Page 27 of A Twist of Luck (Shifter City Fated Mates #2)

CHAPTER 27

SLADE

E nergy crashed through the house right when we were neck deep in a spell to use our alpha essence to bolster Kellan’s. Volatile, unpredictable energy. “We need to get upstairs,” I bit out, my dragon restless and uneasy at the thought of Emme up there without us to help her.

I’d already been walking a fine line of control in convincing my beast to release our essence, and it was only for Kellan that we’d ever share our precious power. Power that would regenerate within a few days, but when we claimed anything, dragons became unparalleled possessive bastards. Me and my beast.

“What’s happening up there?” Hunter asked as we picked up muffled screams. His gaze cut to the witch. “You have two seconds to finish the spell. Emme needs our help.”

The omega’s heartbeat and breaths were rapid, but she wasn’t in mortal danger. Yet. “She’s hanging on,” I told them. “Hurry and finish the spell because I think Kellan’s… awake.”

Finley almost jerked his head off his shoulders as he turned toward the stairs, his desperate need to see his brother creasing his face. “If he’s awake, this might be our only chance to say…”

His voice broke and he couldn’t finish. Goodbye .

Jewels’ entire focus remained on the spell she was in the middle of weaving, visible light forming in the center of the pentacle board she carried around specifically for spell work. Our energy was held within that magically contained center, unable to be influenced or stolen by another.

“Almost done,” she finally muttered, face wreathed in annoyance. After this was all over, the once easy relationship we’d shared with her would be no more. We’d already used up all good-will that had been banked. Not that I gave a single fuck.

I could count on one hand the shifters I cared about not seeing again.

My pack.

Everyone else was so insignificant to me that I didn’t even bother to stalk them via security cameras or their banking information. Except for the Rogers pack of course. Those fuckers were absolutely under surveillance so I knew exactly what it would take to rid the world of their existence.

“Done!” Jewels declared a second later, drawing closer the ball of energy, now freed from the spell board. “You three are very powerful. I barely skimmed your energy, and this spell is maxed out on what it can hold.”

“Why didn’t we try this earlier?” Hunter oozed his annoyance and dominance without even trying.

Jewels shot him a droll stare. “I’ve been under a lot of pressure from you already to form this counterspell. That’s where my thoughts and energy were. Not to mention this is a long shot. You can’t share power in a quintet, but this might bolster Kellan long enough to kickstart his own alpha strengths. There’s a small hope?—”

I was gone before she finished her sentence, taking the stairs four at a time to make it to the second level and Kellan’s room. In the hall, the scent of blood grew stronger, and it wasn’t that I was panicked, but I did burst into the bedroom like it was an enemy force I had to plow through.

The scent of vomit mingled with blood, and I ignored it all to focus on the pair on the bed. Emme was unconscious, straddling Kellan, her face buried against his neck. With gentle hands, I lifted her off my pack brother, noticing the deep bites both now bore.

Kellan was awake, eyes open wide, jaw still partially shifted. When his beast sank back inside, fading from his features, he said, “Holy fuck.”

I was almost startled by how strong he felt, his energy sufficient now to power the counterspell and destroy the foreign magics.

“What the fuck happened?” Hunter snarled as he entered the room like a force of nature. “What’s wrong with Emme?”

“They bonded,” I said shortly, holding the tiny omega against my chest as I focused on Kellan, cataloguing the changes within him. “It strengthened him somehow, and now he’s about to destroy the spells.”

The blond strands of Kellan’s hair lit up as energy exuded from him in a rapid wave, powerful enough that Hunter took a step back. The magic easily flowed around my dragon resistance, unable to touch me, but I still turned to block Emme in my arms.

“What happened to the Ice Queen?” Finley asked, and I almost detected a note of concern in his voice, which was rapidly hidden by his scowl. “Bonding doesn’t usually render one unconscious, right?”

Ice Queen . He called her that to remind us all she was cold and unfeeling. My nickname for her could technically fall into the same category, but to me it represented the opposite. Snow transformed the world into a wonderland of beauty. Fresh and pure.

Like the white of her wolf, and the purity of her soul.

Far too fucking pure for my darkness.

Still, I couldn’t find the strength to release her from my arms, no matter how destructive my dragon and I would be for her.

“I swear that somehow she shared her wolf with me,” Kellan bit out gutturally, energy still expelling from him.

It almost looked like his hair was lifting as he powered up; our brother was about to go Super Saiyan Ultra Instinct, and the fact that I even knew what the highest level of powering up a Saiyan in Dragon Ball Z was had me needing to kick Hunter’s ass.

Jewels entered the room last, gasping when Kellan came into her line of sight. “Oh praise the moon goddess,” she cried, and with a snap of her fingers she crushed the magical ball of energy she’d been holding. I felt my share of power return to me, sliding right into the endless pit of fire in my center. “We don’t need a power up. He’s almost free.”

It felt like a mountain had been lifted from my shoulders. It took a mountain to crush a dragon, and though I’d never admit it, a part of me had floundered under the weight.

Kellan’s power surge died off in slow increments, and I turned back to face him, adjusting Emme so she sat higher against my chest. Hunter held his arms out for me to hand her over, but again, I couldn’t bring myself to release her from my protective hold. The itch beneath my skin from touching her was so minimal that… fuck, it felt good to have her in my arms.

“I’ve got her,” I said shortly, and his eyebrows shot up as he examined me with one of his annoying and all-knowing stares.

I narrowed my gaze. “Don’t fucking read into it.”

Hunter held both hands up in front of him. “Let me know if it gets to be too much for you.”

