“I don’t respond well to demands,” Kat shouted back at Mack.
Mack’s wide eyes were murderous, and his cheeks reddened with the fury building inside. Then they turned to Brunton, who continued forward as though he’d decided to eliminate Mack himself. But Mack didn’t look worried at all.
And that worried the shit out of me.
His damn smile returned. “Kill her,” he said quietly. Brunton turned on a dime.
“Shit!” I gasped as my fears were realized.
Mack, like the fey king, had the ability to control the wolves. Kat seemed to have been right in her assertion that she was beyond his power, but that sure as fuck wasn’t going to do her any favors as Brunton approached. I grabbed Knox’s arm and squeezed tightly, the memory of breaking the fey king’s hold over him in Faerie fresh in my mind. Contact had always amplified our bond, and in that moment, I needed it more than ever. I didn’t have the amulet to help me this time, and I silently prayed that I wouldn't need it. But even if my touch enabled Knox to resist to the king’s magic, the need for contact would make fighting Mack’s pack of wolves, who were inching closer with every passing second, kinda challenging.
“Brunton!” Knox yelled, having come to the same conclusion I had. He moved to drag me to his third in command, but the New York wolves cut him off. “You have to fight this!”
Brunton, however, did no such thing. Instead, he launched himself at Kat, who stood ready to weather his attack.
After that, everything went to hell.
Grizz let loose a roar that shook the room, and I looked over my shoulder to find half a dozen wolves yanking him away from Kat. He fought them while Knox tried to free himself from my grasp to help Kat.
“No!” I screamed at him. “If I let go, he’ll control you, too, remember?”
The pain in his eyes as he acknowledged that truth helped us not at all. “Then hold on tight,” he said as he darted into the fray with me doing just what he’d said. And all the while, I felt the weight of Faerie bearing down on me.
“Help him!” I shouted over the din. Wind stirred behind me, then blasted past, tossing Mack’s wolves across the room. Sickening thuds echoed through the space as Knox stormed toward where Mack lingered well away from the front line. But more and more of his pack came at us, peppering us with blows and bites.
Connected to Knox, I pushed past my fear and fought to pull forth something—anything—that could help us defeat those we’d come to recruit. Because it was clear now that that would never happen.
Not with Mack running the show.
Claws raked across my cheek, pulling my attention back to the battle at hand. It was just the motivator I needed. Fire blossomed in my free hand, growing with every ragged, angry breath I took until it was a swirling inferno of death ready to prey upon those surrounding us.
“Burn them!” I screamed before lobbing the firebomb into the fray. It exploded, igniting the New York wolves in its path. They burned but never faltered in their attack—because Mack wouldn’t let them. He stood in the safety of the back of the room and ordered them to continue their assault, even as they damn near burned to death, silent screams stretching wide across their faces.
“Knox!” I shouted as I yanked on his arm. “It’s not working!”
“I know!” he yelled back.
Then a yelp from behind us sent ice up my spine.
I turned to see Kat on the ground, her leg twisted at a horrible angle, and Brunton standing above her, ready to finish what they’d started back in Alaska. Without thinking, I flung my hand out, and a whip of fire followed, snapping around Brunton’s waist to yank him away. Grizz managed to finish with the wolves that had tried (and failed) to overcome my guardian grizzly. He converged on Kat just as I pulled Brunton to me. He flew across the room like a rag doll, and the second my hand clamped around his wrist, his eyes went wide with horror. They turned back to Kat, who stood with the help of Grizz, her broken leg clutched in her hands. She stared back at him as she took the fractured limb and wrenched it back into place, then wriggled out of Grizz’s hold to stand on it like it didn’t hurt at all.
“We need to get out of here,” I said to the others. “I can’t hold onto you two and fight. And you can’t fight with me holding on.”
“I can deal with Mack’s boys,” Kat snarled, limping forward a step. But Grizz caught her shoulder and pulled her back.
She growled at him. He growled right back.
“There is no escape for you,” Mack shouted with delight as his remaining wolves circled like a pack of hungry dogs. “Only death, which I’d be lying if I said I won’t enjoy. I look forward to having the power of two alphas running through my veins, along with the fey king’s gift.” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The act looked sexual in nature, and it made my stomach roll, because I knew if we didn’t figure our shit out fast, he’d get exactly what he wanted.
I closed my eyes and felt around the fey magic in the air, trying to force it aside to focus all my energy on the connection I had to Knox’s pack. To those the fey king could control. Maybe he could do it in Faerie, and had found a way to translate that to our realm, but this was my world—the world where half my magic had been born.
And I had no fucking plan to let him beat me on my own turf.
I let my magic burrow deep into the ground, through the concrete and rebar and tunnels beneath the city, until it reached the distant bedrock. I siphoned the energy of that ancient stone up into me and channeled it into the wolves I held. Its power was heavy and binding and exactly what I needed to tether them even tighter to me in the presence of the fey king’s ability.
My eyes shot open as my hands dug deeper into Knox and Brunton as if the magic itself were burrowing inside. The two spared me a glance before looking at one another with their game faces firmly in place. Then I eased my grip.
“Ready to fuck some shit up?” Brunton asked right before Mack’s wolves launched at us.
Knox’s response was to hurl himself headlong into the wall of enemies barreling forward. Grizz, Kat, and Brunton weren’t far behind. But I could feel my connection to Knox and Brunton wavering the further they moved from me and the closer they got to Mack. I rooted myself in place and tried to extend the tether as quickly as they were moving. But their desire to get to Mack made it difficult, especially while I thwarted the wolves able to break through their line. They circled me like the predators they were, and I wondered how well I would be able to keep Knox and Brunton in check while fighting off Mack’s boys.
“Be rid of them,” I muttered under my breath, the strain in my voice so deep I barely recognized it.
The floor began to shake, and that bedrock I’d called upon came shooting up through the floor, impaling some and knocking others back. But it wasn’t enough. Their numbers were too many, we were too few, and the strength of the fey king’s call was too much to overcome.
Kat crashed into my back, knocking me to the ground. Grizz raced over to protect us, while Brunton and Knox also withdrew to form a tight circle around me as Mack’s seemingly infinite pack surrounded us.
“I can’t fight them and keep you from his commands,” I said, frustration plain in my voice.
Knox looked back at me, anger furrowing his brow. “There’s only one way to end this,” he said, and I knew then what he planned to do. The thing he’d avoided in all our run-ins with Mack.