“You should have been more careful.”

  I kind of hoped he’d say that it was alright. But it wasn’t. Here he was desperately running around trying to look after me while the city was going to hell. Now I’d made things worse.

  He strode ahead through the door. I’d already told him what the witch had snarled at me about Kings and a city-wide takeover.

  Jace hadn’t reacted. Either he’d known… or he couldn’t process this right now.

  But as we walked down the empty corridor, I pressed close. “Jace, what are you going to do about the Kings?”

  “There’s no evidence there’s more than one at the moment.”

  I could have taken that as an insult. Jace kept denying the information I was sharing with him. He’d ignored the Kings from the first warning I’d given him. But my eyes quickly tracked his shoulders. They’d risen up a whole inch. His neck pushed against his collar, and his lips wouldn’t sit still.

  I imagined the Alpha was good at saying one thing while thinking another.

  Resisting the urge to touch his arm, I cleared my throat. “Maybe there’s only one. Maybe we’re lucky. I doubt we are. We already know the vampires are up to something. I swear to God to you one of Olivia’s entourage set that spell in the meeting last night. That means you’ve already got two uprisings in two of the clans.”

  “The witches—”

  “I’m pretty sure I got lucky with that witch at the castle,” I hissed, thinking it through. “She was seriously powerful. She was the one who cast that occult spell on you. The only reason I got her was because of the dagger.”

  I didn’t think he’d engage with this, but he turned, walking backward until we reached the stairs. “We’re having it analyzed. It’s an old, powerful weapon.” His voice caught.

  “Which is the only reason I beat that witch. The dagger must’ve sapped her power,” I whispered, reaching out to touch the railing. But that would be with my left arm, and it spasmed in pain.

  It couldn’t be broken, though. I imagined I’d get a corker of a bruise, but with the right potions, it wouldn’t stop me from moving much.

  I slid a hand down it now as I distractedly stared at the wall. “We’ve got to come back around to my original point. That witch was strong. You’ve told me there’s no evidence there’s an uprising amongst the witches. I think there is.”

  “Where are you going with this?” he asked flatly.

  I could usually glean his frame of mind from his tone. Because it was almost always the same. Blank but hard. Now it seemed fragile, even a little lost. The Alpha’s shoulders were still rigid, his stance strong – remarkably so for someone who’d been injured. But there was a flicker of fear.

  Either he slowed down or I sped up. My arm brushed his. “I don’t know where I’m going with this. You’re the one who opened my eyes to crime in Mythos City. I guess I’m suggesting… that there must be some bigger pattern behind it.”

  “Maybe there is—”

  “But even if there isn’t,” I got there first, looking him right in the eyes, “we’re going to try hard to stop it, right?”

  What the hell was I saying? He was the guy who ran around daily stopping crime. I’d joined his pack… less than 48 hours ago.

  Jace still responded to my look, shooting me a lingering stare. He wasn’t checking out my figure or anything. It was far more penetrating than that.

  Biting my lip, I let him lead me to the clinic.

  I’m sure the on-duty doctor was getting sick of dealing with my injuries. As I strode in, the shifter lioness arched an eyebrow.

  You could usually tell which kind of creature someone shifted into based on their size and physicality. But while wolves and bears were easy, the cats were often hidden. You had to get it from their personalities and the way they held their bodies. The doc certainly had a languid tilt to her as she arched an eyebrow at me. Gesturing at the bed, she hissed, “And how is it that you almost broke your arm while lying in a bath but you didn’t while running for your life?”

  “Luck,” I guessed, then grinned, shoving my fingers through my hair.

  “Deal with her efficiently, Marigold,” Jace snapped.

  “Somewhere to be?” Marigold arched an eyebrow.

  This was a fully staffed clinic. It even had its own X-ray machine.

  Jace didn’t answer. Like clockwork, he pulled out his phone.

  Marigold saw me staring. She leaned close as she examined my arm carefully, “He’s always glued to it.”

