“Took Piper away?” Brunton repeated, cocking his hand back for another blow. “You left Kat to die?”

  “I protected what is mine,” Merc said, catching the blow Brunton uncorked on him. He held the wolf’s hand captive as he stared him down. Seconds later, Knox launched himself over the back of the couch to land behind Brunton.

  “Let him go,” he said, the warning in his tone clear. Merc turned to look at Knox, his dark eyes assessing the alpha. There was such condescension in his stare that he reminded me of his father. Had I ever seen that expression on him before, I would have figured out their connection long ago.

  Knox, not happy with Merc’s lack of compliance, grabbed the vampire’s hand and ripped it open to release Brunton. I felt my chest tighten as I looked on. It appeared that their tension was about to come to a head.

  Then it didn’t. Instead, Kat walked up to the two of them, sliding in between them to face Merc.

  “Here’s the thing about protecting Piper,” she said, staring up at him as though unfazed by his steely gaze. “She doesn’t need you to. And if you keep doing it, you’ll shoot yourself in the foot. I don’t give a fuck that you left me behind to die tonight. You don’t owe me anything. But if you had any brain in that hulking head of yours, you’d know that my death would have ruined her in a way that neither you nor Knox could ever make up for. Piper and me… we’re tighter than friends. We’re sisters. So if you do anything like that to hurt her again, dead or not, I will bring pain down on you like you’ve never felt before.”

  With nothing left to say, Kat strutted out of the room and disappeared down the hall, leaving everyone silenced by her words.

  Knox followed her out, with Brunton and the rest of the pack behind him. After they were gone, only the brothers, Grizz, and I were left—or so I thought. From a dark corner of the room, Drake appeared, walking toward us. His expression was especially grim.

  “Did everything go okay?” I asked him, needing a distraction. Preferably a positive one.

  His eyes fell to where my hand rubbed my chest. “The werewolf was about to gain entrance to the building when I felt the pull of your magic…”

  “You aborted the mission?”

  “We went and got them,” Jase said, drawing my attention. “We didn’t think it was safe after what had happened to Kat.”

  I forced a smile at him and Dean.

  “You say you saw the assassin?” They both nodded. “Knox and the others will want a description. Maybe they’ll know who it is.”

  “We can do that,” Jase replied before hugging me. Dean followed suit, then the two of them disappeared from the room.

  “I should join them,” Drake said, casting a wary glance at Merc. “I might recognize who the assassin is.”

  “That’d be great.”

  Drake didn’t move. “Will you be okay if I leave, Piper?”

  My chest seized as Merc’s temper flared at the question. Drake walked over and pulled my hand away. His eyes skimmed the blood-covered surface quickly before letting me go.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  He gave a curt nod, then walked out of the room. I turned to Grizz, silently asking him to leave as well, but he just shook his head. The man-bear had a bone to pick with Merc, and all I could think of was how colorful his language would have been if he could talk. The f-word would have been flying for sure.

  “Piper,” Merc started, his expression softening as he said my name.

  “What you did tonight... you treated me like you did before I could take care of myself. Like you did before everything went to shit.”

  “I saw certain death and I needed to get you away.”

  “But at what cost, Merc? Kat’s life?”

  His eyes narrowed. “If it was a choice between the two of you, then yes.”

  “But it didn’t have to be a choice!” I shouted, frustration taking over. Merc reached for me, but Grizz moved quickly, edging his body in front of mine. Not because I needed his protection, but to make a point. Grizz knew how to navigate that fine line.

  Merc, however, did not.

  “It’s okay, buddy,” I said, resting my hand on his back. He looked at me, silently disagreeing, but he had his reasons. Kat was special to him, almost as much as I was. Merc had threatened that connection with his actions. Grizz wouldn’t soon forget that.

  “I will always put you above all others, Piper. It’s my duty as your mate.”

  I let out a sigh of frustration.

