Chapter 38 Hazard
Hazard
The minute we appear, I know where we are. It’s the smell; it’s the feel of the air; it’s the way the light passes through the leaves. I can taste home on my lips, and it’s the last place I want to be.
“Who?” It’s squeaked out and trembles with fear.
I whip my head around. The sound of that voice has haunted my nightmares for years.
Abigail, Lenore, and Hailey. They are beautiful and look younger than the day they cursed me.
They did this.
Casey needs us.
“Send me back!” I roar at them.
Abigail tosses her black hair back. “How are you free?” She sounds panicked. “It was an impossible curse.”
“SEND ME BACK!” I howl and rush her.
Lenore throws fire, but Angel reacts faster, ripping out her throat, her body falling lifeless in a heap.
Her own fire catches her hair, and her body blazes.
Hailey shrieks and falls back. I shift shape and attack, unable to calm myself.
I’ve never been this out of control before. The pain is nothing I’ve ever felt.
They will break her. I paint the clearing red, slipping in blood and body parts as I lunge for Abigail.
Riot throws her at me, and, with pleasure, I close my teeth over her arm and shake. I hear her scream, but my teeth sink into her throat, and she can’t make any sound ever again.
I stand in the clearing near where all of this started, my heart beating too hard, too fast. How far away is Beacon Falls? Where is it on a map? How long will it take to get back there? Why didn’t we check? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Angel presses against my side.
I thought our vengeance would last longer or be more significant than that, but all I can think about is Casey at the hands of her old pack. The blood doesn’t matter because, in my mind, it’s hers. All I can see is the silent way she begged me to understand.
She saved us. She gave herself up to them and saved us.
Casey could be dead. She could be dead. My omega cannot…be dead!
It takes everything to move, to react. I shift to human, and it all hurts so much more. I stagger under the weight of my agony.
“We need to go find Casey,” I say numbly.
Khaos is silent.
“Guys, we have to go get Casey. Let's go.”
Why aren’t they moving? Why is nobody moving?
My anger fires up, and I turn, whirling to yell at them, but the words die in my throat.
Standing in front of us is the alpha supreme himself.
He’s huge and broad; his powerful countenance presses on us.
I forgot how strong he is. His aura weighs heavily on me, trying to crush me into obedience.
His smile looks far too satisfied and deadly.
The alpha never approved of me and, judging by the way he’s watching me now, he still doesn’t.
“Father,” Khaos murmurs.
“My son…” he looks around and spots the corpses of the witches. “My son!” His annoyance is clear, but why would he be annoyed? They hurt us.
My confusion and outrage doesn’t seem to be shared.
Khaos and his father collide in a hug that has been years coming. More people appear from the forest trail that the alpha is standing on. My parents rush to us, taking a stiff Angel in their arms before they turn warily on me.
Do they expect me to lash out at them? Explode in a temper like I used to? Can’t they see we’ve all changed? Can’t they see I’m bleeding to death?
“Mika,” my mother’s voice is strained. She’s uncertain if she wants to approach me, probably nervous.
I have no doubt she’s wondering what hell I’m about to stir up now. Her hair is greyer, her eyes are still a warm brown I remember so well. My father’s chin wobbles, and he struggles to stop the tears as he approaches. He throws his arms around both of us and holds on.
I can only remember a handful of times my father has hugged me since I aged past fifteen. I close my eyes, leaning into his familiar hold. It doesn’t help.
“My boys, my boys.”
“Dad?” Wrath asks, and I stiffen, turning my head so I can watch him.
His face crumbles before his father even answers. I know what that means, and I hate it for him. Wrath’s grief floods the bonds that are already throbbing with the pain of Casey’s absence.
“I’m sorry, son, she didn’t make it.”
Wrath closes his eyes, then tilts his head back, howling. His grief is raw; his mother and our mate, gone beyond our reach.
Not beyond our reach. Not yet.
“We have to go,” Riot growls.
Yes, exactly. I struggle free of my father and mother.
“No, Riordon, you have to stay,” the alpha, Cy, says with a calm that has my stomach doing a weird flop.
“No!” Riot snaps. “Our mate is captured and in danger. We need to go free her.”
“You have a mate?” Cy asks, looking at his son, ignoring Riot as he always does.
Khaos nods his head. “I think we do. She broke the bonds.”
The Alpha’s concern melts away, and he smiles, clapping a hand to Khaos’ shoulder.
“Oh, if she broke the bonds, that means you’re free.”
