Albia’s eyes widened, sinking forward as Saskia’s claws sliced through her windpipe. The ax dropped to the floor loudly. Her claws remained in Albia’s neck, her other arm soaking the floor with her thick blood.
I couldn’t look away, none of us could.
The bomb laid at Saskia’s feet. Theo noticed at the same time as I did and started forward to take it before Saskia’s uninjured arm pulled the pin.
Saskia’s claws left Albia’s neck with a nerving, squish. She was going to pass out soon from the blood loss, and she turned to us with a dizzying look.
Theo reached for the bomb seconds before Saskia did.
He looked up at her just as the ax sliced through her neck, from one side to the next. Her head hit the ground first, and then her body tumbled after her.
Pilar shrieked.
I looked up from Saskia’s head to Sloane, who held the axe in her hand, heaving to breathe, blood splattered on her shirt and face.
“Mom?” Theo asked, standing up slowly and reaching for the axe. There was a faraway look in her eyes, dazed almost.
“No one messes with my family,” she breathed, sliding the ax onto the ground next to Saskia’s body.
Reese turned, and Olympia dove into his arms. Gabriel quickly rushed to Pilar, who was shaking.
I didn’t notice any of them. All I could see was Theo, covered in Saskia’s blood, and looking at me with such relief, I nearly cried. I jumped childishly onto him, wrapping my legs around his waist, and my arms curled around his head. He held me, inhaling my scent, touching me.
“I thought we were going to die. I didn’t know if my mother could get here in time,” he admitted with his face stuck in my curls. He yanked my head back to look at him. “Margo, don’t ever do that to me again. If I tell you to leave, you leave.”
“Theo.” I grabbed his face in my hands, Saskia’s blood transferred onto my fingers. “I will never, ever, leave you.” And I kissed him, ignoring to iron taste on his lips.
He set me on my feet gently, and we looked at the two bodies on the floor.
Sloane knelt down next to Albia and slid her eyelids down over her eyes.
“She’s with her mate now,” she said depressingly. “I’ll tell Emily.”
“We’ll tell her together,” Gabriel told her, resting a hand on his mother’s shoulder.
“Where did you get the ax?” Reese asked.
Sloane’s lip twitched. “Your father liked to chop his firewood himself. I keep it by my bedside, it makes me feel safer.”
“How did you get from the basement to your room?”
“Sons, there are many things you don’t know about this house and this pack,” she reminded them. “You should go get cleaned off,” she told Theo. “We’ll get someone to take care of this mess.”
Theo pulled me down the hallway to a bathroom. He grabbed a towel and soaked it in water before wiping his face violently. When he rang it out, he turned and wiped the bloodstains from my lips and fingers.
We didn’t speak.
There was no reason to.
Color Theory
Theo disappeared three days after Saskia’s death.
On the first day, we burned Saskia’s body in the front yard. Theo chopped up the wood with his father’s ax. Most of the pack came to watch her burn. News traveled fast that someone had tried to kill the Alpha’s family and the Enforcer. No one shed any tears, although I felt a strange feeling in my stomach like somehow, I understood what she did.
On the second day, we held a funeral for Albia. Even though she had betrayed us, we respected Emily enough not to tell her what her daughter did before her death. There was no reason to ruin her name now that she was gone.
When I woke up on the third day, Theo was gone from our bed. My heart raced until I found a small note on the nightstand that said, “Needed to take care of some things. Be back soon. T.”
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and tried to mind-link Theo, but the link was blocked. I started to worry and tried again. I tried all throughout the day, and then I started to get annoyed.
I walked around the house gingerly, looking over my shoulder constantly. Even though Saskia was dead, the feeling of dread didn’t leave my body for months to come. I constantly expected her to be waiting in the shadows and around every corner.
I made myself dinner with an extra portion for Theo. I put it in a container in the fridge for him to eat later. The guards outside the house knew nothing of his whereabouts.
When I woke up the following day, Theo hadn’t come back. Sloane showed up at our doorstep with a tray of soft cookies, claiming to know nothing about her son’s trip. She came in, and we talked for a long time. She loved Pilar and Olympia already, claiming they were exactly what her sons needed.
Eli and Verona were still at the pack’s hospital. She hadn’t woken up yet, but most of her superficial wounds had healed, and they were just waiting for her to wake up to send her home with her mate.
Sloane stayed until nighttime. She cooked dinner with me, and we put on one of Theo’s old movies. Gabriel and Pilar came and drove her home when it got dark; no one wanted her walking home alone.
The third day that Theo was gone was the worst. I stayed in bed for most of the day, rolling in and out of sleep. The door opened at four in the afternoon, and I rushed downstairs.
Eli stood in the foyer with an anxious expression. I flew down the steps and to his side.
“What’s wrong? Is Theo okay? Is Verona okay?”
