18. Ryan

Chapter eighteen

Ryan

T hey were fucking with us. My wolf growled inside of me.

Teach them a lesson.

I planned to.

“Stay inside,” I ordered, then pointed at Jase. “Protect Lark.”

He nodded as I strode to the door.

“Not without me.” Mai stepped in my path.

I thought about picking her up, carrying her to the study, and tying her to the chair.

“Don’t even think about it,” she warned.

Right. She knew me and my wolf too well.

“First sign of trouble—“

“I’ll protect me and the baby.”

I didn’t like it. No, scratch that, I fucking hated it. But this was the line my wolf and I trod with Mai. I’d spent months scared out of my mind that she would run again if I got too overprotective. Now, after what we had been through, I knew she wouldn’t leave me, but I’d definitely be sleeping on the couch if I overstepped. She spent too many years thinking she was less capable than others, that she was weak because she had run when I’d rejected her, and ended up with an ex who beat the crap out of her. She wasn’t weak; she was the strongest fucking person I had ever known. My job was to show her just how awesome she was, not put her down or make her think she was less in any way, and I was slowly learning to stretch my comfort zone of Mai situations where my wolf and I didn’t go crazy with the need to protect her.

“Besides,” said Mai, as if she could read my thoughts, “if the Knox Pack were going to attack, they would have done that by now; they wouldn’t be knocking on our door.”

Okay, she may have a point there.

“Fine, but stay behind me.”

“Twelve hostiles,” Waylen called, eyes on his screens. “About a hundred feet from the door. Spread out in a semi-circle on the lawn. Behind them, to the left of the Ancestral Fire, another two.”

Esme stepped forward. “They’ll be the witches. Watch their hands. Even the best sometimes will clench or twitch their fingers as they cast.”

“Any others?” Mai asked Waylen.

He shook his head. “None that I can see. But apparently, that don’t mean shit with witches involved.”

We were going to need Waylen to spend the next few months working with Esme to see if he could make something that would see through the magic the witches cast to hide themselves and others. There was no fucking way witches were strolling into our territory again.

I swung the door open. Wally had done his magic here as well. Twinkling lights wrapped around the trunks of the trees and between the branches. It looked like fireflies were flitting around our garden. Under the glittering lights, I could see twelve of them, spread out in a semi-circle—a careful formation, deliberate … calculated. The Knox Pack. They were silent as I scanned them. Most of them were in their wolf forms, huge, hulking beasts with coats the color of shadows that shifted under the dim light of the porch.

Two figures in human form stood at the center—I was guessing this was Gabrielle and Artie. They were young, early-twenties at most, but there was nothing soft about them. Both had the lean, predatory look of wolves who’d fought their way to power. Gabrielle was standing tall, her posture stiff like a soldier on parade, in a dark maroon jacket, tight black pants, and leather boots that came up to her ankles. Her eyes, sharp and assessing, narrowed at the sight of us. Her hair was black and plaited into a high ponytail that didn’t shift an inch in the biting wind as it raked across the porch. Artie was visibly more of a direct threat. His body was built for combat—broad shoulders, thick neck, and hard edges all over. Brown hair was cut short against his head. His nose, flat and wide, looked like it had been broken several times. There was no mistaking the tension flowing through him. He radiated it, his scarred knuckles clenching and unclenching at his sides like he had been half-hoping we’d give him an excuse to smash down the door. They were dangerous, yes, but my wolf wasn’t concerned.

As I glanced at the Ancestral Fire, the flames sputtered, a warm shimmer against the cold night, casting shadows across the decorations—pines wrapped with ribbons, flickering lights hanging between the branches like stars. My eyes caught on the two humans standing behind the Knox Pack. They were dressed in warm winter clothes, woolen hats, scarves wrapped around their faces, fur-lined coats, and boots. Interestingly, no gloves. Werewolves felt the cold, but we weren’t as bothered by it as humans or witches. Even if I couldn’t smell that they weren’t Shifters, the layers on these two would have told me that.

Well, hello there, witches.

The taller of the two, a woman with platinum blonde hair peeking out from under her hat, had a stern expression as she glared at our house. The other witch, a shorter man with a thin, lined face and crooked nose, stood with his arms folded, his jaw clenched as he scanned me and Mai. I could feel a subtle hum in the air around them, like static—magic, building slowly and deliberately.

