“You’re next.” Latham’s voice.
He was standing over the bodies. His lips were twisted with hate.
“Why?” Jamie demanded again, the cry like a wounded animal. And—he was.
“Because I’m taking over the pack. He was in my way.” Latham glared at the dead man’s body and then pointed at Jamie. “You’re in my way, too, brother.”
Brother?
A knife seemed to slide into her heart, but the heart—it wasn’t hers. It was Jamie’s. And Latham had just shoved a silver blade into Jamie’s chest. Then Latham…walked away.
But Jamie didn’t die. Someone else rushed to his side. A wolf she recognized. Sean. Sean took out the blade even as it scorched and blistered his fingertips. But Jamie was still near death. Far too close. Death’s cold hands reached out as the world seemed to go dark…
Then she was somewhere else. Her eyes opened. She—no, Jamie was on a bed. “What the hell happened?” His voice seemed to echo all around her.
Sean swallowed and glanced away, as if he couldn’t stand to meet Jamie’s eyes. “Had to…I had to give you vampire blood. It was the only way to keep you alive.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“Latham…he…he has a vamp that he keeps prisoner. She’s supposed to be f**kin’ strong.”
She? Iona’s heart burned because she realized this memory…it had been created when Latham already had her captive.
“That’s how my brother stays so strong.” Jamie jumped from the bed. Her blood had pushed his strength level higher than anything he’d ever felt before. “We have to find her. Find her…and kill the bitch. We kill her, and we’ll kill him, too.”
***
Iona whimpered and turned her head against the pillow.
Jamie’s jaw locked. He wanted to shake her and force her eyes to open, but…he didn’t want any more secrets between them. No more lies. Iona wasn’t what he’d expected. She deserved to know the truth about what happened. About him.
“And when you come for my throat…” His fingers brushed back her hair. “Hell, maybe I won’t even fight you.”
Because he didn’t know who had wronged her more. Him…or his brother.
***
Another time, another place. The memories were coming faster now as the blood pushed her to see more. Learn more.
The pounding of the surf hit her ears even as the scent of the ocean filled her nose. She paced—no, Jamie paced—inside a small beach house. A man sat before him, bound hand and foot to a chair.
The man’s blond hair fell over his eyes, but then Jamie said, “Witch, we can do this two ways. I can kill you now, or you can help me.” His hands lifted and claws glinted in the dying light. “We can both work together to take out Latham, and you can keep living.”
Witch? The man’s head rose. Brian Hennessey stared back at her. Pain froze her heart. Jamie had been working with Brain? With the witch who’d bound her?
Blood dripped from Brian’s busted bottom lip. “You can’t…stop him. He’s too strong.” Then Brian laughed. “He’s gonna take…over every pack…no stopping…”
Jamie kicked the chair and Brian fell backward, slamming into the wooden floor. “He’s strong because you gave him magic. You think I didn’t hear the story about the vampires you slaughtered? About the Blood Queen that you’re holding and slowly draining?” His lips curled in disgust. “I know you’re giving her blood to my brother. That’s why he’s so powerful.”
And for an instant, the fast flood of memories were hers, not Jamie’s. Iona remembered the prick of a needle in her arm. The slow suction as her blood drained away. Again and again and again as the years rolled away…
Her dark past vanished, and there was only Jamie once more.
“When we take his vamp away, he’ll get weak.” Jamie crouched over Sean and put his claws to the witch’s throat. “Tell me how to find her, and I’ll make sure to cut off his little blood supply. Because it’s her, right? Not just any vamp…her. I know she’s old, powerful—”
“M-magic.” Blood oozed from Brian’s throat when Jamie’s claws broke the skin. “Not just a vamp…the Blood Queen is part witch, too. Get her blood, get the power. Latham has the power.”
“Because you helped him!” Fury rolled in Jamie’s voice. “You backed the wrong brother. But you can regret that while you’re burning in hell.” His claws sank deeper into Brian’s throat.
Brian shook his head, seemingly frantic at the promise of death he must have seen in Jamie’s eyes.
Jamie’s claws lifted once more. He attacked.
More blood flowed.
The witch broke. “Th-there’s a way…end the curse…you can…can control her…”
Iona wanted to close her eyes. Wanted to slap her hands over her ears. But this wasn’t her body, and Jamie’s hands—they were too busy slicing into Sean.
“Then you tell me that way. Tell me how to control the Blood Queen, and you can help me to kill Latham.”
***
“My father was alpha,” Jamie said the words, knowing she probably couldn’t hear him—not while she was locked in blood memories—but still needing to speak. “I was his second son. Latham…he was my half-brother. Hell, I didn’t even know about the guy for the first ten years of my life. He just…showed up one day. His mother had never…she’d never joined the pack. That’s why his last name’s Gentry.”
Latham Gentry. The f**king wolf that had destroyed his world. “He’d been in America, had grown up there.” And, later, it would be Latham who convinced the pack that they needed to move across the pond and start fresh in the United States.
“I was a kid when Latham showed up, and Latham—hell, he was a fully mature wolf. He was also a sadistic prick.” Jamie shook his head. “Only back then, nobody but me ever seemed to see the evil that burned in him.” His fingers were laced with hers. “I tried to tell my father. He wouldn’t listen. He was too damn happy to have a strong, new wolf in the pack—a wolf with his blood.”
He’s f**king crazy. How many times had Jamie said those exact words to his father over the years? He’d seen the evil in Latham. Why hadn’t the others?
“The years passed. I could see that Latham was growing darker, more dangerous. I could also tell that he was positioning himself to be alpha.” The hell, no. “I had to leave the pack. I knew…I knew I’d never be able to swear allegiance to Latham.” His parents had been furious. Jamie’s father had disowned him, still refusing to see what Latham was. He said I was jealous. Bitter.