2

I had to make sure we all came out of this shit with our lives.

“Has anyone spoken to Silas? Heard from him since the border? He must’ve had a reason for this,” I said. I was not comforted by the silent treatment he was giving us. It was like he was waiting, preparing for something we had no hope of surviving.

Or he was using the wait as a mind game. He did enjoy those. Just as Adrenna enjoyed fucking with us.

“No. He’s silent. He’s refusing the witches’ call too, according to Tabby,” Kai spat.

The vamps were fucking with his head more than the others because of the past.

“When will Tabby be here?”

“She didn’t say.” Brax scowled, and I had to admit, that hit a nerve with me too.

I looked down at Enzi feeding, touching her soft face, reaching my shadows inside her lightly to see how she and her brother were feeling today.

He was warm, not hungry, which I’m sure Adrenna must’ve been using magic for.

Or Enzi was keeping him fed through her. He was feeling the connection more today though, his need for me and the alphas growing.

His wolf was restless, needing the pack, and I hated that I could do nothing but soothe him through Enzi. It wasn’t enough; I wanted to hold him, to comfort him, to feel him at my breast, in my arms. Tears stung in my eyes as frustration consumed me.

I pulled back before it tainted him and gritted my teeth. Brax was with me then, kissing me, wiping a stray tear away.

“I feel him too. We’ll find him, and she’s not hurting him. They need him alive, and we have to be grateful for that right now,” he reassured, but it wasn’t enough.

Enzi unlatched, and I did myself back up. I put her on my shoulder to tap the wind out of her before going to the table with the map.

Our camp was next to the cliff edges I had seen in my vision. It was on the edge of the water area and the border of the vamp area.

I had searched all over the cliffs, going so far in every direction to try to catch a scent, but the snow still covered the ground. It covered Adrenna’s footsteps, and I was pretty sure she was using magic to lead us in circles.

I tried to contradict her with my own magic, but I was still lending mine to the wolves as much as possible to keep them tame with the humans. I think she knew I didn’t have as much to spare and was banking on it—a fact that made every day even more frustrating.

It was always dark, always cold; winter made the hunt harder, but we were all just as determined. So we stayed, every day following another dead-end Adrenna trail, searching, hoping to catch her before she got to Silas.

I was over it. I needed to get my hands on her, to feel like we weren’t wasting every damn minute. But that’s all it felt like at the moment.

“And the wolves patrolling the camp, no signs of vamps?” I checked, despite having already checked and knowing that anything that went wrong would come up in the link for everyone. The alphas stayed silent; they knew I didn’t need an answer.

The thing I needed was my son back, and that seemed to be constantly out of reach

—unless I went straight to the source: Silas.

“No,” Kai bit out, but I growled at his authoritative tone with me. If I wanted to go and kill that asshole while I still could, then I fucking would.

“He’s saying no because Silas is too strong for you, Spitfire. Especially with Adrenna. We have to take this one step at a time, or they will win,” Brax said. His shadows moved inside me to soothe mine, taming them out of the anger and darkness they were being lured to.

It was dangerous to be feeling so much anger all the time, feeding my shadows that, instead of the other safer emotions. It was showing, and I was trying, but I had never felt pain like the one that was settled so firmly in my chest.  

Like a hole, constantly bleeding into me with nothing to stop it except Zale in my arms. Then I could fix whatever I broke trying to find him. Until then, I would stop at nothing.

“Then what can I do before Tabby gets here? Because if I have to sit around and wait, then I’ll go crazy.”

“Take a breath. Once that beast is out, it will go straight for Adrenna. We need to be ready to track it to her. Her magic doesn’t work on it; the witches made sure of that.

But Tabby said it would not be easy getting it out. Magic comes with a price, and you have to be ready to pay it; we all do,” Derik explained.

I nodded, determined to do what I had to. “I will. Did she say what we would have to do?”

“Not yet. She said she’ll discuss it when she gets here.”

“Did she say why?” I huffed.

I was trying to be grateful that she had gone to the witches in the first place and gotten the information we needed, but I was wearing thin on patience and gratitude. It had already been four days, which was four days too long.

“Unfortunately not,” Derik sighed, and I clenched my jaw to keep from lashing out.

“She’s here, the witch is here,” Tatum announced, peering into the tent. I sucked in a breath, tension filling the tent as we waited for her to be shown to us.

Tabitha hobbled in seconds later with a smile and her cane tucked in her hand. She wore a purple knitted shawl over her coats, with her cowl over her graying hair. I smiled at her and walked forward to hug her.

She returned the gesture, not too tightly since Enzi was between us. Tabby’s eyes went straight there.

“Oh, this one is going to be trouble. Our little secret winter born, hmm?” she teased.

Enzi stared up at Tabby, her eyes full of wonder.

“She’s our only connection to Zale at the moment. Adrenna has me locked out of his mind, but through the shadows, I can still feel him,” I said.

Tabby nodded. “As expected. It is surprising she has not taken him straight to Silas, though. That, I assume, is making Silas quite irritated and probably the only reason he has not sent his vampires to the city. He is waiting for the child.”

It made sense, but I had to be honest; I didn’t care why. I just needed Zale back.

Kai came forward and kissed Tabby on the cheek, then led her over to the seat in the corner of the room. She brushed him off and leaned on her cane instead.

“I’m quite alright, sweetness.” She beamed at him, and he nodded, standing close. I stopped at the war table. Brax stood beside me, shadowing Enzi as if he was still not sold on working with Tabby, while Derik headed the table. “We have searched everywhere, but Adrenna slips past every time,” he said, shaking his head.

“And she will continue to do so while the magic is inside her. She is avoiding you and the vampires, it seems. Dancing along that border is her way of eluding you both, but I do worry she has not decided which side she wants to fall on. Silas has no use for her once he has the child, and I will not sugarcoat things—she has always longed for a child. I’m guessing thoughts of keeping Zale for herself are keeping her from going to Silas.” Tabby sighed, sorrow and regret in her eyes.