“Please,” the one I pegged as Gabrielle took a few steps forward, smiling without a trace of warmth. “We’re not looking for a fight. My name is Gabrielle, and this is my mate Artie.”

I forced my body to stay relaxed and frowned at her. “This your usual way of introducing yourselves? Rolling up with ten wolves in tow? Gotta say, I don’t see you being invited to many parties.”

She spread her hands out in a placating gesture. “I apologize for the show of force. They are simply here to help protect our pup on our journey back home. We have found traversing the territories of other Packs to be perilous.”

No shit.

“This simplifies things,” she continued, “both for us and for those who may wish to do us harm.”

I bet it did.

“What exactly can we do for you?”

“We appreciate you taking care of our pup, but we’re here to bring her home where she belongs.”

“Your pup?” asked Mai, feigning ignorance.

Gabrielle smiled again. “Yes. The girl. Lark. She is part of our Pack. I’m sure you know what it is like when you have been separated from a member of your Pack? The lengths you’ll go to to make sure they return safely.”

Nice. The threat there was subtle.

“Lark is safe here. She’s made it clear she doesn’t want to return to your Pack.”

Artie’s jaw clenched. “She’s a child. She doesn’t get to make that decision.”

Gabrielle whipped her head around to stare at her mate. He lowered his eyes. She was in charge and she didn’t want him to do the speaking. Interesting.

She turned back to us, and this time, the softness in Gabrielle’s expression hardened just a touch. “Lark is confused. I don’t know if she told you, but her parents recently died. It was a tragic accident. Lark is struggling. We—her Pack—are the only ones who can give her the support and protection she needs. You can understand that, can’t you? Caring for your own?”

Her words were meant to disarm, to sound reasonable. We’re just a friendly Pack looking after our pups.

Mai’s lips twitched. “Were you caring for your own when you forced Lark’s parents to take ripple?”

Artie’s eyes darkened, his fingers clenching and unclenching faster now, but Gabrielle—Gabrielle didn’t flinch. She just took another step forward.

“As I said, the girl is confused. To lose her family at such a young age is devastating. I suspect she overheard things that upset her, things that she doesn’t understand, things that she has twisted in her head to mean something it is not. She’s a lost, confused child. The sooner she is back with us, and we get this all cleared up, the happier she will be. Will you really stand in the way of that? I’m sure you want to resolve this peacefully and don’t want us to get the Wolf Council involved?”

Mai quirked an eyebrow at me. Yeah, the Knox Pack hadn’t done their homework. It must have worked for them in the past. Roll up, threaten to involve the Wolf Council, and they get whatever they want. I’d heard of this tactic being used successfully against smaller Packs, especially those that didn’t want any trouble, in order for a roaming Pack to steal supplies and food. But we weren’t a small Pack; we knew how to deal with trouble, and we had a fucking member of the Wolf Council sneaking up behind them right now.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I drawled lazily. “Sounds like making your Pack members take ripple, getting them addicted, and then killing them might be something the Wolf Council would be real interested in.”

“Fuck this!” Artie spat, then whirled to the witches behind him. “She’s in there, and these fuckers know too much. You need to deal with them.”

“Agreed.” The female witch’s voice was smooth and cold as she stepped around the wolves and walked toward the house. “I was hoping we could do this cleanly. But it seems you’ve gone snooping where you don’t belong.”

Mai tensed next to me, and I knew she felt it too, the electric build-up of magic. The witch was gathering her power.

“Now, unfortunately, it’s going to get messy.”

She lifted her hand, her fingers twisting gracefully in the cold air.

Fuck! I ripped my top off and let the change take me. My bones cracked and reformed with frightening speed, the sound like branches snapping in a storm. Muscles rippled and bulged beneath my skin, which stretched and darkened as thick, midnight fur erupted across my body. The power of the Dark Goddess surged through me like lightning, making the transformation almost instantaneous. My jaw extended with a series of sickening pops, teeth lengthening into deadly fangs as my face reshaped into a lupine muzzle. In seconds, I towered nine feet tall, a primal force of muscle, claw, and fang.

The witch’s wrist flicked with a snap as though tearing a string from the fabric of the world itself. I spun to Mai, reaching out with clawed hands large enough to crush a man’s skull as a violent gust crashed into us both, lifting our bodies high off the porch and flinging us in opposite directions.

“Mai!”

The edges of the world spun, a whirlwind of snow, glittering fairy lights, and Mai’s frightened face as she flew away from me.