Page 96 of Mortal Blood
“What are you doing to him?” I demanded. It came and went so quickly that I almost missed it, but it had been there. The look of surprise on his face. The realization was like ice dripping down my spine. I shook my head slowly. “You’re not the one doing this. Jax? What’s happening?”
“Pack summons,” he ground out, dropping into a crouch as his face contorted in pain. “Fuck.”
“What the hell is a pack summons?”
Ezekiel tutted his disapproval. “Almost two years at the academy and you have learned nothing of your world.”
“Bite me,” I snapped. “Jax?”
“Your friend is being called by his alpha,” Ezekiel said. “The longer he ignores the summons, the worse his discomfort will get.”
I looked at the agony on Jax’s face, and felt horror dawning on mine. “It’s going to get worse.”
“Much.”
“What the hell does Cain want with him?” I spat under my breath. Of all the shitty, awful timing.
“Pack summons are used for alpha challenges…or executions,” Ling murmured, her face pale. I felt the blood drain from mine.Cole.
And Jax was trapped here by Ezekiel’s barrier.
“You have to let him go.”
“I need do no such thing,” Ezekiel replied calmly. “Andwith your guard dog otherwise engaged, I do believe we shall conclude our business rather quickly—and then his pain shall be over.”
“There are still two of us who can fight,” I said, with more composure than I felt, because without Jax, we were fucked. And weallneeded to get out of here in one piece if we were going to help Cole. “I wouldn’t be so sure you’re going to win.”
“It amuses me that you think the outcome is anything other than predetermined,” he said, but his eyes flicked to Ling for just a second. He didn’t know what she was any more than I did, and the uncertainty was making him wary.
Jax’s groan of pain ripped through the air and Ling crouched down next to him, speaking in quick, hushed tones in his ear.
“I am not without pity,” my father said.
“Right. And I’m a fae.”
“Agree to my terms, and I’ll allow them to leave.”
“What are your terms?”
“You will come with me, of course.”
I shook my head. “Why? What’s your obsession?”
“Obsession is such a vulgar word. I am merely concluding a business deal begun long ago. You will come with me, and be married to the suitor I have chosen for you.”
“Married?” I blinked, processing the word. “That’s crazy. I have a mate!”
“To whom you are not yet mated. And what do I care for such trivialities?”
“It’s not going to happen, Ezekiel.”
“I assure you, it is. The only thing that remains in doubt is whether I shall kill your friends and your mother before I take you with me.”
I glanced at my mom, cowering at his feet, and then at Jax, doubled over in pain with Ling still whispering urgently in his ear.
“The clock is ticking, my dear.”
As if to underscore his point, Jax’s head rolled back as another cry of pain ripped from him.Fuck!
