“Then, let’s go,” Everett says, making us turn.
He’s standing by the door, a little bit of blood on his shirt.
“You found him?” I ask, wondering why he barely looks ruffled.
I doubt Mercer didn’t put up a fight. The blood on his shirt is barely a smear.
“I killed him,” he says, as if it was no big deal. “Let’s go.”
I glance at Rachel. She frowns at me. Neither of us are buying it.
“I left something in the office,” I tell him. “I’ll be right back.”
He grins and blocks my path. “Should have known the mate would smell a rat. You’re really something, you know that? A real treasure. That stupid asshole has no idea how much you’re worth.”
My skin starts to crawl. This isn’t Everett.
It smells like him, and looks like him, but it’s not my mate.
Rachel gasps in a breath. “That’s Mercer!”
“I told you he was dangerous,” Oscar says. “This is so fucked.”
I stare at Mercer. “Where’s Everett?”
His body blurs, and suddenly I understand everything.
He can shift into the forms of other shifters.
This is why he thinks shifter magic is superior to witch magic.
It’s how he framed Oscar for that girl’s death.
He was there that night in the woods. He just wasn’t himself.
He takes back his true form. “Your Alpha is dead, little girl. Your pack belongs to me now.”
“Over my dead body,” I spit at him.
He grins. “Very well.”
Chapter One-Hundred-Two
Everett
Ifeeleverythingslippingaway as I try and fail to move from the floor. It’s a struggle to keep my eyes open, to stay conscious, but I know if I pass out, I’m as good as dead.
When I see Bianca in front of me, I know I’m in real trouble.
If this is the light at the end of the tunnel, I’d rather there was no such thing as an afterlife.
She scowls at me. “I can hear your thoughts, you asshole.”
She kneels in front of me. “I’m here because your mate teleported up that charm that lets people see ghosts. She realized you must be in trouble.”
What a weird hallucination. Cheryl would never send Bianca to help me.
“She couldn’t come herself. She challenged Mercer. Rachel’s looking after Oscar. I’m all you’ve got. Well, me and Oscar’s mom, Lily.” She motions behind her.