“Do you like it here?” Mom asked him, looking at Elise as if she didn’t trust her.

Mikey smiled, once again shocking me with those big teeth. “Yeah. It was a rough time at first, but now that I’m able to hold my human form, we play a lot of games. I’m really good at foosball.”

Elise smiled. “You’re okay.”

He gave her a sheepish look. Yeah, they were totally into each other.

“How old are you?” I blurted out to her.

Her eyes met mine, and for the slightest second, they flashed orange. “Twenty.”

Hmm, same age as me. I decided to be civil and change the subject. “So, I heard you’ll be starting classes in the fall?”

Just then, a twig snapped, and Mikey’s head shot to the thick woods that lined the property. He took a slow, deep inhale, flexing his nostrils, as his eyes turned the color of honey. My hand went to the blade on my thigh and my mother leaned into me.

Elise’s entire body was clenched, as if she were ready to take Mikey to the ground if need be.

“There’s a rabbit nearby,” Mikey said.

Elise nodded. “Do you want to go hunting?”

Mikey shook his head. “I think my mom and sister should leave.”

Without another word, Elise burst from the table and rushed my mom and me into our car, telling us to lock the doors. I was in total shock that my shithead little brother, whom I’d always teased and thought of as a punk, was some dangerous beast now.

“It’ll be okay,” I lied to my mom.

She didn’t say a word, just cried the whole way home.

Maybe this was Mikey’s life now, only able to live with his pack to control his beast. If that was the case, then I had to be okay with it. It wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned for our family, but he seemed happy-ish.

At least he was adjusting. That was all we could ask for.

Chapter Fourteen

“Alright! This is the winning race and will determine this year’s victor of The Beach Games!” Noah roared through his bullhorn.

Lincoln and I were on the same team with Noah and Shea. We had totally made them do a couples’ thing, and we were tied for first place.

I gave Tiffany a side glare. Shea nearly killed Noah for inviting her, but I guess she was considered family because of her stupid parents who I’d never even met. These alleged amazing parents were BFFs of Noah’s and Lincoln’s parents, so we had to include Tiffany, and to top it all off, the bitch was tied with us for first. She’d brought some brute of a guy to be the final member of her group, a Celestial who’d graduated years ago and must have been pushing thirty.

“Pick one representative to swim the obstacle course!” Noah shouted into the bullhorn.

My eyes flicked to Tiffany, who rolled out her shoulders. “I was first place at the national swim team meet, three years in a row,” she cooed. “I’ll do it.”

Her two lackeys and old Celestial dude nodded.

“I’m doing it!” I shouted to my group.

Lincoln frowned, lowering his voice. “Babe, no offense, but I’m a better swimmer.”

I glared at him. “It’s Tiffany” was all I said.

He threw his arms up in defeat and Shea grinned. “Okay, now if you have a chance to drown her—”

“Ladies, please. Good vibes,” Noah intervened.

Now it was Shea’s turn to glare, and Noah stepped back two paces. When would these boys learn not to intervene in our feud?

I nodded to Shea. I obviously wasn’t going to drown her, but if she caught an elbow to the eye, oopsie.

Noah got on the bullhorn again. “Okay, racers, take your marks.”

Tiffany and I walked up to the line that had been drawn in the sand. Because we were in first and second place, we were the first heat. At the line was Blake with a stopwatch.

“There are obstacles in the water, so in order to win, you need to swim through the four hula hoops, grab the toy seal floaty, and make it back here. Anything goes.”

Tiffany zipped up her wetsuit and grinned. “Sounds fun.”

I was having trouble getting my bubble butt into my wet suit. Finally, with a little help from Shea, I zipped mine up and stood next to Bitchany.

“Ready, Archie?” she sneered.

‘May you die one hundred deaths,’ Sera cursed at Tiffany from her spot in Shea’s hands.

I chuckled and then the whistle blew.

Tiffany took off like her ass was on fire and I scrambled after her, my feet sinking into the sand. The small crowd cheered as Tiffany hit the water and started to kick like a freaking fish. She had perfect form.

I exploded from my place at the edge of the water and dove into the sea. The moment the cold October water hit my face, I had to force myself not to suck in liquid. Tiffany’s foot was right in front of my face and I reached out, grabbing it and yanking. Yeah, it was a dirty trick, but Noah said anything goes. She was pulled toward me and I crawled over her, making it to the first ring. I swam through the purple glittering hula hoop right before she socked me in the back.

I shouted underwater, releasing all my air, and then came up for a fresh breath. Tiffany was ahead of me now, but my legs were kicking like crazy. I needed that freaking floating seal. I could see it in the water bopping with the surf.

