My wolf stirred, and my heart ached. She’d saved one of our pack.
I brushed a strand of hair from her face. At my touch, she pinched her eyebrows, and her lips trembled. Protectiveness and anger raged inside of me, and my wolf strained to break free.
I glanced down at her as I wound my way through the trees. She looked so delicate in my arms. So fragile. And so alluring. There was something about her. Maybe it was her blood.
Fuck, what was wrong with me?
She was a goddamned LaSalle…but she was also something else, and I’d have to figure out what that was.
A branch cracked, and Sam stepped out of the trees with Regina and Tony, favoring her right leg. “You all right?” I asked.
She nodded. “Just a torn muscle. I’ll heal soon.”
“And Madison?”
“She’s a little shaken up, but she’s fine.”
“We’ve secured the sanitorium. Captured two of the blood junkies.” Regina glanced at Sam and paused. “There’s something else, Jax.”
A cocktail of scents emanated from her—anger, betrayal, and sadness. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
I steadied my will. “Tell me.”
Sam’s jaw tensed. “It was Billy, Jaxson. He was behind it all. The abductions, grabbing me, Savannah. He’s been working with the sorcerer.”
Her words pierced my heart, and my body shook. Regina surged forward and plucked Savannah from my arms as my vision blurred and my bones began snapping. With difficulty, I reined in my wolf. I needed to think clearly. “It’s not possible.”
“He’s the one who grabbed Savannah and brought her in.”
“Maybe he was trying to make a trade…” I growled. “For you, or for the captives. He didn’t like how—"
“Jaxson. He was the one giving orders,” Sam said coldly.
I read her scent. It was undeniable. Truth.
“But why?” It made no sense. Billy would never work with a sorcerer, even if they weren’t LaSalles.
“I don’t know. But he’s looking for vengeance against the LaSalles, and I think he made a deal.”
The world spun around me. Billy was a brother. A member of the pack. My family.
I scanned my closest confidants. Billy had once been one of them. I’d told him everything, every move…and he’d betrayed us all. For what? What was worth betraying your brother, your alpha? Vengeance?
Rage consumed me, and I turned and drove my fists into a tree. My finger bones cracked, but the pain helped focus my thoughts.
I’d show him vengeance.
“Jaxson.” Savannah’s voice cut through the air.
I spun to face her as she inched toward me. Savannah Caine. The root of it all, the hub at the center of the wheel trampling everything beneath its path. Why did chaos follow her like a long shadow?
The fortune teller’s final warning thundered in my mind: If you help the woman and get your answers, they will tear you apart.
The Caine—LaSalle—woman took another step. I shook, barely able to contain my confusion and rage. Was she my enemy? My ally? Or my doom?
“Savannah, stop,” Sam said.
But Savannah didn’t listen. Instead, she placed a hand on my shoulder. A shock like cold water rushed over me, and I inhaled sharply. My muscles tightened and then gently relaxed as her touch dragged me back from the brink of insanity. Her eyes were the calm within a storm, and in them, I saw strength and kindness.