the beast I had been interacting with up until now was a watered-down version Midas had deemed fit for my consumption. One with his wildness leashed, tamed by my hand. Or so he would have me believe. This guy was the real deal. Blood, fang, and claw guided him. He was a creature of instinct, and his must be roaring at him.
“Okay.” I flexed my cramping fingers. “Are we done here?”
The beast whined in its throat but let the magic wash it away to reveal the man.
“You want to explain what just happened?” I waited for him to speak, but he kept silent. “You’ve got Jekyll and Hyde syndrome.” Still nothing. “I’ve read about it in wargs. Most who suffer from the condition end up that way through trauma.”
“I obeyed you.”
Relieved he was talking again, I shrugged it off with a smile. “I’m good at yelling until people do what I say.”
“I shifted when you commanded me to, Hadley. I obeyed you.”
“Are you sure?” Yes, I felt stupid the second I asked, but oh well. Nothing new there.
“You magically forced my body to listen to you.” He stared at me. “I had no will of my own.”
Recoiling from him, I tasted bile in the back of my throat. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
No wonder he hated the power that came along with his mantle if a sharp word bent people’s wills to his.
“I’m not mad.” He reached for me before I escaped him. “I’m just…surprised.”
“The courtship thing must be messing with us.” I wished I had wiped the dampness from my palms before they slid against his. “That must be it.” I searched his face. “Right?”
The cry of sirens snapped his jaw shut on whatever answer he had been about to give.
“We need to move.” He stood and pulled me up with him. “The sentinels and the cleaners will be here soon. If we want answers, we need to search Mendelsohn’s tent before they arrive.” He yanked me after him. “Whatever happened tonight, the answers must be here.”
I wasn’t fooled by his sudden sense of urgency, but he had a point. We had to act fast.
“You check his.” I took a moment to orient myself. “I’ll search Gayle’s.”
We split up, and Ambrose decided I had become the more interesting one, so he shadowed me.
Most of the camp appeared abandoned, but Gayle’s corner of it had been destroyed. Her thin mattress had been shredded, and so had her pillow. All her clothes and personal belongings had been scattered and smashed in a fit of rage.
What remained of her grandfather didn’t amount to much, but he had died with his back to a large box.
“There’s nothing here.” I checked with Ambrose. “Whoever flipped this place must have found whatever Gayle was hiding.”
The shadow gave a negligent shrug, bored again, but he did spare the box a second glance. It made me look at it harder too.
“W-w-who’s there?” a tiny voice whispered. “H-h-hello?”
“I’m Hadley Whitaker,” I announced myself. “I’m with the Office of the Potentate of Atlanta.”
“You bought me ch-ch-chicken nuggets.”
“Lyssa?”
“Where’s Mom? Aunt Gayle?” She cried brokenly. “Great-gramps?”
“Hold tight, sweetie.” I moved her grandfather’s corpse and covered it in a sheet before examining the box. “Who put you in there?”
“Aunt Gayle.” She sniffled. “The release latch is in here.”
“Can you pull it?” I gentled my voice. “I’m right here. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
“O-o-okay.”
Metal grated against metal, and a pop released a breath of stale air as the box opened a crack.
“Come on out.” I took her hands and helped her unfold. “There you go.”
The girl tottered into me and wrapped her arms around my neck, sobbing against my throat.
From the gleam of the hinges and the exposed framing, I could tell the box was made of silver bars. A wooden exterior and interior made it possible for wargs to lift it, or shelter in it, without it burning them. It would hurt like a mother if they ripped through the thin plywood to the metal beneath, though.
Lyssa was too big to be carried, but that didn’t stop me.
“Midas,” I called. “I found a survivor.”
The kid had seen too much already. I wasn’t going to walk her into the center of camp to see what her alpha had done to himself, or the others. I stood with her on my hip, bouncing her as I would a small child, and let the nearest tent shield her from the rest.
Midas jogged to us, his expression grim, and patted his pocket once for