9. Kirsten

"Grab some pillows, Harley," I said, hurrying after Tank as he carried the boy to the couch in the living room.

"On it," she said, running up the stairs.

Tinsley put a hand on my shoulder. "What do you need me to do?"

"Can you make some tea for him? Something to put him to sleep and ease the pain of whatever Eren has put him through?"

Tinsley thought for a moment, then nodded. "I think so. I may need to go in the backyard and see if I can find some mugwort. Everything else I need should be in the pantry."

I nodded. "Thanks. Do it. Hurry, though."

She vanished to the kitchen, leaving me with Tank and Morgan. The giant of a man gently set the boy down. The boy kept glancing around, still in the throes of fear.

"Is he gonna find me?" he whined, a terrified lilt to his voice. "Eren? Is he gonna get me?"

"No," I said with determined finality. "He'll never get you, Morgan. You are safe here. You have an alpha and a witch to protect you."

His eyes widened. "I thought you smelled weird. Are you really a witch?"

"I am, and I'm not letting Eren get anywhere near you."

"What about my brother? We have to save him." Morgan looked at me with the hopeless desperation only a child could muster.

I brushed my hand over his hair and smiled. "We'll do everything we can. I promise," I said, careful of guaranteeing something I might not be able to actually do.

Harley came down the stairs with two pillows and a blanket. "Here you go," she said, handing them to me and Tank.

From the kitchen, I could hear Tinsley working. The faint scent of steeping herbs wafted into the living room.

"Can I do anything?" Tank asked.

"Stay close to him," I said. "Morgan, this is Hank the Tank. He's gonna watch out for you while you're here."

He looked dubiously at Tank. "Is that really your name?"

"Uh, well, my real name is Hank. Tank's a nickname. Kirsten calls me Hank the Tank. You can call me that, too, if you think it's funny," he offered with a bright grin.

"Oh, okay."

The front door opened. I turned, expecting Jace. Instead, Reese, the doctor, stepped in. He looked grim.

"I came to check on him," he said, joining us on the couch.

"Where's Jace?" I asked.

"He's talking to the other alphas." He gave me a significant look, glanced at the boy, then back at me. "He got a phone call. From a certain person. If you know what I mean?"

Eren. That piece of dog shit.

"Jace wanted me to check him over, make sure there weren't any other injuries," Reese said. "Morgan? Can I check you out? My name is Dr. Dunnely."

"That's fine," Morgan muttered.

Tinsley came out of the kitchen with a steaming mug. "I didn't find mugwort, but there was milkweed right outside the kitchen door. That will do the job just as well. Here, sweetie," she said, handing the cup to Morgan.

He took it with shaking fingers. "Does it taste bad?"

"I put some vanilla and extra sugar in it, and some mint leaves. It will make you feel better."

He sniffed the cup and eyed her warily. "It smells like magic."

Tinsley chuckled. "There are a few little extras in there as well, but trust me, it's safe."

"It's okay, Morgan. You can drink it," I said.

He sipped at the drink, then smiled. "It's tasty."

Reese lifted the boy's shirt, slid his pants legs up, and gently prodded his stomach and thighs. Other than a few scratches and bruises that Morgan's shifter healing was already taking care of, the doctor found nothing too troubling until he checked Morgan's sides. There was a welt along his ribs that looked fairly fresh.

"What's this, big guy?" Reese asked, touching the spot gingerly.

Having finished the tea, Morgan put the cup down. He winced every time Reese touched the injury. "That's where Mister Eren beat me. He used a big, heavy leather strap. A belt, maybe? I don't know."

My heart wrenched. I would never again complain about how tough my life was. This kid had already been through more in his young years than anyone would have to endure in a whole lifetime.

"I think there's a broken rib under here," Reese hissed in disgust. "It'll heal soon, but the boy's young and his healing ability isn't fully developed yet. It'll take a day or so for it to be back to normal."

"Can I heal it for him?" I asked.

Reese shrugged. "He'd be in much less pain if you did. I see no reason not to."

"Would that be okay, Morgan?" I asked, running my hand through his hair. "Can I fix you up?"

He nodded. "It hurts. Can you make it go away?"

"I can," I said. I loved that I was telling the truth.

After placing my hands on his side, I let the healing magic flow out and into him. I was getting more and more in touch with it every time I used it. Morgan gave a little gasp, then smiled.

"It's better." He sagged back against the pillows, and Harley tucked the blanket over his legs and chest.

His eyes were already drifting closed. The combination of the tea Tinsley had given him, as well as his exhaustion from escaping from Eren, sent him into a deep sleep within seconds.

The front door opened again, and the others shuffled in, all looking like they were in varying levels of distress, confusion, and anger. Jace led them to the dining room so as not to disturb Morgan. I went to join them.

