Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Reece hated magic. One of the best things about living in pack territory was that he never had to suffer the scent of it, the way it crawled over his skin and curdled deep in his gut, making him both want to vomit and scream at the same time.
The pack was supposed to be a safe place, his place.
Yet right now, four witches were sitting on the front lawn holding hands and swaying from side to side as they chanted out a low droning noise.
The scent of magic grew stronger and stronger by the second.
The air itself seemed to thicken with it, pressing against his lungs and squeezing his ribcage.
This was an affront to werewolves everywhere.
He wanted to shake Cole and demand that the man put his head on straight. What were they thinking, playing with witches?
Elise's jacket was in the center of the coven along with a pair of Nico's shoes, something they apparently needed to focus their energy on. They had said they were doing a tracking spell. They had an old paper map that would pinpoint the location of Nico and his little witch girlfriend.
If it worked, Reece might grudgingly accept it was convenient to know exactly where Nico was. But he didn't have to like it.
One of the witches—he thought it was Aya—cried out in pain. The witches started to move even faster as the scent of magic got thicker and nearly choked him. His throat constricted involuntarily, and bile rose at the back of his tongue.
He backed up two steps and hoped no one noticed the cowardly retreat. His eyes kept snagging on the witch with the dark curly hair, Delainey. She'd looked up from casting her spell once, and their eyes had met. He'd looked anywhere but at her in the fifteen minutes since that happened.
But his wolf was curious, and he kept glancing back despite himself. She was hot, he could admit. He had eyes. But he wasn't going to fuck a witch. He wasn't Nico, and he wasn't about to be bespelled.
The scent of magic disappeared as quickly as it had built. The witches stood slowly. Delainey swayed slightly on her feet, catching herself with visible effort. Their leader, Briana, looked at Cole.
"We know where they are." She held up the map, revealing a marking with red pen—he hoped it was pen—over an area on the corner, on the edge of Iron Runner territory.
"Exactly where we thought," Hugh muttered from behind Cole's left shoulder.
Not exactly, but Reece didn't say that out loud.
They'd been pretty sure it was the Iron Runner pack.
They were the only people big enough to really pull off something like this.
But the Iron Runner pack's territory was five times the size of the Southern Basin Pack and covered half the city.
Nico and the witch could have been anywhere.
Anything could have happened to Nico and his little girlfriend by the time they found them.
"Let's go." Cole turned toward his truck, already fishing keys from his pocket.
The wolves piled into Cole's truck. The witches took their own car and led them down the road to into the heart of Hobson.
Reece bristled at that. Cole should be leading the way. But there could have been more magic bullshit going on. He tried to think of them more as a GPS service than his enemy.
Cole grimaced and then pressed the screen on the dashboard and scrolled through his contacts. He brought up Dawson, who was the alpha of the Iron Runner pack.
"You sure, boss?" Reece leaned forward between the front seats, close enough to see the contact name on the screen.
Just because the Southern Basin pack had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with the Iron Runner pack didn't mean that they were never in contact. Reece was pretty sure that Cole had all of the alphas’ within one hundred miles phone numbers in his phone.
"We have to try and settle this peacefully," Cole's thumb hovered over the call button, "if we can." He punched the contact information, and the phone started ringing. "Everyone stays quiet." Cole's eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, catching each of their gazes in turn before Dawson picked up.
"I didn't expect to hear from you," Dawson said. "Have you rethought my offer?"
What offer was that? Reece wondered, but he kept quiet, just as Cole had asked.
"No. We have a different problem," Cole said.
"Then what is it about?" Dawson asked.
"You have one of my people."
Dawson scoffed. "I do not! I don't make a habit of stealing from other packs, unlike some people."
Cole didn't let it drop. "A pack of wolves stole one of my betas off the street this afternoon. I have intelligence that places them inside your territory right now."
Dawson sighed. "I don't patrol every inch of my territory every second. If some foolish interlopers are causing trouble, they will be dealt with."
"So you're sure it isn't you?" Cole's knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. "You're saying you don't have my beta."
Dawson paused a moment, and then he put them on fucking hold. Elevator music started to play. The tinny, cheerful melody was so absurd that, for a moment, Reece could only stare at the dashboard speaker in disbelief.
Reece couldn't stop the incredulous sound that escaped the back of his throat. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," he said. "Who is this guy? The credit card company?"
Cole glared at him but couldn't say anything before Dawson came back.
"I don't have your beta," Dawson confirmed.
"Then consider this a courtesy," Cole said. "I'm getting him. I'm going into your territory to do it. If anyone stands in my way, I'm going to kill them."
"If you kill anybody, I will be forced to retaliate," Dawson said. "So you had better be careful. But I don't care what happens to interlopers. That would be none of my business." The line went dead.
"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Reece asked. "Do you think it really isn't him?"
Cole sighed, rubbing a hand across his face. "I don't know. Dawson's an asshole, but he's not insane. He doesn't gain anything from taking Nico or the witch."
"What did Dawson mean by his offer?"
Cole kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "Don't worry about it."
Yeah, that was exactly what Reece wanted to hear and would assure him that nothing hinky was going on.
But they were already in the city. The witches were pulling into the parking lot of a warehouse about a block away from where they thought Nico was being held.
The eight of them gathered around the front of Cole's truck. Reece was surprised when Delainey was the one speaking for the witches. He thought that Briana was in charge, but he wasn't about to question it and show his ignorance.
He knew witches had a slightly more complicated leadership structure than wolves.
"We have to do a full-frontal assault," Reece said. "We just go in directly and find wherever they're keeping Nico and get him out of there."
He expected pushback. Witches were tricky creatures and liked to do everything sideways. But Delainey nodded, her dark curls bouncing with the movement.
"Yes. We go right in, find where they're keeping Elise," she emphasized the witch's name, "and we knock down anyone in our path who tries to stop us."
"We need to try and not kill anyone," Cole warned.
Delainey glared at him, magic crackling faintly at her fingertips like static electricity. Reece kept his own expression blank but secretly hated the fact that he agreed with the witch. It was very strange and wrong, and he did his best to put it out of his mind.
"We need to be in two teams," Cole said. "Two witches and two wolves on each. Delainey, Reece, Aya, Javi, you're together. Hugh, Serena, and Briana, you are with me."
The witches didn't argue.
"We'll take the front." Reece rolled his shoulders back, feeling his wolf press, eager and violent, against the inside of his skin. He wanted to go through that door and cause as much mayhem and bloodshed as he could.
Nico pissed him off sometimes, but that didn't mean that somebody else got to hold him captive or threaten him. That was Reece's privilege as his fellow beta.
He smelled the enemy wolf the second before he saw it.
The gray-furred creature jumped into the parking lot, tilted his head back, and howled out a warning that was abruptly cut off by Delainey lobbing a ball of magic right at him.
The sphere of crackling energy hit the wolf square in the chest and sent him tumbling backward across the asphalt with a yelp that ended in a wet, choking gurgle.
She grinned at Reece, feral and bright, her eyes glowing with residual power. "I think that's our cue to go."