Page 8

SLADE

H unt. Kill. Destroy.

I’d lost control of the beast, our mind a blur of rage that had leveled cities to the ground. The humans that were scorched were collateral damage, their media explaining it away as out-of-control forest fires.

If our mate wasn’t back with us soon, a forest fire would be the least of their concern.

Someone had stolen her out from under me.

Nothing would save these shifters from death, and I could be very creative in how I killed my prey.

If she bore even so much as a papercut or had any sort of mental strain from this event, they’d know the sort of pain that would drive a beast crazy in six seconds.

I’d been scouring the state for days, following my senses. I’d found the old shack where she’d originally been, just the faintest hint of chocolate and honey left behind. That had been the first forest fire but not the last.

They’d moved her to another two locations, and I’d lost the trail when it was tainted with witch magic, designed to confuse and send me in a dozen different directions. I’d probably have more luck on the ground, but I couldn’t get my beast to release me.

As I crossed another city, staying high in the clouds, a twinge ran through my bond. Flames spilled from my lips as I felt the buzz from Hunter and our connection. The last I heard they’d been heading for Silver City to try and track the Rogers pack.

Hunt. Kill. Destroy.

An iota of clarity eased through my beast’s cold, deadly intent and we changed directions to follow the call of our pack. If that twinge through the bond was any indication, Hunter had stumbled on to a location that might lead to our mate.

I moved even higher, well above the clouds, and powered my way across the country. Even as exhausted as I was, the stores of my energy felt endless, as if I could have crossed the world for my mate. Eventually my body would demand rest and sustenance, but we’d make it to Silver City first.

With fury and fire fueling me, time passed in weird increments as I mentally mulled over everything that had happened. Before Emme was taken, I’d only been missing a few pieces of the puzzle, but apparently they were important pieces.

I hadn’t seen the betrayal by Chelsea coming. When that message arrived from Finley, Hunter had shaken his head as if he couldn’t believe it, but we’d scented her outside our house and found the fucking books in Emme’s room, tainted in magic. It was undeniable.

We were betrayed by one of our own.

The Thenguard pack had disappeared by the time we’d stormed their house—okay, that was the first forest fire—and then their offices. We had no time to track them now, but they were on the list after we got our mate back. Hopefully, if my instincts were correct, we’d find them all in the same place.

As I closed in on Hunter and Kellan, my beast settled in the connection of pack, which was all that kept us from descending into darkness.

Hunter had been keeping my more murderous side at bay for most of his life.

My bond with him surged again, and with it came a sense of pain and fatigue.

Along with the knowledge that my brothers were under attack.

Hunt. Kill. Destroy.

My dragon slammed to the forefront once more, and I didn’t fight him as his instinct in battle far surpassed mine.

We were a few miles from Hunter and Kellan now, their scents stronger on the air, and I started to glide down.

I could fly higher than commercial airlines, where it was so cold that ice formed on my wings and scales, and if it weren’t for dragon fire I would freeze.

Our energy also helped to hide us from radars and human eyes, blending our scales into our environment.

Dragons could manipulate energy and matter around us, and it was mostly an instinctive skill my beast controlled. He didn’t always share the secrets of our powers, and I had long ago learned to accept that it just was. Especially when it was useful.

Warehouses came into view as I dipped lower, night falling on the horizon, as shadows caressed my bulky form. Roars, shouts and the scent of blood hit me as I landed on the roof, claws digging in and tearing through the metal, until I created a large enough gap to descend into the chaos.

Hunter and Kellan stood in the center of a large warehouse, back-to-back, slashing their way through dozens of shifters. They had the main group fairly under control, but then doors opened near the back of the warehouse and a dozen more alphas appeared—many of them powered by magic.

The fact that they had access to such strong spells was concerning in more ways than one. Ever since the last war, shifters and witches had been at odds, and this was the first time in years we’d had so many attacks that involved magic.

Jewels better be working to sort out that rogue witch and figure out which coven was behind it all.

