: Chapter 41

Jaxson

I scooped up Savannah. Her skin was cold against my chest, and I breathed in her scent. Tangerines, and the taste of cool water flowing over my lips.

She smells delicious.

She was unconscious and shivering. Her clothes were still wet from the river, and she was probably in shock.

She’d sacrificed herself so that Sam and Madison could get away. She didn’t even like Sam.

My wolf stirred, and my heart ached. She’d saved one of our pack.

I brushed a strand of hair from her face. At my touch, she pinched her eyebrows, and her lips trembled. Protectiveness and anger raged inside of me, and my wolf strained to break free.

I glanced down at her as I wound my way through the trees. She looked so delicate in my arms. So fragile. And so alluring. There was something about her. Maybe it was her blood.

Fuck, what was wrong with me?

She was a goddamned LaSalle…but she was also something else, and I’d have to figure out what that was.

A branch cracked, and Sam stepped out of the trees with Regina and Tony, favoring her right leg. “You all right?” I asked.

She nodded. “Just a torn muscle. I’ll heal soon.”

“And Madison?”

“She’s a little shaken up, but she’s fine.”

“We’ve secured the sanitorium. Captured two of the blood junkies.” Regina glanced at Sam and paused. “There’s something else, Jax.”

A cocktail of scents emanated from her—anger, betrayal, and sadness. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

I steadied my will. “Tell me.”

Sam’s jaw tensed. “It was Billy, Jaxson. He was behind it all. The abductions, grabbing me, Savannah. He’s been working with the sorcerer.”

Her words pierced my heart, and my body shook. Regina surged forward and plucked Savannah from my arms as my vision blurred and my bones began snapping. With difficulty, I reined in my wolf. I needed to think clearly. “It’s not possible.”

“He’s the one who grabbed Savannah and brought her in.”

“Maybe he was trying to make a trade…” I growled. “For you, or for the captives. He didn’t like how—’

“Jaxson. He was the one giving orders,” Sam said coldly.

I read her scent. It was undeniable. Truth.

“But why?” It made no sense. Billy would never work with a sorcerer, even if they weren’t LaSalles.

“I don’t know. But he’s looking for vengeance against the LaSalles, and I think he made a deal.”

The world spun around me. Billy was a brother. A member of the pack. My family.

I scanned my closest confidants. Billy had once been one of them. I’d told him everything, every move…and he’d betrayed us all. For what? What was worth betraying your brother, your alpha? Vengeance?

Rage consumed me, and I turned and drove my fists into a tree. My finger bones cracked, but the pain helped focus my thoughts.

I’d show him vengeance.

“Jaxson.” Savannah’s voice cut through the air.

I spun to face her as she inched toward me. Savannah Caine. The root of it all, the hub at the center of the wheel trampling everything beneath its path. Why did chaos follow her like a long shadow?

The fortune teller’s final warning thundered in my mind: If you help the woman and get your answers, they will tear you apart.

The Caine—LaSalle—woman took another step. I shook, barely able to contain my confusion and rage. Was she my enemy? My ally? Or my doom?

“Savannah, stop,” Sam said.

But Savannah didn’t listen. Instead, she placed a hand on my shoulder. A shock like cold water rushed over me, and I inhaled sharply. My muscles tightened and then gently relaxed as her touch dragged me back from the brink of insanity. Her eyes were the calm within a storm, and in them, I saw strength and kindness.

Strength. The card the fortune teller had pulled for her. Could she be that for me?

She feels our pain.

No. She couldn’t. She wasn’t one of us. She didn’t know what it was to be pack, to be bonded.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Too many two-legged worries. Concentrate on the problem at hand.

I examined her. “Are you hurt?”

Savannah shook her head. “No, but we need to find Billy. They took my blood, and the sorcerer is using it for something. We have to find out what.”

I looked to Sam. “Do you know who this sorcerer is?”

“No idea,” she replied. “But if Billy is working with him, I’m willing to bet he’s also someone who has a beef with the LaSalles.”

We wound through the forest toward the trucks we’d purchased from the East Wisconsin wolves at extortionist prices. Tony was on the phone. Savannah and Sam were behind, talking quietly. My mind, however, was occupied.

Billy must pay for betraying the pack.

I’d have to kill him to set a precedent. Bile rose in my throat. Could I kill my own brother-in-law? We’d been through so much together. How had it come to this?

Deep down, I knew the answer. It was simple: rage.

He and my sister had been true mates, I was sure of it. When she’d died, I’d wanted revenge, but Billy had wanted to tear down the world, to leave half of Magic Side in ashes. Rather than grieving her death, I’d had to keep him in check until his bloodlust had passed.

Apparently, it never had.

And now Billy had crossed the line. Gods only knew what kind of shitstorm he’d started.

Tony strode over and hung up his phone. “Our guys searched the sanitorium and found two more captives, alive but just barely. No clues as to where the sorcerer is. We caught a she-wolf who claims that Billy was the only one with a direct line to him.”

“Then we find Billy.”

We’d have to take him down outside of pack law. If there were a trial, the whole pack—and inevitably the Order—would know the truth about the sorcerer, the pack’s role in the attacks, and that Savannah’s blood was like a drug. There would be a firestorm. We couldn’t risk an open trial, so Billy had to be dealt with quietly and quickly.

As soon as we reached the trucks, I fixed my shrinking inner circle with a glare. “Billy is family, but he betrayed us and put the pack in peril. He’s made deals with sorcerers and demons and put his lust for vengeance above everything else. We could lose our reputation, our lives, and our alliances. From this day on, Billy is an exile. No longer family, no longer part of this pack. He no longer has rights to trial by pack law.”

Scents of anger, shame, and regret filled the air. I took a deep breath. “We treat Billy like any other threat. We take him down, now. Everyone understand?”

They nodded. We all knew what had to be done.

I leaned on the truck. “Unfortunately, Billy must have known we were going to raid the sanatorium, and he probably suspects it’s only a matter of time before we figure things out. My guess is that he’s turned tail and gathering his allies at his cabin in the Upper Peninsula. I’m betting he’s expecting us.”

“Should we call everybody up? Go in heavy?” Tony asked.

“No. Billy’s got a lot of friends in the pack. We need to be discreet and fast. Tony, Regina, call only the people we absolutely trust. People who are stationed up here, or who can get here quickly. And none of the dock workers. Have everyone meet at the Garden Corners Rest Area, and have them bring guns and silver.”

Tony nodded. “You got it, boss man.”

It was time for a reckoning.