My gaze moves back to the thick of the bloodthirsty battle. A Vampyre is launched back when it gets too close to Amos’s back, my brother aided by some unseen force.

I spot Diva lying on her stomach with her chin propped on her hands. Her knees are bent and her ankles are crossed, while her feet sway from side to side in the air.

She deliberately bats her lashes at me. Then she licks her lips and gets a lusty haze in her eyes when Vance slices through the middle of a Vampyre.

Vance shouts at me. “You sitting on your ass and watching me do all the work is typical behavior, but for once, could you please be fucking useful?!”

Cursing, I struggle to even lift my sword, my energy exhausted and my power absolutely drained.

“I’m too out of shape for alpha battles, Van Helsing. I’m going to need some help,” I confess.

“Like the Rubio Isles?” he asks, as we both work to fend off our next Vampyre attackers.

Arion’s going to be one pissed off fucking monster.

I’m really starting to understand why Vance stayed on my ass about feeding and staying fit. Fuck my life.

“We sunk the Rubio Isles,” I remind him, straining with effort I don’t have enough energy to be able to produce.

“That was the volcano. Not us.” he argues, taking down one of the eldest and strongest without breaking much sweat.

“Sure. It’s a coincidence that dormant volcano erupted. Saving everybody was a pain in the fucking ass, Van Helsing,” I dutifully remind him.

I end up leaning on my sword for a moment, after exerting almost the last of my energy to take down one of the weakest Vampyres. Must be nice to be a Van Helsing, who can carry on idle chit-chat, while fighting like it’s a day job.

“I told you to feed more often—”

“I don’t want to hear ‘I told you so’s’ right now, you smug prat. I want you to kiss me,” I tell him.

“I’ll fucking die first,” he assures me, quickly knocking the head off the Vampyre, who damn near crept up on me.

After Vance does some fancy sword skills, clearly showing off, five Vampyres lose their head, leaving only two.

I stick behind Vance, shamelessly using the sword-happy Van Helsing as a shield.

“Should we discuss the ghost fanning herself right now?” I ask, as Emily slides up next to us, moving with us toward the remaining Vampyres.

“Pssst,” the ghost stage whispers. “The threat’s over. You can be cool again.”

I step out from behind Vance, adjust my jacket, and ignore the fucking ghost who thinks I have pride or something.

“Uh-oh. Somebody’s in trouble,” Emily says, grinning broadly, like the wicked wildcard she is.

Without warning, Arion is suddenly standing behind the remaining traitorous Vampyres, eyes fully red.

Before a single Vampyre can react, he moves like a blur, and blood sprays into the air.

Arion goes from behind them, and in a blur of motion, ends up standing in front of them, and closer to us. The Head Alpha has a clutched hold on the spines he’s severed.

No one makes any sudden moves or noises.

The spineless bodies drop, completely devoid of life. Their heads fall off the second the bodies hit the ground.

I never even saw him make much of a move.

“I’m officially at odds with the rest of our family,” Arion says to Emily, as he drops the spines to the ground.

Blood drips from his fingertips, as he moves toward us. Emit shifts back to his two-legged form, making his way toward us as well.

“The Neoprys still haven’t made their move yet. Move all the pups and omegas in the area to Sanctuary,” Emit tells his alpha pack.

Wolves nod and bow, and his mother nuzzles his hand. His father gives him a worried but understanding look, before he turns and starts leading the alpha pack away.

Emit cuts his gaze back to us, and I want to kick him in the bollocks. I hate that big bastard for making it look that easy. His family fucking adored him. Mine…not so much.

Then my brow furrows and I lose interest, when I see Talbot moving this way, hands in his pockets, and a mysteriously calm look in his eyes.

“Why is my beta here?” I ask no one in particular.

Arion goes to grab a bottle of whiskey that’s survived the wreckage. Instead of answering me, Arion flips the subject.

“I can’t find Violet. I’ve scoured the town and beyond. Nothing. No trace of either one of them,” Arion grinds out.

“Fucking perfect,” Vance says, as he wipes his sword clean.

Looking back, I spot Marta sitting on the ground, a dejected look on her face.

“Bloody hell, woman, would you pull it together? What is going on? Explain it in words that make sense this time,” I shout, going to stab a finger in her face.

“He’d be better at telling you the story. Since he’s the reason this is happening at all,” Marta says, cutting her eyes to Talbot. “You stole her from me the moment you put that thing in her.”

Whirling around, I feel my eyebrows hit my hairline.

“What the fucking hell is she talking about?” I ask him, wondering if Marta’s gone off her rocker at last.

Talbot’s jaw grinds, and his neck cracks. “For the last time, I didn’t put Hyde inside your child, Marta. It was the perfect storm of events, and it spiraled out of control.”

Why does it sound like my beta and Marta Portocale have history?

Why am I just now learning this?

I try to recall one instance where they’ve seemed familiar with each other, but I can’t seem to summon a single memory to support such a thing.

“Seriously, somebody tell me what the fucking hell is going on!” I state, my voice growing increasingly louder with each spoken word.

“Your new beta is Pandora’s son, and he ruined my daughter’s future,” Marta says with all the finesse of a bulldozer crashing very unexpectedly through a wall.

“What?” I ask, since that’s entirely impossible, and no such person has existed.

Vance would have known about it.

“Your daughter’s future may not be ruined,” Talbot says, ignoring me, while keeping his attention on the Portocale woman, who is not his alpha. “Hyde has been the ultimate thorn in my side for so many centuries that I’ve lost count. But until Jack, I’d always been able to get it back in the box,” Talbot tells Vance, who, thankfully, seems equally as out of the loop as I am.

I have so many questions.

“Who the bloody hell is Hyde?” I ask, now getting angry enough to punch the irritating son of a bitch.

“Hyde is Anna,” Vance says, clearly knowing more than me.

“Hyde is all of Violet’s ghosts,” Arion adds, clearly knowing more than the both of us.

The wolf looks utterly perplexed. Awesome. I’m in the same dog house as he is. Isn’t life grand?

“Someone better explain to me, in grave detail, just what the bloody hell we’re standing around in a freak storm and talking about right now, or I might just kiss one of you and then kill you,” I assure all of them.

Arion says, “Make it quick. We have to find Violet. That’s our priority right—”

We all grow quiet when Bobo comes walking toward us.

“Yeah, I have something to tell you too. Actually, Bobo has something he wanted to tell all of us once we were together,” Vance says, as Bobo casts a sympathetic look toward Marta, who still looks positively devastated.