Diving down, I let the swirls of molten lava rise from my core, spewing through and incinerating the newcomers. None were the Rogers pack, who were the only ones we needed alive.

Ideally Blaine, the entitled alpha, as he’d been at the old shack where Emme was first taken and would have the most information. I hadn’t scented the rest of his pack there, and I wondered if they weren’t ranked much higher than the mid-level muscle we took out tonight.

As my flames raged through the shifters, Hunter threw his head back and bestowed a strained smile on me. “Thought you were hunting in Washington,” he called.

My dragon roared loud enough to rattle windows and burst eardrums, and any of the assholes who’d missed my initial entrance were now very aware that death stalked them.

Hunter shook his head. “Good to see you too, brother. Can you help us round up the Rogers pack and get some fucking answers? Just try not to kill the humans.”

Not a problem, brother. Not that I’d noticed any humans, and I didn’t care about them either way.

He nodded as if he’d heard me, though we’d never been able to truly communicate mentally. Even if it did come close at times.

My prediction was that if we formed a completed quintet, there’d be changes in our bond, including the ability to communicate mentally. Especially in our beast forms. A prediction that could never come to pass if I didn’t find the center and core of our quintet.

Our heart. My Snow.

Spreading my wings as wide as I could in this enclosed space, I focused on each of the shifters, searching for familiar faces and scents. There was no sign—or scent—of Blaine, but I found the next best shifter: Donnie. The second strongest and only other one on the Alpha Council.

Landing heavily, I crushed a few shifters, and my dragon was about to eat one until I reminded him that we didn’t eat trash. He shook off his front paw then, as if it was tainted, and carried on.

As we stomped forward, my tail swung and clipped two other shifters, sending them flying into a wall.

Kellan whooped, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his blond hair, streaking it with blood and dirt.

“Bro, that was fucking awesome. I love being a wolf, but shooting fire and crushing dickheads under your bulk is peak alpha-ing. Fucking peak. You know I’m right. ”

A smoky snort of amusement escaped my beast. Who’d have thought there’d be two shifters in the world who could break through my dragon’s unhinged, unpredictable personality. Hunter kept me sane, but Emme and Kellan kept me humanized.

Finley was just as broken as me, but he was another reminder of why I could never lose control.

There were too many shifters I cared about in the firing line.

When my beast reached Donnie, my claw closed around his gut, squeezing tight enough for a few pig-like squeals to burst from the pathetic fuck. I’d almost killed him last time, and there was a sense of satisfaction in my beast that we’d finally get to finish the job.

“Yeah, you’re fucked now,” Kellan called cheerfully, and I noted how blown out his pupils were as he bounced around. “You might want to keep squealing like a pig, and spill whatever dark secrets Blaine has if you don’t want to suffer horribly. Painfully. Immensely. You’ll?—”

“Tell us where our fucking omega is!” Hunter snapped, his patience having run out completely.

He wasn’t the only one. I squeezed tighter, letting the tips of my claws prick into Donnie’s side.

With a little more pressure, they’d slide through his body like a hot knife through butter.

It took a lot of skill to injure without instantly killing, and I hoped he appreciated the skill my dragon was demonstrating here.

The scent of urine filled the air as Donnie lost control of himself, and my claws almost slipped and tore his head off. This weak-willed, sad excuse for an alpha was on my last nerve.

“Where did they take Emme?” Hunter growled once more as he moved beside my leg, taking care not to brush me, even though the touch aversion was rarely triggered in this form.

When there was still no response, my claws dug a little deeper—I’d hit important parts soon, and alpha healing was near humanly slow against a dragon attack.

“They’re in Texas,” a voice roared from nearby.

My grip eased up and Donnie grunted as I swung my head to find another one of their pack on the ground, nursing injuries from where I’d stomped on him earlier.

“I don’t know where,” he continued, expression pained as he held his gut, “but we were commanded to fly out in a few days to start congregating in larger numbers. For war.”

