My voice was thick with emotion. I had no idea what I would do if I didn’t find a witch to help us. To never feel my dad’s strong arms around me. To never hear his angry voice when I disobeyed him. To never see his warm smile as he cooked his favorite meals. That wasn’t a future I could live in so soon. I knew one day I would have to, but not for many more decades.
“We will. We can’t think of any other outcome. Plus, you now have the world’s best guardian angel looking after you. I imagine Cord is watching out for all of us and cheering us on every step of the way.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes, but it was pointless. Now that they had started, there was no stopping them. Augie wrapped me in a tight embrace, and I soaked up all the love he was willing to offer me. He was right. I could and would do this. I would save my dad, and I would help stop Declan. He wouldn’t get away with any of it and neither would the sorceress. I would hunt them for as long as it took. I barely slept that night. I tossed and turned, unable to turn my mind off and keep the craziness that had become my life away. My heart hurt, beyond anything I had thought was possible, but rage bubbled beneath the surface, helping me to move forward.
I gave up on sleep around four a.m. and after getting ready for our trip, I went to sit with my dad again. I didn’t like leaving him. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I didn’t trust anyone other than Augie and Davis to do what needed to be done. Unfortunately, they were more useful here, which left searching for the witch coven up to me. Well, me and the Anders brothers.
If I really thought about it, I did appreciate their help. They seemed knowledgeable and just as eager to make Declan pay as we were. Plus, it meant that many more wolves could stay here and keep an eye on our property and pack. I was trying to look at the bright side instead of fighting it. My dad would be proud.
“Good morning, Taya,” Davis said as he creaked open the door to the room. “Mind if I join you?”
I gestured to the seat next to mine. “Be my guest.”
“How are you holding up, kid?”
“I’m not a kid anymore.” I rolled my eyes, contradicting my statement, but not caring.
“I know, or I wouldn’t allow for you to go off searching for the witches.” He grinned like a Cheshire cat. “You know I could stop you if I wanted to now.”
Damn alpha powers.
“But you won’t, because you know it’s our best option.”
“Correct.” He nodded. “Don’t worry about your dad. I would die before letting anything happen to him. You just keep yourself safe, okay? When he wakes, if you’re not in one piece, I’m a dead man.”
I laughed at that, knowing it was true. “Thank you for being here and stepping up. I know you’re his beta and it’s your job, and you care about the pack just as much as he does. It shows, and I want you to know how much it means to everyone. Even if we don’t say it enough, you’re a valued leader in this pack and family to me.”
I leaned in and placed my head on his shoulder. I was quickly learning that one never knew how much time they had with someone. It was best to tell loved ones exactly how you felt instead of assuming they knew. I might not ever have the chance to tell my father how much I loved him again and decided not to hold back anymore.
“You’re going to make an amazing alpha one day, Taya.”
“It doesn’t bother you that you wouldn’t stay alpha if this became permanent?”
His low chuckle surprised me. “Not one bit. I love what I do and have never had any desire to challenge your father or family for more. Our pack has a good thing going here. There is no point in disrupting that.”
“Again, I’ll say, you’re a good man, Davis. If we have to deal with the worst-case scenario around here, I hope you plan on sticking around and being my beta.”
“I would be honored.”
I glanced at my phone to check the time. The guys were supposed to meet me in the living room right before sunrise, which was any moment now.
“Thanks for the talk, and thank you for everything else,” I said. “It’s time to go. I’ll check in with you. Please, call me if anything changes.”
Davis stood and helped me up before wrapping his strong arms around me. “Be safe and come home soon.”
I nodded, withdrawing from his embrace. I didn’t need my emotions getting that far out of check again. Last night’s tear-fest would have to be enough for the time being.
I made a quick retreat out the door and down the hallway. It was time to get moving and make some progress. I wanted to make my brother proud and figure everything out just as he had planned to. I would find a way to wake my dad and make Declan pay for all the hurt he’d caused. I needed to do this.
I came around the corner and entered the living room but came to a sudden halt. Liam, Caleb, and Aiden were standing in the middle of the room in quiet conversation. They hadn’t noticed my entrance yet, so I took a moment to appraise them. They really were easy on the eyes.
