Ares filled her lungs and issued an invitation to anyone who heard, who understood, to come and join in.
“I didn’t realize you spoke the same language.” Bishop scratched his cheek. “Makes sense, given you share common ancestors.”
“The language we speak in our other form is a mishmash of gwyllgi and warg, but some things are universal.”
The others joined in, strengthening Ares’s voice, but no cries rang out in answer.
“They’re gone.” Bishop exhaled. “Guess it was too much to hope they’d stick around to chew the fat.”
“You should go,” Midas told Aubrey. “We can’t protect you from what’s coming.”
The youth straightened his shoulders but nodded. “I’ll tell the captain.”
“They’re just standing there,” Midas said. “Why don’t they act?”
“They might not have figured out the firemen are paras yet, but they will. Bad guys have a sixth sense for that. Or, you know, they’ll kill all the witnesses and call it a day.”
Midas grunted agreement then glanced back at Hadley.
“We need her.” Bishop read his mind. “Her battery is too low, but she can’t fight until she recharges.”
Alarm swept through Midas as he watched the paramedics struggle to revive her. “What do you mean?”
After checking their surroundings, Bishop asked softly, “How much do you know about her…condition?”
“Only what I can see,” Midas admitted, unable to out her birthname to explain he knew more than that. “She has to recharge?”
“Not her.” Bishop’s gaze bounced from her to Midas. “Ambrose.”
The alarm clanged in his ears, deafening. “How?”
“Magic.”
Midas stared at his burnt hands. “Can I…?”
“Shifter magic isn’t enough to whet Ambrose’s appetite. We need a battery to hook up to him.”
The coven in the distance drew his attention. “Will they work?”
“Yeah.” Bishop hesitated. “One of them would be plenty, but it might juice the heart dry.”
“I don’t care.”
“You might later.”
“No.” He let the beast stare out of his eyes. “I won’t.”
The deal was his to uphold, and he would. One way or another. Natisha might have been willing to bargain with him because of Hadley, but taking one heart had almost broken her. It was cruel to expect her to bear the entire burden alone.
“All right.” Bishop crackled his knuckles. “Let’s do this.”
“Hold up,” the captain called. “Aubrey says there’s trouble coming.”
“Trouble is already here.” Midas indicated them with a jerk of his chin. “You should clear out while you can.”
“The twins told me it was the potentate down there.” He shifted his weight. “That true?”
The twin comment threw him for a loop before he noticed two Remys standing together near Hadley.
“She’s the next best thing.” Bishop failed to conceal his pride. “She’s his apprentice.”
“I have a proposition for you.” The captain rolled up his sleeves. “Hear me out?”
“Make it quick,” Midas said, eyes straying to the coven, to the fix Hadley needed to get back on her feet.
“Folks tend to get jumpy after they hear about Aubrey.” He wet his lips. “We’re getting tired of roaming, and we could use all the help we can get keeping our family together if we decide to make Atlanta our permanent home.”
Midas cocked his head. “Why Atlanta?”
“We heard things are better for shifters here, for anyone who’s different.” He shrugged. “Rumor has it the potentate is fair and doesn’t discriminate.”
There were factions, necromancers among them, that viewed shifters as little more than animals. That Hadley viewed them as equals and protected them with her life had clearly resonated with more shifters than the gwyllgi.
“I can’t make any promises.” Bishop spread his hands. “I’m not the one in charge.”
“I can give you the word of the beta and heir of the Atlanta gwyllgi pack that if you help us,” Midas said, “we will ally with you to help defend your claim on this territory against others of your kind.”
The vow was too big for him to make, and under other circumstances, he wouldn’t have dared without the alpha’s permission. Mom could rescind his vow, and it would damage his reputation. But that would come later. They needed help now. He was willing to risk it all for the chance to bring down the coven and pay his debt to Natisha.
“I can’t ask for better than that.” The captain stuck out his hand. “Call me Gray. Everyone does.”
“Welcome to Atlanta,” Midas said with a growl in his voice. “This is what you need to know about the coven.”
Quickly, Midas filled in Gray so he could warn his pridemates, but the alpha didn’t balk at the task.
Once he left to fill in the others, Bishop cleared his throat a few times.
“That wise?” He clarified, “Giving them carte blanche?”
“We need the help.” Midas would have to survive first to regret it later. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“I’ll get Reece on a background check.” Bishop sighed. “We screen newcomers, so I’m not sure how they slipped through the cracks. That might be on us, or it might be on them.”
“They’re hiding the boy,” Midas reminded him. “They kept their heads down for him.”
“They could have presented him as a cub,” Bishop countered. “Secrets make me itchy, is all.”
Midas cut him a flat look that conveyed the sheer nerve Bishop had in making that claim.
“Other people’s secrets,” Bishop clarified toothily. “I’m fine with my own.”
About to check with Gray, he turned to find the alpha loping toward him.
“We’re set,” he said. “Give us a half hour to shift, and we’ll be ready to go.”
They might not have a half hour. That’s what Midas was thinking. But he didn’t say it. “Okay.”
The pride backed off and stripped out of their gear while Aubrey stood watch over them.
Whatever their story, one thing was for sure. That boy loved them like family, and the feeling was mutual. The fiery glint in his eyes promised agony to anyone who tried to come for them on his watch.
The thick snap of bone and vicious yowls of agony made tracking their transformational progress easy.
The earsplitting roar as the big