"Shayna and I will take the boy in," Dustin was saying. "Our pack is the farthest away and the next biggest to Crestwood after Scottsdale. He needs to be as far from Eren as possible with enough people to protect him."

"That's a good plan," Waylan said. "It's one thing for Eren to try shit like this with a pack he borders. It's a whole other to go after one that's farther away."

Everyone seemed to be in agreement. I wondered how the boy would fare in another pack. Part of me wanted to keep him here as I imagined what he and the others had been through. I could still see those sightless eyes of the wolf yesterday. Knowing it was a child made it that much more horrible.

Across the room, still sitting beside Morgan, Tank gazed down at the child. The big man looked utterly heartbroken. With a start, I remembered he'd killed the other wolf. My gut twisted, and my heart ached for Tank. To know that you'd killed a child, whether in self-defense or not, had to be the most awful thing imaginable.

Tinsley appeared at his side, possibly sensing the same horrified depression that was settling over him, and touched his back gently, whispering something to him as they watched the boy sleep.

A sudden, unbidden flame of anger at Eren surged up from within me. My teeth creaked as my jaws clenched in frustration and rage. Before I could stop myself, a wave of magical energy pulsed out of me and across the room. The others stopped speaking, all of them jerking back in surprise. Even Morgan moaned and rolled over in his sleep. The only person not affected was Harley, the lone human, who looked around like everyone had gone mad.

"It's all right," Jace said, turning to me and placing a hand on my cheek.

"Sorry," I whispered, embarrassed. I mentally reeled my magic back in.

"Are you okay?" Jace asked.

"No," I said. "Not really. I've spent my life taking care of kids, Jace. Teaching them, guiding them, helping. Shit like this sickens me. I've had to report child abuse a few times when I saw it happening to my students. It broke my heart every time." I waved a hand toward Morgan. "And he's lost his family. Mother and father dead, a teenage brother looking after him? What is going on there? Don't shifters have anything like social workers in their packs?"

Ivy leaned forward, elbows on her knees, and looked at me. "We typically don't need those. Packs stick together. If something bad happens, a tragedy like what happened to that boy and his brother? Someone from the pack should have taken them in, loved them like their own. Hell, if he escaped from Eren, the first place he should have gone was to a pack elder of the Scottsdale Pack." She shook her head in disgust. "The fact that he thought the only safe place was a neighboring pack tells us a lot more about what's going on in Scottsdale. It tells me that no one in the pack trusts Eren, and that none of them trust each other. Who's on Eren's side? Who's not? Who will turn me over to him, and who won't? I've never heard of anything like this in all my years as an alpha. But"—she held up a finger—"this might give us an advantage. If the schism in Eren's pack is as deep as it looks, maybe, just maybe, we can use that to our advantage."

"She's right," Langston added. "His council should have some sway over him. Checks and balances, right? Like with us." He gestured to Waylan and the other members of Jace's council.

My nerves were shot, but Jace kept a hand on my back, tracing smooth, gentle circles. His touch kept me from stressing out too much.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I thought an alpha's word was law. Like, I don't know, a monarchy or something?"

Langston tilted his head from side to side. "Kinda, but not really. It's hard to explain, but I'll try. I'm basically the enforcer of Crestwood. I handle what could best be described as the de facto police force for the town, and I have a few guys who act as my deputies. I handle crimes and other issues that are either not important enough for Jace to deal with directly, or I handle things that need to be taken care of before Jace takes a stance or makes a call. Does that make sense?"

I nodded slowly. "That still sounds like Jace is in charge. Can't he just fire you? Like he did with Stephanie?"

"That goes back to the checks and balances he's talking about," Shayna chimed in. "The enforcer is the only member of the council elected by the pack. The other members are appointed by the alpha, but the enforcer is nominated by the elders and then voted on by the pack. Yes, Jace is Langston's alpha, and yes, Jace is technically his boss." She made air quotes around that last word. "But his real job is to make sure the laws are being followed, the laws of the pack. The most powerful law shifters have is the protection of the pack, and the alpha should be the main one to protect the pack through their words, deeds, and leadership. If, for whatever reason, an alpha puts the pack at risk, the enforcer has the right to arrest and detain the alpha."

Langston looked incredibly uncomfortable when he spoke again. "It doesn't happen often, partly because the overwhelming majority of alphas would never do something to risk their pack's safety or livelihood or to tarnish their name. For another, it's simply difficult. No offense to Jace, but alphas can be prideful when it comes to their leadership."

"None taken," Jace said with a shrug.

"They're also incredibly powerful," Langston went on. "The alpha is the strongest member of the pack. It's difficult to subdue and overpower them, but not impossible." He shook his head. "But we all know Eren is weak. We've seen what he's doing to his pack. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why the Scottsdale enforcer and his deputies haven't done something about him."