While their facial features were identical, it was easy to tell them apart. Their hair color was all the same shade of dirty blond, but where Liam kept his brushed and styled, Caleb’s looked as though he just let it fall where it wanted when he rolled out of bed. Aiden’s was shaved short all the way around.
Each of them also had different eye colors; Liam’s were a striking seafoam-green color that, as long as he didn’t open his mouth, were really intriguing to stare at. Caleb’s were a remarkable blue, but I felt there was something more behind his twinkling eyes. They hid something, and I wondered idly if I’d ever figure it out. Aiden’s were more of a steel grey like their dad’s. They matched his broody personality perfectly.
My eyes lingered on Liam longer than they should have, and Caleb finally noticed me. “Good morning, Firecracker. Nice of you to join us.”
“Good morning, Larry.” I grinned.
Caleb laughed. “Oh, good. You have a sense of humor in the mornings, too.”
“You boys ready to go?” I asked, ignoring the jibe.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Liam asked skeptically.
“I do. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Augie and I mapped out the route we needed to go last night. The witch who used to help our pack belonged to a coven over in Idaho. They lived in an old farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. We’re headed straight there. Should take about six hours in the truck.”
I leaned over to grab my bag I’d packed last night and took the keys from the front pocket. I headed for the door, assuming the three of them would follow. I was wrong.
I turned back, raising an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”
Aiden stepped forward. “I drive.” He snagged the keys out of my hand and brushed past me.
“What the hell?” I asked no one in particular.
“He’s the weird one. Just roll with it and everything will be easier. I’m pretty sure I’ve already told you this.” Caleb smirked. “He actually is the best driver. He’d give that fast and furious guy a run for his money.”
I just shook my head and kept walking. Whatever got us there quicker worked for me.
“Shotgun!” Caleb called out like a child.
Great, that put me in the back with Liam. He seemed relatively quiet so far. Hopefully, he’d stay that way.
The truck we were using had a cover on the bed, so we threw our bags and supplies in the back before climbing in. I sat behind Caleb and got my phone out to give Aiden the address for the GPS. He quickly punched it in, and we were on our way. Caleb had been right. Considering Aiden didn’t know our roads at all, he maneuvered them quite well in the dark.
It was too quiet in the truck and my mind began to wander to a sinister place. I needed noise. “Hey, Caleb. Want to play DJ?”
“You got it.” He fumbled with the controls and found the satellite radio options. I was a little worried when he stopped on an eighties station but didn’t comment. It would do the job of drowning out my thoughts.
Halfway through the song, he changed the station and continued to do so every minute or two.
Liam snickered next to me. “When he’s in the car, it’s either no music or this.”
Great. It appeared as though Caleb was going to take us through all the musical eras and genres. Maybe it wasn’t better than silence and my disturbed thoughts.
“How are you holding up?” Liam asked.
“Are you asking like a normal concerned person would or do I have to worry about Mr. Arrogant making an appearance?”
His face pinched, and I felt a little sorry for offending him, but what did he expect? He’d been so hot and cold with me. Not to mention, he had made me look like a fool the first time we met. Okay, maybe I had been drooling over him, but didn’t he know it wasn’t polite to call a girl out on that?
“I’m not sure what your version of normal is, but you’ve made your point clear. No more snarky comments. Scout’s honor. I really just wanted to know how you were doing. It’s been one shitstorm after another for you.”
His words sounded sincere, and if his family was willing to drop everything and help us, I might as well give them the benefit of the doubt.
“I’m surviving.”
He nodded. “That’s a good way to put it. You’re obviously not okay, but surviving is good.”
“It’s the only thing I can do. If I don’t, then who’s left to pick up the pieces? Since the day I was born, it’s been me, my brother, and my dad. Then Augie entered our family as the best friend, and it feels like one by one, I’m losing them all. It was a big reason I asked Augie to stay back with the pack. I didn’t want to worry about him out here.”
Ugh. That was a little more than I intended on telling him. I turned to look out the window, embarrassed for spilling my guts to the guy. He was probably just trying to make conversation and got more than he bargained for.
Liam was silent for a while. Caleb was still deep in thought and obsessed with continually changing the station. Aiden was speeding down the freeway trying to kill us. Being stuck in a truck with three strangers for six hours was going to be so much fun. Not.
