“You smell wrong. Dangerous,” he growled.

I couldn’t help the feral smirk that stretched across my face. What he saw didn’t match what he smelled, and it was fucking with him. His inner wolf was fighting with his human mind, the two unable to come to an understanding. Before them was just a helpless witch, but in reality, I was something they couldn’t even comprehend.

I longed to show them, but tamped it down.

We couldn’t always indulge our sins, after all.

Where the fuck were my Sins?

“I’ll ask one more time,” Kabe said, stalking forward slowly. “Where is our Alpha?”

I laughed. “And I’ll ask one more time; is your pack responsible for kidnapping the kids?”

He growled.

“Maybe.”

I dropped all my pretenses.

“Xavier is gone,” I said. “Where he belongs.”

The wolves pressed in closer, vibrating with the need to attack me and avenge their Alpha.

Oh Gods, please try it.

“Careful,” the minor god warned, startling all of us as he popped in between our standstill, a cracked mirror in his hands.

“You’re not the only predators here,” he cautioned the wolves, smiling widely.

Kabe sneered. “Stay out of this, old man.”

Lightning flickered behind the god’s eyes. “Careful. I was pulling thrones from giants before your bloodline learned how to crawl.”

That bought me a breath as Kabe’s eyes widened. Clearly he was ignoring the scent of power emanating off the god, because it smelled similar to me, and clearly I wasn’t a threat, so why would this old man be?

What a fucking moron.

One of the wolves came up behind Kabe and bravely nudged his side, shifting back to his human form and whispering something into his ear.

Kabe’s eyes bulged out of his head.

“Apophis?” he said, voice rising an octave.

“Bless you,” I said without thinking.

The god laughed but Kabe snarled, shifting back into his wolf form and lunging.

“Bad dog!” Apophis grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted the fully grown werewolf like it was nothing more than a large, errant puppy. He threw Kabe to the ground, where he stayed down, quivering.

He pointed at the werewolf who had whispered his name in Kabe’s ear.

“You. You seem like less of a dunderhead.” He waved his arms dismissively at the rest of the pack. “Go on. Educate them.”

Lust groaned at my feet.

The werewolf (I didn’t know him) rubbed his face, clearly uncomfortable. “Uh...Apophis. God of...uh, darkness and disorder, chaos and misconduct.”

Well. That didn’t sound promising. And I didn’t like the shit-eating grin on his face either.