‘Take her down!’ Sera cheered from the shoreline.

I often wondered how far Sera and I could be from one another and still have a mental conversation.

With renewed strength, I burst through the next hoop and caught Tiffany just as she was going through the third one. I repeated the same move, yanking her skinny-ass leg and dragging her behind me, then swam through the third hoop with ease. But that time I was prepared for her back punch, and instead I flipped around underwater, her fist inches away from my back, and kicked out with my foot, connecting with her crotch.

Damn. I’d never kicked a chick in the crotch before. I kinda felt bad, but then again it was Tiffany, so the feeling dissipated quickly. She rose to the surface for air while I gunned it through the fourth hoop, and surfaced to find the seal. He was five feet from me—I so had this!

I paddled like crazy, and when my fingers wrapped around the seal’s leg, I cried out in triumph. That triumph was short-lived, however. The moment I spun around to race to the shore with my sweet seal, Tiffany was waiting with a purple glowing spell in her hand.

My first instinct was to duck underwater and avoid getting hit by whatever the spell was, but I’d only made it halfway under when the purple light crashed over my head and my limbs went weak. Tiffany snatched the seal away and blew me a kiss.

“Sorry, Archie.”

Rage boiled just underneath the surface of my skin as I slowly paddled to stay above water. Like a drunken thousand-pound seal, I had no grace and no speed. Tiffany took off like a freaking Olympian swimmer while I struggled to even move forward with the spell attacking my body.

My body…. An idea struck me then. Noah had said we’d have to swim through the four hoops and get the seal, then get back to shore. He didn’t say swim back to shore. I suddenly wondered if Tiffany’s spell extended to my wings, which hadn’t been out at the time she’d spelled me.

Acting quickly, I unzipped the top portion of my wet suit to expose my back, yelping as cold water rushed in, making my breath hitch. Once the wet suit was at my waist, I snapped my wings out and flapped above the water.

Hell yes.

The crowd on the beach roared.

Tiffany was about twenty feet from the shoreline when she popped up, to get a breath of air, and heard the cheering. She probably thought it was for her. How cute.

When she dipped back under, her hand carrying the seal came up above the waterline, and I swooped down to get it. It was a bit tricky, pivoting my slow-ass body forward to grab it with my fast wings, but when my fingers wrapped around the seal’s tail, I yanked as hard as I could.

Tiffany broke the surface, screaming at me, but I didn’t stick around to see her wrath. I beelined for the shore, where everyone shouted and clapped there. Lincoln was grinning ear to ear, but not as much as Shea. As I landed on the sand and walked slowly across the finish line, I could already feel the spell on my limbs wearing off.

When Noah announced me as the winner, I spun around to see Tiffany, closely resembling a drowned rat, with an evil look in her eye.

If our feud had died out before, it was well and alive now.

The next three months passed rather monotonously. Shea and I trained with Noah and Lincoln to win Fight Night, and one weekend a month, we went out into the depressing war zone—though Lincoln seemed to always give me the boring safe things to do like deliver water to an army camp.

Shea and I had awoken to a rat in our room a few weeks ago, but since no one else in the school had a rat problem, we figured it was Tiffany. Now it was Monday and I was in battle class, trying to think of all the ways I could kill her and make it look like an accident.

Shea and I were practicing drills when Noah walked in. She grinned, stepping away from me to greet him, but when we saw his face, my stomach dropped.

Something was wrong.

The normally handsome, wink-happy Lothario was sweating, and he looked like a puppy had died. “I need Brielle and Shea to come with me,” Noah told our professor, who nodded curtly.

My best friend and I followed him out of class. When we reached the hallway, he checked to make sure we were alone, then spun around to face us.

“What is it?” Shea reached for him.

“Lincoln’s been taken.” Those words left his mouth in what seemed like slow motion.

Lincoln. Taken. My brain was refusing to process it. The room swayed a little as my heart hammered in my chest, pumping my body full of adrenaline. Shea reached out for me as I finally found my voice.

“Tell me everything. When? By who? What efforts are we taking to find him?” I was in warrior mode now, pushing all emotion to the side, and being practical. Lincoln had taught me as much. A weeping girlfriend wasn’t going to find him.

Noah grimaced. “We were out on patrol in Inferno and the Tainted Army came out of nowhere. Pulled up in a van and called Lincoln by name. The next thing I knew, they threw a smoke spell, and I heard tires screeching. Lincoln was gone. I went airborne to follow the van, but they have some advanced-level magic hiding him.”