“I can only imagine the stress you’re under. I’ve never lost anyone close in my family. I couldn’t picture not having one of my brothers around. They might drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t want to live without them or my parents,” Liam said a while after I dumped my emotions on him.
“Being a twin or even a triplet makes the bond with your siblings that much stronger. There’s nothing like it.” I sighed, recalling the agony in my chest the day Cord was killed. The pain still lingered, and I used it as a reminder to keep pushing forward, to get the retribution he deserved and then some.
“I know I was an ass before, but I really am sorry for all you’re dealing with. I hope we can help your family get justice. I had been a prick to Cord when he visited our pack, thinking I had something to prove. I regret it completely now.”
I really had no words. Liam was all of a sudden being incredibly kind to me, and it was doing funny things to my girly parts. I didn’t like it. I wasn’t supposed to like him. I had assumed he was an arrogant jerk, but maybe it had been a front to push people away, and I was just now seeing the real Liam.
I hated the uncertainty of it all. Most importantly, I wasn’t fond of the emotions it invoked in me. My wolf, on the other hand, was prancing around, proud of the sudden change in my feelings. Easy, girl. Nothing’s changed.
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” I went back to looking out the window and began to enjoy the constant changing of music until Caleb landed on the heavy metal station. I could handle almost any type of music but listening to grown men scream at the top of their lungs was not my thing.
“Really?” I yelled over the music.
Caleb glanced back with a smirk in place. “What?”
I just shook my head and pulled out my phone to send a text to Augie. He probably wasn’t even up yet, but I wanted to make sure he checked on my dad and let me know how he was first thing. Once I was done with the text, I opened my reading app and decided to lose myself in another world until we got to Idaho. I didn’t often read, but Augie was always sending me books, and I figured it was as good of a time as any to check them out.
***
“We’re about fifteen minutes out,” Aiden said, making me jump.
Damn book. I had been so into the story that his voice caught me off guard. The book was about a female detective taking down the scum of the city. She was a total badass, and I was a little irritated at having been interrupted but also excited we were close. I’d never met Zarai, but I had heard stories about how kind she was. I just hoped that still held true.
Augie had managed to find an old picture of her in the pack archives, so we would at least know what she looked like. Back then, she had thick, curly, ebony hair, a kind smile, honey skin, and deep russet eyes. She was tiny in size but supposedly strong in power.
Aiden slowed the truck down and turned left onto a dirt road. There were fields of tall reed everywhere, blocking out most of the view. We came around a bend, and an old house came into view. Fuckery. It appeared abandoned. Shutters hung off the windows, broken glass scattered on the ground, and chipped grey paint covered the house. It was not good.
“Either they live an interesting lifestyle, or they’re long gone,” Caleb commented.
Aiden parked the truck, and we all got out. We stepped carefully, unsure of what to expect. The porch had broken steps, but I grabbed on to the railing and swung over them. The deck creaked under my weight but held.
Liam went to do the same, but I stopped him. “Let me get to the door. I’m not sure how much weight this dilapidated thing can hold.”
He eyed the wood for a quick second. “Good thinking.”
I moved to the door and pushed it open with little effort. I peeked inside while I waited for Liam, but it was dark even under the early afternoon sun.
“We’ll head around back and meet you guys inside,” Caleb said as he and Aiden walked further away.
I proceeded slowly into the house with Liam right behind me. I tried a light switch, but the power was out. Liam strode over to a window and pulled the curtains back, so we could see better. The furniture all had a thick layer of dust on it. The shelves had been emptied. No pictures or décor adorned the walls. The witches had been gone for some time, and they’d taken everything except the heavy furniture with them.
“Let’s check all the rooms just in case they forgot something that could tell us where they went,” I suggested.
Liam nodded and walked toward a den while I went left down a hallway. The doors were all open and more light shone through in the back of the house. I sneezed several times from the dust and hoped it was going to be a quick trip, before my nose really decided to have a fit. My wolf hated dust. It messed with our senses.
The first room only had a bed which had been stripped bare. A few hangers were left in the closet, but nothing had even been left under the bed except dust bunnies. In the next room, I discovered more of the same thing except there was a dresser with some old photos and papers. I quickly scanned them, but nothing stood out to me. At the last minute, I decided to take them anyway. Maybe they’d be valuable to someone else if we could catch up to their coven.
