But Cohen merely shrugged. “I didn’t.”

  “You won’t get another warning to leave our lands while you still can,” Kai said with the kind of softness that begged Cohen to make this hard.

  I knew how he felt.

  The magic, my wolf, me—we were a holy trinity of Cohen killers at this point.

  “Ash Lawson, you have hereby broken your blood vow,” Cohen said, ignoring Kai’s threat as his blue eyes stared frigidly back at me. “As such, you will reap the consequences of the oath you swore and broke. May the gods have mercy on you and your mother.”

  He spat the last part, and I knew full well by “mercy” he meant anything but. He’d said the words to prove a point. To remind me what I’d bargained with. My heart panged, the guilt nearly as strong as the pain in my arm. But I shook it off. I refused to let Cohen damn me.

  “Your power was taken for a reason,” I told him. “And you continue to prove why you deserved it over and over again. If you come here again, we will defend ourselves against the threat of your people.”

  Around me, the wolves echoed their support of my words with growls that promised vengeance.

  I pressed a hand to my shoulder, wincing at the pain pulsing through me. The magic seemed quieter in the wake of the injury, which left my wolf howling to be let free.

  To make this right.

  As much as I wanted to shift, to prolong the magic’s destruction, I remained human. From the way Cohen’s men eyed me, they would take any move I made as a reason for firing. And next time, they wouldn’t bother with me. Not when they could actually kill one of the others.

  Cohen grinned at me as if he’d read my dilemma perfectly.

  “Relax, I didn’t come to challenge you,” he said.

  Kai snarled.

  “I think we have different definitions of the word ‘challenge,’” I told him darkly.

  “While you were setting up house and playing alpha, I went on a little treasure hunt.”

  His words were full of hidden meaning.

  A bad feeling knotted in my gut.

  Cohen said something to his men, and two of them climbed into the bed of a large black pickup truck parked at their backs.

  One of them lowered the tailgate and kicked at a sack resting at the edge of the truck bed. It rolled and fell to the asphalt. From inside, a pained grunt sounded, and my eyes widened as I realized the lumpy sackcloth held a person inside.

  “I brought you a present,” Cohen said. “Go ahead. Open it.”

  I hesitated.

  Whatever secret plan he’d formed against me—whatever thing he’d hidden from Kel—this was it. And I wasn’t going to like it at all. But I couldn’t ignore that an innocent person had been trapped because of me.

  I nodded at Idrissa, who left the cover of the building where she’d positioned herself and came forward. Kneeling on the street, she unwrapped the cloth, partially shifting so she could use a sharpened claw to cut through the heavy fabric.

  When the captive’s body finally emerged, all I could do was stare, completely at a loss.

  “The magic will protect you until you’ve honored the oath you’ve made. Until then, your life is bound to the promise itself. To the blood you used to bind it.”

  Blood.

  Kel had been right. Our blood protected her. And the magic protected us both.

  “But there is one person who isn’t protected in all this,” he added.

  I didn’t answer.

  Cohen laughed, and I knew he was enjoying my reaction, but I couldn’t make myself look away. He’d gotten to me; that was for damn sure. In fact, in this moment, he’d won.

  “Ash, do you know that woman?” Kai’s voice was low but urgent. “Ash?” he pressed.

  The woman tried—and failed—to sit up. Pain worse than any bullet hole tore through me. I tried to swallow and forced my gaze away from the face I’d never imagined I’d see again. And mostly, never really wanted to.

  Anger. Disappointment. Loss. Hurt. Sadness. Fury.

  I battled it all as I looked at Kai and nodded. “Yes.”

  My voice was strained, not at all confident.

  Even the magic had faltered at the way my emotions vied for power.

  “She’s my mother.”

  My words echoed into the silence.

  Idrissa looked from me back down to my mom, who was only barely conscious now. Her skin was pale, and even from here, I could see its sickly pallor. Whatever they’d done to her, it had very nearly killed her. And then he’d dumped her on me.

  “Should we help her?” Kai asked.

  Gently this time.

  “You can try,” Cohen said to Kai, positively gleeful at the way this was all unfolding. Bastard.

  I cut him a scathing glare, fear clawing at me. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Don’t blame me, Ash. You’re the one who swore a blood oath against your own mother’s life and then refused to fulfill it. Whatever happens to her now, that’s on you.”

  Horror washed over me, threatening to suck me under. I fought it, only because I knew giving in would mean letting Cohen win here and now. And that’s what he wanted; to break me utterly and completely in front of my entire pack. To not just take the magic but to take the rest of me too. My will. My soul. My dignity.

  I couldn’t let it happen. Not for her.

  Something must have shown on my face because Idrissa took over. She called out to someone I couldn’t see.

  “Get over here and help me.”

  Adan appeared from the shadows, and together, they lifted my mother into their arms and hauled her off, disappearing into an alleyway.

  I didn’t know where they were taking her. I didn’t care.

  When I looked up again, Cohen was watching me, a look of triumph already written across his cruel face.

  “I’ll be back when the blood oath has crushed your will,” he said to me through the open window. “By then, you’ll ask me to come. Mark my words. Not even magic is strong enough to stop what will happen next.”

