No, not stronger. She’d left the line open. He wouldn’t come away from this deed unscathed. Fool.
“You should have let the wolf die, mambo.”
That wouldn’t have served her purposes. If Simone had died, then the charmer wouldn’t owe her.
His fingers rose, and his claws curled over her shoulder. I won’t see him. But she could feel the press of darkness, those same whispers that had been in the boy, only they were screams now. Screams from all the dead he’d taken.
“Tell me how you brought Simone back. You don’t touch the Dark. He should have been a rotting corpse. Tell me.”
“I used something you can’t understand.” Something he’d never grasp. “Sacrifice.”
“What? Did you kill a f**king chicken?” His rough laughter grated in her ears.
He dared to mock her? Her faith? Her power?
No one mocked Marie Dusean.
See him.
She turned in his grasp. The fog parted for her, and she saw the monster staring down at her. “Death’s comin’ for you, boy.” Her voice rolled with the promise. “You can beg, you can plead, but in the end . . . he’ll have you.”
His claws sliced across her throat. Marie didn’t feel the pain. She was already gone. Gone into the fog that waited. Welcomed.
He’ll have you.
Her necklace fell to the floor, severed by a wolf’s claws. The ruby ring slipped off the chain, then became lost in the blood.
Chapter 13
“Will you still help me?” Sarah whispered. “Now that you know I’m—”
“Bait from the Feds?” Lucas finished, voice biting, and he saw her flinch. Dammit, he didn’t want to attack her. He wanted to yank her back into his arms, hold her tight but—
Pack law. She’d deceived not just him, but his whole pack. Controlled them. Wolves didn’t like being controlled by others.
Might as well be a f**king mental cage to them.
“I told you,” Sarah said, voice tight. “I don’t work for them anymore.”
But he didn’t believe her. Sarah’s ex-boss had contacted her right before she came to LA, and he was supposed to buy that the guy hadn’t brought her back into the fold?
Lucas knew he was on the FBI’s extermination list—and he didn’t trust those Bureau bastards not to set him up . . . and not to use their perfect bait to do it.
Shit. From the beginning, he’d known she’d held back. He’d known better than to trust her, but damn if he hadn’t started to let his guard down for her.
Now that he knew about her past, it made him want her all the more. She’d been so strong, keeping her talents hidden from the world, then struggling through life on her own.
But the pack . . .
Sarah came closer to him. Her hands pressed to his chest. “We want the same thing. To stop Rafe. Once he’s dead . . .”
What? She’d slip away? Get out of his life? No.
One delicate shoulder lifted. “Then you can tell me to hit the road, okay?”
But what if he couldn’t let her go? The woman didn’t realize just how thin his control was with her. “You’re a dangerous weapon, Sarah King.”
Her eyes widened a bit. Such green eyes.
“Tell me . . .” He breathed in her scent. “Are you still lying?”
“No!”
“If you wanted, could you control me right now? Get me to do anything you wanted?”
She licked her lips, a quick flash of pink tongue that made his idiotic c**k twitch. Always want her. “N-no . . . I told you before. I can’t read your thoughts when you’re in human form—”
“That’s not really the same thing, is it?” He broke through her words. His heart thundered too fast and he knew she felt the wild beat. But when he was close to her, he was wild. Need more. “Not talking about reading thoughts. I’m talking about control.” He waited a beat. “Can you control me now?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“You sure about that, babe? Wouldn’t be the first time you were . . . ah . . . a bit unclear with me.”
Her hands dropped. “I tried to control Rafe when he was in human form. It didn’t work.” Anger fueled her own words. “And it’s not working now with you, or else you’d be on your knees in front of me, telling me how sorry you are for being a jerk.”
One brow lifted. “A jerk?” He’d been called much worse. But the word still drove into his gut. “I’m not the one who’s been lying.” Odd, that. He usually lied one hell of a lot, but . . . not to her.
While she spent all her time lying to him.
“I stayed with you.” She spun around, giving him her back. “I made the deal with Marie. I was willing to trade everything—”
His body tensed at that. “Tell me you didn’t.” He remembered the fire in his gut. The burn that lashed through his organs. “Tell me you didn’t.” He could still feel it—the whisper of cold, of death, sinking into his body.
She threw a glance back over her shoulder. “I agreed to her trade.” A rough laugh. “Hell, I don’t even know what was happening. You were dying. She was chanting, asking me about binding with you.”
No, hell, no. “Sarah, did you—”
Her body swung toward him. “Did I what? Fight for your ungrateful self? Yes, I did. I’m not all bad, you know, Lucas. I don’t want you dead. I don’t want Jordan dead. I just want—”
He lunged forward and grabbed her arms. “Did she bind us?”
Her lips parted. “I—”
A hard rap shook the door.
“Did she?” He gritted, his eyes only on her.
Sarah nodded. “Yes.”
And he knew he was f**ked.
The door swung open. “Alpha, Caleb’s up.”
He didn’t glance at Dane. He’d known the pack had recovered the wolf. Severely injured, barely alive.
But barely was all they needed.
“He’s awake. I don’t know how long he’s got, though.” No emotion filtered through Dane’s voice. Not like he was talking about a friend, a pack brother. Oh, yeah, he damn well was. The betrayal ate at Lucas.
Dane exhaled on a hard sigh. “He won’t make it through the trial by pack.”
Lucas was still staring at Sarah. He saw her pale. “You—you would force him to face that?”
A trial by pack. The same method Rafe had used to “eliminate” the threat of Sean. When the pack was attacked, when a wolf crossed the line, the trial was to a wolf’s surrender or to his death. If the wolf surrendered—he lived, but would be banished from the pack.