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QUIN DIDN’T GET A CHANCE to speak when she answered the call. Her father’s voice boomed through the speaker before she could say anything. “What the hell are you scheming, Quintessa?” he asked in a furious growl. “I hear you’re trying to gather the werewolf packs together. If humans find out about us, they’ll hunt us to extinction!” He must have gotten her number from one of the other packs she’d been communicating with.
“Hello, Xavier,” Quin said dryly. There was no love lost between them. “I take it you haven’t seen the news about what’s going on in Russia and the Czech Republic.”
“Why would I care about what’s happening there?” he asked incredulously. Werewolves cared only about their packs. “A bunch of humans were slaughtered, which is nothing new. There’s billions more where they came from.”
“Did you see what’s killing them?”
“Ghosts and monsters,” he said with an audible shrug. “That’s your specialty, isn’t it?” he added condescendingly. “Why are you trying to drag other shifters into this?”
“They aren’t ghosts,” she told him. “They’re Dread Wraiths that have been brought here from another dimension by a powerful witch. She intends to bend our world to her will, including all supernatural creatures. Meanwhile, Spencer Von Hades has hatched a mad plan to become a demigod. He’s close to gaining the power he’s been craving for eons. Between the two of them, war unlike anything else will wreak havoc on our planet.”
“That isn’t our problem,” Xavier said. “I’ve spoken to the other alphas and none of us are interested in getting caught up in a foreign war.” Voices of agreement sounded in the background.
“You called a summit?” Quin asked.
“When a rogue half-breed starts trying to rally the packs into an army, someone has to take charge,” he said in satisfaction that he’d appointed himself for that role.
“So, all the alpha werewolves in the States are in one place right now?” Jake said with a raised eyebrow. “Isn’t that fortuitous?” He grinned and slid a look at Rudy. “I’d sure like to see Quin go toe to toe against the other alphas now that she’s at her full strength.”
Quin’s eyes gleamed at the idea of showing her father just how powerful she was now. “We’re coming to you,” she said, then hung up.
“Where have the alphas gathered?” Mirra asked.
“Xavier is the strongest, so they’ll be somewhere in his territory in Illinois.”
“I can pinpoint them now that I know roughly where they are,” Rudy said and concentrated. While shifters had magic that allowed them to change shape, they couldn’t block his senses from finding them. “I’ve got them locked in,” he said, tapping his head.
“Take us there,” Quin requested. We stood up so we wouldn’t fall on our butts when we arrived at the summit. Sprawling on the ground wouldn’t make a very good impression.
Rudy snapped his fingers and transported us halfway across the world to a farm in Illinois. Xavier gaped at us when we appeared before him. His cell phone was still clutched in his hand. Recovering from his surprise, he slipped it into his pocket.
Dozens of alpha werewolves had gathered in a field next to a large old house. They eyed each other warily, but refrained from attacking their rivals. Each had their seconds with them for backup. Uneasy murmurs sounded at our arrival.
Surveying us, Xavier’s upper lip lifted in a sneer. “How adorable. You have a pet leprechaun.”
Rudy let out a squawk of outrage and lifted his hand to click his fingers in retaliation. Jake reached down to stop him, shaking his head in warning. Subsiding, the leprechaun crossed his arms and glowered at the alpha.
“You didn’t tell us your daughter was an alpha,” one of the other werewolves said. Aggressive in nature, they were even worse than usual when gathered together. He eyed Quin suggestively. “You’re a big girl, but I could take you.”
“In your dreams,” she shot back, then turned to her father. “You are mistaken if you believe the war won’t spread to the United States. We’re all going to be drawn into it sooner or later. The true shapeshifters have already agreed to fight with us. Are you too cowardly to step up beside them?”
It was a grave insult and he sucked in an enraged breath. “How dare you speak to me like that, whelp?” he growled. His second put a hand on his arm, urging him to use caution, but he shrugged it off angrily. “You might be an alpha, but you’re defective. You can’t even shift.”
“Can’t I?” Quin said with a fierce grin. Standing toe to toe with him, she was only a few inches shorter and almost as large in sheer muscle mass. “Ari unlocked my abilities,” she told him, fingering her jade pendant. “She also gave me an upgrade. I can now shift whenever I want to. I don’t need to wait for the full moon.”
“Lies,” he grated. “No were-creature can shift at will. We are bound by the cycle of the moon.”
“Wrong,” Rudy said in a bored tone. “Quin is now an alpha of alphas. Even I can feel it. If you weren’t so thickheaded, you’d feel it for yourself.”
Face going red at being taunted, Xavier snarled at the leprechaun. “Shut your mouth, vermin, or I’ll remove your head from your shoulders.”
“I’m immortal, stupid,” Rudy said, rolling his eyes. “A filthy cur like you can’t hurt me.”
That was enough to break the alpha’s thin control. With a roar of rage, he started towards the leprechaun. Quin grabbed hold of him by the arm and he spun around and threw a punch at her. She took it on the chin, then shook off the blow. “I challenge you, Xavier Vale,” she said coldly. “If I win, the alphas and their packs will join us.”
“If I win, I’ll kill you and destroy your pitiful band of misfits,” he replied, sweeping his gaze over us.
“Agreed,” Quin said, then punched him in the stomach.
Wheezing out a breath, her father aimed an uppercut at her, but she blocked it and slammed her fist into his nose. It broke, blood spurted and he lost it completely. Quin kept her cool, proving she was superior to the man who had fathered her. It was a brutal battle and they were evenly matched.
Throwing punches, kicks and blows that would have broken lesser creatures, neither could get the advantage. Knowing this, Xavier resorted to dirty tactics. Gouging Quin’s eyes with his thumbs, he pulled a knife out of his boot and stabbed her in the chest while she was momentarily blinded.
Mirra let out a shriek of rage when our boss staggered backwards. Wind whipped her hair around her face. Twisting her pendant on full, she took three steps towards the smirking alpha before Jake caught her by the shoulders. “This isn’t your fight, honey,” he said, moving to block her before she could scream Xavier to death. “Quin is handling it.”
“Quintessa is a dead woman and she just doesn’t know it yet,” Xavier said in a gloating tone. “I stabbed her directly in the heart with a silver blade.”
Quin fell to one knee and put her hand over the wound. Staring up at her father with burning pale green eyes, she used her other hand to twist her jade pendant. In the blink of an eye, she transformed into a werewolf. Her clothes were torn apart and her gun, cell phone and Brandi’s lighter dropped to the ground. The necklace was the only thing that remained in place. The chain magically lengthened to match her new size. Shocked to see a hulking wolf with white-blonde fur hunched on the ground, the other alphas drew back in fear.
Dropping her hand, Quin revealed her now healed chest. Showing her teeth in a grin, she stood and advanced on her father. Xavier turned to run, but she moved with almost vampiric speed to get in front of him. Rebounding off her, he fell to the ground and tried to scramble away. He swung his knife at her when she reached for him and she slapped it out of his hand. Pushing his face into the ground, she lowered her muzzle to his throat and growled in warning. “I yield!” he shouted, holding his hands up in surrender. “You have bested me.”
With a final snarl of victory directly in his face, Quin stood to her full height. Turning her back on him, she glowered at the other alphas. As one, they dropped to one knee, acknowledging her supremacy over them.
“That was freaking awesome,” Brandi breathed, summing up what we were all thinking.
