3

What’s wrong? Lucas asked as he tried to pull me off Zeke.

I tried to elbow him in the face, but Lucas had anticipated the move, and I missed my mark. I tucked my legs underneath me, striking out and landing a fist in his stomach. Lucas grunted but held firm as I desperately swung the knife at Zeke’s chest, aiming for his heart.

For whatever reason, my wolf couldn’t surge forward any further, which was okay with me. I could inflict a bad enough injury in my human form. It’d be a slower death this way, anyway. The scent of fresh blood hit my nose, making my wolf eager for more.

“Callie, I hate the guy too, but we need to focus on finding Bodey.” Samuel’s voice came out more nasally than usual.

I froze.

Bodey.

He was right. The more time I spent on Zeke, the farther away Bodey would be. I stopped fighting, and Lucas lifted me with ease and placed me on my feet.

I stared at Zeke, unable to tear my gaze off him. I’d missed his heart by inches, stabbing him in the upper right chest. I hoped I’d hit a major artery.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Zeke grunted as he sat up and glared at the knife protruding from his body. “That was an unwarranted attack! If that’s—”

“Unwarranted?” Rage had my skin boiling uncomfortably. “You killed my parents and would have killed me too, if it hadn’t been for my mom!”

His face blanched, and his eyes widened.

“You got your memories back?” Samuel moved to my side.

I glanced at him, and bile burned my throat. His nose was slightly crooked, and blood poured from it. I flinched as remorse slammed into me. I’d hurt my baby brother—the last blood family I had left. “Yes, I did. And I’m sorry for doing that.” I gestured at his face.

Zeke tried to get up, likely to escape but groaned from his injury.

Wolves dotted the tree line, and Lucas hurried to Bodey’s Mercedes SUV and popped the trunk. Luckily, Bodey had left the keys in the car when he’d raced to open it in the hope we could get Sybil away before the wolves learned about our plan and attacked us in the open.

My heart thundered as I searched for the human who’d witnessed the bloodbath. No more humans had driven by yet. Blessedly, Halfway was a small town.

The human lay unconscious on the ground ten feet away from Zeke, which was probably a good thing. We needed to bring a witch here quickly to alter his memory.

Lucas grabbed a black duffel from the back seat of the SUV and raced toward the tree line. Miles, Jack, and Jasmine had to be there, wanting to shift back into human form.

Now that I’d calmed from reliving my memory, logic was catching up to me again. Finding Bodey and getting him back was my priority, even over killing Zeke.

We need more wolves out there, searching for Bodey, I linked with Blake, his twenty pack members, Theo, Lucas, Samuel, Jasmine, Jack, Miles, and the former advisors—Michael, Dan, Phil, and Carl.

Don’t worry. The four of us are still searching the area, Michael linked. They couldn’t have taken him too far yet.

Of course Michael would be almost as frantic as me. Bodey was his son, and of all the former advisors, Michael knew how crucial it was to retrieve him. If Queen Kel had taken my mate captive, I’d do anything to get him back.

I connected with my wolf, trying to urge her forward, but pain flared in my head again, and my surroundings shifted as I fell back into the past.

The sky was a faint orange as if the sun were rising. My skin still burned. I opened my eyes to find another man in the car, sitting in the passenger seat.

He glanced back at me. Unlike Zeke, this man’s dark eyes were warm with kindness. He scratched at his cinnamon-colored beard and shook his head. “We need to take her to our coven, not meet some random witch near the mansion. She’s hurt and needs protection—she’s our future queen.”

“She’s going to be protected.” Zeke spat out the word with hatred behind it that was all too familiar to this day. “She’s Mila’s daughter, for gods’ sake.”

The man’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. This has to be a hard night for you too. You lost the love of your life.”

Love of your life.

Those words had young me confused but sickened adult me even more. That was Zeke’s motivation. He hadn’t just been enamored of my mother—he’d truly believed they were meant to be together. My skin crawled, though my body didn’t move since I was trapped inside the memory of my five-year-old self.

“You don’t know what I’m feeling,” Zeke said coldly. “So please be quiet.”

The passenger nodded, and I suspected this was the best friend Zeke never spoke of. I tried to remember his name, but it eluded me.

The man turned and stared at me again. “She must look like him. She looks nothing like Mila.”

“Believe me.” Zeke scoffed. “She does.” Bitterness dripped from each word.

“That must be hard—”

“Dammit, Nick. Shut up. I don’t want to talk about Mila or Caroline anymore. I need to get her to this witch, and I need you to keep an eye out to make sure no one sees us here.”

Silence descended, and my eyes grew heavy as pain engulfed me.

 

   

The car jerked to a stop, and my eyes fluttered open. The burning pain was horrible, which meant my body must have taken one hell of a hit despite Mom blocking me from the worst of the blast.

Even though I wanted to turn my head to see my arms, my body remained still.

“Let’s get this over with,” Zeke bit out as the driver’s door swung open.

Nick sighed. “You act as if this is difficult, but it’s not. The witch will heal her, that’s all. Though I don’t understand why we’re doing this in secret.”