Chapter 60

The house was empty—a task that had taken way more fucking effort than I’d expected. Mom didn’t want to leave. The fight that ensued could only be described as a violent blowout. There was no good way to get my fucking point across other than yelling at her. Making sure she was safe was the only thing I fucking cared about. I couldn’t make my brothers do a goddamn thing, but if I had to drag my mother kicking and screaming to the fucking packhouse I would.

Thank fuck I wouldn’t have to, but I’d been ready to.

With Mom safely tucked away, I kicked Finn out and sent all my brothers away. They would’ve been more helpful to Declan anyway. As for me… I had work to do. This bullshit with the fucking hunter needed to end. I wasn’t sure exactly how, but I’d come up with a way.

Standing in the dark, I stared at the vast treeline as if it’d magically give me something. It wouldn’t. I fucking knew that. The hunter wouldn’t have stuck around after I subdued Raven—at least, I wouldn’t have if roles were reversed.

No, I stood there waiting for my fucking phone to ring as I contemplated just how far away the hunter had been from my family the whole time. It was easier to contemplate that than to look at the shit Genevieve had sent me. I’d looked. Once everyone left, I’d gone through the envelope: divorce papers and the keys to our house as well as our car.

She wasn’t keeping a damn thing for herself. No money, not the house, not the fucking car. She hadn’t used a fucking penny in our account since I’d left—something I should’ve looked at while I was gone. I’d left her with access to everything, and she’d taken absolutely nothing. I funneled money into that account, secretly hoping that at least my wife would be okay while I was gone, and it turned out she didn’t fucking need me.

And now? Now, she didn’t fucking want me.

I had to fucking talk to her. I had a list a mile long of the things I wanted to fucking say to her, but it had to wait. Fucking priorities. I hated my stupid fucking priorities. I wanted to storm my wife’s fucking house and make her fucking listen to reason.

I was so goddamn pissed off that I took it out on the phone when it rang.

“It took you a long fucking time to call me back,” I snapped when I answered. “What the fuck took you so goddamn long, Lane? Have something better to fucking do than answer my goddamn call?”

“Down, boy,” he retorted with a chuckle. “What the fuck crawled up your ass tonight?”

I growled because Lane Stevens was a certified pain in my fucking ass. He was also one of my best friends but still a pain in my fucking ass. We had a simple friendship that revolved mostly around hunting shifters and magical beings. He came and went however the fuck he pleased but never let me down. Usually. There was one time with a fucking panther shifter that I’d never let him live down.

“I called you three fucking hours ago,” I grit out around the cigarette I was furiously smoking. “What the fuck have you been doing?”

“Ah, good old Ian. Forgetting the world doesn’t revolve around him,” Lane said. “I’ll have you know, stalking sirens is a tedious business. There’s dicks involved, and they ain’t mine, buddy.”

“Shit.” I blew out a long breath of air, my anger deflating under that news. “You good?”

“I’d be better if I was a voyeur but whatever.” I could practically hear his fucking shrug from here. “So, what crawled up your fucking ass?”

“We have a hunter in Cedar Harbor.” My statement was met by fucking silence. I expected it. Lane had a sordid history with hunters. Except I wasn’t in the fucking mood to wait his processing shit out. “Do I need to fucking repeat that?”

“How bad?”

“One dead already. And it took over my brother’s fiancé’s wolf to use against us.”

“The sleepwalking feral one?” Lane asked. Yeah, he knew about Raven’s condition. Lane wasn’t a wolf, but he was a powerful fucking witch with a streak for the unusual and borderline wicked. I teetered the line of morally questionable, but Lane made me look like a goddamn saint.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” I replied. “I had to subdue her.”

“Your mom had to love that,” he scoffed. Yeah, we weren’t getting into that. Mom was fucking livid about that whole thing as well as learning that I’d lied to her about what I was doing with my life. I planned to avoid that pending conversation as long as fucking possible. “What do you need from me?”

“I need you on this one,” I told him. “I can’t do this one alone.”

“Well, that’s a dangerous ask.” That dark chuckle of his sent a shiver down my spine.

“I know I can’t hunt this fucker down if I’m worried about being a liability.” I dropped my cigarette to the ground and squashed it. Lane would be able to do things I couldn’t dream of when it came to hunting this monster down. “Skip the fucking lecture and just tell me when you can get here.”

“Two weeks maybe,” Lane said. “I’ll swing out as soon as I fucking can, but I can’t promise sooner. They need to be dealt with first.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “I get that.”

And I did. I just didn’t like it.

“Need anything else before I go kill another soul-sucking bitch?” He sounded far too thrilled about that. The thing with Lane was, he had some major serial killer vibes. He just channeled all that into his fucking hunts—which always included unnecessary torture before death is possible. And yet, the same fucking man donated half his pay to children’s hospitals where he volunteered. He was fucking unusual.