  “And I get that, but not like this. Leaving Kat—or anyone else, for that matter—that can’t happen again. Ever.” I stood there for a moment, hoping to drive home how serious I was. “You’ll suffocate me if you don’t give me the space I need to become the being I am destined to be.” When he didn’t reply, I walked past him, headed for the hallway. “C’mon, Grizz. Let’s go find Kat. Ten bucks says she’s in the kitchen ‘refueling’.”

  The man-bear let out a huff but followed nonetheless. Together we made our way downstairs, following the smell of something delicious cooking.

  Though my heart understood why Merc had done what he did, my brain couldn’t quite move past it. All I could do was hope that my words had struck a chord with him and he could learn to give me space, just as Knox had. If the overbearing alpha could manage it, then I saw no reason why the surly vampire enforcer couldn’t as well.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I saw Merc in my dreams that night. He was in his room, pacing like a caged animal, tugging at his hair. His usual collected demeanor was nowhere to be seen. His focus snapped around the room until it landed where I stood—or where I thought I did. He walked over and stopped right in front of me, holding his hand out to touch me. The confusion in his expression told me what I needed to know. He couldn’t see me at all.

  I called his name and he flinched.

  “Piper?” he whispered, his eyes straining to find me.

  “I’m here!” I shouted, waving my arms in front of his face. His hair rustled slightly in the breeze, but still he couldn’t find me. With an outstretched arm, I let my fingertips graze his cheek. His eyelids closed as he tried to focus on the sensation. “What’s happening?” I asked softly.

  “I cannot lose you,” he said as though he hadn’t heard my question at all.

  I dropped my hand from his face, and he resumed his pacing, looking wilder than before. The more I tried to reach him, the more distant and desperate he became. With one final push I lunged for him, screaming his name.

  Then I shot awake in bed.

  ***

  I flopped back and lay there for a minute, breathing hard, eyes still closed. I couldn’t bring myself to open them yet, my mind and body still clinging to the edges of my dream. It left me feeling unsettled and wondering if it had been a shared dream between Merc and me, or one of my own conjuring. Either way, I knew I couldn’t lounge around in bed forever contemplating which it was. No time for that.

  When I finally pried my eyelids open to let in the warm morning glow, I found Grizz looming over me, half naked in his man suit. I startled, sitting up quickly. It took a second for my brain to realize that he wasn’t a threat.

  “Jesus, Grizz… you scared me!” His expression didn’t falter. “What are you doing? Is something wrong?” He didn’t reply (for obvious reasons). Instead, he scooped me up and set me down on my feet before walking to the bathroom and returning with my toothbrush. “In a hurry to go somewhere?” I asked, taking the toothbrush and shoving it in my mouth. He followed me to the bathroom and hovered close while I finished brushing my teeth. I didn’t bother talking to him until I was done. The last time I’d done that, he hadn’t seemed impressed.

  “I know Drake told you to keep close, but I’m not sure he meant when I’m in the bathroom.”

  I forced him out so I could pee without an audience. He rolled his eyes as I shoved his massive frame through the doorway. Apparently the grizzly didn’t find it strange to stare at someone while they urinated, but I still did. It was hard for my mind to reconcile his human appearance with his animal nature.

  As I emerged from the bathroom, he held out a fistful of clothes to me and dropped them into my arms. He looked on as I stripped out of my nightclothes. When I pulled my tee over my head, leaving me in only a bralette for coverage, he walked over. He stared down at the blue marking on my sternum and frowned. His hand drifted up and rested on the mark, covering half my chest in the process.

  Then he growled.

  “I know, buddy. Drake is still working on it.” He turned a sad expression to me, then threw his arms around me and hugged me so tight I could barely breathe. “It’ll be okay,” I said, my voice more of a wheeze than anything. He let me go but continued to stare at me, concern in his warm brown eyes. “I have you, right?”

  He nodded.

  I finished getting dressed. The second I was ready, Grizz grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hall.

