I swallowed hard as I took in his words but didn’t respond. I was afraid if I did, I might accidentally take my frustrations out on Alex, and he didn’t deserve that.
“I’m going to have the others help me undress your dad and give him a more thorough exam. Why don’t you show our guests around?” Alex suggested.
I didn’t want to leave my dad for even a moment, but I also had no desire to watch him go through an examination. The indecision must have been written on my face, because Augie grasped my elbow and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t leave him, and I’ll call for you if there’s any news.”
“I’ll kick your ass if you don’t.”
He cracked a small smile, and I left the room. I went back to the living room near the front door and found Liam, Caleb, and Aiden standing around, seeming unsure of what to do. I was probably enjoying seeing them out of their element more than I should, but it was the little things that would get me through all the craziness in my life.
“Hey, Stooges. Do you want a tour, or do you just want to see where you’re staying?”
Caleb laughed and gave me a high five. “I was starting to think your sense of humor was broken. Which one am I?”
He was completely serious right then. I was afraid his heart might break if I gave him the wrong name. I thought about the comedy my dad enjoyed watching late at night when he thought everyone else was asleep and decided exactly who Caleb was most like.
“I think I’ll call you Larry.”
His eyes crinkled in amusement. “You are an intriguing little firecracker.”
“How about that tour?” Liam asked.
Going with the theme, I decided to give Caleb another reason to smile. “Whatever you say, Moe.”
Even Aiden grinned at that one, but Liam wasn’t enjoying it. It was a win-win for everyone.
I showed them the downstairs first, and then we went outside to use one of the ATVs, so I could show them the property before it became completely dark out. We had several of them for the pack members to borrow for various chores around the land. Once we were piled into the biggest one, which accommodated all four of us, I sped down the trails. First, I showed them the training facility since it was closest. Then, we headed west toward the shooting range.
After that, we visited the farm area. Our property had several acres dedicated to growing a lot of the produce we needed to survive. Everything was split amongst the pack families, and everyone pitched in to help in some way or another. Each of the brothers seemed impressed with how organized everything was, and I was once again reminded of how proud I was of my pack.
We circled back around, and I took the scenic route to show them the lake on our property. The sun was almost set and it was a tranquil sight. There was nothing better than laying out on the dock, watching the sky change colors as another day passed. It took my breath away every time.
We had stopped the ATV at the top of the hill above the lake and I kicked my feet up. Caleb and Aiden got out to explore a little and Liam stayed behind, surprising me.
“Quite the place you have here,” Liam said. “I can see why people favor it.”
I was taken aback by the compliment, having not expected it from him. “Thank you. This is one of my favorite spots to be.”
“What are the others?”
I turned to glance at him, confused by his sudden interest, and tried to figure out his game. For now, I’d play along. I didn’t have the energy to do anything different. Keep your friends close and enemies closer, right? I didn’t think Liam, or his family were enemies, but it was still in my best interest to be nice for the time being.
“The shooting range is also a favorite. Not a lot of shifters around here like guns. They prefer a more hands-on approach, but it was the one thing my dad didn’t worry about me doing growing up. He never liked me in the training hall with the others, always afraid of something happening. I got my time in there eventually, but I learned to take my aggressions out by blowing shit up on the range.”
Liam nodded but didn’t say anything. He seemed lost in thought, so I focused on the view ahead.
He broke the silence a few minutes later. “Sorry I was rude before.”
“Excuse me?” I choked a little. No way had I gotten that right.
“You heard me, and I won’t repeat it.” There was the attitude I was used to. “I underestimated you and I shouldn’t have.”
“No, you shouldn’t have, but that’s always been my advantage. People take one look at me and dismiss me as the sheltered alpha daughter. I don’t mind, though. I enjoy proving people wrong.”
Liam laughed, and the sound warmed my heart more than it should have. I didn’t have time to find out if he was more than the arrogant ass he portrayed himself as. I continued to ignore the feeling and the now-constant whining of my wolf. Get it through your head, girl. We won’t be sampling his goods.
“You guys have any food around here?” Caleb asked as he plopped back into the back seat, effectively ending our conversation. He and Aiden had snuck up behind us. “I’m starving.”
