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  He was clearly wary of touching a wounded, unpredictable werewolf. And, for her part, Elle was becoming more agitated rather than less so as we walked through the clinic door.

  At first, I thought the issue was being surrounded by a kitsune’s loyal retainers. But then the female grabbed my arm with surprisingly strong fingers before bringing the nearly forgotten paper up from where it dangled at my side.

  “Read this,” she managed between teeth chattering so badly they nicked her tongue.

  “If you’ll sit down, I’ll read it,” I soothed her. And, thankfully, my friend finally accepted the chair one of Sakurako’s honor guard had pulled out for her use.

  Her gaze remained focused on me, however, and she ignored Yuki’s questions and promptings to bend and wiggle various body parts. So, finally, I gave in, unfolded the paper, and began to read as a way of getting this medical exam back on track.

  “I’m ready to call in my debt.”

  I hunched over in surprise at the pain in my middle. Because a tether had been created just like the one I’d been trying to resurrect moments earlier. Too bad this bond led to the elder Atwood brother rather than to the one I wanted to connect with the most.

  Ransom was west of me, not north on his island the way he should have been. And the rest of the message confirmed that point by listing an address only a few miles from where I’d left Gunner to be pounded up by another wolf.

  The note ended with no explanation, just further orders: “Come as soon as you are able. I’ll be waiting for you.”

  Chapter 30

  “Granddaughter, if you have a moment....”

  I froze in the darkness, fingers on the tank of the snowmobile I’d found along with five others in the basement. The debt had spurred me into immediate action, and I’d rightly guessed that my grandmother wouldn’t bury her mansion under three feet of snow if she didn’t have ground transportation at the ready. What I hadn’t guessed was that she’d be able to find me so quickly when I slipped my leash and began exploring the residence on my own.

  “Yes, Sobo?” I backed away from the vehicle and into the light of the hallway, mind buzzing through possible explanations for lurking down here in the darkness. What could I possibly say I’d been looking for other than an easy way out of her clutches? Usually adept at making up stories, I was currently drawing a blank.

  “There are things you need to know, granddaughter.” Sakurako’s eyes flicked behind me once, but she spoke as if my location wasn’t suspiciously telling. Still, I sensed her restraint in the hum of kitsune power seething beneath her skin. The old woman was currently stronger than I’d ever seen her. As if summoning snowstorms revved her up rather than wearing her down.

  And maybe Sakurako’s skills included mind reading, because she went on to confirm my analysis of her strength. “You’ve been dabbling in the barest edges of kitsune power, granddaughter. Blood magic is minor and fleeting. I can show you how to harvest energy from the adoration of your honor guard and even from the sky.”

  There it was, out in the open. For days she’d been dancing around this subject and I was suddenly sick of fending off advances without knowing for sure what we were talking about.

  So I stepped in a little closer, accepting the direct path. “Stop beating around the bush, Sakurako. What exactly do you want from me?”

  My grandmother was small and alone there in the basement, with the brittle bones and sagging skin of old age. But her words were powerful as she told me: “I want you to live here, be my apprentice, accept your honor guard, and take over this lineage after I’m gone.”

  For the last few days, some rainbows-and-kittens part of me had insisted I’d be able to maintain a relationship with my grandmother without falling into her world completely. But there was too much at stake now to dream of impossibilities. So I countered: “If I won’t?”

  “If you won’t, then I’ll be forced to select another heiress.”

  Well, that didn’t sound so bad. Money and properties were irrelevant. For the first time all day, my shoulders relaxed away from my ears...too soon, as I discovered when my grandmother continued to speak.

  “I’ve been the epitome of patience, granddaughter. But the time has come for you to make a choice. Do you want to be my apprentice, or would you rather I trained your sister instead?”

  “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE with Kira?” Despite the fact that weapons were of little use against magic, my sword was at the old woman’s throat as soon as she’d spoken.

