Page 58 of Cursed Magic

He tugged me toward the back door, and my wolf eased forward. The yank to complete the bond ebbed with a goal in sight. Not only did we all want to save our species and protect our own kind, but now I had an added incentive to be able to complete the bond with Ryker and live a long life by his side.

We rushed inside to find Kendric, Gage, Xander, Briar, and Raven standing in the center of the living room. No other vampire was there, which was the norm since we’d begun staying here.

Kendric stood, his posture unyielding. He and Raven were about ten feet apart, silent and stiff, proving that their spat wasn’t over. Xander and Gage exchanged a glance, and their frowns deepened at the sight of Ryker. Even in a crisis, they weren’t going to make it easy on him. Briar paced the center of the room with restless energy.

“What’s going on?” Ryker demanded.

Gage gave a humorless chuckle. “Oh, now you’ll join us. It’s nice to see you again,alpha.”

Ryker’s expression darkened, and his entire body went rigid.

“The witch came back thirty minutes after she left.” Briar tugged at the ends of her hair. “The Shae pack backupis about twenty-five minutes away, which means we ought to get moving to scout the area.”

Okay. This wasn’t nearly as awful as Briar had made it sound, but even now, anxiety wafted from her.

For her to be this upset, I had to be missing something. Instead of focusing on her worry, we needed to discuss facts. That should help her process what came next. “Is it Cassi? The pack witch?”

Raven shrugged. “Unclear. The ones watching aren’t sure what the witch looks like.”

A chill swept through me. “The Blackwoods were keeping her hidden.” I’d never realized it before now. “The first time I saw her was the day the fated-mate bond flared between Reid and me. And then I saw her a second time at the ceremony.” I tried to word the last part carefully, not wanting to reiterate the fact that I’d come close to mating with another person.

Ryker’s body vibrated, making it clear that he understood exactly which ceremony I was referring to. “I’ll take great pleasure in killing the asshole.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the real Ryker talking, but who fucking knows anymore.” Gage wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms.

Xander lifted a brow. “Ember should know. Does he have signs of the magic influencing him right now?”

My stomach churned. I didnotwant to become a pawn in Ryker’s pack issues. We hadn’t completed the bond, and we were still two separate packs.

Ryker’s eyes flashed with anger, and a familiar darkness settled over him. “We don’t have time for this.”

The sheen still hadn’t appeared, but I didn’t want to say that because I feared it would make the situation worse. “Listen, don’t put me in the middle of your pack arguments.”

Gage snorted. “Please. You’ve been upset with him over the same thing. Just because you two clearly made up doesn’t mean that we’ve decided to forgive him.”

The uneasiness in the room spiked, an awkward silence hanging around us.

We didn’t have time for this nonsense. “We’re wasting time fighting each other when we need to be focused on the real enemy—the Blackwoods. Or did you all forget about them and how they’ve killed the majority of our packs and families?”

The men glanced down at the wooden floors, refusing to look me in the eye.

Good.

I looked at Briar. “You said the Shae pack is close?”

Briar slowed her pacing while Raven placed a hand on her stomach and answered, “Yes. Bruce called, asking for you, but you weren’t here, so he agreed to talk with me instead.”

My breath caught. I didn’t understand why, but I didn’t like him talking to Raven. Even though I trusted her, and the vampires were clearly our allies—Queen Ambrosia had even punished her son on live video for other vampires to see what would happen if they turned humans into vampires—Ryker and I were the middlemen between our two species.

Teeth grinding like he felt similarly to me, Ryker asked, “What did he say?”

Wringing her hands, Raven sat in the center of the leather couch and looked at each of us except for Kendric. She repeated what Briar had already told me but added a little more. “He has about forty pack members spreadthroughout the Sinclair property and the property line from the Blackwoods’ territory to the national park. The witch they located is on the national park side, so everyone but ten moved in that direction. They’re trying to make sure their scent doesn’t get detected so the Blackwoods won’t know they’re being watched.”

So we still had the element of surprise. That had to count for something. “But they have no idea which witch it is or who picked her up to take her wherever?”

“Bruce mentioned it was someone from the Blackwood pack.”

“We need someone who’s seen Cassi to go there.” Ryker shook his head.

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