  “Is something going on?” I asked. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

  He took the butler’s stairs down to the kitchen and continued through the adjoining hall to the foyer. It was as if he was trying to avoid everyone else in the mansion. If I hadn’t known Grizz to give zero fucks, I’d have thought he was being sneaky for a reason.

  Once outside, he crossed the lawn toward the back of the property. Halfway there, he stopped and sniffed the air, inhaling deep as he let his head roll back, lifting his face to the sky. He looked back at me over his massive shoulder, and that’s when I smelled it—the bitter, acrid stench of burning flesh.

  We rounded a corner to find Knox and the pack preparing the fallen wolves for burial. I felt like we were intruding and turned to leave, but a call from Jagger stopped me short.

  “Piper—you can come over. It’s okay. We wanted you to be here for this. You’re family.”

  I looked at Grizz, understanding now what the hurry was.

  “I didn’t know,” I told Jagger.

  He looped his arm around my shoulders and I leaned against him. He was right. He really was family. “Later today, we’ll scatter their ashes over the gorge.”

  “I’m sorry you have to,” I whispered, watching the billowing smoke thin as it rose high in the sky.

  “We all are,” Kat said, coming to join us. She leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear. “I need to talk to you.”

  I pulled away to find sharp blue eyes staring back at me.

  “Okay.” We quietly walked away from the group and into the woods, far enough away that we wouldn’t be overheard. Whatever Kat wanted to discuss must have been a bigger deal than I thought.

  Once we were far beyond the bridge, she stopped walking and started in on me.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, not pulling any punches.

  “Geez, Kat…”

  “Something is off with you and I want to know what it is. Maybe these chuckleheads can’t see it, but I can. I know you, now spill it.” Grizz stood beside me, offering zero assistance where Kat was concerned. Traitor. “I saw you stop the assassin in the alley the other night. But your power… it didn’t feel the same. It felt weak somehow. And Knox was there, so I don’t know how that could be.”

  I took a deep breath and pulled my shirt down for her to see. Her eyes went wide at the sight of the blue mark on my pale skin.

  “Something happened after the fey queen attacked us—or at least that’s what I think is going on. Drake suspects that my magic healed the amulet, but it cost me some in the process.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Will it return?”

  I shrugged. “We don’t know. He gave me the amulet to wear for now to see if that will help. If I can maybe somehow siphon energy back from it.”

  “And if you can’t?”

  Silence.

  “Let’s hope I can.”

  “Maybe you just need to go bang Knox until you’re fully charged.”

  “Kat!”

  “I’m serious. If that’s all it takes, then do it—then do it again right after for good measure.”

  “You are shameless,” I replied, the fire in my cheeks burning for her to see.

  “I’m practical. Now, are you sure that’s all that’s going on with you?” she asked.

  “I think so…”

  “Is that why you’re grabbing your chest all the time? You do it constantly—clutching and rubbing. And you don’t look well. You’re paler than normal. Again, not really sure how nobody else has noticed.” Grizz’s chest rumbled with offense. Kat looked at him and sighed. “Of course you have. You’re the only male in this place who seems to have a clue.”

  The man-bear smiled with satisfaction.

  “The mark—it hurts.”

  “All the time?” she pressed, stepping closer. “Because I don’t see you do it all the time.”

  “It seems to get worse when I’m stressed.”

  “Which is virtually always,” Kat countered.

  “What are you trying to say, Kat?”

  It was her turn to shrug. “I’m just saying I only notice you doing it at certain times. Maybe you should pay more attention—see if there’s a pattern.”

  “Fine,” I said, sounding as annoyed as I felt. When I turned to walk away, Kat grabbed me.

  “Don’t blow me off,” she said, sounding hurt rather than angry. A rare thing for Kat.

  “I’m not,” I said, wrenching my arm from her grip. “And I’ll figure it out.”