  Unfortunately, Sakurako reacted just as quickly. She twitched her fingers ever so slightly...then my sword began dissolving into pure magic that seeped like lotion into her skin.

  Yelping, I yanked back all that remained to me, hiding my star ball inside my body where it couldn’t be stolen. But I’d lost a third of my energy already, the absence making my legs shake so badly they threatened to drop me onto my face.

  Sakurako wasn’t just powerful...she was unbeatable. A supervillain laughing at the weakness of mere mortals as she soared above us with cape streaming in the wind.

  Still, I stood up to the old woman, measuring the distance between us carefully. She was, when it came right down to it, small and relatively feeble. It was possible I could overpower her with my bare hands alone....

  “Kira is perfectly safe,” Sakurako answered before I’d decided whether it was worth trying to strangle one of my two remaining relatives in order to save the other one. “And she will remain safe, along with your pet werewolves, while you prove your worth and goodwill. Now come.”

  Without waiting for an answer, she turned her back on me and began striding toward the staircase that led back to the living area above us. And I had no choice but to trot after her, realizing as I did so that yesterday’s twenty-four-hour oath must have recently lapsed.

  That explained why the kid gloves had come off my grandmother. But it also gave me an inkling of a solution....

  Unfortunately, Ransom’s debt still tugged at my stomach, making it difficult to ascend behind Sakurako rather than returning to the basement and leaving this mansion behind me. Only the fact that I didn’t actually know how to drive a snowmobile prevented the Atwood werewolf’s demand from determining my immediate future.

  So...maybe if I could pin my grandmother down to a similar promise, I could ensure my friends didn’t suffer for my mistakes. Of course, I’d have to give something to get something. Good thing I had a bargaining chip on hand.

  “Oyo.” The name of the black-furred fox Sakurako had demanded I hand over made the old woman pause. She turned to face me from two steps higher, leaving us standing eye to eye.

  “You say her name as if you know her.” So my grandmother had only been guessing earlier when she’d asked for the black fox who’d showed up terrified at my party. Well, I was only guessing now as I pieced together information that would allow me to break my oath to someone I’d promised to protect.

  “She was your original heir, wasn’t she?” I ascended one step until I was even closer to my grandmother, looking down now in order to meet her eyes. “You trained her to use affection to harvest magic. Then, what, you heard about me and Kira and you tossed her aside?”

  “I didn’t toss anyone. The ungrateful wench left me.”

  “Left you and followed the breadcrumbs you’d uncovered to Atwood clan central. No wonder my pack started to crumble as soon as she arrived.”

  Because Gunner was an excellent alpha. He would never have let so many resentments smolder beneath the surface, just waiting to flare up into fur-form fights.

  No, it was Oyo’s presence that had been the instigating factor. Her presence...and maybe magic she’d used on the sly?

  Either way, I could feel my promise to the black-furred kitsune sloughing off as I prepared to make Sakurako an offer I hoped she couldn’t refuse. I’d need proof that my guesses held water, but if Oyo was the one responsible for killing Edward....

  “I’ll bring you Oyo. You can breed her to your harem
, end up with two young kitsunes to raise as you wish.” The offer was horrendous—I was signing Oyo’s death warrant and setting up her children for a lifetime of servitude...the same sort of servitude I would also be forced to accept.

  “Along with Oyo, I’ll obey you, do whatever you ask of me....” I swallowed, hating the fact that my voice cracked as I sealed my fate.

  “And in exchange, granddaughter?”

  “In exchange, you’ll relinquish Kira, Elle, and Curly. You’ll return them to their home and never contact them or any other werewolves ever again.”

  Chapter 31

  With Sakurako as an ally, transport to Ransom’s proposed meeting location was simple and expedient. I boarded the helicopter beside Yuki, Elle, and Curly, reluctantly leaving my sister behind after a brief bear hug.

  “Be strong. I’ll come back for you tomorrow,” I whispered into the top of her head...which was now closer to my nose than to my chin. In the midst of all the drama, my sister was growing. And her answer proved that point.