I stare at them, confused. What is happening here, and why is Khaos so calm? Angel catches my eye and shakes his head minutely.
“No, she needs us,” I protest.
The alpha ignores me.
“Come on, let’s get a meal into you, and we can discuss it,” he says instead, and Khaos barely bats an eye. His knuckles are white, though, but he’s completely swept up by his father’s charm.
What the fuck is going on?
I open my mouth, but Angel squeezes my hand hard enough that I bite back my protest and follow the parade of people back to the castle in silence. We’re in higher mountains; the air is colder, the weather harsher. I wish we were back there, even if I died with her, I still would rather be there.
I want Casey.
Riot glances at me but averts his eyes, looking down at the ground, his lips pressed together.
“How have you been, Drew?” my mother asks Angel.
He shifts uncomfortably and pulls his arm free again. In fact, he goes so far as to shift into his wolf form, refusing to answer her.
The frustration boils up. I’ll leave them if I thought I had any hope of getting her out. Perhaps Riot and I can go after her!
“Where are we going? She needs us!” Riot spits out furiously. “Khaos, snap the fuck out of it!”
Cy turns on Riot with a furious glare. “You will show your pack respect, Riordan.”
The command slams into all of us, and my knees shake with the effort to stay upright. He’s not pack, I repeat in my head. He’s not my pack.
“With all due respect, Alpha, my pack isn’t complete until Casey is safe.” Riot brushes his black hair back, his eyes gleaming with the wolf.
“Riot, we could use their help,” Khaos says quietly.
Who even is he?
Riot looks around at all of us like we’re mad, and, to be honest, I’m on his side. Our eyes lock, and I give him a slight nod. Whatever he plans to do, I will back him. The politics of the pack have never sat well with me. I don’t think they will help us.
Angel slinks along, staying near me, ignoring our parents.
My parents don’t really pay me much mind; they are too focused on the change in Angel. They need to get used to it.
“It’s been four years, my son. I am so relieved to see you. I thought I’d lost you both,” Wrath’s father, Oliver says.
He looks awful, so thin and weak. His eyes lack the bouncing joy he used to carry; the glow of the wolf is dull.
Wrath shudders. “Dad-”
“Hudson, I’m just so thrilled to see you. We don’t need to talk of anything else; let’s just be happy.”
Wrath shudders and looks at me, begging me for something, trying to get me to understand. He can’t hurt this man. He knows what we need to do, but he can’t bring himself to hurt him. There’s something mournful on his face and also like regret.
Is he regretting the pain he will bring to his father or the agony he will abandon Casey into? Why am I thinking the pack is going to abandon her?
“We’re going to save her!” I say to him furiously. “She’s waiting for us, Wrath.”
He nods. His expression clearing like clouds have parted. He exhales harshly and nods, his resolve returning with tense, tight shoulders and clenched hands.
“We are.”
I walk back, gritting my teeth, trying to ignore the way Khaos’ mask has come back on, and he’s turned back into the little prince of alphas, the giant prat that irritated us to no end.
But there’s something strange about it…this isn’t Khaos.
We’re ushered into the massive pack house, which was once a castle. I stand in the massive stone halls, staring at the images of pack leaders past and present. Khaos’ photo will be up here one day.
It doesn’t feel right anymore. We’ve seen too much and been to so many places. I can’t imagine him ruling from here.
Angel stays with me, and I find myself pressing my fingers into his fur, needing the comfort as much as he’s needing it from me. The cold is pushed back by a massive fireplace, and the smell of roasting meat fills the air.
Food while our mate suffers? No! Absolutely not.
My heart aches just remembering the expression on her face. I can still feel the severed bond throbbing like a bleeding wound inside my chest. We’re guided into the home, but my thoughts are miles away.
She sacrificed herself and our bond to save us. I need to go get her now!
Khaos is playing good dog with his dad, laughing while he looks like he’s about to vomit. Trying not to flinch with every touch of his father’s hand. What is going on? Why is he sweating so hard?
It’s not what she gave us up for.
“Sit down, Mika,” my dad says. “You need to eat; you look too thin.”
I look at him like he’s crazy, wondering who he is and where he’s come from. Everything is like a bad dream.
Still, Angel nudges me towards the seat, and I take my place. Angel shifts back and takes his place beside me, Riot on the other side. The three of us are a united wall of hostility and rage.
If I’m confused and disgusted, then Riot is livid.
“So, tell me what happened?” Cy said. “How did this all occur?”
