moving,” Triton murmurs and frowns. “She’s heading west.”
West. Fuck. I jump into a run to get the space I need to shift back.
Once I’m in my human form, I bark, “He’s heading west. Floraline is west.”
Sevrin crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Why would he go to his half-sister? Would he even know she exists?”
“I don’t fucking know,” I snarl. “Triton would get three locations if he scanned the DNA I had of Drexel. Who knows, the witch could have done the same thing for him.”
My prez pulls his phone from his pocket. “I’m calling Fatal to let him know he might get some company. Then I’m calling Swade to make sure he knows the company might not be fully human.”
Swade is a member of the Nowalk Maryland chapter and is the father of Sevrin’s niece. He’s not fully in the loop about all things supernatural, but he does know his daughter is special in a way that can’t be explained.
“The legend,” Lea whispers, as if she’s saying it to herself.
“What was that?” I ask and step closer to my mate.
Her gaze locks on mine when she swallows hard and starts to ramble, “What if he’s desperate for that screwed up legend to work?
You saw my sister, her freaking heart was missing.
He incinerated my father this time and took my other sister with him.
The witch pinpointing another location might have given him enough details to piece it together that his sister is still alive.
If he found out details of who his father was?
Then he’d know where he came from, who you are.
He’s seen you, knows you’re not the one he shared a womb with.
Maybe he’s going back to where it all started, to finish the job or some twisted way to make sure his show no remorse reputation is intact. ”
She might be rambling, but my mate is making sense. Which means I have to get my ass to Nowalk before that fucker kills my half-sister, Lea’s sister, and fuck knows who else.