Hadn't my pack said there was no return to humanity after they’d given me the wrong pills? It'd been a panic, but I remembered that. It had been the moment when my entire life changed, when I'd finally stepped on the road to being a whole, happy person with lovers who adored me and I them. We'd only just begun, I'd been so excited, so fascinated by what awaited all of us.
And it was gone.
Over.
Empty.
I was a knocked-over bucket, a tipped vase, an upside-down cup. There was nothing left, but I couldn't wrap my mind around that. Surely, at any moment, I would feel my pack link back up with me. I would know what they were doing, know that they were worried about me. I would know... something, anything.
All I knew was that I'd ruined the one good thing I had. I sobbed into the steering wheel, my forehead resting over the horn. The first one took me by surprise, but by the second I gave in. The tears poured down my face and I fell to pieces, sorrow eating me alive from within.
My phone rang. I coughed, trying to compose myself, and pulled it out of my pocket. The number was unlisted. "Hello?"
"Just so you know, darling, I'm still calling the Meet. You'll just be a little extra crispy by the end of the night. Ta-ta."
Lillian hung up on me without waiting for a reply. I stared at the blank phone screen and hiccupped, my heart a cinder of what it had been before I'd been stupid enough to trust her.
I was no longer a werewolf, but I would still hang for the crimes I hadn't committed.
I was no longer a werewolf, but she was still trying to ruin the people I loved.
I was no longer a werewolf, but that fucker wasn't getting my little boy.
Fury boiled up inside me and I turned the Hummer over, murder in my heart. I shifted the vehicle into drive and barely controlled myself from peeling down the street. If I was going to ruin Lillian's plans and save my pack. No matter if I had fur or flesh, I'd have to make it home in one piece.
And when I did, when I was done crying, I was going to rip her fucking throat out.
Chapter 15
Hudson
"Think she'd like it if we took her on a hunt, if they give us approval to keep her?" Gabe asked.
I sighed and poked at my leftover lasagna with a fork, staring at my plate. "I don't know, Gabe."
There was nothing I wanted less than to sit and try to figure out what we'd do after the Meet. It was drawing closer and my nerves were shot. Another week, to the day, and we'd be facing judgment. I still hadn't managed to put together a good defense. Love meant nothing to the law.
The dragons would see me as weak, a slave to my emotions. The griffins would laugh at me, but they rarely mated for more than a season and just to raise chicks. The cats would get it, but they prided themselves on being law-abiding citizens of the supernatural community.
And the unicorns? God, if the unicorns showed up, they might be lenient. Of everyone, they were the most rational semi-immortals running around. Still, I knew it would be a challenge to convince them.
In truth, I was still having trouble convincing myself. I loved Sadie; we all did. We hadn't had her for very long, why tell us we couldn't? I mourned that which was almost certainly going to be, that which hadn't become yet. But I was certain that nothing good could come of it.
Lillian would see to it.
God, why had I let Sadie go? I jabbed a layer of noodle and meat into my mouth and tried to remember where we'd stashed the Tylenol. Medication had to be stored practically on the ceiling to keep curious, taller dogs from getting into something they shouldn't touch.
As I swallowed, searing pain ripped through my chest. It was if someone had reached into my ribcage and tore my heart out. I fell from my chair, again, hitting the ground hard on my shoulder, and screamed. A quadruplet of voices answered my cry and I heard Gabe slap onto the floor beside me. Something had happened; something had happened to Sadie and we were too far away to stop it.
My alpha brain panicked. There are instances when we are far from being in control of ourselves, even as rational and tightly-wound men. I bucked off the linoleum the second I could and hauled myself to my feet. Gabe beat me to the door, leaving Sadie's keys hanging on the wall. I retrieved them and followed him out, limping as if I'd been hit by a car.
It wasn't just the physical pain, there was something wrong. I felt hollow, like someone had reached into me with an ice cream scoop and simply peeled away all the goodness I'd had recently. I'd been drained, ripped apart, in seconds and that had never happened.
No, I was wrong. I'd experienced it once before, when Tommy's mother had died in the woods. I'd known when she passed, what had happened, and then it was only the work of collecting her body that had lain before us. The others had known it, felt it, but not like what I'd experienced.
If Lillian had killed Sadie, she'd be in prison by the end of the night. Even the humans weren't so relaxed about a murder in plain sight. I didn't think she'd be so cocksure as to do it, but you never
