I looked over at Mark as he put the last of the stones back into his pouch. We’d agreed to have him hold on to them for a bit, just until we were positive that this had worked—although after what we’d just witnessed, there was no doubt in my mind.

Reaching for Mark’s hand, I gave it a squeeze as we all laughed, ran, and danced back up the hill to our waiting helicopters. We were halfway up the hill when Dimi suddenly dropped to his knees right there in the middle of the hillside.

We all rushed to help him, but Ethan held up a hand to hold us off as he raised a finger to his lips and mouthed the word vision.

Fuck me, another vision? When we’d only just finished the damn job? What the hell else could possibly be required of us, I wondered. We all slowly dropped down onto the hillside around Dimi, sitting there silently while we waited for him.

I almost jumped out of my skin when he opened his eyes suddenly and shouted with alarm.

“We have to leave, now! The bad Fae is going to attack Effie! She’s in danger, and since it’s day time, Enzo and Hugo won’t be there to protect her! They’ll be in their stone forms right now.”

Sean’s eyes flashed with a brilliant emerald green glow as he snarled. “That dodgy bastard! Of course he would attack a defenseless woman and a wee brownie while ta guardians are unable ta protect them. Do we have time ta get there?”

Dimi nodded solemnly. “The sun was high in the sky, and it’s just now dawn. If we leave now, we can probably just make it.”

Ethan pulled Dimi into his arms, cradling the younger man against his wide chest. “Are you okay? I know we need to hurry, but do you need anything after that vision?”

Dimi shook his head quickly. “I can rest on the way there, this is urgent. We need to go now.”

Looking around at everybody, I couldn’t help but speak up as a thought struck me.

“If Cullen is about to attack Effie, where is our good Fae friend Easton today? If we somehow managed to lock the bad guy on our side of the portal, is it possible that Easton is still here too?”

Peter was the first to answer. “My gut says yes. Because if you think about it, we didn’t see anybody leave when the portal was open. That means that any Fae who were already in our world, are still here. They’re stuck here now, aren’t they?”

I took in three deep cleansing breaths before I spoke. “I feel like you’re right, Peter. However, the goddess could always have a trick or two up her sleeve. I mean, don’t they always?”

Sean looked at Ethan, and they seemed to be exchanging a silent conversation between them before Ethan spoke.

“Well, we’d all better get our collective arse into these heli’s then. Because we’ve a two and a half hour flight ahead of us, and we’ll need to stop for fuel.”

* * *

Four hours later, we were finally in the woods surrounding Effie’s cottage. The darkness of the area felt more malevolent than ever as we silently made our way through in our shifted forms. We were about halfway to Effie’s, when an eerie howl filled the air.

“Watch out, behind you!” Mark’s voice warned me through our mating link as his wolf jumped in front of me to protect my other flank. I wasn’t as worried about Mark or myself as I was for some of our friends. Wolves are much tougher fighters than, say, a fox and a red panda.

Twin jaguar screams sounded from somewhere in the trees ahead of me while I also heard a roaring lion and growling bears. Fuck me, whatever was ahead of us in the trees didn’t sound friendly if my friends and pack mates were in defensive mode.

A swarm of small birds dive-bombed through the air at Sean’s fox, only to be driven back by a certain red hawk that came swooping in protectively with a pouncing leopard as backup.

I turned at the sound of growling, only to be met by what appeared to be a pack of regular dogs. Some of them even more collars, showing that these weren’t wild dogs—but rather people’s pets. They all had a glazed look in their eyes, and it appeared as though they were all under some sort of spell.

Ethan, Cody, Mark and I were surrounded by the dogs, with no way out but to fight our way through. It saddened me as I broke the neck of what I could only assume was normally a friendly Labrador retriever, but I had no choice.

I felt a sharp pang when I noticed that it wore a collar, but I had no choice but to move on. Right now, it was kill or be killed, and my wolf wasn’t about to be taken down or let any of our packmates suffer that fate either.

For what felt like hours, we fought hard as one group of animals after another came at us. Domestic animals, wild animals, it made no difference. Cats, dogs, foxes and wolves. Even a few rabid looking squirrels and rats attacked us at one point.

“You all realize that this was the work of Cullen to keep us from reaching Effie in time, right?” Ethan’s voice sounded in my head. At Cody’s answering snarled, I realized that Ethan was broadcasting to all of us. Once again, I was impressed by the Australian alpha’s mad skills in mind speaking.

As we broke through the tree line, I heard a whimpering noise in the bushes to my right. I went to investigate, with Mark right on my tail.

“Snowflake, this could be a trap. After all we just dealt with? I don’t trust random noises coming from any bushes.”

I turned to see my alphas standing beside me, and swiped my tongue across his muzzle affectionately. “Listen, Mark. Whatever it is, it sounds scared. I’ll hold back and let you look in first, but I feel strongly that I can’t just walk away.”

Mark gave me the wolf version of a sigh as he gave a long panting breath, but he brushed past me to look into the bush.

“Oh, fuck. Good call, snowflake. Go ahead, come and have a look.”

Pushing up beside my mate, I ducked my head in between the branches to see a little Yorkshire terrier puppy. He couldn’t have been all that old, he looked like he’d just been weaned.

Without hesitation, I shifted into my human form and pulled the puppy free. I turned to see Mark standing there in human form as well, with a knowing smile on his face.

“You do realize that even if you can talk Sean into letting you take that thing on the helicopter, we really don’t have room in our caravan for a puppy and a baby.” He must have picked up on the indignant look on my face, because he held up both hands with a smile. “I don’t have a problem with it, snowflake. I’m just warning you in advance.”

Cuddling the puppy to my chest, I took Mark’s hand as we walked through the tree line to where our friends were all standing there staring at the broken gate that led to Effie’s cottage. It appeared as if it had been bent back, and torn off its hinges before being flung to the side.

Jun heard my gasp of disbelief, and turned to me with a solemn expression. “The gate is the least of it, just ask Heath. All of the magical wards have been removed as well. The unseelie prince is much stronger than we knew, if he was able to take down wards that were this powerful.”

Just then, the bloodcurdling scream of a woman’s voice rent the air.