Dark Lies (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 3)

Savannah

Eight hours later, we were at the head of a convoy of Order agents and werewolves racing north through central Michigan.

I rested my head against the window and watched the high beams of Jaxson’s truck sweep the road ahead of us. Dark trees rose on all sides, and a heavy layer of clouds blotted out the night sky.

It was as if those high beams were the only light in the outside world.

Another road north. Another showdown. I sighed.

Jaxson looked over from the driver’s seat. “That’s the first noise out of you for hours. What’s up?”

Had it been that long?

I took a deep breath. Apparently, I’d lost myself to road hypnosis, yet somehow, the silence between us hadn’t felt weird or strained. We’d both been comfortable in that quiet space, deliberating about the task that lay ahead.

I turned toward him and stretched my legs. “This reminds me too much of the road north to Billy’s cabin. I just hope…”

“That it’s not another nightmare?” Jaxson asked, finishing my thought.

“Yeah.”

“It won’t be,” he said with certainty, and turned his head back to the road. “They don’t know we’re coming. Billy did. They aren’t sitting on an arsenal of wolfsbane. Billy was. And this time, we’ve got sleeping gas.”

Considering our last run-in with rogue wolves, I wasn’t sure how I felt about going in with sleeping potions instead of bullets, but Harlow insisted on no casualties.

With werewolves involved, good luck.

I bit my lip and turned back to watching the winding lane lines. “I don’t want to make the same mistakes.”

Jaxson tightened his hands on the wheel. “We won’t. First, I won’t leave your side. We’ll do this together. No solo vendettas, no matter how much you want to take this guy out.”

I let out a mock huff. “What, you don’t want me to steal your truck and chase Dragan through all the backroads of central Michigan?”

“Not my baby,” he purred as he patted the dash. “I’m keeping the keys on me.”

I let my head drop back against the seat. “Yeah. This hulking monstrosity is too slow. We should have brought my Fury.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. But we didn’t have time to stop for gas every thirty miles.”

An involuntary smile forced itself along the corners of my mouth. “Did you just make a joke?”

“Nope. Just stating the facts.”

I laughed and relaxed a little, but it wasn’t easy to calm my mind. Still smiling, I returned to watching the road. “Frankly, I’m surprised that you agreed to work with the Order.”

He grunted, not taking his eyes off the road. “Not like you gave me any choice. But it was the right call. You did well.”

I shrugged. “Well, hopefully, that won’t wreck your bad boy reputation. We wouldn’t want anyone to think the Dockside alpha has gone soft.”

Jaxson’s smile faded, and for a second, his eyes flashed gold. “Dragan is a monster. What he’s doing will destroy our pack. My father’s exact words were, ‘Don’t stop until you’ve destroyed Dragan’s soul.’ He worked with your aunt to take the bastard down once. I’ll do whatever it takes. The Order is nothing.”

There was a hardness in his words that made the hair on my neck and arms stand on end. For a second, I saw beneath Jaxson’s civilized façade and glimpsed the savage beneath—a beast who’d forged his reputation in blood and would rip the world to pieces to protect his pack. To protect me.

I shivered and opened my mouth to speak, but the shape of a person flashed in our headlights.

I sat bolt upright. “Holy shit, Jax!”

“What?”

Pivoting in my seat, I craned my neck to check the road behind us. “We almost ran that guy over!”

“What guy?”

“Beside the road! A hitchhiker.” I flopped back in my seat, heart pounding.

Jaxson shook his head. “Maybe a deer, but I would have seen something.”

I rubbed my eyes with my palms and tried to recall the man I’d seen. He’d been pale. All of him—almost translucent. And he hadn’t been flagging us down. He’d pulled a finger across his neck while staring straight at me.

Not a hitchhiker. A ghost.

I turned my head to watch the shadows of the road go by. “I must have been drifting off. Sorry.”

Another ghost. But why? Was it a warning or a threat?

Google Maps jarred me from my thoughts: “Turn right onto West 4 Mile Road.”

We pulled off the Interstate and onto a dark, two-lane road. I took another deep breath, letting my chest swell to bursting and then fall.

Dragan was out there. He had a new body but all his old tricks. When he’d possessed Kahanov, he’d had the powers of a blood sorcerer as well as his own magic…whatever that was.