  “You be strong,” countered my little sister. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  Which left me with only one final family member to speak with before I climbed into the aircraft slated to carry me away for a very short while. “You promised another twenty-four hours of leeway,” I hissed at my grandmother. “I expect you to leave Kira alone while you wait.”

  We’d already hashed this out an hour earlier and I thought I’d trapped the wily old kitsune into a binding oath. Well, I hoped I’d trapped her. But it still felt like driving on the left side of the road to leave my sister behind for even a single day.

  “You do your job and I’ll do my job,” Sakurako answered, which wasn’t as heartening as she might have supposed.

  Or maybe she knew her words weren’t heartening. Perhaps this was just another test to determine whether I was worth cultivating in Kira’s place.

  So I stiffened my spine and stooped to rush under the blades of the helicopter, which were already spinning their way up to gale-force speed. I’d neutralize Oyo, relieve my debt to Ransom, then return to take my place by my grandmother’s side.

  And Gunner? I squashed the thought as soon as it rose within me. This was why we’d never fully mated. Because my own wishes had to play second fiddle to the safety of those I cared about.

  Elle raised her brows as I joined her, widened her eyes yet further when Yuki reached over to pull me onto his lap. The helicopter wasn’t so small we needed to share seating, but I knew the hard decision Yuki would soon be faced with and didn’t argue. Instead, I fingered the cold shard of magic in my pocket and watched Elle pet Curly, wondering whether I’d made the right choice by bringing the werewolf pup along.

  Unfortunately, there was no safe place for a bloodling at present. Not when the youngster was too useful to Sakurako to leave behind and too distasteful to hidebound alphas to be integrated into Ransom’s pack. Elle, however, I could depend upon to protect a bloodling puppy. Now that she’d regained her color and her energy, I trusted my not-quite-sister-in-law as much as I trusted Gunner to keep an eye out for the weak.

  Gunner. Again, I pushed his face out of my mind. Refused to consider the fact that my partner might be dead already. Couldn’t fathom the thought of leaving him forever if he still lived.

  So, instead, I watched the sunset as we flew westward, darkness descending over the half-melted snow beneath us. Was it only three nights since Kira and I had surreptitiously moved into our werewolf-scented cottage? Only seventy-two hours since I’d been hopeful about life as the mate of a werewolf pack leader with no notion of what my heritage meant for those caught in the crossfire?

  Then the helicopter was hovering over an open field, a car waiting to carry us to the spot Ransom had designated for our meeting. I’d borrowed a cell phone and called ahead with our itinerary, but I still expected to be made to wait on the other end of our travels.

  Only I wasn’t. The instant we pulled up in front of the fast-food joint, Ransom rushed out to meet us. Despite tinted windows, he somehow chose the door closest to me and opened it with a hard yank. Then he drew me out of the vehicle so roughly I had to struggle against instinct, barely managing to keep my star ball under wraps.

  Patience, I warned myself, crossing my arms to prevent my fists from striking my accoster. If I had any hope of convincing Ransom to save his brother rather than using me to depose Gunner, I had to keep my head.

  Ransom, on the other hand, had descended into that werewolf ball of fury where he was physically human but emotionally a wolf. “I require you to fulfill your debt,” he demanded, eyes blazing as he towered above me. And I knew I’d lost the gamble because I hadn’t even been granted a single second in which to state my case.

  “I’m ready.” The words were yanked out of me by magic, my head bending down in submission despite every impulse to keep the angry werewolf in my sights. Had I misread the elder brother’s character? Now, finally, was the moment of truth.

  Or it would have been if Ransom hadn’t started pacing a circle around me without speaking. Would have been if he hadn’t waited until my knees were trembling and my breath gasping before he put me out of my misery at last.

  “You will go into Atwood clan central, and you will save my brother from whatever danger he faces. That is what I require in exchange for your debt.”

