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ACE

“ I ’m supposed to be meeting someone,” I said.

“Ohhh kay,” the teenage barista said with an unimpressed look. “You still have to buy something if you’re going to loiter in here.”

“I’m not loitering,” I said as I loitered. “Let me make a call.”

The café was empty in the mid-afternoon, and it was ten minutes past the time Blakely had agreed to meet. My dragon’s hackles were up. Something was seriously wrong here. I called Blakely. No answer. I called again. No answer.

Blakely wasn’t going to show up. I was a fucking fool.

I grabbed a five-dollar bill from my wallet and stuffed it in the tip jar as I left. Outside, I called Striker, who picked up on the first ring. “Did she show?”

“No,” I said. “Have you seen her?”

Striker had been scouting from the sky, in his dragon form, and then waiting near the café in his car. “Not a trace. Are you thinking…”

“I’m thinking this was a fucking setup,” I snarled.

A beep in my ear indicated a call waiting, and I pulled the phone away from my ear. Sean’s name appeared on the screen.

“Striker, call the house and make sure everything is okay there.” I ended my call with my enforcer and answered Sean’s. “What do you want?” I hissed.

“Ace.” Sean’s voice dripped with condescension and glee. “Good to hear from you. I believe I’ve got something that belongs to you.”

My phone beeped again, this time with a new text. Sean had sent me a single, grainy picture of a dimly lit room with stained floors and a curtained window. In the center of the room was a rickety chair. And on the chair, arms and legs bound, was my mate.

Harley.

My fangs dropped as my dragon roared with rage inside me. I gripped my phone so tightly I heard the case crack. “Sean,” I growled in a voice that was more dragon than man, “Where is she?”

“We’ll get to that,” Sean said with delight. “Aren’t you wondering why your little ex-girlfriend didn’t show up to your date?”

“You set this up,” I growled. “You used her as bait.”

“For you, yes,” Sean said. “And it worked pretty fucking well, huh? I wasn’t sure if it would, but you are one gullible dragon.

” Sean laughed. “Blakely told me you would be. Said you’d always had a soft spot for her.

She’s obsessed with you, for some reason.

She showed up at my compound asking for my help to get rid of Harley after Forrest ran off like a little bitch.

I was about to blow her off, but she’s full of good ideas, the little tramp. ”

“Let Harley go. Now.” There was so much rage burning inside of me I was quivering. My dragon was right beneath the surface, begging me to shift and find him and tear him to pieces.

“We’re not at my compound anymore,” Sean said. “So don’t get any ideas. She’s hiding away in one of my safe houses. And you know, she’s such a pretty morsel, I wouldn’t want to have to hurt her.”

“If you even touch her, I’ll fucking destroy you,” I snarled. “They won’t even recognize your body when I’m done.”

“You can try.” From the sound of Sean’s voice, his fangs had dropped too. His dragon was always right at the surface, eager to come forward. So close to taking control. To becoming feral. “Meet me tonight. Alone.”

“Gladly.”

“Alone,” Sean reiterated. “If not, I’ll kill her.”

The call disconnected. I called Striker again, and he picked up immediately. “Ace, this is bad.”

“Sean has Harley. He sent me proof.”

“I’m taking Miss Founty to the hospital now,” Striker said.

“ What?”

“Cassidy said Harley went to her Mom’s. Apparently Miss Founty said she was ready for rehab, but it was a trick to get Harley at the house alone.”

“That’s fucking low.” Sean was a scumbag, but using Harley’s mother as bait was a new level. “Is she okay?”

“Banged up,” Striker said. “Some head trauma. She’s passed out now. She’ll be okay but definitely needs to be checked out.”

“Meet me at the clubhouse when you’re done.” I hopped onto my bike and revved the engine. “We’re ending this tonight.”

I rushed back to the clubhouse and summoned my inner circle to meet me there. It took barely half an hour for everyone to arrive. I’d made it clear how serious this was, and the atmosphere was subdued as everyone sat around the couches and at the bar.

“Ace, I’m sorry,” Rome said as he ran inside with Cassidy and Dylan. “You entrusted me with their safety, and I?—”

“She played us both!” Cassidy interjected furiously. “She said she called Hawk, which was obviously a lie?—”

“But I still should’ve been keeping a closer eye?—”

“You were outside with Dylan! She went before you came back inside on purpose!”

“Cassidy,” I said. “Please.”

Cassidy scowled. She scooted to Striker’s side and tucked herself against him. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, like she’d been crying. She was angry because she was scared. Just like the rest of us.

I was scared, too. But as the alpha of this clan, I couldn’t show it.

