Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

Sean handed me a couple of tissues he'd apparently kept in his pocket in anticipation of this moment. "Here, Miss Magic. Blow your nose."

I wiped my eyes and sniffled inelegantly. "It's weird that people cry when they're happy. I mean, why do sadness and happiness have the same response?"

"That's one of life's little mysteries." He nuzzled my hair to drink in my scent, which always soothed him and his wolf. That meant he had mixed feelings right now too. "Both are strong emotions. And sometimes we feel both at the same time."

Everyone else had returned to the backyard, probably to give us some privacy. I took advantage of the moment to wrap my arms around Sean's neck and give him a long kiss. He lifted me up so I could lock my legs around his hips.

He rested his forehead on mine. "Loving you is the best thing I've ever done."

"No, the best thing you've ever done is make me breakfast burritos when I'm hung over." I smiled up at him. "But loving me is the smartest thing you've ever done. "

He chuckled. "If the Alice of a year ago could have heard you say that, what would she have said?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "She might have punched me and called me an idiot. Hey, it's almost the one-year anniversary of us meeting for the first time. Should we do something for that? Is that a thing people do?"

His mouth twitched. Because of the way I grew up, isolated at my crime lord grandfather's compound, I was notoriously lacking in knowledge when it came to relationships and—well, a lot of other things.

"It's a thing if we want it to be," he said, kissing the tip of my nose. "We'll call it our one-year meet-iversary. A one-year wedding anniversary is the paper anniversary. What's a one-year meet-iversary?"

Hmm. "Pizza?"

"My beautiful food-motivated Miss Magic." He put me on my feet and took my hand for the walk back to the party, which would likely go on well into the night. The only things shifters loved as much as food were pack gatherings and full-contact, no-holds-or-hits-barred, bone-breaking backyard sports. "I hereby deem pizza to be the official gift of one-year meet-iversaries."

"Sounds good, Mister Wolf." I squeezed his hand. "What did Daniel whisper to you before he and Nan left?"

"He reminded me that taking care of you is my reason for being."

What was more intense than shifter protectiveness? A shifter father's protectiveness. Combine that with having a shifter fiancé and sometimes it was a lot.

" Werewolves ." I made a little growly sound. "As if I didn't take care of myself my whole life before I met you."

"Poor Alice." Sean leaned over as we walked and kissed the top of my head. "It's tough being loved so much, isn't it."

In between one step and the next, my vision swam. I stumbled and fell. Sean caught me just before I hit the ground .

For one disconcerting moment, I became weightless, formless, suspended in an abyss, and surrounded by darkness.

I'm falling …

I flailed and tried to grab onto something—anything—to stop my fall, but my hands encountered nothing but empty air.

And then just as quickly, I found myself sitting on the front lawn, blinking up at Sean. He held my shoulders, his eyes glowing golden. In my confusion, I'd grabbed him and hung on as if my life depended on it.

"What's wrong?" He crouched to look directly into my eyes. "Alice? What happened?"

Hell if I knew. I shook my head to clear it and let go of his arms. "I'm okay, I think. I just got lightheaded for a second."

Wait…what the hell?

My hands ached. I'd gotten a manicure for the wedding—something I rarely did because working as a private investigator was tough on my hands. My nails looked no different than they had since yesterday's salon visit, but I had a weird thought that they'd somehow been longer, more like talons than human nails. When I shook my head again, the image faded.

"The last time something like this happened, you'd been hexed." Sean's voice was half growl. "How do we know for sure you're okay?"

"Well, I could ask Carly, I suppose." When I started to rise, he lifted me up and set me carefully on my feet, steadying me with a hand on my arm. "But I have her anti-magic amulet in my pocket and I feel okay."

His expression remained grave. "Call Carly, please, Alice. You're not prone to fainting spells."

Before I could reply, Matthias's snarly voice came from the porch. "Alice, are you all right?"