  “Careful, he can hear you, right?” I questioned. “How good are shifter senses?”

  “Good enough to hear you spluttering in the bath from two levels down,” Jace snapped.

  I blinked, tucking some hair behind my ear. “Two floors down? I thought you were outside my room or something.”

  “Unsurprisingly, I do not spend my day outside your door,” he retorted.

  I could have taken umbrage at the tone. The wolf was distracted, quickly scrolling through something.

  I’m sure he’d informed the other heads what happened. Were they in an uproar? Or had they buried their heads in the sands too?

  Marigold’s eyes, a deceptive yellow-blue, flicked down to mine. “Careful,” she whispered as she led me by the hand off the bed.

  We walked into another room, and she closed the door, getting ready for the X-ray. I followed her, then hissed, “Careful about what?”

  From the look in her eyes, she was about to discuss Jace.

  Crossing her arms, she spoke at full volume, “He is engaged. Technically.”

  “He’s right outside. He can hear you,” I whispered.

  “It’s a lead-reinforced door. Even he can’t hear. But he is technically engaged,” she repeated, walking around to a bench to get something ready.

  I stood there, scratching my fingers over my leg. “To the hottest werewolf in the world, right?”

  “They do not hold contests to establish that. Werewolves are far too prideful. And they also technically don’t go in for that kind of thing. They are above mere appearances.”

  “Sure.” With nothing else to say, I gazed at the floor.

  “You don’t seem the kind to leave it at that.”

  “Huh?” My brows knotted.

  She patiently stared at me. “I’ve dealt with your injuries multiple times now. And I’ve learned all about your escapades. You’re proactive, Miss Winters. You do not seem to be the kind to leave a comment at that. Instead, I imagine you’re someone who stops at nothing to answer questions once she’s got them.”

  I blinked. Then I thought of all the millions of questions filling my head.

  All of them were way more important than Jace’s relationship status. So why did my stretched lips open and ask, “What is Jace’s exact relationship with Virginia?”

  “Technical.”

  Crap. She wasn’t actually gonna tell me.

  But there was some kind of offer glittering in her eyes.

  She went to open the door.

  I reached it first. “I’m finding it really hard to answer all of my millions of questions. I’m not sure who I’m meant to go to for information—”

  “Go to the source. Ask Jace.”

  My lips flashed open, and I snapped, “I don’t want to ask him about his fiancé—”

  She’d already opened the door. And I spoke that way too loudly.

  Jace stood in the middle of the clinic, on his phone. But his fingers froze.

  Great.

  Stifling a groan, I tried to arrange my arm more comfortably but gave up.

  “Is it broken?” he demanded.

  Marigold walked over to one of her computers, sat down, and soon shook her head. “I can give her something for the pain, a few potions for the bruise and any edema. I would tell her to rest it. I guess whether she does is up to how much crap Mythos throws at her.”

  “She will rest for the rest of the day,” Jace promised.

  Flicking my gaze over to him, I wondered if he even cared that I was curious about his fiancé. Based on his expression, the answer was no.

  … But I’d already learned Jace’s expressions meant little.

  The actual werewolf was buried all the way underneath fine layers of control.

  It didn’t take long for Marigold to finish. The whole while she made direct eye contact with me, as if challenging me to go further.

  I would not pin Jace against a wall and demand to know all of his private personal details.

  … Not yet, anyway.

  She soon released me.

  Jace strode ahead. The clinic wasn’t too far from the training room. “Maybe I should go and shoot in the range or something,” I suggested.

  “Rest your arm.”

  “So you want me back in my room?”

  “You should…” he paused. Maybe he was obsessing over the fact the last time he’d left me alone, I’d almost snapped a bone.

  “Look, I’ll do whatever you want to, whatever makes it easier for you. I’m sure you’ve got things to do. You can leave me in your car if you want.”

  “I will stay here.”