A rumbled snarl was my reply, but he took the hint and backed off.

Jewels threw her hands in the air, all but dancing across the room. “I can’t believe it! It feels like a miracle, but he’s going to be just fine. The magic is gone. His energy has never felt stronger. It’s like he absorbed a city worth of power.”

Emme . I glanced down at her pale face, the freckles standing out starkly, her head flopping forward against my shoulder. Somehow she’d given him her energy, leaving herself weaker and fragile.

“It was Emme,” Kellan confirmed, his voice growing stronger with each word. “She bit me, and that was enough to jolt my system as our wolves collided. But when I bit her back…” His desperate and earnest gaze locked on the omega in my arms. “The connection formed between us, and she shared her shifter essence and strength with me. I tried to stop it at first, but she wouldn’t give up, and I finally let her in.” He’d never been able to deny her anything, even if it got her killed.

“How is that possible?” Finley whispered. “It’s not possible, right? We can’t share energy in a pack.”

Jewels stopped dancing and squinted at Finley. “It must have been the magic,” she finally said, her forehead crinkling. “It opened up pathways that would normally be blocked. Let’s not question the miracle.”

Kellan held a hand out toward me, his face crumpling. “Is she going to be okay? Can I hold her?”

He was alive and filled with energy, and it was the best sight in the world. “Only because you almost died, and… I would have missed you,” I told him shortly, depositing her into his hold, while attempting to ignore how empty my arms felt without her in them.

Kellan wrapped his arms around her back, dragging her into his body as he buried his face into his throat. “Please, Shortcake. Please don’t have hurt yourself to save me. I couldn’t live with it.”

He pressed his lips to her skin, and I was reminded of Emme doing the same when Kellan had been fading. These two had found a symbiosis from almost the first moment they’d met. I’d never seen such a pure relationship. The golden boy and our snowy omega.

“She needs to sleep,” Jewels advised, tilting her head and observing the pair on the bed. “I would need to touch her to confirm—” Growls rumbled through the room, and she held her hands up. “—and I already know better than to do that, but it appears she’s going to be just fine. Let her sleep so her energy can regenerate. Kellan, you should rest as well, even though you feel like you’re rocking enough power to light up Golden Claw.”

“Can I share the energy back with her?” he wondered, looking between Emme and the witch. When he stared at the omega, there was such desperate longing in his gaze that it even stirred my cold heart. “Give her my essence…”

“I doubt it now the magic is gone,” Jewels said with a shrug, “but who the hell knows with you five. I wouldn’t suggest trying it though, just in case anything goes wrong. She’ll recover on her own.”

Finley moved over to place his hand on Kellan’s shoulder, gently squeezing it. “I’m glad you’re okay, brother. I’m going to head to the rink and let them all know the brilliant news. I’m assuming you’ll be back at training tomorrow. We have a game the next day.”

Kellan was silent for a few seconds, his gaze on the omega in his arms, a hint of a smile on his lips. “If Emme is okay, then yes, I’ll be back. She’s my priority.”

Finley, for once, didn’t show any annoyance that Emme was Kellan’s first priority. “I understand. Keep me updated.”

When he left the room, Jewels said with a wild flourish of her hand: “I should go as well and complete coven duties I’ve been neglecting. Call me when you’re ready to deal with the other pack. We owe their magical connection a visit.”

“Thank you,” Hunter said, nodding as respectfully as he ever showed another. “We won’t forget your help.”

“I won’t let you forget,” she said with a smirk, before pushing back her wavy hair and heading out of the room.

Kellan, still cradling Emme as close as he could without actually crawling under her skin, said, “You need to tell me exactly what happened from when I was hit with the magic. That’s the last thing I remember before I woke up on fucking fire with my soulmate crying on my chest. I do not want to ever experience that again.”

“The fire?” I asked him, and he shook his head.

“Fuck no. I’d take the fire if it meant I never saw Shortcake as distressed as she was. The fact that I almost wasn’t strong enough to stay here with her will haunt me for the rest of my days. I said my fucking goodbyes, brother. My goodbyes . She told me she would follow me into our next life. We cannot let that happen again.”

His arms shook, but he remained gentle in his hold. Not that she was going to stir, her exhaustion had secured her deep in an unconscious state.

“She’s been a wreck without you,” Hunter informed him, keeping his own emotions locked down under an impassive expression. “We all were. You’ve lingered on the edge of death ever since you were hit, and it was only our presence and skin on skin pack bonding that kept you here this long.”

The relief on Kellan’s face lit up the room. “I can’t believe I missed the naked pack bonding. Fuck . We better repeat that again, minus the almost dying part.” His smile grew and grew as he looked between us. “Tell me the truth, though…”

We waited as he dramatically paused, and I found myself delighted by his stupidly mischievous smile. “You missed the group chat the most, didn’t you?”

Hunter snorted and shook his head, and I felt like light pierced through the darkness of my soul once more, allowing me to pretend for a short while that I wasn’t a literal living nightmare.

Kellan shot us all an indulgent expression. “Don’t worry yourselves, Daddy Alpha and Scary Shifter. Golden Boy is back, and all will be right in the world as soon as I have my phone in hand.”

Hunter reached out and grabbed the device off the dresser, handing it to him. “You might want to check the current message thread. Our little omega was pouring her emotions out in messages. I don’t think she realized she posted them in the group chat rather than privately. They’re well worth a read.”

I’d read them more than once, needing the hit of purity that was Emmeline Anders. Between Emme and Kellan, my dragon scales would be greener the next time I shifted. That was what happened when there was light in your soul.

Even if it was borrowed light that I’d never truly keep.