“Wait. What?” My stomach flipflopped before slapping the floor. “You can’t. I saw what happened to you last time. Don’t go out of your way to do something like that!”
She shook her head. “I’m done. He’s not going to kill on my territory ever again.”
The darkness gathered around her for an instant. It hung from her shoulders like a cloak. The chill in my core flared, reaching all the way to my fingertips. For a brief moment, I could see pale white forms flickering around her.
I’d walked through a door the day before. It had closed behind me and trapped me in this new existence where I could see Addie’s arcana for myself. I’d never witnessed this before. Had her power always been like this? Or was this what happened when Addie stepped into her arcana on her own?
I closed my eyes. Over and over, my friends reminded me that I wasn’t alone. No matter how dire things seemed, I didn’t have to do anything alone. Though I was afraid for them, I knew that I would do everything in my power to keep them safe.
Maybe, with them, I could do this.
“All right,” I said around a mouthful of sandwich.
Vi grimaced at me. Addie rolled her eyes.
“I call shotgun,” I said, turning toward the exit.
“There’s only two of us!” Vi called out as she caught up to me. “You don’t need to call shotgun if you’re the only other person in the car.”
I wished I had a real shotgun. That would have been handy today. I would have put it into Cerri’s hands the moment we arrived.
Once more, I cast a sidelong glance at Vi. She seemed small, her petite frame looking more cherubic than demonic. It wasn’t until she smirked in my direction, and I caught that hint of hellfire in her eyes again that I could see the demon blood in her.
Bringing her with me felt wrong. Dread crept in and made my fingers tremble. I tightened them into fists to hide the fear slowly overtaking me. This could end poorly. There were so many ways this meeting could go wrong.
Vi reached over and closed her hand around my fist. She didn’t say anything. She just held me.
I wasn’t alone.
The feeling always caught me off guard. I wondered where Ryder was. I’d left him at Cerri’s apartment earlier. Though I would have liked to send him a message, he kept his phone turned off more often than not. He was impossible to reach.
I flexed the hand with the bond mark and wished I could reach through it to call upon him. He didn’t need to always be at my beck and call, though. He wouldn’t always be here for me. He had a mate and a future that wouldn’t include me.
Did a man with a mate kiss other women, though? Would he carry another woman to safety and sleep beside her while she recovered? Confusion made my head spin while I tried to put all these pieces together. Nothing made any sense.
I shook myself. Now wasn’t the time. The roads twisted ahead. Familiar buildings blurred past us. This was my home. My hound called thisherterritory. She would gladly die defending it so that others could live better lives here.
Those were the thoughts of an Alpha. I wished I had the power to back up such thoughts.
Alvin’s house appeared sooner than I would have liked. There weren’t many cars present yet. The pack seemed to be mostly behind us. I twisted to peer back, but there was no one else pulling in behind us. When I scanned the cars present, I noticed Catriona’s sedan.
The one I’d hoped to see was Cerri’s car. I should have been relieved to see that she wasn’t here yet. Instead, I selfishly yearned for her presence. My hound brushed up against me from the inside to reassure me that I would be all right.
My hound had more confidence than I felt in that moment. My determination wavered. I kept glancing back, hoping that Ryder would appear out of nowhere. No matter how I rubbed at the bond mark buried under my skin, he couldn’t feel it.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said.
I didn’t know what I expected, but the backyard was nearly empty. Janessa stood close to Catriona. The younger woman’s lip trembled at the sight of me. I had to turn away from them to keep from falling apart. I’d arrived to accept my punishment. I was sorry that they would have to watch.
There were a few others, people I’d never really gotten to know. They stepped closer to Catriona and Janessa, like they felt the need to protect the two women.
Anger flared in my gut. It didn’t burn hot, but instead held a bit of the chill that now wrapped around my heart. I sucked in a breath and lifted my head high. My hound followed suit. She would help me be the change that needed to happen here.
I would show my pack that I wasn’t the one causing trouble. We were scared because of Alvin. This wasn’t my fault.
Alvin stepped out of the house. There were dark circles under his eyes as he glared at me. Not even the brunt of his burning anger could melt the ice deep within me. Unflinching, I stared him down. His upper lip curled in a snarl.
I braced myself, expecting him to storm across the lawn to grab ahold of me. Alvin didn’t attack, though. He scanned the people milling behind me. There was a flicker of confusion on his face, his lips parting ever so slightly, but he did his best to hide it by clenching his jaw tight once more.