  “SO HE’S ALIVE?” I GRABBED Ransom’s arm as much to keep myself upright as to stop the relentless, circular pacing that was making my head whirl uncomfortably. In response, his brow furrowed exactly the way Gunner’s did when he wasn’t following the conversation, the similarity sucking away the remainder of my breath.

  Unfortunately, Ransom’s answer didn’t help jumpstart my breathing. “I don’t know. I expected you to know. Mate woo-woo and all that.” He waved his hands around to indicate tether magic, and I suddenly wondered whether this so-called alpha had ever managed to see the connections within his own clan during the years he’d spent leading a pack.

  So Ransom knew no more than I did. Gunner might be dead already. I closed my eyes for one split second then took a deep breath and returned to my original plan. Ransom had feet on the ground and a wish to help his brother. It was better to use him than to go off half-cocked without any information at all.

  I opened my mouth to ask questions...just as Curly leapt through the open limousine door and into Ransom’s arms. Despite myself, I laughed at the incongruous picture. This was exactly the way the puppy greeted Gunner. Too bad the elder Atwood brother was less amenable to the invasion of his space.

  “You brought a pet to a war council?” I don’t think he intended to punch Curly, but the hand intended to ward off the youngster’s approach turned into a blow anyway. Yelping, Curly retreated beneath the vehicle, prompting Elle and Yuki to disembark and pull him out.

  “And what is that?” Ransom continued, staring at the human while making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end with his use of “what” instead of “who.” Dehumanizing much?

  “That’s an ally,” I said simply. “Now tell me what you know about clan central.”

  And he did, finally, after Curly was stuffed back inside the limousine and Yuki was similarly out of sight beside Elle. It took the alpha half an hour to tell me, but what it boiled down to could be summed up in just a few key points.

  The alphas and selected warriors from three neighboring packs had sealed the borders of Atwood clan central sometime late yesterday. Ransom had managed to send in multiple scouts, but none had reemerged.

  What had come out was a message promising to cleanse the Atwood pack of dangerous kitsunes. “When they’re done, they plan to divide the territory,” Ransom finished, his feet once again carrying him in circles which I was now almost agitated enough to join him in.

  “They plan to divide the territory,” I repeated, not wanting to state the obvious—that if Atwood territory was about to be divvied up, that meant no alpha remained to head up Gunner’s friends and
family.

  “Which is where you come in.” Whatever his feelings about bloodlings, Ransom and I were of one mind when it came to Gunner. “They want a kitsune, we’ll give them a kitsune. Then they’ll let my brother free.”

  Chapter 32

  The snow had turned crusty by the time Yuki and I strode into Atwood clan central an hour later. Ransom’s intel suggested the village should have been full of all the werewolves I’d left behind plus a strong contingent of invading neighbors. But the streets were empty, porch lights were extinguished, and the entire area was as silent as the grave.

  It reeked of sulfur, however. The rotten-egg aroma nipped at my nostrils from the first moment I stepped out of the limousine and it grew stronger and stronger as I followed pack bonds illuminated by Elle’s freely offered blood.

  Both sulfur stench and pack bonds led me in the same direction. The community hall. It rose before us, tall and looming...and loud with raised voices apparently engaged in extended debate.

  “...has not yet been decided!” This was a stranger, no one I recognized. But from the timbre of his voice, I suspected he might be Gunner’s counterpart from one of the neighboring territories.

  “Isn’t it obvious, Russell? This pack has fallen under the sway of a kitsune. Without further information, the safest course of action is to slay them all.”

  The words should have been chilling. But, instead, it was all I could do not to dance and sing right there on the sidewalk. Because I was close enough now to disentangle the ropes of light arrowing away from my midriff, and one in particular let me breathe fully for the first time in what felt like days.

  Stroking the wide tether with one cautious finger, I could hardly believe this bond sprang out straight and true from my person. I couldn’t still be connected to a dead werewolf, could I? If not...then this thick rope of light meant Gunner hadn’t perished when I left him behind to be overwhelmed by a stronger wolf.