Page 18

LOCKE

I was different from my brothers. Anger didn’t find me as easily. Maybe it was my submissive nature. Perhaps it was that I wasn’t a fan of fighting. But rage wasn’t a state I lived in often.

Until now.

The fury coursing through me felt like hot waves of lava. Every time I thought I’d gotten it under control, a new wave would crest and smash over me. Someone had tried to infiltrate our home. And I had a sick feeling it was to get at Wren.

Just thinking the words had me reaching over and pulling her onto my lap. I pressed my face to her neck and breathed deeply. That scent of rain, wildflowers, and home swept over me, cooling the worst of the anger.

Her arms came around me. “We’re okay.”

“We need to find out who he is,” Puck growled. “Who he’s associated with.”

I scooted my chair closer to the desk. Wren made a move to get off my lap, but I stilled her, looking up into her face. “Don’t. I need you.”

That hypnotic blue gaze traced the planes of my face before she nodded and curled herself around me. It was as if she’d been made for me. She fit perfectly into my life like a puzzle piece. And I with hers.

I pulled up the facial recognition software I’d designed. It was similar to how others worked, only it pulled from databases I shouldn’t have had access to: DMV, law enforcement, universities, and even places like gyms. Anywhere that linked photos with names.

“How long will it take?” King asked, his voice tight.

Kingston had always been a master of control. It was necessary when you were alpha. But I could feel his hold on it fraying. He needed Wren. But he’d broken that bond.

“No way to know,” I told him. “Could be ten seconds. Could be ten hours.”

Wren held on to me tighter. I knew she wanted answers most of all.

“We need to make a defensive plan,” Brix growled. “Whoever he’s associated with could be planning an attack.”

What none of us wanted to give voice to was the fact that the man could have also been planning to abduct Wren—the same way the Death Walkers had.

“I already have a call into the caster about strengthening the wards,” Kingston began.

Wren straightened on my lap. “I can do that.”

He instantly shook his head. “You’re still recovering. You should save your strength.”

Sparks of silver flashed in Wren’s eyes. “Is it that? Or is it that you don’t trust me?”

Kingston blanched, and the room went silent. “I would trust you with my life.”

It was a simple statement, but we’d all heard his tone. The alpha bond bled into his words, turning them into a vow. Unbreakable.

The tension running through Wren’s body eased a fraction. “Okay. I need to go out to where the wards have been placed so I can feel what’s been put into them. Then I’ll know how to strengthen them.”

“Not happening,” Ender clipped.

Wren glared daggers at him. “I like telling you you’re not going to be an asshole, but that hasn’t worked either.”

Puck choked on a laugh and tried to cover it with a cough.

Ender sent him a dirty look. “It’s not safe. Others could be out there.”

“Then you guys can come with me. But I’m doing this.” The defiance in Wren’s tone said it was no use arguing with her.

Ender muttered something about headstrong she-wolves under his breath.

Brix moved closer to me and Wren, his hand reaching to caress her face. His thumb traced the length of her scar, up and down, over and over, as if he could erase it. The room went quiet again. None of us were used to Brix touching someone so easily.

“We worry about you,” he said, his voice low. “Just want you safe.”

Wren leaned into his touch. “I know,” she whispered. “But I need to help, too.”

Brix nodded slowly. “Okay. Together.”

She let out a long breath. “No one’s saying what we’re all thinking.” She paused for a moment, seeming to gather her strength. “This could be my father. It could be Bastian.”

Energy crackled through the air like a living, breathing thing. Speaking Bastian’s name out loud felt like summoning a demon from hell. Who was I kidding? I’d take the demon over the evil alpha.

“We don’t know anything yet,” King said, tension bleeding back into his voice. “Could be someone the Death Walkers paid. Could be someone under the dark mages’ control.”

There was shadowy magic out there that could put humans under the supernaturals’ control. It was the blackest of magic and came with a high price. But it was possible.

“Or, it could be Bastian,” Wren said, lifting her chin.

“It could be,” King admitted.

“My sources are loyal,” Ender ground out. “They wouldn’t have leaked your location, even if they were in communication with Bastian.”

Wren’s gaze cut to him and held. “You have no way of knowing that.”

His eyes narrowed on her. “I have years’ worth of experience with them.”

“You never know what can sway a person,” she argued.

Ender opened his mouth to speak, but King held up a hand to stop him. “We don’t know who it is, so we have to build a plan for every scenario.”

Wren’s fingers twisted in my tee. “He won’t stop. Not until he has me. Not until he can make an example of me.”

That foreign energy crackled through the air again.

“Make. An. Example. Of. You?” Puck gritted out.

Wren wouldn’t meet any of our eyes. “He can’t let someone escape him. Especially not his submissive daughter.” She spat the word submissive like a curse or a bullet. “He’ll want me back so he can torture me publicly. He’ll want to either kill me or make me wish I was dead.”

My arms tightened around her as if my hold could protect her from everything she’d already endured. I’d gotten pieces as Wren and I grew closer, but never the whole picture. I was getting it now.

“He’s the one who gave you the scars,” Kingston said, his voice going cold.

Wren lifted her gaze to him, so much strength in making eye contact through her shame. “Yes. Him and his enforcers. It was a game for them: Who could leave the worst scars without killing me.”

A series of growls swept through the air, but I was the one who spoke. Because there was something I needed to know and understand to find a way to defeat the monster who called himself Wren’s father.

“Why?” I croaked, that sick feeling swirling in my gut again.

Wren let out a shuddering breath. “Because I’m submissive. Bastian couldn’t stand having a weak daughter. Said he’d beat the weakness out of me.”

She pushed to her feet, breaking my hold. “But I’m not weak. Not anymore.”

And with that, she stalked out of the room, leaving the rest of us with the brutal truth of her nightmares.