Page 49

ELLIETTE

“ E lli? I think someone’s knocking.”

Kiera, Parvati, Amy, Jen, and I had stayed up until two o’clock, painting all those damn acorns, then crashed on Lukas’s couches surrounded by empty bottles of wine, lime wedges, and a half bottle of tequila. It took me a second to realize that the knocking wasn’t in my dream.

“El?” Kiera asked again. “You awake?”

“I’m awake.” I rolled face-down into a couch cushion. My mouth was as dry as wool and tasted like shit—or rather, like Doritos and chianti.

The pounding on the door didn’t let up.

I groaned, and peeked at the windows. The sun was up.

“Are you gonna get that?” she asked.

Moving stiffly, I slid my legs off the couch and knelt on the floor, my face still resting on the cushion.

“What’s going on?” Jen slurred groggily.

“Nothing.” I pushed myself up to my feet. “Go back to sleep.”

“Great,” she murmured .

The pounding didn’t stop—neither at the door nor in my head.

“Shhh,” I whispered, even though whoever was out there wouldn’t be able to hear me. Then, a little louder, “I’m coming.”

The pounding stopped.

I stepped on an acorn— Ow! —hopped twice, then limped to the door. I put my eye to the peephole, but all I could see was a man’s massive chest.

Shit. That woke me up.

It wasn’t Daniel’s or Lukas’s chest, not that I was expecting either one of them to show up outside my door. And it wasn’t my brother’s chest either. Which meant, I didn’t know who it was, and that was potentially a very bad thing.

“W- who is it?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“Me,” said a male voice. “Murph.”

“Murph?” I asked, letting out a breath. “Sean Murphy?”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding frustrated, probably because I was still making him talk through the door. “Oisín O’Rourke told me you gave Lukas’s place as your new address.”

I turned back toward the living room. Amy had pushed herself up on one elbow, and Kiera was sitting in her chair. Both of them looked at me questioningly.

“It’s Sean Murphy,” I whispered. “From the team.”

Oh, no . Was he here because of my brother? Was Evan in more trouble? Had something happened to him?

“Open the door, Elliette,” Sean coaxed.

“Is my brother okay?” I pressed my forehead to the door.

“Fine,” he said. “Sweetheart, this is about Lukas. ”

Lukas? I quickly turned the locks and whipped open the door.

“He’s not here,” I said, surprised he didn’t already know this. “He went back to Montana.”

Something in the grim set of Sean’s jaw sent a shiver down my spine.

I felt rather than saw Kiera and Amy getting to their feet behind me. Jen and Parvati also started to stir.

“I know he’s not here,” Sean said. “I came for you.”

“Me?”

“Lukas needs you.”

“For what?” My little finger trembled against my leg.

Sean moved a little closer. “Something didn’t go to plan.”

“What’s going on?” I asked as unease snaked through my gut.

Sean gripped the doorframe and explained. “Before Lukas was made alpha, they did blood tests to confirm his genetic purity.”

I clasped my hands to keep my finger from trembling. “Yeah. And?”

“The tests came back fine,” he said.

“Okay…” I said this slowly to emphasize my confusion.

As in, why did Sean Murphy need to be on my doorstep so early in the morning to tell me something I already knew? And, how was this news supposed to explain why Lukas would suddenly need me?

“So…” I said, making sure we were both on the same page. “Lukas is alpha.”

“Lukas was alpha,” Sean said, correcting my conclusion.

“ Was?” My mind spun, trying to understand his meaning, but only two scenarios made sense, and one was unthinkable. “Sean, please, tell me he’s not dead. ”

“He’s not dead.”

I let out such a huge breath my whole body sagged. Then I moved on to scenario number two. “Did he quit?”

Lukas hadn’t given any indication that abdication was a possibility. If that’s what he did, the ramifications had to be serious. Was that why he needed me? Was he in trouble?

Was he…was he coming home to Minnesota? To me?

Oh my god. Was Sean merely here to give me a heads-up?

Hope glimmered in my chest, just as I realized what a mess we’d made of Lukas’s apartment last night. How much time did I have to clean?