"It's because they're all dead."

Morgan's quiet voice startled all of us. He was awake and sitting up, leaning his weight on his elbows. "They're dead," he repeated. "Eren had them rounded up and killed. It started a few months back. Everyone in town is terrified of him. Nobody is brave enough to say anything because he killed the enforcer. One of the pack elders tried to stop him, and Eren killed him, too."

"God almighty," Noah breathed, laying his head back against the chair to stare at the ceiling. "I ain't never seen nothing like this."

Dustin and Shayna went to sit beside Morgan on the couch. Dustin patted his leg. "Hey, buddy. I'm Dustin, and this is my mate Shayna. She's Jace's little sister. We're gonna take you home with us, to our pack. We'll keep you safe. How does that sound?"

Morgan glanced between them, a pensive expression on his face. "I guess, but… I want my brother back." Tears filled his eyes again. "I don't want Eren to kill him, too."

"I'm not letting that happen," Jace said to him, standing and towering over the others. "I'm going to do everything I can to get him back safe and sound. I'm going to stop the bad things Eren is doing. I promise that."

Morgan turned his eyes to me. "Can you use your magic and make Mr. Eren a bug? Then I can stomp on him," he said, smashing his fist into his palm for emphasis.

That broke the tension, and we all chuckled.

"I can't make any promises," I said. "But I'll do my best to find a spell. If I can figure out how to turn him into a bug, I'll let you do the stomping. Deal?"

Morgan gave me a tired smile. "Deal."

The other alphas left soon after that. Dustin said he'd message Jace later about a second meeting. Harley and Tinsley got Morgan to eat a sandwich and some potato chips before Shayne and Dustin headed out with him. The potion Tinsley had made was really something. By the time Morgan left, the color had returned to his cheeks, and he didn't look nearly as sickly as when he first arrived, though his eyes still held that haunted look.

"I'm gonna head out, too," Waylan said. "I need to check in at the shop, then I'm gonna check the town perimeters, see if any of Eren's lackeys are milling about. I could go for a nice tussle with one of those douchebags."

"We'll go with you," Reese offered.

"Yeah," Abi said through gritted teeth. "Is it bad that I hope we do find someone lurking?"

"Are you coming, Langston?" Waylan asked as they headed for the door.

"I'll catch up to you," the big man answered.

The three of them walked out, and Tank said he was going to resume his guard duty outside the house.

"What's on your mind?" Jace asked Langston when the door was closed.

"I don't like this, man," Langston said. "If Eren really took out his enforcer, then Morgan is right. There's no one to protect the people of Scottsdale. I can see this getting even worse. Once Ivy tells him that you made the challenge official and that Dustin's pack will be hosting the mating party, Eren will know he's backed into a corner. All the alphas in the area against him? Losing face? You and I both know what happens when a wild animal is cornered."

"Yeah. I can see this getting ugly," Jace admitted.

"It goes beyond kidnapping Kirsten," Langston said. "Hurting kids? Shit. Who knows how many kids are in danger over there."

"What if that was all his plan to begin with?" I asked, narrowing my eyes as an idea formed in my mind.

"What do you mean by that?" Jace asked.

"Well, I'm sure he did want me to mate with him. That part was obvious." I shuddered. "But what if he wanted more than just an heir? Maybe he wanted my magic to use against the kids. To make them feral faster."

Langston whistled. "A platoon of trained ferals would be pretty hard to stop. You think he's angling to take over other packs?"

Jace's hands curled into fists. "If he could make ferals and somehow train or force them to fight for him, he'd be damn near unstoppable. Ferals don't stop; they'll fight tooth and claw to the very end. They'd be berserk." He shook his head in dismay. "He could take over other packs. I could totally see that happening. Knowing him, he probably gets a hard-on just thinking about it."

Catching Langston's eye, I said, "I want to help. I can use my powers. Just tell me what you need."

"Hold up," Jace said. "We didn't agree to that."

I ignored that, still looking at Langston. "What do you need from me? This isn't your wheelhouse, Jace," I said. "It's up to him how he wants to use a weapon, and that's what I am right now: a weapon, and I'm happy to be one. You can protest all you want, but at the end of the day, this is about saving an entire town. Our wants and desires come second to that."

Jace opened his mouth to argue, then clamped his lips together and shook his head. A twinge of shame tugged at me for using his honor code against him, but I knew I was right.

Langston gave Jace an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, bro, but if Kirsten can help, then we need to use her talents. Eren's a lunatic, and we need to use all our resources to save the innocent people suffering because of him."

"I can also help," Tinsley said as she stepped forward.

Since arriving, the only person who had been allowed to sense her full power was Jace. She'd been masking it so the other shifters didn't freak out around her. Earlier, when she'd brewed the tea for Morgan, Tank had been there, but he'd been too distraught and racked with guilt to notice what was really going on. Now, Tinsley threw off her magical veil and allowed her true power to show.