“I’m pretty sure you ate the majority of the food on the plane,” Liam teased. “How are you still hungry?”
Caleb patted his belly. “I’m a growing boy. What can I say?”
“We have plenty of food. I need to check on my dad, and it’s almost dark, so let’s head back.”
We’d been gone for less than an hour, but I was still worried that no news was bad news in this case. If Alex couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my dad, I had no idea what we would do next.
I drove the ATV back and quickly showed the guys back to the kitchen, handing them off to Courtney, one of the usual kitchen helpers, with instructions to take them to their rooms upstairs when they were done eating.
I went back down the hall to the room I left my dad in and cracked open the door. “Safe for me to come in?” I called out.
Augie pulled the door the rest of the way open. His face was drawn tight, and his hair was disheveled from the stress we’d been through.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Alex stepped back from the bed and removed his stethoscope from his ears. “Your dad is as healthy as he’s ever been. His vitals are low, but it’s as if he’s sleeping. His blood work is fine as well. We could take him to the hospital for a CT scan, but I doubt it’s necessary.”
“Then why isn’t he waking up?” I snapped. I didn’t like this. If we didn’t know what was wrong, how were we supposed to fix him? At least if he said he found a deadly poison in his blood, we could search for a cure. Finding nothing gave us nothing to go off of and that was bad. Really bad.
“I’m sorry, Taya. I wish I knew, but whatever happened to him is either beyond my medical knowledge or it’s magical.”
Oh no. Not fucking possible. Declan wouldn’t have. Of course, he would. He was a psychopath.
“The sorceress. Declan got her to give him something to harm my dad. That has to be it.”
Alex and Davis both nodded as they thought over the possibility.
“We’d need a witch to be certain,” Davis said. “There’s no other way to source out the magic.”
Why couldn’t our old pack witch have told her coven to screw off when they made her choose? We needed her now more than ever. “Can we find Zarai?” I asked, even though I knew the answer already.
“It’s too risky. Her coven gives the whole pack protection. If we go back on our deal to leave them be, then we could lose that security for our pack. Your dad would kill me for making that choice,” Davis said.
“If we don’t, we might be killing him, so I don’t care. There are other ways to keep the humans off our land. It’s not like the protections do anything to keep other beings out anyway. We learned that with Cord. I’m done doing nothing, Davis. I will be finding that coven.”
Hands on my hips, I stared Davis down until he caved. There was no way I was letting him stop me. I wouldn’t let another member of my family be taken from me, no matter the cost. If history had been recorded right, then I doubted it would be a problem anyway. I imagined Zarai’s coven would be all too happy to get their hands on the sorceress and restore the natural order. They were all Zen and earthy like that from my understanding, so a sorceress messing with the humans should piss them off as much as it did us.
“You can’t go alone,” Davis said.
“We’ll go with her,” Liam’s deep voice sounded from behind me.
“This isn’t your business,” I retorted. “We have plenty of capable wolves here to come with me.”
He leveled his light green eyes on me. Heat emanated from him as he stared at me. My wolf was telling me to stand down. In her words, he was a potential mate, and we needed to have respect. Screw that! She had never been more wrong in my life.
There was no way to tell for sure if he was my mate. There wasn’t a moment of awe that happened when wolves met their other half. We had a choice in the matter, but our alter-egos definitely had a say as well. If they didn’t accept the one we chose, then things could get uncomfortable. At the same time, if I didn’t select who my wolf wanted, there was still a chance I’d find my mate one day.
I refocused my attention back on our little staring contest. I didn’t care if Liam was the more dominant one. I would fight the urge to look away as long as I could. No way would I ever let him push me around. I clenched my jaw and held out. Sweat beaded on my neck and my muscles ached with the effort.
“That’s enough,” Aiden growled, breaking us apart. “Taya, please allow us to escort you in the search for these witches. It’s important to us to set things right, and we’d rather not leave things as they are. We promise to follow your lead if you allow us to join you.”
“It would be helpful not to lose any wolves here. We don’t know if Declan will try something again. Especially, when he realizes two of his females are missing. We need to have as many shifters on patrol as possible,” Davis said.
