“Cross?” Tension laced the Alpha’s voice. “What is she saying?”
“Son.” His father walked toward him, and suddenly, he felt like an animal trapped by its prey. “What’s the meaning of this?”
He had to stay calm. There’s no way they could possibly know … “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“She”—the Alpha nodded at the young girl—“can detect traces of magic. And she knows you’ve touched it.”
“Touched what?” A bead of sweat formed on his temple.
“The artifact, son.” His father rarely raised his voice, not even when he was scolding his children. Shouting was more his mom’s thing. But now, he could feel Daric’s temper bubbling. “You’ve touched the ring of Magus Aurelius, haven’t you?”
“You have it?”
Cross’s wolf cowered as power radiated from Lucas in waves. Though his own wolf was strong and dominant in its own right, it recognized its Alpha. There was no way he could fight it; it was either bend or break.
The Alpha’s eyes glowed, a signal that his wolf was very close to surfacing. “All this time, you’ve had it?” he snarled.
The air was too thick, and it was hard to breathe. His wolf urged him to submit. To confess. “It’s not … it’s not what you think.”
“What the hell are we supposed to think?” The Alpha moved toward him. “You’ve been keeping it from us and—”
“I’m sorry.” They could never find out. The truth would be the end of them. He turned to the one person in the room who he could really trust, beseeching him. “But you have to understand …” Then he focused on the farthest place he could think of, disappearing into thin air as a vicious growl echoed in his ear.
He staggered back as he realized that he’d landed on uneven ground. The wind on top of the cliff was bitingly cold, but his Lycan side would help him adjust. The chill felt good on his skin, almost calming, as was the sight of the Northern Lights in the distance. This had been his father’s childhood home, at least, that valley right under the lights was. Daric had taken him here, the first time he tried his powers. It felt safe here, and would give him time to think—
“What did you do?”
He spun around. Of course his father knew he would come here. “I … Dad, please. You have to trust—”
“Trust you?” Daric said incredulously. “Why should I trust you when you’ve been hiding the ring all this time? Where is it?”
“I can’t … I can’t give it to you.”
A vein pulsed in his father’s neck. “And why not?”
“I … I don’t have it on me.” Not a lie. Then he thought of the first place that came to his head when he thought of safety.
“Then go get it and—No!”
His father lunged for him, but he disappeared just in time. Back to New York, to his childhood bedroom. It was the first place he could think of. His parents had provided him a safe and loving home, after all. And he could just sit and decide—
“Cross, what have you done?”
His father materialized by the bed. Daric knew him too well. “Just … I need time to …”
“We have to go back, son,” he said. “The Alpha is demanding your head. I cannot protect you if—”
“I can’t let you do that!” This was life and death. They could never know. He had to get out of here. So, he focused his thoughts on the farthest place he could think of.
He took a deep breath as he reappeared on top of a mountain top along the Annapurna mountains in Nepal. The air here was thin, and made him lightheaded and lose his balance. Stumbling forward, he dropped to his knees.
“What do you mean you can’t let me do that?” Daric’s voice cut into his oxygen-deprived brain.
How the heck did he know—no time to think on that. His body was beginning to recover, so he whisked himself away. To an abandoned island in the middle of the Caribbean. He waited for a minute, letting out a sigh as he plonked down on the sand.
What to do now? Come up with a plan, he guessed.
As the waves washed over his feet and legs, his thoughts strayed to her, as they always did. The last three years of his life had been devoted to protecting her, making sure no one suspected she existed or what she meant to him.
He sunk his hands into the wet sand. Focus. Minutes ticked by, but it was hard to tell how much time had passed out here. It was times like this that made him wonder about the past and the decisions he’d made that brought him here.
There’s no other way, Cross. You know it.
His eyes shut tight. Had there been no other choice at the time? Could there really have been no alternative?
“I’m sorry, son, we have to take you in.”
Cross turned his head toward the sound of the voice, then shot up to his feet. Fuck. Daric was there again, and he wasn’t alone. Delacroix and Jacob stood behind him; their faces drawn into serious expressions.
But how? Daric’s control on his teleportation powers were far superior to Cross’s, not just because he was more experienced but because he had traveled to more places. In fact, when he first started using his powers, he was only allowed to transport to places Daric had shown him first. But this beach … Cross had never been with his father here. How did he know about this place?
“You must come with us, mon ami,” the Cajun said. “We promise, no harm will come to you.”
“C’mon, Cross,” Jacob added. “You can’t run forever.”
He weighed his options. There was no way he was just going to come with them, so what was their plan? His gaze moved from his father, to Delacroix, and to Jacob. Then he saw something in the Cajun’s hand. A silver bracelet. So that was their plan.
“I can’t let
