Masuk“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,”The vampires’ circling him suddenly made sense. They hadn’t been attacking randomly or trying to overwhelm him with numbers, they’d been herding him toward this exact spot where they laid the silver trap and now his feet were planted right in the middle of it.“Did you really think we’d fight fair?” Herzes said, and his laugh was this awful wheezing sound. “You’re a Lycan, the strongest thing walking on two legs. We’re not stupid enough to face you at full strength.”“Cowards,” Luca spat, trying to move away from the silver but his legs felt heavy now, sluggish, like someone had filled his veins with concrete.The silver was already spreading through his bloodstream and he could feel it happening, this burning weakness that started in his feet and crawled up his legs toward his chest, and every second it got worse.They closed in fast, taking advantage of his weakened state, and Luca tried to fight back but his movements were slower now, his reactions
The vampires moved and everything went to hell.They launched themselves at Luca and Cain like someone had fired a starting gun, and suddenly the warehouse was all sounds that would probably give someone nightmares for weeks.Cain shifted almost immediately his bones snapping and reforming in seconds that felt like minutes, and then this massive black wolf the size of a small truck was sprinting toward where Naomi and the others were tied up and honestly it was probably the first smart thing he’d done all night.Luca didn’t shift gradually, he just erupted into his beast form and suddenly he was eight feet of pure muscle with eyes that glowed so brightThe first vampire came at him fast but Luca was faster, catching him by the throat mid-air and slamming him into the ground so hard the entire building shook and somewhere in the back Riley said “Jesus Christ” in this breathless terrified voice.The vampire screamed but Luca’s claws were already punching through his chest, ripping upwar
Lily got out of the SUV and started walking toward the warehouse entrance. The door hung partially open and she pushed it the rest of the way, stepping into the darkness.“Hello?” Her voice echoed strangely in the cavernous space.The lights flickered on one by one, it was those kind of harsh fluorescents that cast everything in sickly yellow. Jonathan stood in the center of the warehouse and behind him three chairs held Naomi, Riley, and Ethan, all bound and looking various degrees of wrecked.Naomi’s face was a mess of bruises, her lip split and still bleeding, and her eyes were so red and swollen it was obvious she’d been crying for hours. When she saw Lily approaching, horror replaced the fear in her expression.“Are you insane?” Naomi’s voice came out hoarse and raw. “Lily, what the hell are you doing here? You need to turn around and run right now, just leave, please just leave—”She twisted to look at the shadows where Cain was. “Why did you bring her here? You were supposed to
I found her sitting at one of the reading tables with Luca, both of them looking serious enough that my stomach immediately dropped to somewhere around my feet.“Hey,” I try to sound casual. “What are you doing here?”Luca looked up at me and his jaw was clenched in that specific way it got when he was trying very hard not to lose his temper. “Where were you just now?”“I went to get some water,” I said, which was technically true since I’d passed a water fountain on my way back from talking to Cain. “Why?”“You’re lying to me. Try again,” Luca said, and his eyes had shifted to that alpha gold that meant he wasn’t buying my excuse at all.I opened my mouth to come up with something better but he cut me off. “I just saw you with Cain in the east hallway, so I’ll ask one more time. Where were you?”“Okay fine, I was talking to Cain. He wanted to apologize for what happened last time.”“And?” Luca prompted.“And he told me about his plan to rescue Naomi and the others,” I admitted, beca
I left Jessica in the library with the book and headed toward Luca’s office, I told her to wait in a bit while I went to talk to Luca. She didn’t look thrilled about being separated but she agreed. Right now I am trying to figure out how to explain to him that my roommate is actually a witch and also my friends had been kidnapped. He is already stressed as it is. Just a normal Tuesday conversation.The hallways were mostly empty which was a relief because I didn’t have the energy to deal with more hostile stares and I was mentally rehearsing what I was going to say when I turned a corner and almost walked straight into Cain.I stopped so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet, and every muscle in my body immediately went tense. The last time I’d been alone with Cain he’d cut himself to see if I’d react to his blood like a vampire, and when I didn’t he’d drugged me and left me unconscious in his car. Not exactly someone I wanted to run into in an empty hallway.“What are you doing here
Luca sat behind the desk that still didn’t feel like his and tried to focus on the document in front of him even though the words kept blurring together. He’d managed maybe four hours of sleep total for the past few days and his body was making it very clear that it didn’t appreciate being pushed this hard.The passing ceremony was scheduled for tomorrow and had to happen on schedule or the pack would see it as disrespectful to his father’s memory, which would just add fuel to the political fires already burning.His mother was still locked in the holding cells and half the pack thought he was being too harsh on her while the other half thought he should have exiled her entirely. Maya’s father kept making pointed comments about his missing daughter and how concerning it was that the new alpha couldn’t keep track of people, though Luca was fairly certain Samuel knew exactly where Maya was hiding.He had eighteen hours to finalize ceremony arrangements, deal with political challenges an