Hunter tilted his head and met my gaze, one of the few strong enough to peer right into the depths of the dragon’s eyes. A few days . That meant that whatever Blaine had planned was happening soon. What did it have to do with Emme though? How did she play into this plan?

She’d been the target all along, through both kidnappings, and while Emme had told us it was for the same reason they hurt her mother, she never told us what that reason was.

We returned our focus to Donnie and Hunter said, “Slade won’t kill you if you tell us everything.” I’d have laughed at that absolute fucking lie, but a dragon didn’t have the vocal cords for such a sound. “You might be broken, but you have a chance to survive.”

I allowed another delicate slide of my claws, and I was piercing organs now.

Donnie cried out, choking on his next breath. “Marfa, Texas. They’re in an underground bunker.”

He’d broken so easily it was almost sad, but with a useless piece of shit as his entitled alpha, what else could we expect.

“What are they planning on doing with her?” Kellan stepped forward, kicking another shifter in the head on his way through. It took a lot for Golden to lose his shit, but when he did, he was a terror.

Donnie coughed a few times, spatters of blood visible in the phlegm. Definitely hit a vital organ. “Exactly what we did with her fucking mother.”

He gave us the same answer as Emme, and while I had my guesses of what that meant, guesses weren’t truth. A truth we needed to hear from our omega. She’d told Hunter the night they bonded that she was ready to explain everything to us, but then she’d been taken almost straight after.

“What did you do to her mother?” Kellan’s hand was around Donnie’s throat in the next breath, and now the pathetic fuck had claws in his jugular too.

This was the Kellan who’d killed a dozen humans when he’d stumbled into a gang initiation in a nearby town, and found a group of men brutally raping women.

We didn’t usually involve ourselves in human business, but none of us would walk away from that.

He’d made sure none of them walked away from anything ever again.

Donnie’s chuckle was weak, and Kellan flexed his fingers to allow him to speak.

“Of course she wouldn’t have told you. She wouldn’t want you to know the very power in your hands.

Literally. When you bond with an omega, they can power your alpha essence.

You siphon their power, draining them day by day.

Eventually the essence fades, and she’ll be left as nothing more than a husk, while you feel powerful enough to take on the world.

Emmeline’s mother was an experiment while we waited for the daughter to be old enough.

When the bitch tapped out, we planned to make a move on Emmeline, but she disappeared before we could.

” Another strangled cough, and I knew he was going to bleed out soon.

“Tapped out?” Hunter asked, his tone deceptively calm, though his beast was raging.

Donnie’s grin was manic. “She killed herself right in front of her daughter, and we made the pup cut her down.”

Kellan stepped back as though he was disgusted, releasing the shifter and wiping his hand on his pants. “Oh, our pretty mate should never have gone through that,” he murmured, his face falling. “Everything makes so much fucking sense now.”

Of all the scenarios I’d considered, I’d never expected one of them would be an omega powering an alpha until they lost their essence completely. Was that the reason there were so few omegas left in the shifter world? And if so, why the fuck would Chelsea help them?

“Whatever the reason,” Hunter snarled, his face wreathed in dark shadows, “our priority is to get our mate back. We’ll deal with the rest of them later.”

I waited for his command, determined not to pre-emptively kill again and make the situation worse. No matter how desperately I wanted to end this fuck’s life.

“Finish him and torch the place.” Hunter gave me the nod of approval as he turned and marched toward the women bound on chairs. “Kellan and I will get the humans out, and then we’re going after our mate.”

“Wait, you said I’d live,” Donnie bellowed, and Hunter’s dark laughter was the soundtrack to his final breath.

I tightened my hold, severing him right down his middle.

Once Kellan and Hunter finished their task, flames tore from my mouth to destroy everyone else in the warehouse, and then I took to the sky. Following my brothers to their vehicle.

We were finally on track to get our mate back, and this time I’d never let her go again.