"Yes, I think so. Just dizzy for a second. All better now." I leaned past Sean and spotted Matthias on the front steps.

He loomed over us, his eyes glowing amber. His aggressive stance took me aback. Thanks to my help during his Change, Matthias had near-total control over his wolf. At this moment, however, he leaned forward on the balls of his feet with fists clenched, as if ready to shift. Golden shifter magic seared my skin.

"Be calm," Sean commanded, his voice resonant with alpha magic. His eyes glowed brightly as he stared Matthias and his wolf down. "There is no threat here."

We didn't know that for sure, given Sean was right and I didn't have a habit of fainting, but his voice carried only absolute authority and certainty.

After a beat, Matthias's posture changed and the shifter magic in his eyes faded to a soft glow. He didn't back down completely or anything close to it, but the prickly feeling on my arms went away.

Sean and I did lead gently, but sometimes orders were required. Matthias had just created one of those times.

"I'm okay," I repeated with more conviction. "Really. Thank you."

"You are welcome." Matthias returned to the porch. His frown seemed more confused than angry now. Maybe he hadn't expected Sean to order him to be calm. Maybe his wolf's reaction had startled him as much as it startled me.

Or maybe he mistrusted his own reactions so much that he needed orders to feel comfortable with his thoughts and actions. Another possible consequence of Valas's abuse, and another reason she deserved to be dead.

After a beat, Matthias opened the front door and went back inside. Whew. Crisis averted.

Ben appeared around the side of the house with Casey at his side. "Everything okay?" His gaze went to me. "Alice, you look pale. What's up?"

"She fainted," Sean said, his hand on my lower back, probably in case I wobbled.

"Have a seat on the steps," Casey said briskly in her nurse tone. That meant I had no choice but to comply.

A few minutes later, Casey determined I didn't have any lasting physical symptoms that she could detect. My blood pressure was normal, as were my pulse and breathing. My pupils dilated normally. Unsurprisingly, those facts did very little to alleviate Sean's concern—or anyone else's.

"I don't know what to think," I told them, my elbows on my knees. "I had a weird moment where my hand didn't look like my own, but it seemed like an echo of something I might have seen during a tracking spell. I feel fine now. I don't know what else to do but stay on guard, ask Malcolm to look me over, and have Carly do her thing."

"People do just get lightheaded sometimes," Casey reminded us. "Alice has had a stressful couple of days."

"Couple of weeks," Ben said.

"Couple of months," Sean admitted, his tone wry. His frown belied his lingering concern and his worry tingled through our nascent mate bond.

"Couple of years ," I stated with finality. "Also, I haven't been eating or sleeping super well lately. It probably just caught up with me all at once. But I will text Carly," I added when Sean's frown deepened. "If she says I'm okay, will that be enough?"

"It will have to be," he said, in a tone that meant not at all . "Hopefully she can come out here tonight."

"Knowing Carly, she probably sensed us talking about her and is already on her way," Ben quipped.

The incident could be something, anything, or nothing. I had no ideas what had happened and really nothing to look into, at least for now. Maybe Carly would see something I didn't.

I sent my witchiest friend a quick text message. Me: Had a fainting spell at home. I feel fine now but Sean would like a second opinion. Are you available for a house call?

After a brief wait, my phone buzzed with a reply. Carly Reese: Katy and I can be there in one hour.

Me: Thank you.

I pocketed my phone. "She's on her way, and she's bringing Katy along too. Can I finish the rest of my burger while we wait?"

"She has an appetite," Ben said as we resumed our walk toward the backyard. "That's a good sign, right?"

Sean growled. I was about to take his hand to reassure him when he, Ben, and Casey all whirled to face the road, their eyes glowing. So it wasn't my fainting spell that had made him suddenly angry.

"Pack to the front!" Ben called, his voice edged with a snarl.

A moment later, I heard what they'd detected long before the sound reached my ears: the rumble of engines and tires on asphalt. More than one large vehicle, heading this way.