The final room down the hall was an office of sorts. The only thing it contained was a large oak desk that was pushed against the wall. The floor in the room creaked as I strode across it making me nervous. Someone had ripped up the carpet in this room and laid down rich mahogany flooring. It was by far the nicest room in the house and likely where the coven leader spent most of her time.
“Find anything?” Liam asked from the doorway.
I turned to face him, and my stomach erupted in all the feels, causing me to stare at him like a deer in the headlights. He leaned casually against the frame of the door with one hand in his pocket. His hair was disheveled but somehow sexy, and his eyes… Hot damn, I was in trouble if he kept looking at me with his smoldering gaze.
“What?” I asked, knowing he had said something when he walked in, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what it was.
His lips turned up slightly and his eyes crinkled at the edges, but he didn’t call me out like he had before, and for that I was thankful. Maybe he really was going to lose the arrogant act like he’d said.
“I didn’t find anything useful. Did you?” he repeated.
“Oh. I don’t think so,” I said, then turned back toward the desk I’d yet to explore. “I found these papers and photos. They probably won’t help, but I figured it was worth a shot.”
I stood behind the desk now, checking the drawers. Once again, everything was empty. I took a step to the left and the floorboard moved beneath my foot. I glanced up at Liam, raising an eyebrow. “Found something.”
I bent down and tried to move the plank, but the desk was covering part of it. Liam pushed the desk back out of the way as I lifted the board free and found a three-foot-long space. Small glass bottles were arranged in one corner and in the other was a book. I picked it up and dusted off the cover. There was a coven seal on the black leather cover, but nothing else.
“Should we open it?” I asked, feeling uneasy about messing with witch business.
I’d never been around witches. I didn’t know the extent of their power, and I didn’t feel like getting knocked on my ass for screwing with something I probably shouldn’t.
Liam snatched the book from my hand, and I glared at him. “Asshole,” I mumbled under my breath. I was actually grateful for his ability to piss me off, because it made it easier not to make a pass at him. Staring was safe. I had a feeling touching would lead to consequences I wasn’t ready for and I would do my best to stay far away from that scenario.
“You were looking a little green around the edges at the thought of trying to open the book. Excuse me for trying to be nice and taking the task off your hands.” His voice held an edge of attitude to it. Good, he could stay irritated with me, too.
His hands explored the outer edges of the book first before he attempted to lift the cover. The back had wording on it, but it was in another language I couldn’t read or understand. Finally, his fingers pulled against the cover, but nothing happened.
He laughed and tossed the book on the desk. “Have a try. It’s hard as a rock. Nothing is going to open that book until the witch who spelled it decides they can.”
I picked it back up but froze as I heard footsteps pounding down the hall. I glanced at Liam, but he didn’t seem alarmed. Finally, Caleb came barreling around the corner.
“Damn, I lost five bucks,” he said sullenly.
“What?” I asked. He was making no sense.
Before Caleb could respond, Liam cut him off. “Did you find anything around the back?”
“Nothing but a big burn pile. It looks like they threw everything they didn’t need out the back door and lit it on fire. Nothing salvageable that we could tell.” He pointed to the book in my hands. “What’s that?”
I held it up, so he could see. “Not sure. It won’t open.”
“Well, it’s something. If we manage to catch up to the coven somehow, it might be a bargaining chip,” he said optimistically.
Caleb was right. I set the book on the desk and cleaned out the rest of the hidden area. No other papers, just bottles of what I assumed to be potions. Too bad they weren’t labeled. One of them might be able to heal my dad, but no way would I test that theory without being absolutely sure.
“Let’s head back outside,” Caleb said. “This place gives me the creeps.”
Liam attempted to slide the bottles into his pockets, but they weren’t fitting, so he cradled his shirt out and used it to hold the bottles. By the time he was done, his abs were on full display. I’m so screwed.
I licked my lips, and Caleb snickered. I recovered quickly, grabbing the rest of the items, and brushed past both of them toward the front door.
I needed space. Lots and lots of space. If not, these men were going to be the death of me.