  Kai snarled at him, stalking toward the SUV with fisted hands, and the others who still waited, ready to attack, began to follow. They wouldn’t be stopped now. My pack was bloodthirsty, and I was just blinded enough by my rage to let them have their way.

  A scream from behind stopped Kai in his tracks. The others stopped too. Someone yelled for help, for water, and their words were followed by a loud crack as glass exploded, and then the telltale scent of smoke rose into the air.

  I spotted flames licking at the side of the pawn shop three doors down from the Throttle and watched with horror as those flames grew and spread almost too quickly to be real. First, it was just the pawn shop, and then it was the dry cleaners beside it. After that, there was only one other building between the fire and the Throttle.

  Oscar broke away from my flank and ran toward the pawn shop, yelling for others to follow. After that, everyone, human and wolf alike, rushed toward the burning building, screaming at one another to call emergency responders.

  Oscar began yelling for a tool to open the hydrant nearby.

  I looked back at Cohen, panic clawing at my throat. The magic surged again, this time sparking from my hands.

  “Last chance,” Cohen said.

  I found him looking back at me from the passenger seat of the SUV. One look at the gleam in his eyes and I knew he’d started the fire. Somehow. One last message sent about my refusal to give in. And the perfect distraction against the massacre he’d expected after what he’d done.

  Over the screams, I shouted my answer. “I won’t turn over your magic just so you can use it to try to kill us.”

  “Sweetheart,” he said as the SUV’s engine revved, “I’m going to kill you either way.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The moment Cohen and his men had gone, Kai gripped my arms as if to scoop me up. “We need to get you to the doc’s,” he said urgently.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re shot,” he replied as if I might have somehow forgotten.

  “It’s already healed,” I said, adjusting the sheet.

  Kai peered closely at my shoulder, bloodied but intact.

  “I’m fine,” I repeated.

  He straightened, and I could see the worry still lodged in the small lines between his brows. I couldn’t blame him. But we had worse problems than my gunshot wound now. I refused to let that problem include my mother.

  “Kai, the fire,” I said, and my words seemed to shake him loose from whatever had held him so still.

  “We need to help them.”

  I nodded, and together we ran to where Oscar had assembled a group to help him activate the fire hydrant out front of the pawn shop. Someone had dragged a fire hose from, I didn’t know where, and attached it to the hydrant valve.

  In the next moment, they’d turned the water on, and I watched as three men aimed the pressurized hose at the growing flames. The water soaked the building’s exterior, shooting in through the already broken windows. I could only hope it would be enough to combat the fire before it spread out of control.

  “How did this happen?” I asked.

  “Dragon’s breath,” Oscar said grimly.

  “Dragons?” I stared numbly back at him.

  “It’s a kind of bullet. Shoots fire,” he explained impatiently.

  “Oh.”

  From the other side of the street, someone yelled my name.

  Kai grabbed my hand and tugged me around toward the sound.

  “This way.”

  I spotted Idrissa, and my stomach clenched as my gaze darted past her into the darkened alley where they’d carried my mother.

  My mother.

  Fuck, this night had gone from a dream come true to my worst nightmare.

  Cohen was going to pay.

  “What is it?” Kai asked.

  Idrissa bit her lip, hesitating as she flicked a glance at me. “What do you want us to do with her?”

  She nodded at the security team, who waited with my mother propped up between them. I could have focused and seen into the shadows to get a better look. But I wasn’t interested.

  “Whatever you want,” I said flatly.

  “Ash,” Idrissa began in a voice gentler than I’d ever heard her use before.

  It pissed me off that she’d consider this—her—a worthy reason to go soft on me.

  “She’s not one of us,” I said. “In fact, as far as I’m concerned, she’s an enemy of the pack and should be treated as such.”

  Kai and Idrissa exchanged a glance.

  My temper spiked. The magic flared. Crimson oozed from my wounds. Not blood. Power.

  The voices in my head hadn’t returned. Just like everything else about this magic inside me, it chose its methods. And it never tried the same trick twice.

  “Do not try to manage me about this,” I snapped. “Take her to Silas’ cabin. That’s where we keep hexerei prisoners, isn’t it?” They didn’t answer. “Put her under twenty-four-hour guard, and have the doc assess her. Oh, and check her for bugs. Cohen might have planted something on her to use against us.”

  Idrissa met my eyes. “Understood.”

  She called out the orders to the others, and they shuffled around to get a better grip on their cargo. I didn’t bother waiting around to watch the parade.

  Kai caught up to me as I whirled and hurried back into the street.

  “Ash, we should talk—”

  “Later,” I snapped. “Our pack needs us, and they come first.”

  He caught my eye and nodded slowly. “All right.”

  For the next couple of hours, we worked to help everyone who stopped us for aid. The magic’s effects—muted when I’d been shot—built slowly. I did my best to hide my discomfort, but it didn’t take long for my veins to darken and the power to overflow. I took out several light bulbs before I was asked to retreat a safe distance from the others.