Malcolm appeared at my side. "Do we have trouble?"

My stomach churned. "Could be."

By the time four black SUVs appeared on the road and began turning into our long driveway, nearly every member of our pack had lined up in front of our house. Sean had sent Karen and Cole Williams inside with their babies and given Matthias orders to stay in the house and guard them with his life. Whether because Sean had finally issued him an order or Karen had been kind to him or both, Matthias looked ready to shred anyone who so much as looked at the Williams family wrong. Despite my concern over our visitors, seeing Matthias ready to defend the pack warmed my heart.

We watched the SUVs come up the drive. My skin tingled as they crossed my perimeter wards.

Malcolm flitted. "It's a convoy of Vampire Court soldiers."

The rest of the pack had recognized the vehicles too. Their growls increased in volume.

Magic spiraled up my arms and sparked on my hands. As I spooled more power, the ground trembled under our feet. How dare the Court send soldiers to our home?

Esme, our little house dragon, strolled through the assembled werewolves to stand next to me, her tail swishing as she eyed our visitors. She stayed in cat form, but she could turn into a small-but-deadly dragon the moment danger loomed. Esme was a pū?is, a fae creature I'd gotten as a gift while traveling in the Broken World. I didn't want anyone to know we had her, for obvious reasons, but if the enforcers were here to attack us, I'd unleash her on them without a second thought and deal with the consequences.

The front passenger doors of the second and third SUVs opened. Bryan Smith, Charles Vaughan's human head enforcer, emerged from the second SUV. Adri Smith, his sister, who was also an enforcer for Charles, got out of the vehicle behind his. Five more uniformed enforcers also emerged. I recognized a couple of them as belonging to other members of the Vampire Court who had sided with Charles during his violent takeover of the Court.

Esme hissed. Sean and I took a few steps forward. The rage of our pack pressed against my back like a tidal wave building up, ready to break at any moment.

The group of enforcers silently faced our pack as if we were two factions about to have a showdown in a Wild West town.

"We come on official business of the Vampire Court of the Western United States and its undisputed leader, Charles Vaughan," Bryan said, his tone very formal. "We are not here to attack you."

I didn't necessarily believe him, but if the vamps intended to attack, they would have come in force, and they wouldn't have just sent human enforcers. I studied each face in turn, committing it to memory and looking in vain for any hint of what they planned to do.

"You're on private property," Sean said, his voice cold. "You need to leave immediately."

"We'll leave as soon our mission is fulfilled." Adri stood beside her brother. She held two thick sealed envelopes embossed with red wax and the seal of the Court. "Our mission is to give you these documents. May I approach you and your consort to hand them over?"

Sean studied the envelopes and the woman holding them. I imagined he was trying to detect signs of danger. "And if I refuse and remove you from our property by force?"

"We've stated we're here only to deliver a message," Bryan said. "Violence doesn't seem necessary, under the circumstances."

Not that long ago, Bryan and Adri had worked together with Charles to save my life after I was nearly killed by a werewolf. Looking at them now, however, those days seemed long gone. That made me a little sad. I'd never thought of them as friends, but we'd been friendly.

"What's the message?" Sean asked. "You have ten seconds to deliver it, and then get the hell out."

Adri approached us with deliberate steps, keeping her hands in plain view to show she didn't have any weapons. Magic sparked brightly on my hands and coiled up my forearms. The wolves might be delayed by a few seconds while they shifted, but I was ready to attack or defend the moment something didn't look right.

Carefully, Adri handed one envelope to Sean and the other to me, gave us a little bow, and retreated, walking backward to watch us until she rejoined Bryan and the others.

Our names were written on the front of each envelope in elegant handwriting I recognized immediately. My stomach knotted. Charles .

A phone camera clicked from the direction of the enforcers, as if someone had documented the moment. Sean snarled.

"Mr. Maclin, Ms. Worth," Bryan said. "You have been served."