have to,” I said, unable to suppress the little grin that had been pulling at my lips.
Her eyes narrowed on mine. “This isn’t funny. You could die!”
“Or I’ll be fine.”
She grabbed my shirt, balling it in her hands. “You can’t do this,” her voice ordered, but her hands trembled against my chest.
I reached up and held her hands. “They need everyone tomorrow.”
Her grip tightened. “Not you. Not any of you.”
“I’m sorry, Ally,” I said softly. The worry in her eyes, I couldn’t take it. I took her face in my hands before pressing my lips to hers. Her response was instantaneous, opening for me, stoking my own fire. My wolf and I growled in satisfaction, sweeping in and taking what was ours. The sweet taste of her on our tongue. She pressed against me, her curves making us ache for her. For our bonded. Need swept through me. The urge to sink my teeth into flesh, to mark her, was almost overpowering. Almost. I kissed her gently one last time before pulling back.
She kept her eyes closed and took deep breaths. “Promise me.”
“I promise.” I held her face gently. “I promise to not let anything stand in the way of getting back to you.”
She lifted her half-hooded gaze to meet my own. “You’d better not. I’m coming too. Uma has taught me enough that I can do some damage.”
We growled without thought.
“That’s not going to stop me, Ash.” Her determination was clear in her eyes. “You go, I go.”
I swallowed hard. With that look in her eyes, I couldn’t stop her. But the others? “Let’s see what the guys say about that.”
She nodded. “Sure, let’s go tell them.”
Lexie
Telling my other boyfriends went about as well as I imagined it would.
“I don’t believe that’s a good idea,” Miles said. “You’re the one they’ve been after.”
“You’re not going to go to a fight and make a target of yourself,” Zeke added.
“The Veil is open again,” I countered. “I’m not that important anymore.”
“We still don’t have the person who closed it to begin with,” Miles reminded me.
“I told you, it was Dylan,” I said, the exasperation plain in my voice.
Miles pushed his glasses up his nose. “And Evelyn said that wasn’t enough to allow her to get involved yet. We need more evidence.”
“They can’t go without us backing them up!” I wrung my fingers together.
The guys shared a look.
Zeke sighed. “Then we’ll all go.”
“What?” I could barely handle the idea of two of them going, but all of us? “No, no, no.”
Isaac wrapped his arm around my back and pulled me close to his side. “Red, we’re a family. If you insist on going with Asher and Ethan, we all go.”
My throat tightened as I looked up at him. “But …” I could lose all of them.
Isaac’s face softened along his jaw. He squeezed me tight. “You can’t have it both ways.”
I shook my head. “No one.”
“I have to, Ally. Ethan has to.” Asher stepped closer to us, his hand taking mine and unclenching my fist. “I’m a wolf now. We’re a part of the supernatural world. We have to fight.”
I swallowed hard. Asher couldn’t play by human rules anymore. Neither could Ethan. It’s their lives they were fighting for. But still … “I don’t like those choices.”
“These are the only choices we have.” Zeke stepped closer. “All of us, or just Ethan and Asher.”
I shook my head. What kind of choice was that? Risk only two of us or all of us. “I-I-I can’t make that decision.”
“All of us.” Zeke turned to Miles.
Miles nodded. “Seconded.”
Isaac put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Third.”
“Motion passed,” I rasped through a suddenly dry throat.
“We’ll have to talk to the committee.” Asher started towards the door. The rest of us followed and I slipped my hand into Ethan’s as we filed down the hallway.
“It’s going to be okay, Beautiful,” Ethan whispered as the others moved into the library.
“Absolutely not.” Uma’s voice carried out to us in the hallway. That didn’t bode well.
We filed into the room and stood in front of her and Brody as a group.
“We all go, or no one goes,” I stated.
Uma turned to me and shook her head. “That’s not how this is going to work. You aren’t ready for this kind of fight, and the others are too human to be in it.”
Isaac stepped forward. “We’ve been training in MMA for yea—”
“That’s not the same kind of fight,” Brody stated in a cold voice. “This is a war. One hit from