Traitor.
I turned toward Aiden. “Fine, but the moment any of you try to push me around, I’ll kick your asses and ditch you.”
“Don’t worry, Firecracker. We’ll be on our best behavior.” Caleb winked as he popped his head into the room. They were like bugs appearing out of nowhere. His statement did make me laugh, though. I didn’t think he really understood the meaning of ‘best behavior’.
“I’m going with you, too,” Augie finally piped in.
“No, I need you here, researching other witch covens in case Zarai’s won’t help us,” I said. “You’re better at that stuff than anyone in the pack. Please, do this for me.”
Augie glared at the three men who had quickly forced their way into our lives. “I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I, but it’s the only plan we have, and I need you here coming up with another one in case it fails.”
Augie stepped around me and gave the brothers his full attention. “If any harm comes to her while she is under your watch, I will personally see to it that each of you pay. Bring her back in one piece.”
Hot damn! Augie was a total badass. His brotherly love was making me all warm and fuzzy on the inside. He may be a book nerd most of the time, but when someone made him angry, I cleared out of the way.
They merely nodded their understanding and didn’t reply. Maybe they were smarter than I had given them credit for.
“We’ll leave tomorrow,” I said. “You three go get some sleep and meet me in the living room before dawn.”
“You got it, Firecracker.” Caleb saluted me.
“What’s with the Firecracker nickname?” I asked, probably not wanting to know, but curiosity got the best of me.
“Your hair.” He reached out his fingers and brought it toward him. “There’s red woven in the brown. Plus, the name fits your attitude.”
Acceptable answer that was actually much better than I thought it was going to be. “Fair enough. Just know that the attitude will likely only get worse, so I hope you’re prepared to deal with it.”
“Don’t worry, we can handle whatever you want to throw at us.” He grinned, turning back to his brothers.
Liam, Caleb, and Aiden left the room without complaint. I stayed and asked Alex more questions about my dad’s exam, but he’d been thorough and there was nothing else to report, unfortunately. Davis left to handle pack business. He was now officially in charge and had a lot to deal with. I felt bad leaving him to do it on his own, but someone had to find the witches and that person was going to be me.
I was glad Davis had a handle on things and alpha duties fell to him. I wouldn’t become alpha unless my dad actually died, which was most definitely not happening.
Alex finally left as well, leaving just me and Augie. He hadn’t said much since my announcement to leave him here, but I knew it was only a matter of time. I had hurt his feelings, and we needed to talk about it.
“Augie…,” I said, but didn’t finish, hoping he would tell me how he was feeling.
“It’s okay, Tay. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not and that’s okay. We’ve had our world turned upside down this week and it only keeps getting worse. I don’t want to leave here tomorrow without you being able to talk to me about it.”
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face with both hands. “We didn’t even have time to grieve Cord before something happened to your dad. Now we’re being separated. I don’t like it. Everything about it feels wrong. We don’t know these brothers. I get your dad was friends with theirs and Davis trusts them, but that doesn’t mean shit to me. I don’t know them. Liam looks at you funny. Caleb wants to be your new best friend. Aiden, he’s just odd. Too brooding for me.”
“Tell me how you really feel.” I laughed a little. “I get it. I really do. But I don’t know that we really have a choice given the hand we’ve been dealt.”
“I know we don’t, which is why I didn’t put up a bigger fight about it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”
“No, you don’t have to like it, but I need to know I have your support. It means the world to me and if you truly didn’t want me to go and we could figure out another solution, then I’d stay. You’re my family, Augie, and we have to stick together on these things. Now more than ever.”
He grinned at me. “Thank you. I needed to hear that. You have my support. Just don’t let those guys take over. The three of them together would likely pummel me, but I meant it when I said I’d make them pay if any harm came to you.”
“I know you did and I appreciate it. I’ll be fine as long as you stay safe here. I wouldn’t survive if something happened to you, too.”
Augie scooted closer to me in his chair. “I’m not going anywhere, and neither is your dad. We’re going to find a way to save him. I know it.”
“What if we don’t?”