The good news is that Ashton has inside information that nobody else has.
ZIYAH I stood on our balcony and watched Dante sparring with Chris. They had trained together their entire lives. Sure, Dante had Alpha blood, but that was not always enough of an advantage. Anyone could learn compensation through honing their skills and abilities enough. Both guys had gotten some really good hits in. We were supposed to go down later to deal with Greg or whatever the fuck his name was. We needed to find out for certain if he had been an implant or if he had joined forces. Normally, one would think it would have to be the latter since it would be the only option that made sense time-wise. However, that logic did not account for the fact of seer abilities. My head started pounding as if there was an entire marching band in it. What the hell was going on? Belatedly, I realized that it was a vision. - Blantay knew that she was unable to infiltrate the packs in order to get to me. Saving Ashton was a neon sign that proved I had not died. No, she did not witness me sta
DANTE That information about those twin fuckers was the highlight of my day. Did I feel bad for laughing? Not one fucking bit. It served them right and was a consequence of taunting her. Apparently, that book had truly meant a lot to her for her to beat the shit out of people for it. Then I could not help but smile, knowing that she loved my nephews enough to part with it. That really meant a lot to me. The group that came in with Theo was fairly large, but I was not surprised. Their pack had Lamias too, just like Nightshade did, who would need to be part of this. I would venture a guess that the guy I did not know was mated to Maya given their handholding. He did look familiar though as if I had seen him but could not place where from. There was another female with them, but I had no idea who she was. What I did notice though was that Bronx immediately zeroed in on her and sat up straighter. Bronx was a great guy who had definitely excelled as Lamia. I had never seen him look at a
ZIYAH All in all, we had roughly three hundred fighters between all four packs. Was that overkill? No. We only had one chance at this working, so we needed to ensure that we were prepared for whatever was thrown our way. Expect the unexpected and all that jazz. In an ideal world, everything would go smoothly. Unfortunately, there was no such thing. This was not a fairytale where everyone just laid down their weapons and chose peace. This was reality, and the reality was simple. This was war. We were hoping that we could minimize the blowout, but that did not mean it was guaranteed. No, we had to prepare for every potential metaphorical and actual grenade. Well, hopefully not grenade but definitely dangerous and deadly assaults. We were on a strict ‘no kill’ policy if at all possible. We would not risk our lives, but it would be the very last option that we would take. Everyone had worked their asses off in training. The witches on our side had all taken time to teach everyone the
ZIYAH Blantay was truly an idiot. Her denouncing of our claims would not work so long as she continued to confirm them. She just admitted to the part of trying to kill Coralynn. How did she ever become a leader? I would have to ask Astrid about that later. All I knew was that she framed her, but how did that lead to Blantay taking over control as High Witch? HR should probably rethink their hiring processes. I watched as a fuckton of additional people joined the pro-Blantay faction. At least thirty additional people actually. ‘Those people aren’t part of the coven. Well, at least they weren’t the last time I was here. She must have brought more people in recently,’ Astrid informed us. It was a damn good thing that we brought so many talented people then. Her side had already doubled. There was no telling what their magic or gifts could do. They were a variable that we had not formally accounted for, but we did know that anything was possible. Muffled cries caught my attention. My
DANTE I knew that it would take time to treat Ziyah, but I felt like my sanity was slipping with each passing minute. Here we were again with Ziyah being treated for something serious. I hated how many times she had to come here. The first time was the night we met. I had to bring her here when that fucker had attacked and violated her. Then there was his bitch who nearly got her killed. Now, here we were because of that damn fireball. I was glad that the woman and her unborn child had been saved by my girl’s sacrifice, but I hated that she got hurt at all. Elle and Caiathus found me pacing the waiting room in an attempt to gain control from my spiraling emotions. She stopped directly in front of my body, halting my path. There was pain in her eyes because she hated that Ziyah got hurt. They had become really close and had their own bond. Then she was also in pain because she understood what this was doing to me. “How’s she doing?” she asked me softly, holding my hands in hers. Sh
DANTE I had to go take care of an issue with the warriors while Ziyah was still asleep. I swore that those fuckers had too much testosterone in their bodies at times. Although, it was fucking hilarious to see one of the female warriors sucker punching the aggravated fucker to get him to break through his haze and calm the fuck down. It worked like a dream. Honestly, I was not even needed. I found my mate in the bathroom, looking at her back in the mirror. The heartbreaking sight of tear tracks on her cheeks as she looked at her back stopped me in the doorway. There was scarring on her back. It would get better over time, but there would always be some type of scarring in the end even if it was minimal. Did it detract from her beauty? Not in the fucking least. My sexy Fae goddess could never look anything other than perfect. It was not her skin that made her amazing. It was all of her. Her beauty, mind, heart, and soul. “I’m sure that we can find something to help with the scarring
DANTE Blantay attempted to school her features when she learned the truth of Janina’s relationship with Ziyah. She could deny it all she fucking wanted to, but she knew that my girl could destroy her with ease. “So, let’s do some introductions,” Ziyah chirped excitedly. “We have my sexy mate who can do this…” We had talked previously about showing her what our abilities could do just for the fuck of it. Intimidation, amusement, or for shits and fucking giggles. Whatever you wanted to classify it as. It always amused me to see what everyone feared because sometimes it was rational while other times it was completely not. This was one such time. Her deepest, darkest fears in order of least to greatest were as followed: – Afraid of being lost in the woods, surrounded by nothing but darkness. (Okay, I could sort of get that, but she was a fucking witch with magic at her fingertips.) – Afraid of drowning. – Afraid of mimes. (Again, she had magic at her fucking fingertips.) So, I dec
ZIYAH It was truly disgusting how depraved Blantay was. How could someone be so sick in the head that they would feel it was okay to harm so many people in all the ways that we had come to find out that she had? I could guarantee that it was not even a tenth of her sins though. I had never tried using the family link for anyone other than Elle, but it should work with Kade too. So, here went nothing. ‘Psst. Kade, can you hear me?’ He just looked directly at me and smirked but did not say anything. I would take that to mean yes. I had not spent as much time around him personally as I had Elle, but I could tell that he was a great Alpha, mate, father, and friend. Perhaps my request would give him some amusement. ‘Can you use the neat little shadow friends of yours to uncuff her and suspend her upside down in the air while we set something up?’ I ask him hopefully. I could tell that my request definitely succeeded in hitting its mark. With a satisfied smirk, he turned back to his vi