Page 19

KELLAN

T here wasn’t time to enjoy the dash across the desert in the awesome ATV. Not with an asshole in a helicopter dogging our steps the entire way. I took the longest possible route back into Marfa in the hopes of losing him, and by the time we switched to the Mercedes, there was no sign of Fletcher.

Hunter took over driving, and Emme fell asleep in my lap in the back seat.

“We might need to look into acquiring one of these when we’re back home,” I said, running my hands over the supple leather. “It’s like a supercar but understated. Blending in when needed but also giving us the speed to get the fuck out of here.”

Finley shifted in the passenger seat and got distracted by our mate, his gaze resting on her beautiful face. His expression was tinged with longing, and I wondered what had happened between my Shortcake and Fin before we’d showed up. The tension had been hard to miss.

“Understated isn’t usually your style,” he finally said, managing to tear his eyes from her to meet mine.

With a shrug, I brushed my hands through her soft hair, my wolf settled now we had her in our arms. “I’m evolving,” I decided, feeling that truth settle in my bones.

I brushed my hand down Emme’s cheek but she didn’t stir, and I hoped like hell that the dark bruises marring the delicate skin beneath her eyes were lessened by the time she woke.

As my hand skimmed her shoulder, I fought the urge to reveal the new bite.

Another glimpse might send me over the edge of my sanity, but at the same time I was drawn to see it again.

“I don’t care if there’s a sixth in our pack,” I said.

It changed nothing for me. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love if we could just kill him and fix the issue.

But with the risk to Emme, I say we just accept that we’re now a sextet and move on with life. ”

As furious as I was that she’d been forced into a bonding, it didn’t lessen our connection or my love for Emmeline Anders one tiny bit. She was everything . A fact that had only been reiterated in the days I’d been without her.

Hunter grunted in what sounded like an agreement as Finley asked, “Do we have record of anyone bonding into a pack of more than five? What happens to the perfect magic of a quintet?”

Hunter strangled the wheel and huffed. “There’re no rules stopping packs from having more than five, but it has been shown to dilute the power of the pack. Hence why a quintet became the norm. I don’t personally know packs with more, so I can’t say what changed for them.”

Emme stirred under my touch, her breathing rapid, and when she whimpered I stroked my fingers down her cheek until she settled once more.

“I wouldn’t care if we lost all of our power and turned into humans,” I murmured, unable to stop from leaning down and pressing my lips against her skin.

“Emme is all I want. Power is nothing without her, and we’re already rich enough to live like fucking kings in the human world. ”

Hunter nodded, as I knew he would. “Emme is the priority here. A loss of power would only be an issue if it stopped us from protecting her. Once we eliminate the threats against us, I don’t care if we’re human either.

But first we need to deal with the pressing issue of Fletcher and his fucking pet dragon.

I can’t even think about the fact that he sank his teeth into her against her will, while magic controlled her body, because I’m two seconds from flipping out and tearing the world apart. ”

Finley’s bear rumbled loudly before he got it together. “You should have seen the way he claimed her in that room. His possessiveness rivaled all three of you fuckers, and she was desperate to get away from him.”

My vision blacked out briefly, and it was only when Emme tensed under my touch that I forced myself to calm. Part of me wished I was the one carting Slade’s evil-twin across the skies so I could drop his ass into a huge hole and bury him there. It was the least he deserved.

“What are we going to do about Chelsea and Sorenson?” I rumbled, changing the subject to another one that was equally as awful.

Heat rose in the car as Hunter snarled. “I want to speak with Sorenson, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s responsible for what his pack does. Chelsea’s actions have forever hurt and scarred Emme, and for that, they all need to die.”

I hadn’t been concerned that Hunter’s loyalty to one of his oldest friends would win out over Emme, and I was right there with him, ready to make them all pay for their part in this.

Finley dropped his head back, exhaustion pulling at his lips. “We needed to kill them anyway, just as a warning to every other pack. Touching our mate means instant death. No excuses. No trial.”

“Agreed,” I said, feeling positively chipper about that whole arrangement.

Emme didn’t stir again until we reached the airfield, and I was relieved to find no sign of Fletcher in the vicinity.

He hadn’t tracked us this far, and our plane, which was ready and fueled, as ordered by Hunter earlier, was the only one on the runway.

Whatever Hunter had done to hide our path here had worked, and once we got back home, we’d have a chance to regroup and plan for our next move.

Golden Claw was our territory, and as Fletcher Davenport no longer sat on the council, and was out of the city most of the time, he held very little power there.

I’d only met him a few times, and his presence always left my wolf uneasy and on edge.

Even back then I’d seen the darkness lurking below his surface, and I took Hunter’s warnings to stay away from him seriously.

Slade hadn’t arrived by the time I carried a drowsy Emme inside and secured her in the bedroom, while Hunter and Finley did a visual check over the plane.

“He’s almost here,” Hunter called as I leaned out through the open door for an update on their progress. “I can feel him approaching.”

My brothers and I were bonded through an official Golden Claw ceremony, which tied the essence of our beasts together. It wasn’t as strong as the bite exchanged with Emme, but once she bonded all of us, we’d be in a stronger and completed quin—sextet. Whatever . We’d be complete.

Hunter and Slade held a more powerful connection already, thanks to a blood bond from their youth.

“Okay good,” I grumbled. “I’m so fucking ready to get out of here. We need to take our girl home and support her through the fallout from what happened here. Then we have some assholes to hunt down.”

Hunter’s expression tightened, and it wasn’t often he looked tired, but today his aura was dark. As our entitled alpha, he took on everything as his responsibility and blamed himself for any missteps. “She felt relatively stable when we found her, but you think there’s a fallout coming?”

