Page 94 of Primal Bonds

If only Corban had a blade of iron, he’d end this for good. A knife straight to Tyrus’s black heart. Because Tyrus’s death would serve Corban’s purpose almost as well as Jace Jones’ death. Prince Langdon would never believe the clan wasn’t behind the attack, and he’d be on Adric in a flash.

But without iron, Corban would only make Tyrus madder, and he needed Tyrus to get him to Jones and his pretty little human. Jones was the key to the smartphone tech. Remove him from the equation, and Adric would be back to the beginning. And then Corban would wait until Adric showed up—and kill him as well.

With both Jones and Adric gone, Corban would be the strongest man in the clan. Nothing would stop him from taking over his rightful place as alpha. Some of the lieutenants might squawk, but they’d accept him—or die.

Corban took a fighter’s crouch, the knife loose and easy in his right hand. He knew his eyes were pure gold now, his wolf running the show. And with the wolf came calm.

The dark ropes of energy loosened. He sensed Tyrus’ confusion.

“Enough,” Corban gritted. He might not be able to kill a fae with a steel blade, but he could hurt the man.

The fire in Tyrus’s eyes faded. “You’re stronger than I believed.” He tilted his head, scrutinizing Corban as if he were an interesting problem.

“So this was a fucking test?” Corban remained in the crouch.

“A test?” The night fae lifted a brow. “No. But you’ve proved you can still be of use to me. Come here.” He beckoned with a single long, sharp-nailed finger.

“Why?” he returned without moving.

Tyrus pressed his lips together. “I can heal you. Then I’ll take you to the jaguar’s lair.”

“Jones? He has a look-away spell concealing the entrance.” Corban knew approximately where Jones lived, but the spell kept him from determining its actual location.

“A child could break that spell. Now come.”

Corban stared at him for another moment, and then nodded. What did he have to lose?

He crossed the few steps between them. The night fae set his hand on Corban’s chest, and muttered a few words in an arcane fae language.

Corban’s entire thigh lit up with an eerie blue flame. Pain seared through him. A shriek escaped his lips. He cursed and shoved Tyrus away, and then fell to the dirt floor where he curled up in agony and waited to die.

And then the blue flame was gone as abruptly as it had appeared.

Corban dragged in a breath. Then another. When his body stopped quivering, he sat up, panting softly. His hand went to the back of his thigh. He froze, and then twisted so that he could see the back of his leg. The ugly gash was gone, the scar rapidly closing over.

Tyrus was already moving up the ladder. “Come. Dawn is only a couple of hours away.”

Corban took a cautious step. The pain was completely gone and he could move with ease. He released one last breath and then pulled himself up the ladder after Tyrus. At the surface, Tyrus strode into the woods without looking back, confident Corban would follow.

Corban paused to tap his quartz. It was time to call in the only man he still trusted in Baltimore: his middle brother, Kane. Born a year apart, he and Kane had formed an alliance against their dad. When their youngest brother Nash came along four years later, they’d protected him as best they could. Maybe that had been a mistake, because Nash had grown up weaker because of it—he was firmly in Adric’s camp.

But Kane had stuck by Corban, supporting his bid to be alpha until Adric had won the challenge and forced both brothers to swear allegiance to him or die. It wasn’t an easy thing for a fada to break such a vow, but it could be done if you were determined enough.

Still, the effort had made Corban violently ill for a month, especially since he’d smashed his quartz at the same time. But he’d had a new quartz ready and he’d holed up in a cave in the Himalayas until he’d recovered.

“What in Hades is going on?” Kane hissed into the phone now. “The alpha has everyone out looking for you.”

“Fuck that. Are you still with me?”

There was a fraught silence, and then his brother expelled a breath. “Of course. But—”

Corban named an intersection near Jace Jones’s den. “Meet me there now.”

His brother understood immediately. “You have a way to get past the look-away spell?”

“Yeah.”

“It still won’t work. He’s got a den full of soldiers.”

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