Page 92 of Taken By the Alpha Priest

“Patrick,” I say quietly. “Please. Just think about it. If we keep going the way we are, more people are going to die. This is our chance to build something better.”

He stares at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then, slowly, he shakes his head. “You’re naive, Tilda. Always have been. But this…this is a new low.”

I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me off, his voice cold and final. “You’ve put us all in danger by bringing him here. The pack won’t stop at just you and your Alpha. They’ll come for all of us eventually. And we can’t afford to let that happen.”

“What are you saying?” I ask, a knot of dread forming in my stomach.

Patrick steps back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m saying we need to figure out what to do with you. And if that means handing you over to the Angels…well, maybe they’ll show you some mercy.”

I stare at him, my blood turning to ice. “You can’t be serious.”

His smile is cruel, devoid of warmth. “Dead serious, Tilda. You’ve made your choice. Now it’s time for the rest of us to make ours.”

The room feels like it’s closing in on me, the air thick and stifling. Patrick turns away, heading for the door, leaving me alone with the crushing weight of his words.

The sound of the lock clicking into place echoes in the small space, and I realize with a sinking heart that we haven’t even hit rock bottom yet.

Things could still get much, much worse.

32

REYES

Ispend too long in crippling, terrifying darkness.

The pain is almost too much, drowning me. My chest aches, an open wound in the air, like my heart itself has been torn out. When we get out from under the Celestial Curtain, the light of the late afternoon sun hurts my eyes, the thundering of hooves lulling me into a sleep I’m not sure I’ll wake up from.

Our healing powers are superhuman, but even monsters can be killed by a direct shot to the chest.

And I need the light of the moon to fully heal.

The next thing I hear is voices surrounding me, hands holding me as I’m carried off the horse and into the den. Familiar scents envelop me, my family holding me in their embrace. Someone is crying, salt on the air. A bandage is placed over my chest. It hurts. I don’t want the ache to go away when the reason for it is notably absent.

Is this the pain of a gunshot, or heartbreak?

Is this what it feels like to be torn away from your mate?

“Thank God you were there,” a woman’s voice says. I recognize it, though it’s not the voice I’m yearning to hear.

“He didn’t want us to come, but I figured things might go south, and Frankie didn’t seem comfortable with it at all…”

Elijah and Charlotte. They’re the only others here in the room, along with Suyin. The medic must have said family only was allowed.

“Where is he?” a voice calls from the corridor, tight with urgency.

Mateo.

I try to move, to turn my head toward the sound, but my body feels like it’s made of lead. My chest burns with a sharp, searing pain, and even the faintest movement sends waves of agony rippling through me. I can’t open my eyes—the light cuts through my skull like shards of glass.

This must be what Tilda felt when she was shot in the stomach. The memory hits me like another blow. Tilda. I need her. I need her here to tend to the wound, her bite, her kiss—anything to pull me back from this precipice. She could heal me in hours if she was here.

Where is she?

“Oh God,” Mateo’s voice cracks as he reaches me. I hear the scuffle of his knees hitting the floor beside the bed, the breathless panic in his whisper. “Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros, los pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte… amén.”

He takes my hand, his grip tight enough to cut off my circulation. His fingers tremble as they wrap around mine, anchoring me in the present moment. The pain in my chest dulls under the pressure of his touch, but the desperation in his voice cuts deeper. Mateo hasn’t prayed in nearly a decade.

Not since he lost his husband in the first days of the Convergence…when the world went mad and told people like them they were destined for hell.

---