What powers would he have now? Could he cast spells? Lucius Grayling, according to Jaxson, was just a werewolf.

Just a werewolf? Someone is all high and mighty now, my wolf chided.

You know that’s not what I meant. But you know we’re different.

I wasn’t just a sorcerer. Wasn’t just a werewolf. And although Sam and Jax assured me there were other people with mixed heritage, it was troubling that of all the people in Magic Side I’d met, Dragan was the one most like me.

We’re the same, he’d said.

We weren’t. I knew that. But he was a dark mirror. And now I had to bring him down once again.

Maybe it’s not really him, Wolfie said. Maybe it’s someone using his reputation to control the werewolves.

I smiled. Wouldn’t that be nice?

In that case, perhaps everything that had happened with Kahanov wouldn’t have been for nothing.

We saved two dozen werewolves from the Dreamlands. Amal. Cara. So many others, she said.

True.

But the bastard was still out there, and until he was dead for good, we would never be safe.

Our pack would never be safe.

A few minutes later, our convoy turned south to approach the cemetery from its northern access point. Some of the agents and wolves had turned off earlier to secure the southern exit near Staley Lake Road and the south half of Center Plains Trail.

We slowed to a creep and rolled over a set of train tracks, then pulled to a stop just off Cemetery Crossing Trail.

A pair of Order SUVs drove a little ahead with lights off to set up a roadblock just in case the bikers decided to hop on their bikes and blow past us.

“Here we go,” Jaxson said as he slipped out of the cab.

I jumped out and pulled my bulletproof vest from the back. We weren’t sure if they’d be packing heat, but the vests also worked well against claws.

I’d found that out the hard way.

Behind us, the rest of the pack trucks pulled up, and werewolves hopped out.

Those that were wolfborn started stripping to transform. Others, like Tony, were shifters and could transform clothes and all. I’d never stop being jealous of that trick.

Sam, already a wolf, brushed against me as she walked by, and I let my fingers drag through her fur in a friendly way. She’d be backing up the agents, ready to do what was necessary if they weren’t. Tony, third in the chain of command, was organizing the wolves that would be in the deep woods to the east and west. They’d be ready to take down the bikers by any means.

All around him, Jaxson put people in place he trusted with the fate of his pack. Sam. Tony. Regina. Even Billy, once.

Did he trust me to do my job, to understand what was at stake beyond my own fucked-up battle to the death with Dragan? Did he wonder if I was here for myself or for the pack?

Turning to meet him, I placed a hand on his chest, rose up on my toes, and let my lips lightly brush across his cheek. Waves of energy raced along my skin, but I gently lowered back on my heels. “I’m with you.”

His eyes dilated.

I glanced at the guns and the wolves around us, then walked over to Harlow to check the agents’ status. Perhaps I could have said something more to Jaxson, but I hoped it was enough.

A few minutes later, Jaxson pounded on the hood of his truck. “Okay, everyone, gather up.”

Agents and wolves formed a tight circle around him.

Jaxson leaned casually on his truck, but his presence pressed heavily over all of us. “Lucius Grayling is possessed by a monster known as Victor Dragan. He and his biker gang are performing a ritual. If they succeed, it means the end of our pack and catastrophe for Magic Side. Stopping the ritual is our number-one priority. Catching Dragan and bringing him in is number two. If we fail at both of those things, we’re fucked. There is no room for failure, does everyone understand?”

Our team voiced their assent as one. A good sign.

Jaxson looked to Harlow. “You brought maps?”

Everyone gathered around, and Harlow spread some maps out on the hood of Jaxson’s truck. “The southern roadblock is here,” she said, tracing her finger over the paper. “We’ll come from the north. We assume that they’ll be holding the ritual in the cemetery, so we’ll spread out in the woods north of there. If Grayling doesn’t surrender, we’ll nuke him with gas.”

She looked at the werewolves that had already shifted. “Stay clear of it, or you’ll be out cold in seconds.”

Jaxson nodded to Tony and his team. “If the bikers try to escape, bring them down. But keep in mind that taking out Dragan is our priority. If we cut off the head, the rest will follow.”

Jaxson finished reviewing assignments, and the six Order agents grabbed their riot guns and sleeping potions.

With a low growl, Jaxson gave us all a bloodthirsty grin. “Let’s go fuck this ritual up.”