Page 126 of My Pleasure

“Very good. He was so nervous about what he was going to do, he didn’t drink for fear of messing up. He was smart enough to dump an entire bottle of rum all over himself and the seat, I’ll give him that.”

“Sir, it’s best we finish before Hunter returns,” Bryson advised.

No! Keep talking! She thought.

“Kiera what do you choose?” her uncle asked.

She walked toward him slowly, her hand reached out. “Uncle, I don’t want to die.”

Triumph filled his eyes. “Come here, dear.”

When she passed Bryson, she fell to one side, grabbing his hand. With fear fueling her attempt, she pulled his magic from him. Next to them the wolf trembled, then growled low in it’s throat.”

“Bryson, control that beast!”

Bryson stepped back, ashen faced. “I can’t sir.”

Kiera hurried toward her uncle. “Save me!” she threw herself at him and grabbed him with her other hand. Red threads. She knew what these were now. She pulled until there was nothing left.

Gasping, he clutched at his chest. “What have you done to me?”

“Nothing… yet.”

She looked to the wolf. Can it understand me?

The wolf looked at her, then stopped growling. Bryson’s earth magic tied him to animals? Was he like her? She looked at her Uncle, then Bryson.

Kill them.

The wolf lunged, going for Bryson first. It slammed into him with its full body weight and ripped his throat out. Her uncle screamed and ran. The wolf bolted past her. From the foyer she heard another scream and a gurgling noise. Moments later the wolf appeared in the doorway looking proud, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

The silence felt surreal. They were dead. She had killed them. She knelt down and pulled Keran and Nicol into her arms. “Wake up! Please wake up,” she begged.

Her left hand still glowed a brilliant shade of red. Not knowing what else to do, she pointed her hand to the ceiling and released the power. Above her, a bolt of pure magic exploded thru the roof and into the evening sky, bathing everything in crimson.

She scooted and dragged Keran and Nicol with her over to where Ma lay. She reached out and shook her shoulder. “Please, wake up.”

In less than a minute she heard heavy footsteps running toward her. Hunter entered the room first.

She looked up, tears streaking down her face. “Hunter,” she whispered brokenly.

He took in the bloody body to one side, the docile wolf, his mate holding their kids in her arms crying next to his parents’ bodies. “Tell me they’re okay,” he pleaded.

She sniffled. “Knocked out, I think. That’s what he said.”

Hunter dropped down next to her, his hands checking first Keran, then Nicol. When he saw their chests rising and falling, he turned to his parents. Seeing that they too were breathing, he pulled Kiera and the kids into his arms.

Behind them, Caiden had taken control. “Get Heath here,” he ordered.

“Kiera, what do you know about the wolf?” Zev asked.

“He helped,” she said, then began crying. “I made him help.”

Zev reached out a hand. The wolf sniffed it and his ears flattened. Zev released a low growl of his own, and the wolf lay down on the kitchen floor, resting his chin on his paws. “He’s fine,” he confirmed.

Aiden and Konstantine carefully rolled Ma and Dad over on to their backs.

Behind them, Kiera heard Meryn arguing with someone. “Don’t tell me no. It’s clearly not dangerous with warriors running around.”