Page 44 of Crave

Fuck, this was so confusing. “Why?”

But it was Tanner who answered, his head tilted as he sucked in a breath. “Because he’s a hybrid. Manix and witch.”

“Uh, excuse the fuck me—What?” Quinn gasped.

Courtland was watching Jericho intently, and thehybridin question stood rigid, like a statue.

Quinn shook off the shock faster than I did. “So what? There’s a ton of half-breeds. Naja is a half-breed. Sixty percent of our population are half-human. What’s the difference?”

Tanner was shaking his head. “Not a half-breed. A hybrid.”

Finally, my sense of righteousness dug its way through my shock. “I don’t give a damnwhathe is, he doesn’t need to be in a damn cage. He’s not a threat to the Manix, right?”

Jericho stilled, and Courtland growled low under his breath, threatening to bring me to my knees with just the small show of power. But Jericho stood in front of him, looking completely unbothered by the Alpha power of our supreme ruler.

Courtland just continued to stare. “He’s under a truth geas constructed by the leader of the Moonburst Coven. He refused to answer that question, no matter how many times I asked. Until we are sure he isn’t a threat, he stays in the cell.” With that, the Alpha General whirled out of the room.

I looked at the man in front of me. He’d helped us without expecting anything in return. Or had he? I’d given him vials and vials of my blood that night. As had Quinn. Had he worked some kind of voodoo to turn himself into a Frankensteined version of us?

“I can see your brain working overtime over there. I promise whatever you’re thinking is wrong.”

I stepped back from the bars. “What I’m thinking is that you lied to me. That night you pretended you didn’t know that Manix existed. I was so fucking dumb. Of course you did. You were a witch on the edge of the last Packlands of the damn Manix. Ofcourseyou knew we existed. You lured us in, and we followed like damn fools,” I growled. “‘Oh, you're a Manix, so surprising.’Bullshit.You lied to us. To me.”

“Susannah, it wasn’t like that. You really were—”

I cut him off. “I don’t want to hear anymore lies, Jericho. If that’s even who you are.” I turned to Merrick. “I want to leave.”

Merrick didn’t hesitate, and swept us out of the room. I ignored Jerico’s shouts and pleas, moving out of the room, out of the building and onto the street. A woman was waiting there for us, and she was beautiful.

“You’re the late Manix. I’m Electra. We’ve set up new homes for you. Your Alpha General said you weren’t a Pack yet, so we’ve allocated you three different households until you complete a matebond. Omegas have choices here in Moonburst,” she said with a gentle, but firm voice. She opened her palm, and three glowing balls were in her fist. At a single word they leapt into the air. “Omegas, please follow the yellow sphere. Alphas, the blue.” She looked behind me, then plucked the remaining red ball from the air. “I shall give the vampire his guide sphere when he emerges.”

“The Omegas need protection. I won’t leave them unprotected,” Merrick growled.

Electra raised a brow. “Protection from whom? Not from us. The Moonburst Coven would never raise a hand against another person, unless it was in the defense of life—their own or others. The only people here to fear are your own kind.” She looked at the spheres. “The magic chooses the right home for you, by fate or the will of the Goddess or by your energies.” She gave us a soft smile. “Trust the magic.”

I shrugged, following along behind the yellow ball as it bobbed ahead of us like a helium balloon on a string. Merrick and Murphy’s blue one rolled along beside it, seemingly inseparable. I looked behind me, but Tanner still hadn’t come out of the jail. “You don’t think they stuffed him in there beside Jericho while we weren’t looking, do you?”

Murphy shook his head. “No, Courtland likes Tanner, and he hated Wilkie almost as much as Dominic does. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t give Tanner a medal,” he said in a soft voice, almost too soft to hear. The walls had ears in a town filled with supernaturals. We couldn’t talk about what had transpired with Wilkie, and I was okay with that. I hoped I’d never have to think about him ever again, but that’d definitely be too much to ask.

Quinn reached down and grabbed my hand. “He’ll catch up. Don’t worry, Zanny.”

I narrowed my eyes. “He better, or I’ll track him down myself.”

We walked in silence, the two glowing orbs still side by side, as I tried to digest what had just happened. Thoughts of vampires and hybrids, and old friends being liars, and even older friends wanting to matebond me—it all left me so fucking exhausted.

The orbs stopped in front of a small, single story house with an enclosed porch. The yellow orb went up to the door. “I guess this is us.”

As I said the words, the blue orb zipped up to a larger, two-story house with a sagging porch. It had light-blue painted cladding that looked newer than a lot of the empty houses we passed. On the far side of the yard was a large tree that stretched toward the sky, and a tiny wooden table and bench seats sat beneath it. It was a family home.

Were the orbs playing matchmaker right now?

Murphy laughed. “What’s the chance that the red orb leads Tanner straight to the house beside yours?”

The witch’s words about fate and the Goddess choosing the magic echoed in my head, and for the first time in a long time, everything felt like it would be okay.

27

JERICHO

---