  Taking one strong step up to him, I stopped a few centimeters back, tilted my head up, and looked right into the Alpha’s eyes.

  He froze, his chest midway through a breath.

  “Jace, stop patronizing me. You’re insanely busy. Patrick, or a serious look-alike, has appeared out of nowhere. You need to talk to the heads. This is massive. Take me with you, and this time I promise to be a good girl.”

  “Who said you’re a girl?”

  Jace wasn’t questioning my femininity – not that I would have cared. His eyes momentarily swept down my figure, as if to prove I was anything but childlike.

  I watched him. Then I jutted my chin out. “Jace, this is massive. If Patrick really is out there….”

  “I’ll deal with him,” Jace said, snapping out of his fugue. The forthright, determined wolf returned. Then he twisted fast on his foot. “I do need to see the heads. But they can come to the compound.”

  Oh hell no. I didn’t want vamps swarming over this place.

  Before he could rush off, I caught his sleeve. “Let’s go to neutral territory. Somewhere else. Maybe Velos’s tower?”

  It was an innocent comment. But Jace stiffened.

  Remembering the strange interaction between them at Lisa’s apartment, I frowned. “I thought you were fine with Velos?”

  “I have a good working relationship with every head,” he said like a politician.

  “Okay… if you don’t want Velos’s apartment, maybe somewhere else? Not the vampires.”

  “I am owed a favor by the current head of the witches.”

  “And she is? It’s a revolving door. Even as a journo, I can’t keep up with it.”

  “Celestine Marks.”

  I think I knew her name. “Isn’t she from out of town?”

  “She was born here. Her mother was a head…” he had to calculate, “twenty heads ago.”

  I whistled. “Do you think it’s relatively neutral territory?”

  “The witches have less at stake than the vampires.” He said that so stiffly. I wondered if the real reason he didn’t want to go to the vampires was he certainly didn’t want to run into Olivia.

  “Yeah. Let’s go to the witches. It’ll give me a chance to—”

  He arched an eyebrow, following that thought even though I stopped it dead.

  I scrunched my lips. Then I winced and stared at him. “It’ll give me a chance to investigate them. I want to find out more about the witch I fought.”

  “You don’t even know her name.”

  “If the least I can do is walk around the witches, trying to find someone who looks like her, then I’m gonna do it.”

  There was no if. Nor did I consult with the Alpha. I flatly told him my intentions. And remarkably, he smiled.

  The knee-jerk reaction made me momentarily uneasy. “What?”

  “You’re turning out to be quite the warrior, Serena.”

  From anyone else, it’d sound like an insult. Yet somehow from the Alpha, it was the best compliment I could receive, though of course, it wasn’t accurate. Warriors can hold their own in a fight. They’re quick, efficient, decisive. And I couldn’t even ask Jace what his current relationship status was.

  It soon drifted from my mind anyway as we headed out.

  With enough painkillers on board, I couldn’t even feel my arm. I still winced slightly as I put on a jacket. Jace watched me the whole time. “I would arm you, but that would be considered inappropriate.”

  His gaze traced up to my choker. I’d already told him it was all but ineffective at Patrick’s.

  I tapped the diamond with my thumb now. “Well, technically, I’ve got this, right?”

  “As soon as we get a chance, I’ll get my men to look at it.”

  “Don’t bother. I think it’s broken.”

  “Impossible. The gem is intact.” He drew close, but only a centimeter, and sucked in a deep breath.

  He was technically smelling the choker. My hormone-filled brain told me otherwise. It promised Jace was pressing his nose close to revel in my scent.

  I quickly snapped myself out of that thought and subdued a shiver.

  “It’s still got magic in it. There must be something wrong with its ability to register threats.”

  I frowned. “How does that work, anyway? Shouldn’t it just stop anything that hurdles toward me too fast?”