“My future sister-in-law,” I began, hoping to hell he could help me with my second thing. If he couldn’t, I didn’t think anyone could. “Do you have something that could prevent the hunter from taking control of her wolf? Or could you make something?”

“Ah, shit.” Lane clicked his tongue. “A magical ward would work, but it’d have to be dual-calibrated to both a human and a wolf.”

“So, it’s not possible then.”

“Please, do you even fucking know me?” he scoffed with feigned distress. “I’ll have that shit to you by sunrise.”

I just thanked him and hung up the fucking phone because I didn’t have a clue how that man would get me something before sunrise. I knew better than to ask, though.

I resumed staring at the woods, knowing sleep would be a bitch to achieve. My mind was too ramped up. Too many questions and too many what-ifs never made for a good night’s sleep.

True to his promise, Lane somehow managed to get the bracelet to me just before dawn. I had no clue how, and I knew better than to ask. When I woke up from my nap, it was waiting for me on the porch. The leather bracelet wasn’t particularly attractive in any way, but even I could feel the power pulsing through it as I held it. For as fucked up as he was, I trusted Lane, especially when it came to magic. The guy didn’t fuck with that shit.

Despite the early hour, I drove straight to Declan’s and beat down the door until he answered. I brushed off the frustrated annoyance on his face when he saw me. Half asleep and half naked, the man looked ready to slam the door in my face—maybe I deserved it, considering everything.

“I need to talk to Raven,” I said. Without waiting, I pushed my way into the house. Cade opened up one eye from his spot on the couch where he was propped up on a mound of pillows. The color in his cheeks was there, which was a damn good thing. “Morning, scrappy. You look like hell.”

“Still look better than your dumbass,” he grumbled.

“You wish.” I smirked. I patted the back of the couch as I passed. “You did good. You need anything?”

“Nah,” Cade mumbled. “You’d be surprised the fucking shit people want to send you when you get your ass handed to yourself by a fucking deer running across the road.”

Not a half–bad cover story to tell everyone.There was no fucking way he’d play another game this season. Sam must’ve wrecked a car for him while George did the police reports.

“Those fuckers are a real pain in the ass up this way,” I commented. Saying nothing more, I strode straight down the hall to the closed door. I knocked hard, saying, “Open the door, Raven. I’ll ask nicely once, and then I’ll kick it in. We both know I will, and Declan—”

“What?” Raven demanded as the door flew open. Well then. That was easier than I expected. Her eyes were red and tired like she hadn’t slept—not that I blamed her.

“I’ve got something for you.” Taking her by the elbow, I dragged her back to the bed. Was I manhandling her more than I should’ve? Yes, I was. But I wanted to get the hell out of there and see Genevieve. The growl ripping its way out of Raven wasn’t highly encouraging, but I wasn’t discouraged. When her ass hit the bed, I crouched. “Let me see your wrist.”

“What the hell are you—”

“Let me see your wrist,” I repeated, giving her little room to argue with me. Still, she glared at me—shit, she really didn’t like being told what the fuck to do—and I glared right back. “Raven.”

“Killian.”

“Give me your goddamn wrist,” I snapped. “I will make you, but then I’ll have to fucking fight my brother because I touched his wife.”

“You know?” she asked softly.

“I do, which makes you family,” I told her. I held out my hand. “I’m just trying to help.”

After a ridiculously long moment in which she and Declan exchanged looks, she did as I asked. I took out the leather rope from Lane and began weaving it around her wrist until the two ends were clasped together.

“Now, I know you feel fucking guilty, and I know there’s not a damn thing anyone can do to fix that shit,” I whispered. I slipped her hand between mine and squeezed tight as I met her questioning gaze. “But I’d bet fucking anything, the thing you feel the worst about is someone taking away your control.”

“Killian—”

“I know a fucking guy,” I continued over Declan’s warning. “He’s damn good with magic—unconventional magic—so I made a call last night, and he made this for you. As long as you wear this, no one can control your wolf except you. No more being used against your family. Got it?”

“Really?” Her eyes widened, glancing down at the leather bracelet.

“Only one of us gets to be the family disaster. I’m not letting you take that away from me.”

“Thank you… I don’t know what to say.”

“Just keep doing whatever you’re doing,” I said. “You’re good for my brother. You and Cade. I’ve never seen him so happy. He needs you two, not…”

Me. I cut myself off before I said something that Declan would hear. Hours awake staring at the forest had given me a lot of time to think—rather than fall into the endless spiral of rambling thoughts. One thing became clear.

Declan didn’t need me around anymore. I didn’t fit his way of life. His beliefs. We were too different. Polite we could do, but deep down, he’d outgrown me. All of them had.