Yeah, I did. “I don’t believe the full ramifications of what happened has hit her yet. She’s been in fight and survival mode, but when she’s home and safe, she’ll have to deal with what was stolen from her.” And what she gained, in the form of another mate, who might be a psychopath.

Hunter and Finley were silent, until the bear muttered, “She told me she was done. She told me that she wouldn’t be my punching bag any longer, and I felt this… crack between us. Like, I finally broke a connection that I might not be able to repair.”

Panic and pain hit me first, and I almost took a swing at him, so angry that he’d finally pushed her too far.

“I warned you about that, dickhead. Now, you’d better fucking fix it,” I snarled.

“I don’t care what it takes. If you don’t want to be the one we kill so she gets her perfect quintet, fix what you broke.

” I loved Finley. He was my brother through and through.

But I had a line, and I drew it at Emme.

“I will,” he assured me, and there was nothing but determination and grit in his drawn features.

“I fucked up badly by falling into my anger and pain… no, not falling, relishing. I crawled in and didn’t come out, but I’m ready to move forward.

I’m ready to change. I will show her that I am worthy. No matter what it takes.”

It was a breakthrough we’d all been waiting for. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

Only time would tell.

“We will support you through this,” Hunter assured him, his hand landing on Finley’s shoulder. “Whatever it takes for both of you to move forward in life.”

Finley looked like he wanted to cry, and I felt like an asshole for being so furious with him.

Our broken brother did need support, and I’d dreamed of him being a proper member of our quintet for far too long to give up now.

“Fuck,” I said, wiping a hand over my face.

“I’m here for you as well, Fin. You know that. Whatever it takes.”

The whoosh of wings broke the tension, and we let that conversation go for now. Finley and I would need to debrief again soon, but we had bigger issues to deal with today.

When Slade was close, he dropped the unconscious shifter from a decent height, before coming into land beside him. He shifted back fast as he said, “I had to stop a few times along the way and knock him out again. The last was a decent blow and should hold for an hour or so.”

Hunter’s low bark of laughter was filled with satisfaction as he hauled the huge male over his shoulders. “I’ll get him strapped into his seat. You do your check of the plane.”

Slade nodded as he ran a hand through his hair, and headed around to do his own safety check. He didn’t bother to get dressed first, as our pilots, Carl and Eugene, were shifters and knew our ways.

I stepped aside as Hunter dropped Talon into a chair, and then I helped him chain the fucker down as best we could. If he was anything like Slade, nothing we had here would truly keep him contained, but we could just keep knocking him out whenever he started to stir.

Sounded like a fun fucking game of whack-a-mole.

Once he was strapped down, Hunter stepped back.

“He’s Slade’s fucking twin,” he said, staring.

“How did Fletcher do this? How did he manage to keep him hidden from us for all these years? The fact that he has other children out there doesn’t surprise me, but a hidden dragon… that’s harder to believe.”

I grunted, wondering if there were other mythical creatures hidden in our world too.

Just wandering around, in giant-ass bodies.

“Ever since Emme came into our lives, all I’ve had are questions.

Hopefully we can finally get some answers, and that they’ll help us deal with the threats always lingering in the background. ”

Hunter nodded, his expression harder. More resolute.

“Yeah, that’s the gameplan moving forward.

We get our answers and take out our enemies.

” He shot Talon one last, disgusted glare, and then headed farther into the plane.

“I need to check on Emme. My wolf is raging, and we don’t like her out of sight. ”

He strode off before I could assure him that I felt the exact same way. After days without Emme, I was filled with restless energy, and no matter what it took, we couldn’t let her ever be taken from us again.

While I kept an eye on the dragon, Finley wandered into the main cabin, dressed in just a pair of sports shorts. “We’re almost ready for takeoff,” he said when he reached my side. “Slade’s done with his final checks?—”

Slade stomped into the cabin cutting him off, and we watched as the now dressed shifter secured the main door behind him. He radiated annoyance and anger as he tapped on the cockpit door to let the pilots know we were good to go.

When he reached us, he eyed the chains and ropes strapping down Talon, and his expression didn’t shift. “Get ready for takeoff,” he said, his voice calm. Too calm.

Our brother wasn’t okay—he was very fucking far from okay.

As if he’d heard that comment, Hunter stepped out of the bedroom, his gaze meeting Slade’s down the aisle. It was a charged stare, a silent communication between the pair.

As the engines grew louder, and the pilots got the plane moving, I headed for the bedroom. Emme opened her eyes as I slid in beside her, wrapping her up in my arms. “Are we safe?” she whispered, and the break in her voice shredded my heart.

“We’re safe, baby,” I whispered, barely restraining myself from squeezing her until I could feel her bones imprinting on mine. I was so fucking gone over her. If I could have crawled under her skin, I would have. “No matter what it takes, we’ll make sure you’re safe.”

Emme pressed her face into my chest, and I took a second to breathe her in, and I found my beast calming under her presence. “Whatever it takes,” I repeated, determined that this would be the last time she suffered at the hands of another. “We will destroy them all and live happily ever after.”

I felt her smiling against me. “I love you, Golden. Wake me when we get home.” She pressed her lips to my shirt in a brief kiss and then promptly fell asleep again, her exhaustion too great to fight.

“I love you too, Shortcake,” I whispered, my throat tight as darker emotions raged below my calm surface.

I managed to keep it together all the way back to Golden Claw, and when the familiar city came into view, Emme was awake to see it, snuggled in my arms.

For the first time, she released a true sigh of relief, and her old spark shone in her eyes. “Home,” she murmured.

“Yep, sweet mate. We’re finally home.”

And here we would stay, until we figured out a way to eliminate Fletcher and his evil from the world. Permanently.