He stopped in front of her.
She pressed the barrel of the gun against his forehead.
“We’re not animals, Meredith,” he said quietly.
Her face scrunched up, and incredulously, I thought it had worked. That Ox, crazy, beautiful Ox, had somehow gotten through to her. That he would take the gun from her, that she would back down and this would all be over. Oh, I was going to kill her the moment she let her guard down, but the fact that an Alpha wolf had pierced through the broken fury of the hunter Elijah was nothing short of extraordinary.
And then she laughed.
A chill ran down my spine.
“That was good,” she said. “I’ll give you that. But it wasn’t good enough. Go to hell, Alpha.”
Her finger tightened on the trigger.
I was already moving, but it was too late. The hammer rose and then fell back with an audible snap.
There was the dry click of an empty gun.
“Well, shit,” Elijah said, and then she smashed the gun upside Ox’s skull.
His head jerked to the right.
The wolves howled.
She spun and ran toward the Lighthouse.
She was up the stairs right as I reached Ox.
She hit the door hard.
It splintered around her, and she fell inside the Lighthouse.
“Gordo,” Ox shouted, and the terror in his voice broke my heart. “No!”
I was at the bottom of the stairs when she lifted her head to look back at me. She raised the hand with the dead man’s switch.
“Please,” I breathed.
The raven flew.
She smiled.
And lifted her thumb.
She exploded in a bright flash of fire. I felt a wave of heat, but I was lost to the petals of roses, to the prick of thorns, to the furious storm of an unkindness of ravens. My mother had told me they didn’t love me, they needed me, they would use me, and that the magic in me was a lie.
She had been wrong.
My wolves loved me, and I loved them in return.
I was pack and pack and packpackpack—
BrotherLovePackFriendMateMateMate
A great wall of ice rose in front of us, even as Ox put his hand on my shoulder, as Mark pressed against my side. Through the thick blue sheen, fire roared as the Lighthouse blew apart. The ice began to crack as balls of silver smashed into it, boring through with such force that I thought they’d break out the other side and hurt my pack.
In my head, I heard them all—my pack, the Omegas—and they were pushing against me, pushing and giving me their strength.