Carrie couldn’t believe what had happened. One second she’d been scrubbing dishes, the next she’d been popped into the hall by Kendrick only to find the love of her existence standing in front of her. He’d changed so much in all the ways that mattered. And now his wolf had … left him? She shook her head before she chased him down the hall.

He couldn’t possibly consider listening to Kendrick. After everything they’d been through, separated, not seeing each other, trying with all his might to keep Kendrick from winning while keeping each other alive.

Gabriel smelled … wrong.

It all makes sense now that we know his wolf has gone missing.

Her wolf paced around inside her. Carrie’s other half had never been comfortable in their current circumstances, but now she acted downright anxious. Her wolf had been her rock through everything. Now did not seem the time for her to get worked up.

Her beloved, who smelled of pain—rank, gut-churning, soul-destroying agony— strode after his father like a thirsty man who had been told he could soon have a drink of water. He still had the same gait, strong and determined. The back of his hair had grown a little long, which spoke of the difference in him. When they’d been together he’d always had it short and shaved right up against his skull.

You never told me it was at all possible to lose you. That might have been helpful to know when you explained to me how all of this would work.

Her wolf remained silent for a second. I shouldn’t even justify that with a response. In the history of our kind, this has never happened before. I can’t be expected to see all possibilities. I’m the wolf here. You’re the human. Let me run free. You do the heavy thinking. These are human problems. Shifters don’t do this to each other.

Much as Carrie hated to admit it, her wolf had a point. It wasn’t until Kendrick had gone haywire that everything had changed.

“Gabriel.”

He turned to look at her, walking backward for two steps while he did.

“Sweet lady, I have to do this.”

Her heart stuttered and tears she refused to give passage to threatened to spill from her eyes. She hadn’t heard those blessed words—sweet lady—for too long. The nickname Gabriel had given her so long ago. When they’d both been naive enough to believe the world held nothing but happy endings for them.

A time Carrie’s thoughts drifted to often.

“Gabriel.” Carrie sped up and grabbed his arm. “Please, listen to me. We’ll go together. We’ll run away.”

“And then what? Keep running for the rest of our lives?” He stopped to look at her before he cupped her face in his own. “Don’t forget the spell on us.”

“Screw spells. I’m so sick of witches and black magic. I’m so sick of the whole damn thing.”

He laughed and for just a second she saw the man he used to be in his sad gaze. Just as soon as it appeared, it vanished. Had it ever been there or did she imagine it?

Something is very wrong with him. Her wolf added what Carrie already suspected.

“I’m so tired of them too.”

Kendrick stopped walking and stared at them. The usual venom she’d come to associate with her former Alpha’s gaze filled the room. “He’s quite right, Carrie-daughter. If you leave me, you die. If Gabe tries to take you or doesn’t do exactly what I say, you die. Either way you look at this, if you do anything I don’t like, you’re dead.”

“I was aware of the deal forty years ago, you sick son of a bitch.” She longed to scratch out his eyes. The years had given her a tolerance for his manhandling and his foul mouth, but the growl that erupted from her told her that her wolf’s patience had come to an end. “I never would have agreed to it if I’d been consulted.”

“I would have killed you. The curse made all mated men end their women. They all died,” Gabe interjected, his voice shaking in the room. “Struck you dead where you stood. I wouldn’t have been able to help myself. And if I could have managed not to, my only other choice would have been to end my own life, which would have forced you to follow me to death. Either way, you would have died. I couldn’t allow it.”

“Maybe I could have stopped you.” They’d had this argument forty years earlier. Apparently it hadn’t ever ceased.

“No. You couldn’t have. Gods know you couldn’t even have waited it out. Tristan tried to kill Ashlee thirty years later until we managed to eliminate Dad’s original witch. That made the curse cease.”

“Not my original one, son.” Kendrick shook his head. “Just the one my love hired to do her dirty work for her. After all, I couldn’t have you all gunning for Drea to remove the curse.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Who’s Drea?”

Her throat felt dry. “His miserable wife.”

“And how is that possible?” Gabe’s pulse felt too fast under her touch.

“Your mother was never really his mate.”

“What?” He didn’t even shout his words. The Gabriel of old would be in a fury.

Carrie spoke quickly. “It’s a long story.” Right now Kendrick seemed amused. He wouldn’t be in a few moments. The maniacal shifter who happened to be her father-in-law didn’t like any moment that didn’t center on exactly what he wanted whenever he wanted it. “Tristan is mated?”

“I left a few weeks ago, but nearly all of them are. Maybe even all of them now.” He stroked a hand down her cheek. “Tristan and Cullen mated Victoria’s daughters.”

He couldn’t have shocked her more if he’d hit her with a live wire. “Ashlee. And Summer? Did she really name them that?” So much time had passed. Victoria had grown daughters and Carrie had never even met them.

“She did. You should see all the babies running around. My brothers are fathers now. Seeing them like that. Bizarre.”

Kendrick laughed. “Unfortunately, Victoria never got to see her daughters become moms. I had her slaughtered before that.”

She took a step back, her attention tunneling on her father-in-law. “You did what?”

“I couldn’t have Victoria interfering in things anymore. I had to hurt the pack. What better way than by eliminating anyone who got in my way?”

“She was my best friend.” She could feel her change coming on her. The suddenness and lack of thought to the shift told her she’d lost control of her wolf. Her lupine half wanted blood even if it meant her own death.

Carrie could still see Victoria as she’d been that day in the woods in the moments before Carrie’s life had changed. Young, alive, full of laughter and self-confidence. Yes, Kendrick had to pay for his actions. Enough had to be enough.

“Don’t do it.” Gabriel grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her against him. “I won’t lose you. Do you understand?” He stroked her skin and her wolf settled down. The shift stopped. “I need you to trust me.”

She did, but if his plan included anything less than squishing Kendrick like a bug she’d have something to say about it.