on the back of the head.
“Mom!”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed, and Adrian growled at the sound. His yellow eyes glinted in the light as his inner wolf reared its head in indignation.
“And I’m going to break her?” Cal added insult to injury, giving Adrian a little pat on the top of his head. “Down boy.”
Adrian tackled his adopted brother, changing into wolf form so fast he was just a blur of skin and fur and shredded cargo shorts. And then he was snapping at Cal’s laughing face on the ground.
I gasped, jumping back from them. What the hell was I getting myself into with these two?
Cal wrangled Adrian’s wolf, tucking the great beast’s head into a stranglehold all while maintaining a wide smile and a light in his green eyes I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen in him before.
I tensed as Adrian whimpered, wondering if I should do something. Stop them, or shout at them. Something.
Just when I was starting to think their play fighting was actually real fighting, Atlas sauntered slowly into the meadow on all fours. His massive black wolf snarled its discontent at what it saw. His deep amber eyes were hungry and searching. Even though it wasn’t all that cool of an evening, the breath leaving Atlas’ snout steamed.
“Boys!” Stella shouted, and the two immediately separated.
Cal jumped to his feet, going back over to where the others were across the meadow, and Adrian shifted to move into position next to him, his hands tucked behind his back, covering up a fair portion of his tight glutes.
I resisted the urge to see what was on the other side of him when Atlas shifted back to human form, too. Shoving his long dark hair back from his face. The tattoos on his arms and torso looked like the shadows of the night clinging to his skin. He tilted his head to one side, cracking his neck.
The gathering grew silent at his approach.
“Nervous?” A whisper-soft voice spoke next to my ear.
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to see him. After all, why wouldn’t a vampire be at a bond severing ceremony for Endurans? Made total sense.
“What are you doing here, Draven?” I whispered curiously, glad we were so far removed from the main group that I didn’t think Atlas or any of the other pack could hear us.
He moved to stand beside me and shrugged. “I have some business with Atlas when this is through.”
I raised my brows at the vagueness of his statement, waiting for him to elaborate. He didn’t.
Atlas was chatting with his pack—the ceremony hadn’t begun yet. Good. I had time.
“Well, I’m glad you showed up,” I said despite myself. This wasn’t the place, but I didn’t know when I would see him again, and I needed to know. “Now I can ask you why the hell you were on academy grounds the other night.”
He didn’t answer me, and a lick of fury inflamed my cheeks. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
But I already knew the answer. Who else would it have been?
I’d seen him from my window. He’d been perched on the roof of the west wing of the academy. Just sitting there all menacing and broody and stuff. I thought I’d imagined it, or maybe dreamed it, but judging by his silence, I had to assume I’d been right.
“I owe you a debt,” he said after a moment. “With your council denying any witch involvement, you aren’t safe. The witch who burned down the warehouse is still out there, and it’s only a matter of time until they find you.”
My blood ran cold.
“You assume they’re looking. What if they’re not?”
He gave me a look that said really, Harper? You’re smarter than that.
And he was right. I was smarter than that. Which was why, despite both the Arcane Council and the Arcane Authorities denying what I plainly saw, I’d decided to take matters into my own hands.
I’d find the person who did this to Draven’s kind. To Cal and Adrian’s. And I would prove that I was telling the truth.
“It doesn’t matter,” I added, moving to go to where the gathered pack had begun to form a ring around Cal and Adrian at the middle of the meadow.
“Oh? Doesn’t it?”
“No,” I said, stopping only for the briefest moment to attempt to convey to him in a single look just how serious I was. My fists clenched and the familiar sting of my nails biting down into my palms steadied the off-kilter beating of my heart. “Because I’m going