“Wow. You’re huge.”
He rumbled, pressing against her as she ran her hand through his fur, which was surprisingly soft. He looked back at her, still Faine, still shining with intelligence.
“Should we run?”
He tore out ahead, Simon following, nipping his brother’s heels, pulling ahead.
“They’re going to do that awhile. Let’s go.” Lark started, her steps sure and fast on the trail.
“No fair! This is home field advantage.”
In the distance, Lark flipped her the bird and kept running. Helena got her ass moving, hurrying to catch up.
Faine felt trouble before he saw it. There was joy. Clan and pack togetherness. Running with his brother, his
It was good.
And then the jarring change. Steel. Man-made things in a wild space. Gun oil. Black powder but something else. He growled and slowed. Simon was adjusting, slowing and moving back, Faine knew, to be sure Lark and Helena were covered.
There were No Hunting signs all around the property and it was May, the only hunting allowed around the area was turkey. He doubted it was a law-breaking turkey hunter who’d sent the hackles on his neck rising.
To his right.
Faine slowed and got low, moving with more stealth than anyone watching ever could have imagined possible from an animal so large.
His beast sensed a threat to his mate. An incursion onto protected land. Neither could be borne.
The thread Helena was at the other end of hummed. She was close, but concentrating. His beast was not worried. She was exemplary. A fine mate, canny and vicious.
They’d hunt this interloper together.
Simon moved off to the left, flanking the intruder.
A burst of sound as the human realized he was surrounded by two huge beasts with sharp teeth and claws. A scream and then running, night birds breaking into flight, a beacon to where the human was.
Helena and Lark streaked off, clearly as comfortable hunting with each other as Faine and Simon were.
He growled and snarled, taking off, Simon bounding ahead and east.
It was another several minutes until they reached a trail.
Helena bent, her hand on a tire track. Her magick flowed through the space.
Faine edged next to her, pressing against her as he bent to scent the area. The other thing he’d smelled back near the house had been silver.
He pushed her, getting her attention.
“What?” Her voice was low, her gaze moving around, vigilant.
He jerked his head back in the direction of the house.
“No. We should track this vehicle out to the main road.”
“We can’t catch him. Not at this point,” Lark said as she came back to them. “Simon is running ahead to see, but chances are, once they hit the pavement they took off and won’t look back. Seems they pissed their pants at the sight of a big giant—”
Her voice was drowned out by the sound of a huge explosion. The ground shook beneath Faine’s paws and he knocked both women down, keeping them beneath his body.
Simon came tearing back up the trail, teeth bared. He skidded to a stop, sniffing and poking at Lark until she grunted, sitting up. Faine moved back.
“Something blew up. Let’s go see what it was.”
But Faine had a feeling he knew exactly what it was.
HELENA let him lead. It wasn’t like she could keep up with him anyway. At full speed she’d never seen anything faster. Not in person. And Simon? When he’d come back after the explosion? He was a blur of movement, of shining, sharp bared teeth and bunched muscle that had made the span of his shoulders so wide it had sent a ribbon of fear though her.
Helena had faced rogue werewolves and had been fucked up a time or two. But if she’d ever bumped into a Lycian who meant her harm, she’d have been long in the grave.
Still, it didn’t help the sense of dread as the glow in the sky grew. The scent of burning wood choked the beauty of the pine needles she’d been breathing in only minutes before, and when they got to the top of the rise, Faine waited, the shorts he’d pulled off before he’d shifted were on again.
“I’m sorry.”
Lark started forward and Helena grabbed her hand, moving with her.
Just ahead was their beautiful home, engulfed in a raging fire, the front of it blown off.
“Oh my god.” Lark clapped her free hand over her mouth and Helena put an arm around her as they watched. Simon had been taking up the rear, guarding them, but he’d shifted back and pulled Lark into his arms.
“You’re okay. I’m okay. Helena and Faine are okay. It’s just stuff. It can be rebuilt. You can’t be replaced, Pixie. A house can be.”
Lark cried, burying her face in Simon’s chest, and Faine stood behind Helena, pulling her back against his body, wrapping his arms around her.
“We need to call the fire department. And Meriel.”
“The cars were in the garage. All our stuff was in the house, including the cell phones.” Lark’s voice was numb.
Helena would do what she could to make things better. “I’ll go to the house down the hill to call. It’s only half a mile or so. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Faine kept his hold on her.
“You don’t have any clothes on. You’re nearly seven feet tall. No one is going to want to answer the door if you come with me. I’ll be back. You can trail me from the treeline if you like.”
He turned her slowly. “You’d let me do that?”
Surprised, she cocked her head. “Lark and Simon’s house just got blown up. I’m sure you’re concerned the people at the house down the road might be in danger, or the perpetrators who did this could be hiding between here and there. I’ll need the backup. I don’t have any weapons on me, or a phone, and my magick is depleted.” She shrugged. “It makes sense.”
“Faine, keep an eye on her. Kill anyone who looks at her the wrong way. You got me?”
Helena had never heard Simon’s voice that way. His beast must have been very close to the surface. His magick seemed to spark against his skin, hot and full of rage.
She took Lark’s hand. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Faine shifted again and they ran to the road and then he watched from the trees as she kept to the road.
The neighbors were agitated at first to have been woken up, but once she explained that she needed them to call 911, that their house was on fire and everything was inside, including her phone, they invited her inside where she made the call and also notified Meriel, who said she’d send someone over immediately and urged them to stay safe.
They invited her to stay until the fire trucks arrived, but she explained her sister and brother-in-law were waiting. The neighbors kindly sent her back with a thermos of hot tea and sweaters.
And a reminder that not all humans were like the ones who’d blown her sister’s home up.
HELENA moved through the office with singular purpose. She’d flown back to Los Angeles and would be heading back to Seattle in only a few hours to meet with the full Council of Others. This
