Page 81 of Cage Me

Her eyes are still open, and I’m sure she’s dead, but my wolf isn’t pleased. She leans forward and rips into the bitch’s face with her teeth, making the witch unrecognizable within seconds.

By the time we look up again, Drake has shifted to his human form, and he’s standing over Kel’s body. I start to shift back as well, wanting to go look for matches or something to set fire to the corpse, but when I’m back on two feet, she’s already…disintegrating?

“What the hell?” I mutter, making my way toward Drake.

“I think they’re eating her.” He points and I notice the fairies, or very tiny beings with bodies and faces I can’t actually make out, are burrowing beneath her leather bodysuit, cleaning up the mess.

Kasha mentioned me hopefully returning them, but there’s no way I’m fucking with those things.

More importantly, we don’t have time for that.

Kel sent those wolves after us before, and I have no doubt that she was being serious when she said my family was being attacked.

“We need to go,” I tell Drake, already digging out the witch’s pouch for another portal spell.

His eyes stay locked on the body. “It’s over. She’s finally dead after all these years.”

I open the portal and place one hand on his back. “We can celebrate soon. I promise.”

He nods stiffly, then tilts his head. “I think they’re all sleeping.”

My jaw tenses. Waiting a second longer to jump through that portal makes my chest ache, but I do anyway.

Sure enough, the fairies as I’ve deemed them are lying around the bodysuit, still as dead flies.

Drake pulls the velvet bag from his pocket and bends down. “We shouldn’t leave them out here.”

He’s probably right. Okay, I know he’s right, but I really want to fucking leave. Yet, the thought of going without my mate isn’t something I can fathom this soon after thinking there was a chance that we were both going to die today.

He sweeps them into the pouch carefully, but I can sense his urgency, which makes the painfully passing seconds slightly more manageable.

As soon as he stands, I grab his hand and jump for the portal without warning him. The moment we reappear in Kasha’s yard, my knees go weak.

Her house is gone. Not as if it’s disappeared. No, it’s been decimated. All that’s left is a concrete foundation and a few pipes sticking up. Everything else is…gone.

My hands tremble, and my throat feels as if it’s closing up, but not quickly enough to hold in my scream. A deep guttural sound that rattles my body and brings me to my knees.

I cover my face and shake my head. “No, no, no, no.”

Drake’s arms wrap around me, but even his warmth can’t penetrate the soul-deep cold I feel. My heart is freezing over with every final beat.

It no longer matters that Kel is dead. We lost. So much more than I was willing to sacrifice.

Sobs rip from my chest, and Drake holds me tighter, but no amount of support can keep the pieces of me from falling apart. There is nothing left inside me that?—

“Pence!”

I choke on another scream and lift my head, but I’m still frozen on my knees.

“Pence, you should have seen it,” Peter begins to ramble, having no clue my heart is still shattered even though I can see with my own eyes that he’s okay. “Kasha blew up her own house!”

My emotions can’t catch up. As he comes to a screeching halt, confusion gracing his face, I cry harder.

Twice in one week, I’ve thought I lost my family. That’s twice too much.

His little hands cup my face as I try to rein in my emotions. “Did something happen?”

I shake my head. “As long as you and Mom are okay, then no. I just…”

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