  Kai and Presley found me hiding out behind the Throttle an hour later. The grass had died off where I sat, creating a two-foot ring of death around me. I remained inside it, too scared to approach them with the unstable energy.

  “The fire?” I asked anxiously.

  “It’s out,” Presley said tiredly.

  I climbed to my feet. “Was anyone hurt?”

  “A few minor burns. Doc’s seeing to them now. Nothing serious.”

  They were both covered in ash and dirt, but Kai looked worse—torn clothes, a cut below his eye. Then I saw his knuckles.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  He turned away, staring out over the trees.

  “He’s not fit for company,” Presley said.

  “What happened?” I repeated, looking at Presley this time.

  “He got into it with Oscar about what to do with you now that Cohen has made his move,” Presley said.

  I stared at Kai in horror. “You fought with him?”

  Kai’s lip curled. I could see the adrenaline still racing through him. The darkness rolling off him was worse than anything I’d felt before. “I know, why bother, right?”

  His words stung. “What does that mean?”

  “Whatever, I’m going for a run.” Kai started for the trees.

  I started to follow, but Presley blocked my path.

  “Let him go.”

  “He’s a mess. I can’t just abandon him.”

  “He’s not the only mess tonight. And your pack needs you.”

  I watched Kai go.

  He didn’t look back.

  The hole in my heart grew bigger, but I forced myself to focus on Presley. He was right. But the pack needed him too and he’d just abandoned them. Abandoned me. I knew what that felt like all too well and tonight of all nights…my heart broke just a little as I watched him vanish into the trees.

  Maybe I’d expected too much.

  Maybe I wasn’t the kind of girl who ever really got her happily ever after.

  “Yo, Ash. You okay?”

  “Find Idrissa,” I told Presley. “She took the prisoner to Silas’ cabin. As soon as that’s done, we need doubled patrols in the woods and along the road perimeter as well. No more surprises from Cohen.”

  He nodded. “Cohen knew when to hit us,” he said quietly.

  “I know.”

  “We probably have a spy—”

  “I know,” I said again, a little too sharply.

  Presley fell silent.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The pack wants to retaliate,” he said.

  “No.”

  “Yeah, I figured you’d say that.”

  “He has an arsenal at the ready. And attacking recklessly is what he wants us to do,” I said.

  “And the magic?” he asked.

  “What about it?”

  “If you’re not going to give it back and you can’t get rid of it… Can you use it against him?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have control,” I said. “Unleashing this… well, you saw what I did in the field that day.”

  “You kicked their asses.”

  “And ours too.”

  He scowled. “It’s not like we have a better plan.”

  He was right.

  But I had no idea how to make this a plan either.

  “Look, if you’re not going after Cohen, you’re going to have some pissed-off shop owners. Either way, you need to address them directly.”

  “I can’t get that close,” I said, already shaking my head and thinking of my plan to leave town. Could I do that now that my mother was here? The idea of it felt hypocritical.

  Presley glanced toward the trees. When he looked back at me, he shrugged and said simply, “You have to.”

  *.*.*

  I didn’t run. I told myself I would. Later. When the danger of the night had passed. But an hour later, I was still here. The pack had all gathered back inside the party hall—minus the security teams, who’d already gone out to start heightened patrols.

  Presley stood at my side, and while I was grateful, the sharpness of Kai’s absence wasn’t a feeling I could ignore.

  The magic pressed against me, but I refused to let it take me over. I was still fighting. It was still winning—slowly. A taunt. Like everything we’d done until now had been pointless.

  “Ash,” Oscar said, striding up. “Kai still isn’t back. I don’t know where he went—”

  “I know,” I said, shoving my heartbreak aside. “He’s getting some air.”

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I’m good.” I forced a smile.

  At my feet, the hardwood began to blacken and char.

  I moved on before others could notice.

  Isaac waved from where he stood with Presley, manning the doors. I waved back, taking short, quick steps toward the main hall. As I walked, I scanned the faces. Idrissa and Adan hadn’t returned, but I knew that meant they were out there watching our backs.

  Tiffany and Cade stood near Vinny. They all had drinks in hand, which meant Teddy had returned to his post. Near the wall, Oscar stood with Cherise, his suit burnt and stained. Her dress was bloody and torn.

  Some of the Asheville pack members hovered near the forgotten food tables. Corbin caught my eye and then came forward, making his way to the front. He stopped beside me and faced the crowd.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “You looked like you could use some reinforcements,” he said with a shrug.

  He reached back and grabbed a discarded velvet table runner. Shaking it out, he draped it over my shoulders. Then he took a deliberate step back, signaling to the crowd who held the authority here. Gratitude washed over me for that small gesture, and I tugged on the ends of the fabric, doing my best to cover the bloody sheet I still wore.

  “The fires are out, and the only damage was to property,” I said in a strong, clear voice.

  “And to you,” someone said.

  Tiffany.

  Beside her, the expression on Cade’s face was very much in agreement with Tiffany’s words.

  “That asshole shot our alpha,” he added. “What the hell are we going to do about it?”

  My heart warmed at the way they all rallied their support.

  “Cohen needs to pay,” Luke Davidson yelled.

  The echoes of support turned to rumblings for revenge.