Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
His four betas all point their weapons at us.
“Pull their weapons the way you pulled my knife and it’ll be too late,” Meadows threatens. “I’ve got one more man hidden where he can see all of us and he’ll push the button if any of you move or if this dickhead pulls our weapons from us with magic. Stand there, keep your hands where I can see ‘em, and there will be far less bloodshed. I’m also gonna need you to give me that witch there, Savage.”
“Not a fuckin’ chance,” I snap.
And then Meadows starts belting out a long monologue about how packs should have one alpha, about how we’re not real alphas if we’re willing to share command. How Tyson killed his father and what a great man he was.
Suddenly, Meadows, Sherry, and three of the four Silver Hills guys are three inches off the ground, guns out of their grips and lifting up higher into the sky, floating out of their reach.
“What the fuck?” I hear Jase gasp as Sherry and Wyatt are lifted up higher.
“The fuck?” Wyatt shouts. “Get the guns. Get ‘em!” The betas all look terrified. This guy is delusional thinking they can reach those guns. The guns are now twenty feet away from them.
Jase tries to grab his sister’s ankle. She’s screaming.
“Shoot ‘em, Lucas!” Meadows demands to the one beta left standing.
A closer look at Lucas and I see he’s just a kid. He can’t be any older than sixteen or seventeen.
My eyes pivot around the space and none of the rest of us are moving. The smell of smoke is in the air and then there’s a loud bang. Scents assault my nose while the sound fills my ears. Wyatt, three of his betas, and Sherry are lifting higher, then they’re flying through the air as if they’re leaves on the wind. Wyatt has a firm hold of Sherry and she’s screaming at the top of her lungs. They’re floating toward the village, where the explosion came from.
“What the hell?” Mitch calls out, staring at the group of people being pulled through the sky as if by strings.
“Gimme that,” Jase demands, and the fourth beta immediately hands him the machine gun. “Where’s the hidden guy?”
The kid shakes his head and shrugs.
“Where?” Jase grabs his throat.
“It’s just us. There’s no hidden guy.”
Jase releases him and we all go running, everyone dropping clothes and shifting into wolf form except me and Jase. Me, because I’ve got Jessie in my arms, Jase because he’s got the gun.
The only thought in my head is getting to my mate. She needs to be okay. Needs to be. Anything else is unfathomable.
53
Erica
A Few Minutes Ago
As soon as Riley, Wyatt, Sherry, and the other guys are out of sight, me, Ronnie, and Dani rush to Vivi’s Land Rover and Ronnie drives toward Roxy’s bar. Fast.
“Swing left,” I tell her, remembering how to get there because Amie and Ivy argued over whose house was closer for me to shower in that first morning I was here.
I see it. A big house surrounded by iron gates. And one small section of it is smoking. There’s a fire!
“Oh no!” I gasp. “Fire!”
A compact SUV pulls up behind us. Bailey.
We park by the gates and get out of the vehicles. “Shit, what are you doing here?”
“I wanna help,” she says. “I smell Ivy inside. And smoke. And Tyson and Lincoln.” She stares at the house in horror. “And Ivy and Ty’s baby.”
“Baby?” Ronnie asks.
“Ivy’s carrying Ty’s baby. It’s a baby girl, I think.”
I’m feeling utterly panicked. And angry. Furious. I request energy from my surroundings as I hold the necklace Aunt Mimi gave me yesterday, chant a protection spell for Lincoln, Tyson, Ivy, and their baby. For all the citizens of the village of Arcana Falls as well as my family. I’m pushing the energy of the necklace toward all of them.
Ronnie touches the gates. “I feel their energy through these gates. Tyson’s and Ivy’s. They’re okay so far.”
“Linc?” Bailey asks.
“I don’t know,” Ronnie tells her.
Dani puts a small cauldron on the ground and fills it with a carrier oil from a jar she pulled from Vivi’s truck kit. She then adds a sachet of herbs.
“What are you doing?” Bailey asks.
“Thank goodness she has her travel one.” I know Dani’s pulling unhealthy energy out of the air and sending it into the small pot placed between us. We’ll work together to undo bad energy around here. It has to go somewhere.
My sisters and I hold hands and focus. I focus on everything harmful and negative in the village, anyone who’s not a pack member or a member of my family. I add Mitchell Blakely to the equation. I work hard, feeling like I’ve got the ability to siphon bad energy like Danica can, though she focuses on physical and emotional health, I’m focusing on all negative energy around us. Anything that’s a danger to this pack. And for the first time, I can sense the bad energy and differentiate it from the good. It all needs to go.