“Because Kendrick told me you were latent. I thought that meant you would be spared what is to come.” Her father chewed on his bottom lip as Leah’s pulse pounded loudly in her ears. What had he just said? “I know you won’t believe me. I never wanted you to be hurt. I guess you’re going to be the first casualty of this war.”
“Cullen.” Tristan yelled as he shifted into his wolf form. Behind her she heard several loud growls.
Shift. Hurry.
Her wolf was begging her to move and Az screamed something but all she could see was that her father’s green eyes had turned gold in front of her. She stared into them, transfixed. Who was this man and what was he doing to her?
He raised an arm and pointed his index finger at her. Instinctually, she tried to block herself with her own arms. The movement didn’t happen, her limbs were frozen. Light poured out from his fingers as time slowed even further.
For a second, Leah swore she could see the particles that made up the light as it moved toward her; if she wanted to she supposed she could count the individual atoms that had formed it. Just as quickly as she had the thought, she was slammed to the ground, the hard floor jarring her body as stars appeared before her eyes. Az’s large body landed on top hers.
Above her, she felt him convulse. Her eyes got huge. Oh dear gods, what had just happened?
“Az.” She shook at his body but he didn’t move. “Az!”
Pushing him off took more effort than it should have. She still felt sluggish from whatever was going on with her father. Looking over briefly, she saw three wolves had him pinned to the ground while he laughed, a strange high pitched shriek she never would have imagined could come out of a human mouth.
Leah stroked Az’s face desperate for him to wake up. When that didn’t work, she shook him by the shoulders, hard. He groaned.
Az can you hear me?
No response met her query.
Tristan ran next to her. Still in his wolf form, he shifted back to his human state.
“What happened?”
“He took whatever was supposed to happen to me.” Her voice shook as she spoke the words. He never should have done that.
“I can’t reach him at all.” Tristan looked up at her hopefully. “Can you?”
“No.”
Just then a terrible pain wracked her body. She rolled over, gripping her stomach.
“What is it?” Tristan’s voice jarred her out of the darkness inducing pain that all but immobilized her.
It’s Az. He’s dying. Her wolf answered her, a small, sad voice.
“It’s not me, its Azriel. He’s dying.”
And so, she realized all of a sudden, was she. If Az died she would follow. The thought of Az’s death made her eyes fill with tears. She couldn’t watch him suffer.
Whatever it was, she would fight for him to live. But if he couldn’t…she would gladly follow him.
He held her soul. She held his. When they had mated, she’d dwelled on that thought except she hadn’t really understood it until now. In no way would either of them be alone. Not even travelling to the next life would be something they would do without the other one.
Az’s eyes flew open. “I’m so empty. Oh god, he’s not here anymore.”
Tristan grabbed his brother’s face. “What are you talking about? Who isn’t here? Az, you have to tell me what is happening. I can’t reach you telepathically. Whatever has happened, you have to explain it.”
“My wolf, Tristan, my wolf is gone. That man, Leah’s father, he took him from me.”
Az’s head jerked back and forth on the floor under Tristan’s touch. “How can he just be gone?”
Leah felt her soul shatter into a million pieces each one ripping from her insides like a stitch being torn from a hem in a dress. She sobbed openly. She looked up at Tristan.
“Can he live without his wolf?”
“I have no idea. As far as I know, this has never happened before.” If they lived through this, Leah knew she would never forget the look in Tristan’s eyes as he told her that. They might be all wolf but contained in his animal eyes was the heart of a man already starting to mourn his little brother.
She pounded her fists on the ground. No. They had just found each other. Forcing her tears to stop, she acknowledged that she wasn’t ready to move on. Not even if Az went with her. Leaping to her feet, she jumped over the desk and landed on top of her father. He was still shrieking, that strange high-pitched sound.
“Tristan,” she heard Az say behind her. “There are things I have to explain to you about how they make the wolves I saw in Leah’s memory. I thought I’d have time.”
“You will have time.”
Bless Tristan and his optimism. She was going to figure out how to fix this or before she died she was going to rip out her father’s throat. That is, unless, Gabriel did it first.
Placing a gentle hand on Gabriel’s fur before she spoke, she patted him on the head like he was a puppy dog. “I’m going to get him to fix this.”
Gabriel’s ears fell backwards and he growled but let up his assault on her father’s arm. Theo and Rex still maintained their holds on his legs while Cullen sat by his head.
There was no mistaking the look in Cullen’s wolf eyes. She might have to fight him for the privilege of ending her father’s life. The shifter held death in his gaze.
“What did you do?” Right now she didn’t care about why he had done it. She might care eventually if Az lived.
“I took his wolf. I can feel him prowling inside me.” He snickered. “I always wanted to be a shifter. It’s why I married your mother. Kendrick told me I’d become one if I mated with her, only that never happened. Kendrick explained it to me years ago. It meant your mother was deformed.” Her father’s voice had a dreamy quality. It was as if he spoke to her but at the same time had no idea what he said.
“That’s not your wolf. You aren’t meant to be a shifter and he lied to you.” She wanted to shake him.
“I actually didn’t take him out of desire to be a shifter alone. I took him because you killed the female leader of my coven. What good is it being a warlock if your coven falls powerless?”
Leah shook her head. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
We did. Tristan’s voice in her head sounded strained. “To save me, Cullen killed the witch who cursed us.”
That was information she could have used earlier. Staring at her father, she tried to breathe. “You’re a warlock? You’re with those witches who forced the fake wolf body on me?”
“Which wouldn’t have happened if you had done your duty and joined Kendrick’s pack.”
Leah bit down hard on her tongue. Now was not the time for dealing with that. “Give Az back his wolf.”
“I can’t do that. I used all of my power to take it. Now I just need my new wolf to make me powerful. Kendrick said it would.” He grabbed Leah’s arm. “Why isn’t it working?”
“Because the wolf doesn’t belong to you. He doesn’t want to be inside you. It lives with Azriel like my wolf lives with me. I don’t understand all of the spirituality of all of this yet but its symbiosis, okay? They are connected to each other. Yours is not the body or soul it wants.”
She hoped what she said was true. Az had told her his wolf didn’t like him. Maybe it liked being inside her dad?
Not possible. He picked Az like I picked you. Perhaps his wolf gets annoyed with him but it’s all love, Leah. Her wolf sounded genuinely annoyed that she’d thought ill of Az’s wolf.
“I can’t give it back.”