  “It’s technically more intelligent than that. There’s a special spell embedded in the gold and diamond. It’s connected to you. It will react when you register a threat. It’s there to stop it from, say, blocking up the wind or all air. If it simply was based on movement, you wouldn’t even be able to drive in a car.”

  Blinking, I realized he had a point.

  But it made me think of another. Reaching around, I voluntarily touched my back in public. Something I almost never did. Jace’s eyes were on me, flaring with interest. “Is your seal bothering you?”

  “Keep your voice down.”

  We’d walked past the common room.

  Other wolves were there – they always were. And the fire roared. I wondered if it was a feature even in summer. A talking point, something to gather around, a primal meeting place for the shifters who’d likely rather be out in the forest.

  “Is it bothering you?” he repeated in a low whisper.

  I shook my head. My brow compressed. “Sometimes it takes a while to initiate, that’s all. I mean the other way around.” I wasn’t talking straight. “When I need it to release my powers, it slows them down.”

  “You’re unused to it. This spell is far more powerful than your sister’s. It’ll probably take you time to attune to it.”

  Smart, sound, likely true words. But they rang hollowly.

  The whole point of these seals was to maintain a fine balance. I didn’t want to strip magic from anyone I touched. But it was critically important for me to use my magic on anyone attacking me.

  We didn’t speak about it again. Instead we got into another car and drove another tiny distance, this time to a different tower. I was thankful we didn’t head to the same one from yesterday. Images of the roof filled my freaking nightmares. I imagined cleanup crews were still dealing with the function room anyway.

  From this angle, I couldn’t see much. Though I did note there were a lot of trucks around that tower.

  Jace pulled up at our destination and again waited for a shifter valet to come take his car.

  I jumped out without anyone needing to open my door. Then I frowned at Jace, angling closer. “Is that guy going to drive the car straight back to the compound?”

  Jace looked sprung.

  An amused smile crumpled my lips. “He really is, isn’t he? Why don’t you… I don’t know, take a scooter or a bike?”

  Facing me, he crossed his arms and stepped backward up onto the curb. “And how do you think it would go down if the city’s Alpha took a scooter to his powerful high-stakes meetings?”

  “I think it would appeal to the younger generation.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “I am the younger generation.”

  I suppose when compared to Patrick, he was.

  I’d never really thought about that. How old was Jace, anyway?

  Yet more mysteries to pile on top of the rest. I would soon add another mountain’s worth, because we walked into the tower, and straight into Witch Land.

  I’d never known they’d controlled one of the towers themselves. Though technically I’m certain any magical creature could come into this building, every office and business was run by witches. While the valets were any old race, as I walked in, I saw witches staffing the reception and walking around toward the elevators.

  Jace caught me frowning at them. “I expect you to be at least polite.”

  I turned, biting my lip at him. “And when am I not polite?”

  “You are surprisingly forthright.”

  Was that an insult or a compliment?

  I took it as an insult. “I’ve had my life yanked out from underneath me. Do you want me to roll over and show my belly?”

  “It would lead to better bonding between us.”

  … Had he just bantered with me?

  He hid a slight smile as he walked toward two witches who soon exited the lifts on the far side of the room.

  One of them must be Celestine. She wore the prettiest blue silk dress ever. It was way too much for the middle of the day. It looked like she’d walked off the set of some Chinese opera. It flowed like heavenly clouds around her. She wore these big, bright peacock earrings, a stunning sapphire necklace, and a wide, almost wise smile.

  It was certainly kind, but with an edge.

  Another witch scurried along behind her, likely her aide.

  Celestine stopped and pushed her hand out toward Jace.

  I blinked, especially when Jace grabbed it then pressed his lips to it.

  I’d never noticed it before, but the dynamics between the women and men in the upper echelons of the magical world were… pretty old and silly, frankly. It was like they were pretending to be from Edwardian England.

  “You charm me with your presence,” Celestine said.

  Sure. Charmed. That’s why her eyes narrowed and immediately ticked down Jace’s side.

 

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