Page 5 of Ascension of the Pack

Gato came over and gave her a big lick. ‘Hey, pup.’ He went as if to send her back to the Common realm, but she shied away like Ivy at her skittish worst. ‘Thanks, but no. I need my magic for a while tonight. Sorry. I’m not ready to go without it.’

He seemed to nod, his big eyes understanding and sad. Indy came close for a full body cuddle before settling down. She was on her best behaviour.

Greg marched in. ‘Hey, Jinx. Glad you’re back home okay.’ As always, he was the master of the understatement.

‘Thanks. Me too.’ She gave him a watery smile.

He turned to me. ‘Lucy, we’ve got an issue.’ Uh-oh. Greg would call a hurricane a spot of rain, so if we had ‘an issue’ it was a big one.

I felt huffy. Couldn’t I have five minutes with my best friend before the next emergency reared its head? ‘Don’t we always?’ I sighed.

‘A big one. A Jimmy Rain one,’ Greg stated.

I frowned. That total prick. ‘Jimmy Rain is a blight on werewolves everywhere. He’s the werewolf symposium member—’

‘Shouldn’t that be you?’ Jess asked. ‘You’re the Queen?’

‘Removing him was on my to-do list. You wouldn’t believe how much admin rulers have to deal with. I just hadn’t got around to it yet.’

It was a weak excuse and I knew it. I’d been avoiding dealing with Rain because shit was going to go down, and if I killed him I was going to inherit another fucking pack – and this one was broken as heck, just like the lones and the Devon pack. I’d already collected hordes of traumatised werewolves and rehabilitation was going to be a long road for them all.

‘Well, we have to get round to it now,’ Greg said grimly. ‘Rain is as Anti-Crea as they come, full of werewolf-supremacy vitriol. Archie sent word the bastard is trying to stage a coup while you’re gone.’

Iknewthere was a reason he wasn’t at the symposium meeting! He must have heard about my presence up north and promptly slid down south. ‘He’s such a slimy bugger doing it behind my back,’ I groused.

Emory frowned. ‘We’re hip deep in Anti-Crea here, too, and we think a daemon is stirring things up. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same culprit is behind your situation. Check Rain’s hands and eyes – if his hands are shaking and his eyes look feverish then he’s under a daemon’sinfluence.’

‘I hope he’s not,’ I barked. ‘If he’s being influenced then we can’t just end him once and for all because it’s not his fault.’

‘A lot of shitishis fault, but I agree,’ Greg said. ‘We’ll have to see what the situation is when we get home. It’s going to be a mess. I’m sorry we have to leave you now, Jinx, but we need to go.’

I rubbed my tired eyes. ‘When it rains, it pours.’ I turned to Jess. ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ I admitted unhappily.

‘Go.’ She smiled. ‘You’ve got stuff to do, and I have no idea how quickly all of this will shake out. It may well be linked. Anyway, I’m going to bed now.’

A yawn cracked my face; it had been a long, stressful day. ‘Yeah, that’s not a bad idea.’

‘I’ll drive us,’ Greg offered. ‘You nap.’

‘Deal.’ I gave Jess a gentle kiss on the cheek. ‘Call me tomorrow? I need to know you’re okay.’ I didn’t want to abandon her, not even for a moment, but heavy lies the crown. Sometimes being the Queen sucked.

‘I’m fine,’ Jess insisted, but we all knew she was lying. Her slight wince told me she knew it, too.

Chapter 4

Seeing Nate had given me an idea and I called Grandy. ‘Can you phase directly to me? I need to get home in a hurry.’

He mumbled some words of complaint but seconds later he was stepping out of the shadow of a nearby tree. ‘I’m not a taxi,’ he chided me, but there was no bite to the words and his eyes were sweeping over me, checking me for injury.

Greg looked surprised. ‘I thought vampyrs had to know the location of the place they were phasing to.’

‘Or have a bond with the person we’re phasing towards,’ Grandy said shortly.

Greg’s forehead creased. ‘You don’t have a bond with Lucy.’

‘Don’t I?’ Grandy sneered. ‘Then do tell me how I’m here?’

Greg’s frown deepened. ‘I don’t know.’

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