“It’s even more complicated than that,” Sean said.

My glimmer of hope died when I took in Sean’s dire expression.

“I don’t know all the details,” he said, “but Oisín O’Rourke got a call from someone named Hamish in Clan Bakken. O’Rourke informed Coach, who called me, and…”

He took a deep breath. “As I understand it, they ran the blood tests a second time, and…”

Now, I realized what Sean was telling me. “They got a different result.”

Sean gave a curt nod. “Lukas came back as ten percent human through his mother’s bloodline.”

I stood there, stunned. “And that changed things?”

“That changed everything ,” Sean confirmed.

“But…how did no one in Clan Bakken know about his mother’s origins?” And how did Lukas feel about this? His whole self-image had to have been rocked.

Sean shifted his weight, looking a little restless, like he didn’t have time for all my questions. “I don’t know, but someone lied. ”

“Why lie?” Kiera asked from behind me. “Is it really so horrible to have human blood?”

Sean’s gaze slid to her, and something flared in his moss-green irises before his eyes returned to me. “An alpha must be pure berserker.”

“Where is he?” I plucked my ankle boots from the pile of shoes behind the door, trying to remember how much gas was in my tank. “Where’s Lukas?”

“St. Mary’s Hospital,” Sean replied.

I froze, and my boots dropped back to the floor. “A hospital?”

Sean pressed his lips together in a thin tight line, then said, “Gray Bakken was livid when he found out. He’d been made to look the fool.”

My heart sank when I realized what he was saying. No one made an alpha look like a fool.

“Lukas is hurt?” I asked, already knowing the answer, because I knew something about a father’s disappointment, though my wounds had only left emotional scars.

“That’s why Coach sent me,” Sean said. “I can tilt you to the hospital. It’s in Helena.”

My back stiffened, and my blood turned to ice. Oh no. Oh, hell no.

I took two steps backward because as much as I wanted to get to Lukas, there was no fucking way I was going to let him drag me through the fourth dimension all the way to Helena, Montana.

I whipped my head around to look at Kiera and Amy. Parvati was awake now, too, and she’d definitely heard. She was biting her lip, and her big brown eyes were even bigger than normal.

“Chickie, you gotta go,” Kiera said. “You’ll regret it if you don’t. ”

I knew she was right, but was she insane? Sure, there were recorded instances of dryads safely tilting humans, but how many unsuccessful tilts had been hidden from the public?

“Kiera’s right,” Amy said. “You need to go.”

I turned back to Sean. His face was bleak, and his jaw was locked tight.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

Sean tipped his head to the side. “Fairly painless. More of a dissolving sensation. It will be over before you know it.”

I closed my eyes and pretended I hadn’t heard any of that. “Not the tilt. I meant Lukas. How bad is he?”

“You mean besides the broken bones?”

“His father broke his bones?” I cried, my eyes popping open.

“According to this Hamish person,” Sean said, “Lukas has gone catatonic. He won’t talk to anyone, but he’ll talk to you. You’re probably the only one he’ll talk to right now.”

“He needs me?” I asked, wanting to hear it confirmed.

“Definitely,” Sean said.

I let out a breath. Lukas had come to my aid more times than I could count. If he needed me now, regardless of how things had gone down between us, I could do the same for him.

I pulled on my boots and grabbed my coat off the hook by the door. Sean helped me into it.

I gave my friends one more glance, and they smiled encouragingly even though I didn’t miss the concern in their eyes.

“Ready?” Sean asked.

I wetted my lips. “Not even a little. ”

“Trust me,” he said, then he took my hand and practically crushed it in his grasp.

I yelped as electricity zinged up my arm. The reflex was to pull away, but Sean’s grip was thankfully too tight. What if he let go, and I was lost to oblivion?

Someone behind me screamed, but the sound was distorted. A strange liquid warmth spread through my bones as the whole world slanted.

My head spun. Lights flashed. My limbs felt stretched to the point of dislocation. Then there was nothing but wind. And then…there was nothing at all.