Page 8 of Contested Crown

Everything was chaos. Threads of yellow magic had pinned down most of the wolves, but as soon as he saw us up, the mage thrust out his hand. I stepped in front of Cade, but it didn’t help. His magic wound us together, spinning around us.

“He’s trying to teleport us!” I glanced over my shoulder.

Frowning, Cade extended out his hands, his black magic slicing through the teleportation spell. The mage screamed, doubling over, clutching his stomach. The magic around us evaporated into nothing.

Grabbing hold of Cade’s hand, I tugged him toward our car. Someone leapt onto it, landing hard, her momentum making the entire front end bounce. The bride glared at me. She had swapped her wedding dress for a pair of jeans and a white corset, bare feet and sharp eyes indicating that she didn’t need to shift to use her alpha strength.

“I thought I told you to leave,” she said.

“Believe me,” I ground out. “We aretrying.”

“Now, seeing as you’re with the mage, I’m thinking you need to pay the toll for passing through my territory.” She leapt down, raising her chin. “Especially when you’re dragging mage houses into my business.”

“We don’t have any money. Let us go, and we’ll be out of your hair.” I kept Cade behind me, my hand at his hip. None of her wolves would attack while she was talking to me, not unless she wanted them to.

“Well, if you don’t have any money, maybe House Morrison does.” Her eyes flicked behind us, and I didn’t need to look to know she was staring at the mage.

I growled, the sound rising in my throat. “You wouldn’t dare sell a wolf out to a mage house.”

“Is that what you are?” Her eyes narrowed, the sneer obvious in her raised lip. “Because it looks to me like you’re a pet. A slave. A ‘consort.’”

“I’m a free wolf, an alpha,” I growled but tamped it down, keeping it inside my chest, echoing in my next words. “Let us go.”

The bride scoffed, shaking her head. She pointed at us with one manicured nail, and I could feel the wolves around us change position, moving into an attack formation. We had no time.

Yellow flew over my shoulder, hitting her in the throat, taking her down. She screamed, scrabbling at the magic, but I didn’t wait to see if the House Morrison mage had been aiming for her or just missed us.

Grabbing hold of Cade’s wrist, I dragged him to the car, pulling the keys out of my pocket. I tossed them to him.

“Start the car!” I sprinted for what was left of our hotel room, snatching the bags in one sweep of my arm. As I raced back to the car, I got a good look at the battlefield.

Most of the wolves were nipping at the House Morrison mage, wearing down his defenses. He wouldn’t last long, not at the rate he was using his power. He had to keep drawing it from other spells in order to keep himself safe, meaning that once enough wolves surrounded him, he was a goner.

It was hard to feel sorry for him, though. Because as soon as anyone in his house found out that he had been hurt or killed by this werewolf pack, the werewolf pack would be hunted to the ends of the earth. They would die, their families would die, and even the pups wouldn’t be spared.

I knew, because that was what had happened to my pack when my parents were accused of killing King Bartlett.

Cade reversed the car, coming up beside me, and I yanked open the back door, throwing our things in and myself right behind. Cade slammed his foot down on the accelerator, jerking the car forward. A couple of wolves, late to the party, jumped out of the way as he sped past.

Screeching around the corner, Cade didn’t even check for traffic before pulling out onto the main street, going twice as fast as the posted speed limit. I crawled over the center console, getting myself in the passenger seat and clicking my seat belt.

What was the point in surviving a mage slash werewolf attack only to get killed by a head-on collision?

When we left town, getting on the 101 and heading south, I reached over and grabbed Cade’s shoulder. “Cade, slow down.”

After a long beat, Cade slowed. “Is anyone following us?”

I shook my head. “No. But that was House Morrison. Not House Bartlett. How did they find us?”

“We must have left something behind at one of our previous stops.” But Cade sounded uncertain, wetting his lips before murmuring, “Maybe a tracking spell?”

“We’ve been careful,” I said.

“A hair in the drain, an eyelash… They wouldn’t need much.” Cade’s brows twisted together. “But that would mean that they’ve been looking for us for a while.”

“And that they’ve been trailing us for a while, if they found one of our previous hideouts.” We passed through another small city, the green exit signs lit in the dusk.

“What do they want?” I asked. “Unless… Do you think they’re working with Leon?”