  I stormed back through the woods until I was in the yard. Sunshine was there to greet me, a welcome change from the dark and dreary we’d experienced for the past couple of days. I walked to the front yard, leaving Grizz hovering by the entrance. I needed a moment alone. A moment to re-energize. So I flopped down in the grass, arms stretched wide, and let the sun do just that.

  “Sunbathing is bad for your skin,” a voice called to me from the far side of the driveway.

  Drake.

  “I don’t think melanoma is going to be the thing that kills me,” I replied dryly.

  “Never tempt fate, Piper. She has a cruel sense of humor.”

  I looked at him. His approaching silhouette was highlighted by the sun’s golden glow. An aura of magic.

  “I wonder if she’s related to Kat…” He ignored my comment, walking up the driveway to where I lay in the grass. “Any luck tracking down the remaining warlocks?”

  His expression turned grim. “I have found many, but approached none. I’m in a difficult position here, Piper. Revealing that I am alive and in charge would make me a target. I’m not certain I want to be outed just yet.”

  I considered what he’d said before replying.

  “Would you prefer I do it?”

  He shook his head.

  “You’re an anomaly of sorts. I’m not sure how they will respond to a female warlock, and I do not wish to find out the hard way. But I promise you, I will reunite our kind. It will just take some time to do so.”

  “And if we need them to take down the fey king’s assassin? Or the fey queen? Or someone else, for that matter?”

  “Then I will gather them, regardless of what peril it might cause me.”

  I forced a grim smile.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said weakly.

  He smiled in return. It was equally empty.

  “Do not worry about me. It’s you that is struggling. Tell me, are you feeling any better?” Cut right to the chase, that was Drake’s M.O.

  “Maybe?” I said, pulling the amulet out. I stood up to give it to him.

  “That’s not an answer. It’s a guess.”

  “I can’t tell, Drake. One minute I think maybe I am, then the next I’m doubled over gasping for breath like Grizz is sitting on my chest.” I cast an apologetic look to the bear at my right. “No offense, buddy.” He didn’t bother responding.

  Drake reached for the amulet, flipping it over in his hand. “It feels no different.” There was irritation in his tone as he spoke.

  “Did you expect it to?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “That’s not an answer,” I countered. “It’s a guess.”

  A wry smile tugged at his mouth. “I suppose you’re right. Now about this pain…”

  “I’m telling you, it’s stress. Non-magic related, good old-fashioned, human stress. That’s all. I’m not used to so much riding on me, you know? I used to depend on everyone around me to keep me safe. Now the tables have turned, and I realize what a burden I was to those that loved me. How stressful it is to be responsible for the welfare of another.”

  “With great power comes great responsibility.”

  “Yeah… I’m getting a crash course in that.”

  He was silent for a moment, his head cocking to the side as he looked down at me.

  “It’s possible that stress could be contributing to this,” he said. There was a note of incredulity in his tone, but it sounded hopeful to me nonetheless. Maybe this was more of a human problem than a magical one.

  “And if it is? What’s the plan, doc? Bed rest? Meditation? A romp in the woods?” Drake looked at me with shock and confusion in his eyes. “No! Not like romp romp! Like walk romp. Hiking. And not with you! I mean, I could walk-romp with you, but not…”

  “Piper!” Drake said loudly, cutting me off to save me from myself. “Stop… please. I understand. Just stop talking.”

  Awkward silence fell upon us and I toed at the grass, trying not to die of embarrassment. My comment had clearly done nothing to improve Drake’s opinion of my love life.

  “Seriously, though. What should I do?”

  “Though I’m not convinced the matter is this simple, I’m willing to consider it while I seek out another explanation. For now, just take it easy and spend as much time as possible in nature. You’ve said before you feel as though it recharges you.” I nodded. “Good. Then do it.” He hesitated for a second, staring at me. “But I would forego the romping.”

  I threw the amulet at him.

  “Dick.”

  “You asked for my help,” he said by way of apology, handing it back. “Perhaps I should go now so that you can rest.”

 

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