Langston blinked, the muscles in his jaw tightening. He turned his gaze back to us. "What the fuck?"

Jace shrugged. "It wasn't my secret to tell. She's a good person, and Kirsten's friend."

"Another witch?" Langston whispered in disbelief.

"I mean no harm," Tinsley said, holding her hands up in surrender. "I only want to help. I'm not as strong as Kirsten, that I know for certain. Honestly, I doubt there will ever be another witch with as much power as she has."

My head whipped toward her. She'd never told me that before. "What do you mean? I'm just like you. I'm nothing special."

Tinsley gave me a wry grin. "Oh, my dear girl, you are too modest. The moment you walked into my shop, I could sense it. Then, just a few days later, your power had grown enough that it felt like lightning bolts dancing across my skin. When you truly let loose and allow the magic within you to breathe and develop, you will be unstoppable."

Swallowing hard, I nodded. "If you say so." I had a hard time believing it.

"If things are as bad as they seem," Langston said, regaining his composure, "then I might need both of you to take Eren down." He nodded gratefully at Tinsley. "I appreciate the help."

Tinsley clapped her hands together once. "So exciting. It'll be like I'm a superhero or something."

That forced a laugh from all of us. This wasn't a joking matter, but it eased the tension in the room.

Langston stood and shook Tinsley's hand. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll be in touch."

After he departed, Harley walked over to us, looking frazzled. "So, uh, I'm gonna go take a nap. This has been… a lot."

"I'm sorry," I said. "This isn't the vacation you signed up for, huh?"

She waved a hand at me. "I had a hunch it wouldn't be, but damn, you people sure lead exciting lives. I'm gonna go lay down. I'm exhausted. It's like a workout, me worrying about you," she said, pointing at me before trudging up the stairs.

Later that afternoon, I found myself sitting on the porch steps, staring off into space. Could I really help? Was I strong enough, like Tinsley thought I was? So many doubts were beginning to creep in, and I had no defense against them. For the millionth time, I wished Nana was still alive so I could talk to her, get her guidance.

"How's it going?" Jace asked as he sat down beside me.

He was tense. I could read it in his body language. His face was tight, his eyes worried. Things were getting more intense and dangerous by the day. We'd gone from thinking Eren was simply a piece of shit who wanted to force me into a relationship to something much worse. A monster we could barely understand, much less anticipate.

The awkwardness between me and Jace had vanished. Too much had happened for that to remain between us. I leaned over, enjoying the warmth of his body as I pressed against him. He let out a little sigh of satisfaction and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me even closer. The tension that had my muscles so tightly coiled quickly seeped away, letting me sink into him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I never knew I'd be pulling you into all this."

I snorted. "You didn't plan it. None of this is your fault. In fact, this is where I was meant to be."

"But if I'd stayed away from you, maybe none of this would have happened. You never would have gone to see Eren, he wouldn't know about you. Hell, you may have already gone back home and lived a nice, normal, drama-free life."

Tilting my head to look at him, I said, "For creatures who value fated mates so much, you guys sure don't know how to trust fate itself. Even if we hadn't met, I think Eren would still be doing whatever bullshit he's doing with those kids. I was brought here at the exact moment I was supposed to be. Nothing either of us thinks will change that. Fighting against fate is like trying to stand in the ocean and punching the waves crashing around you. It'll never stop anything. Fate doesn't make mistakes, right?"

He stared into my eyes for a long minute. "I suppose you're right about that."

As upset as we'd been with each other when I left, the connection between us was still powerful. It was a binding force no amount of fighting could sever.

I put a hand to his cheek, the rough stubble rasping under my fingers. "Fate put us together, and we are stronger together. You and I can conquer anything. I'm sorry for how I left," I added. It was the first time I'd apologized for it, and it was necessary. Shame overwhelmed me, and I pulled my hand away. "If I hadn't run out like a big baby, I wouldn't have been kidnapped. I made you worry, and I could have gotten myself killed—"

Jace silenced me with a kiss. I sighed against his mouth, enjoying the taste of him, the feel of his tongue as it gently slipped between my lips. God, I'd missed this. With our fight now officially over, we could turn all our attention to our true enemy. Eren.

Too soon, Jace pulled away and pressed his forehead to mine. "I can't say I like you being caught up in the middle of all this. If I had my way, I'd lock you up in a vault somewhere out of danger, but Langston is right. We'll need you for this." He ran a hand possessively up my thigh. "I'll promise you this, though. I will risk everything to make sure you stay safe. With God as my witness, I'll make sure you make it out the other side unscathed."

Reaching up, I put my hands on his cheeks and gazed into his eyes. "I'll do the same for you. We're in this together. Forever."