“Rome,” I said to my young enforcer, “It’s true that I trusted you to escort Harley, and you failed.”

The kid stared down at his feet, and his hands trembled.

“But it’s also true that Harley evaded you on purpose,” I said. “She’s smart. And fast. So, while you won’t be off the hook entirely, I’m not removing you as an enforcer. We’ll return to this once we’ve dealt with Sean.”

“Sir,” Rome said with a firm nod of his head.

He stepped back into the group, still cowed, but looking a little relieved.

I didn’t have enough energy to be pissed at him right now, though he likely wouldn’t have stood a chance against Harley.

If she didn’t want to be followed, she wouldn’t be. Simple as that.

“Now,” I said to the group, “tonight, one way or another, an alpha is going to die.”

Gasps sounded through the room. I briskly caught the enforcers up on what happened: Blakely’s call, the setup, and the demands Sean had made.

“We should’ve gotten rid of that girl ages ago,” Hawk snarled. “We were way too soft on her.”

“What’s done is done,” I said. I agreed with him, though.

I tried to push her out, make her leave of her own accord, but she never did.

Every attempt I made to ice her out only made her more fixated on worming her way back in.

I should’ve done what I did to Forrest. Should’ve forced her to start a new life somewhere else, somewhere far away from all of us.

Hawk was right. I’d been too soft on her. I pitied her, and this was how she repaid me.

“Sean demanded I meet him alone,” I said.

A chorus of complaints and scoffs rang out in response. I held my hand up and the hullabaloo ceased. “Obviously, I won’t be adhering to that, but he needs to believe I am. So, I’m going to take a small crew of enforcers. Hawk, Striker, Tank, and Rome will all be with me.”

Rome looked up with wide eyes.

“Yes, you,” I said to Rome. “Time to make up for your mistakes, yeah?”

“I will,” he said firmly.

“The enforcers will stay far away, out of both sight and scent-range. Hawk has the best ears, so he’ll stay shifted in order to hear my call if I need reinforcement.”

“Got it,” Hawk said.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” I said, “but if this is a trap?—”

“Which it probably is,” Striker interjected.

“—then we need to be ready. Everyone good with that?”

“Good,” the enforcers said in unison.

“Hawk, I need to speak with you.” I pulled my brother away from the crowd and out onto the back porch of the clubhouse.

Hawk braced both hands on the porch railing and looked out over the lake. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Are you ready to hear it?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Honestly? I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.” I stood next to him. The lake was beautiful and still. I wondered if he was thinking about that day on the boat, too. The day Sean had pushed me into the water. I sighed. “You know what tonight means.”

“I know.”

“I want you there with the enforcers, Hawk, but I need to know you’re ready to see this through. You know I have to end this. I have to be the one to kill Sean.”

Hawk twitched as a shudder ran through him.

“Will you be able to let me finish the job?” I asked. “I need to know you won’t try to stop me. I know he’s still our brother.”

“He’s not,” Hawk said, with a sudden steely determination in his voice. “That’s the truth. He’s not. I thought—I thought he was. But he tried to kill you when we were just kids, Ace. It was always a lie.”

I squeezed his shoulder. “He fooled all of us.”

“And that still hurts,” Hawk said. “There’s no other choice. He’s our enemy. He’s threatened this clan too many times. It’s time to put an end to this for good. I just wish…” He trailed off, looking out at the lake.

“Wish what?”

“It’s stupid,” Hawk said. “But I wish there was some way to know if there’s still any good in him. If any of it was real. There had to be part of him that was really our brother, right?”

I thought back to the photo album in my office, and that camping trip where we’d all gone fishing together. It had felt real then. Maybe it was.

“You think you could try?” Hawk asked. “See if there’s a piece of our brother left?”

“You know I can’t,” I said gently.

Hawk dropped his head down and exhaled hard.

“He’s beyond reaching. He’s almost feral. If he ever was our brother, that’s only in our memory, Hawk. It’s gone.”

“Shit.” Hawk’s voice was choked, half-breathless, like he was holding back tears. “I know that. I know. I just…”

“You wish it wasn’t true. I know. I feel the same way.”

“Let’s finish this,” Hawk said. “I won’t interfere, Ace. I’m behind you on this.”

“Thank you.”

We stood there, looking out over the lake. Determination burned within me. Somewhere, out in those woods, my reckless, brave mate was waiting for me. Tonight, I was going to end this, and we could finally start our lives together as a family.

“After this is over,” Hawk said, “Let’s do something. Not a funeral. But just… Something with me, you, Mia, and Harley. And the kids. Have a few drinks. Talk about who Sean used to be.”