Page 36 of Brutal Alpha Bully

“Xeran,” she says, her chest heaving as her eyes dart to the windows, where we can see the orange and blue glow of the daemon fire getting closer. “I can protect the house.”

“What?” I ask, shaking my head and grabbing her arm. There is noprotecting the house. There’s only getting away from here as fast as we possibly can. Come on—”

She raises her hands in front of her, and I feel the kinetic spark of the magic rising from her skin. “I can keep the house from burning,” she says, her feet planted like she might fight me to stay here.

I want to tell her that it’s stupid, that it doesn’t matter, but there’s something in her expression that tells me shewantsto stay. That the house surviving this fire matters to her, too.

“I’ll stay with my mom,” Nora says like that was ever a question, and I don’t have any more time to think. I have to get my gear, get out there, and stop this thing before it can get any closer to the other houses up here in the mountains.

“Okay,” I finally manage, realizing this means I’m putting my trust in magic—in Seraphina’s magic—to keep her safe. To keep her and Nora alive against the deadliest threat in Silverville. “Okay.”

With that, I turn and race through the door, moving toward the shed, dialing the guys as I go. I already have texts from several of them, but there’s no time to read them as I yank on my pants and coat and grab my helmet from the wall.

“X, you good?” Soren picks up, the first to speak, his voice grainy and breathless like he’s getting dressed.

“Yes, fine. Fire is east of here, headed down the mountains quick—”

“Xeran,” Kalen says, and even though I know he’s an adult now, his voice will always sound to me like my little brother. It makes a protective nature rise up inside me. “I had a bad feeling about this. I was already on my way to the house. I have a theory about what those clearings mean—”

There’s a staticky interjection, and his voice cuts out for a second.

“Kalen?” Lachlan asks, then to us, “What was he saying about the clearings?”

Kalen’s voice comes again, choppy and strange, likely cutting out because of the daemonic energy around us.

“—near the house—”

The blood rushes from my body as I stop, picking up the phone like I’m grabbing my brother by the shoulders. “Kalen, are you near the house? Is that what you’re saying? Where are you?”

But there’s nothing on the other end of the line from him.

Something iswrong.

“Meet me up here,” I say to the others, then I end the call and sprint out into the grass, heart pounding as I try to think about what to do.

I’m only half-dressed in my firefighting gear, and the wolf isdemandingthat I shift, that I go find my brother, even if that means I can’t bring the extinguisher with me. Even if it means I’m a little less impervious to the flames licking up the trees around me.

The wolf hasn’t steered me wrong in the past.

Dropping the pants and coat, I start running, allowing the shift to take over my body, rolling through me like running through a waterfall. A moment later, I’m on all fours, and I catch my brother’s scent easily. It really is astounding, the differences between our senses from one form to another.

Five minutes later, I’m rounding the bend, where I find Kalen’s car driven off the road, the door hanging open and abandoned. I follow his scent into the woods, where I find him geared up, spraying at a writhing, spitting strain of daemon fire that clings to a patch of trees and twists up into the sky like some sort of reverse tornado.

I can’t call to him, can’t get his attention. Something screams in the back of my mind that this isn’t a good idea—that something bad is going to happen. That none of us should fightthese fires until the entire squad is together and we can protect one another.

And sure enough, the moment I get close enough to him that he can sense me nearing, that tendril of fire reaches down from the sky, turning with the might of a living thing and swinging directly for my brother.

I don’t think. I don’t pause to consider the best course of action.

Instead, I just launch myself at him, my wolf colliding with him just in time to throw him to the side and take the daemonic blow myself.

Chapter 18 - Seraphina

“Watch out!”

Nora and I stumble to the side as the front door of the house flies open and Kalen Sorel comes barreling through, Xeran limp over his shoulders.

“Oh my gods,” Nora says, her voice going shrill. I turn to her, using my most commanding voice.

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