Khaos talks evenly, his voice reaching every corner of the stone hall. The serving staff fill out bowls and plates, leaving goblets of wine. It’s so damn pretentious.
I’m not paying attention until Angel stiffens and growls.
“It’s the height of bad manners to growl at the table, Drew,” our alpha supreme snaps, his voice booming out.
“My name is Angel,” my brother spits at our alpha. “And you,” he addresses Khaos. “You keep your damn mouth shut.”
Khaos sits back, rocked by the command. “What?”
“You don’t tell them what happened. It’s ours. And it’s hers, but you don’t get to say these things to these people.”
“These people?” Cy asks curiously. “We are your family. We are pack, and I am your alpha. Don’t you trust me?”
Angel stiffens.
That alone is the answer. No, we don’t trust you. You are not our alpha.
I feel the bond and strengthen his anger and rage with mine. Riot joins in and then Wrath. Khaos sits back as if he’s been hit.
“My apologies,” Khaos murmurs, but he puts a hand to his head and looks confused. He looks sick and in pain.
I exchange a look with Wrath. We’d had a theory once that Cy often used the alpha bark on Khaos to force him to behave in a certain way. It looks like we’re right.
The alpha is using a bark to mess with Khaos’ head. Fuck. How long has this been going on?
“My son can share anything with me, can’t you, son?” Cy almost purrs.
Khaos shakes his head like he’s trying to shake something out of it. “Not this.”
Cy sits back, his lips thin, and he glances at Riot like it’s his fault. “Well, if that’s how you feel.”
“Dad, we really need help-”
“Yes, well, I really needed my son here, helping me to run the kingdom.”
Kingdom? Since when did wolves have kingdoms?
Cy stands up. “I think perhaps you need a night to sleep and think over everything.”
“No, I don’t need to sleep and think, I need to get back to her!” Khaos shouts.
Cy shakes his head. “Impossible, impulsive, selfish child. Of course, you can’t go back; that would break all sorts of treaties. She rejected your bonds; you told me that yourself. That means that she belongs to them.”
“Father!”
“Alpha!” Cy thunders, and we all bow our heads, though I see Khaos fighting it and, to my surprise, Wrath isn’t affected.
“She is our mate.”
“No, she was your mate, now you are free to mate for the good of the pack.”
“You’re mad.”
“No, I am king.”
“Alpha!” Khaos snaps. “You are alpha, not king.”
Cy glares at his son and then sweeps out of the room, leaving the rest of us staring after him, absolutely struck dumb by his bizarre behaviour.
My father puts his hand on mine. “My son, it might be best if you came with us and just had a little conversation. One alpha to another.”
I jerk my head around and see him look around fearfully. My father is afraid in his own home? What has happened here?
“Okay.”
I say it quietly, even though everything is urging me to get back to her, because it looks like…maybe…the alpha, our alpha, has gone mad.
My pack paces in the underground library. Wrath’s father, Oliver, and my father are standing shoulder to shoulder, deep grim expressions on their faces.
Khaos is jittery, and he keeps grasping his fingers and twisting like he’s trying to ground himself back in reality. I’m getting really worried about him.
“I know we weren’t easy on you, Mika, but you had so much to give the world, and the choices you kept choosing just kept putting you in the firing line of a world of hurt.”
I stare at him like he’s grown a second head.
“But I’m afraid you’ve walked back into another one. Our alpha got sick after Khaos vanished. He locked away his mistress and turned into what you are currently seeing. We…uh, don’t know if his mistress is alive.”
“How?” Khaos says hoarsely. “How has this happened?”
“We don’t know what’s wrong with him. Only that something is,” Oliver says and looks even more exhausted.
“How can we stop him?” Riot demands. “How can we make him let us go? Our mate needs us.”
My father looks at Khaos. “You are the only one who can save us, Kerrick.”
Khaos rubs his temples. “He’s using his alpha bark on me. The second he saw me, he pushed into me, commanding obedience. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to fight him.”
“Yes, he doesn’t like to be disobeyed anymore,” my father whispers. “There are lots of people missing now. We think they might be in the prisons, but no one can get down there to check them out.”
“Casey?” I ask softly, already knowing the answer.
Khaos walks the length of the room several times and looks at us. Riot, Angel, Wrath, and I.
“Are we together in this?”
“Yes,” we say as one, though I think it just about kills me.
“Okay. Let’s do this and then go get our omega?”
My dad meeps. “Omega? Did you say you have an omega?”
Angel laughs, but it’s a harsh, bitter sound that resembles broken dreams and shattered trust.