CHAPTER 3
It didn’t take long to recount the events of the day to Michael and Ronald.
I started with the moment Amy arrived at Michael’s front door, careful to keep my sudden-onset paranoia and any mention of Anna out of the conversation.
I had a feeling that Michael hadn’t told anyone about our run-in with the ancient vamp.
Halfway through, Amy started chiming in, adding pieces that I’d missed or elaborating on parts of the story with more detail than I’d supplied. Talking seemed to distract her from her lingering pain, so I pulled back and let her take over the bulk of the storytelling.
“Did you know that there’s some sort of terrorist group within the coven?” I asked afterward.
Across from me, Michael nodded, his full lips hardening into a flat line. He’d said very little since climbing into the SUV.
Ronald answered from the front. “There are similar factions in both the vampire broods and our own pack.”
I frowned at the back of his head. “And Mary hasn’t obliterated them yet?”
He chuckled. “Why would she? They make a great loophole.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Amy glanced at me over her shoulder. “Publicly, our mother denies all knowledge of their existence and has made it known that if she discovers anyone acting outside of pack law, there will be hell to pay. Privately, she finds ways to stir them up and unleash them on either the vampires or the witches whenever she wants someone killed but needs plausible deniability.”
The more I learned about Mary, the more I never wanted to see the woman again, and with every mile we drew closer to her, my anxiety hitched another notch higher.
Maybe I could ask to be dropped off a few streets over from the mansion, somewhere close enough that the bond wouldn’t send Michael and me into overdrive but far enough away that I’d be safe from his mother.
I could loiter in the woods while Amy was healed.
Maybe make some new friends among the squirrels.
Amy turned away from me and let out a heavy sigh. “What I don’t understand is why one of them attacked me in broad daylight.”
“How are you feeling now?” I asked her.
She smoothed a hand over her belly. “Better. We’re healing.”
“The baby’s heartbeat sounds fine now,” I said. “And her scent has evened out.”
Amy’s shoulders stiffened. She turned to look at me again, eyes wide. “You can smell her?”
Shit. This was dangerous territory. Amy didn’t know that I knew about the Kolbecks intentionally neutering themselves.
And she didn’t know how strong my senses were, either.
She might not seem to like her mother very much, but loyalty was a tricky thing, and I couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t immediately turn around and repeat everything I said to Mary. I had to play this carefully.
I glanced from her to Michael and back again. “Um… yes?”
Smooth, Layla. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes at myself.
Amy turned to Ronald. “Can you?”
He held himself very still in his seat. His pulse flattened out and he took deep, even breaths. “I can.”
It was a bald-faced lie. That was why he was suddenly so intent on keeping his vitals level. He was covering for me. I made a mental note to never disparage his freakish height again.
“Amy, can I ask you something?” I said, hoping to change the topic.
She nodded.
“Why didn’t you just immediately kill the witch if you knew it would break the spell?”
“Because with her muzzled, I knew she couldn’t hurt us anymore, and I could already feel myself and the baby healing. If there had been some other way of undoing what she’d done, we could have taken her and finally got some fucking answers out of those bitches.”
Through torture, no doubt.
“They’ve been acting out lately,” Ronald said. “Skirting the bonds of the treaty. We need to know why.”
Something about that declaration made my hair want to stand on end. It made me want to grab hold of the wheel, turn the vehicle around, and take up permanent residence in the bunker that was Michael’s basement.
I longed to blame today’s increased paranoia on the bond, but I was slowly coming to realize that wasn’t it. Something else was going on with me, and the more I poked at my memories from my conversation with Anna, the more I started to worry that she’d done something to them.
I turned toward my mate. No wonder he’d been looking at me like I’d grown another head. No wonder he’d been so angry and worried. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the consequences of whatever Anna had done to me to show.
Fear punched through my gut. I reached out to him on instinct.
He clasped my hand in his and squeezed, and heat exploded from our contact, racing up my arm to batter at my heart.
Our pulses spiked. Michael took a deep breath, holding my eyes, and let it out in a slow exhale.
I copied him, willing myself to relax. He loosened the bars on his cage, returning his power to what was once his normal level, and wrestled his emotions into submission.
