Page 68 of Wicked Fate

Ryker stood as well, heading over to monitor the exchange.

I chased after them, and everyone followed behind me.

The witch’s eyes fluttered but didn’t open. Her face twisted as if she were caught in a dream that hurt. “Need to break free and help.”

I grew dizzy.

Leaning over, Cassi placed a hand on the woman’s cheek and asked, “Help who?”

“They need help,” she whispered. “Quickly. They won’t last much longer.”

My heart slammed into my ribs. “Who is they?”

The room stilled. Every breath held.

Her lips moved again, barely audible. “The royals.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

“The royals?” Briar echoed, voice hushed. “What royals?”

“Captive.” The woman's words were almost inaudible.

Ryker gripped the woman’s shoulders and shook her a little. “Who’s captive? What royals? The vampires?”

“No.” The woman groaned. She muttered something else, but I had to have misunderstood. There was no way she said what I thought I heard.

I spun to Ryker and asked, “Did you hear the same thing I did?”

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Ryker’s expression was unreadable. He stared at the woman like her face might rearrange itself into something that made sense.

My knees buckled. This had to be a sick joke, but there was no smell of a lie.

“What did she say?” Cassi’s head lifted and she stared at us. “I couldn’t make it out.”

“Royal wolf,” Ryker rasped, and then he grimaced.

The words settled into the air like a death sentence, and no one spoke a word.

Kendric’s face paled. “She has to be delirious. That can’t be right.”

“She’s out of it.” Xander crossed his arms around his stomach. “Rambling nonsense. There are no more wolf shifter royals.”

“Either that, or she’s making a fucking sick joke.” Gage cracked his knuckles. “Throwing our failure in our face when she’s on the brink of death. The vampires wiped them out, and we were called away to look like the guilty culprits.”

“And then we felt our pack links vanish and came rushing back to find the dead bodies.” Ryker grimaced. “So many of our people and the royals shredded to death, to the point they were unrecognizable.”

My stomach dropped. “Did you have a final tally of the dead?” They hadn’t mentioned the physical state of their pack before.

All four men flinched.

“We weren’t in the mindset to count, and with how shredded some bodies were, it was hard to tell what belonged where.” The iridescent sheen faintly came back to Ryker’s eyes.

Our bond muted ever so slightly, like something had blanketed the connection. The hot spot in my chest muted to almost the same level as the other pack members in our pack.Are you really trying to use her magic?

The unconscious witch whimpered in pain like someone was torturing her.

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