Calm descended upon him like a blanket, smothering his fear and rage.
His pulse slowed, and my own heartbeat cut off its wild gallop as it sought to match it.
I focused on his forced tranquility and tried to absorb it like a sponge.
If we weren’t in the back of a car in the middle of Boston, we could open the bond between us, and he could push his calm onto me, like I’d done to him when he went lunatic, but no luck. I would just have to find some other way to borrow his emotions.
I continued to take deep, even breaths, focusing on his smell, on the steady weight of his gaze.
Calm returned to me in increments. Michael stroked his thumb over the back of my hand, raising goose bumps in its wake.
A small, barely there smile lifted the corner of his lips.
My gaze fell to his mouth, remembering the feel of those full lips on my own.
“Did you hear me?” Amy asked.
Still holding my hand, Michael turned away. “Apologies, I missed that last part.”
“I said we lost two more wolves last night.”
I was so focused on his face that the slight tightening around his eyes was hard to miss. “Where?”
“Along the Roxbury border. Mom said it was payback for what you did to that young vamp.”
I broke off staring at Michael and turned toward his sister. “How did the vampires find out about that?”
Amy snorted. “Are you kidding? Mom’s darling eldest killed a vampire with his new mate. She couldn’t not brag about it. The fact that you saved a witch in the process was just the cherry on top.”
I fought the urge to grind my teeth together.
For a woman who claimed to care about the safety of her family above all else, she sure excelled at drawing dangerous amounts of attention to them.
And now because of her conceit, two more lives had been lost. I might not be an expert on interspecies politics, but even a newbie like me could grasp the fact that the bloodsuckers would seek revenge and the witches would be prickly about word getting out that one of their own not only couldn’t take a vampire but needed saving from wolves.
Maybe everyone was wrong. Maybe Mary wanted a war.
Michael’s hand stiffened within mine, and I glanced across the cabin at him. Our gazes caught and held.
“I wonder if your mother’s bragging had anything to do with the attack on her daughter today,” I said.
I could tell from the look on his face and his slow, mounting anger that he wondered the same.
Amy shifted in her seat. “With the witches, there’s no way to tell. It might have been payback for Mom making them look incompetent, or Carly could have had some long-buried grudge against me for killing one of her friends or family members.”
I turned to look at her. How many witches had Amy killed? How many had Michael? What was the total body count of the Kolbeck clan? No wonder peace between the factions was impossible. They were all caught in a vicious cycle of vengeance.
“Regardless of the reason, we need to be on alert,” Ronald said.
We spent the rest of the drive discussing security.
I threw myself into the conversation. I needed to feel like I was doing something, taking an active part in events around me instead of feeling like a bystander, or worse, a victim.
Plus, even with the distraction of Michael’s hand still firmly clutched around mine, the sights and sounds of the city continued to bombard my senses.
Everyone agreed that with tensions so high, it was time to double patrols.
No wolf would stand sentry alone. Another shifter would be within striking distance at all times, with still more foot soldiers just a short jog away.
A single shifter might not be able to handle a vamp by themself, but two would slow it down. Three could take it out.
“You’ll need to ask Mom for reinforcements,” Amy said.
A flare of annoyance swelled within Michael. “Yes, I’m aware of that fact.”
“And you should probably come home. With all the unrest, you’d make an even better target than I did.”
Michael’s gaze bored into the back of Amy’s head. “What else did Mother ask you convey to us?” His voice was deadly calm.
Mayday. Mayday. Abort mission, Amy.
Sensing danger, she stilled in her seat. “I’m sorry, what about Mom?”
“Do not attempt to play at innocence,” Michael said. “Why did you really come to the city today? To act as Mother’s messenger?”
The sharp smell of Amy’s anger filled the cabin.
Oh, great, she had the Kolbeck temper too.
Unlike Michael, she didn’t seem to feel the need to hide hers.
“So what if I did? Think about the optics of this situation, Michael. You land yourself a powerful mate and immediately move out of the house. People in the city must sense Layla, assume she’s an alpha, and think you’re starting up your own little pack in the Back Bay. ”
“We have a plan to correct those false assumptions,” Michael said, not a hint of his irritation fouling his scent.