Ethan shook his head. “There’s too much risk in this—they had to hit a high-ranking target for it to pay off.”

Ivo parted his lips, then paused, head angled. “Jetcycle coming in from the city.”

Ethan didn’t pick up the sound for another half a minute. When the jetcycle came to a stop beside their vehicle not long afterward, the man who took off his helmet proved to be Selenka’s father. He took in the scene, his pupils flaring. “Bozhe moi, what have you done?”

Ethan went motionless. “You aren’t surprised to see these two here.” It was a sense inside him that he couldn’t explain.

Mouth tightening, Selenka’s father snarled, “I don’t have to explain myself to some Psy interloper.”

As Ivo growled deep in his chest, Ethan lifted a hand limned with light. “I can burn out your irises and leave you blind, or, if you prefer, I can amputate your arms and legs. Or you can answer my questions.”

Kiev Durev’s cheeks went hot with color. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Ethan sliced horizontal stripes across the other man’s arms, each line flawless. The smell of burned flesh hit the air as Kiev screamed.

“I have no loyalty to you,” Ethan said, “and I have no desire to protect you. If you are a threat to Selenka, I will end you right now.”

Whimpering, Kiev stared at Ivo. “Do something!”

Ivo folded his arms.

Kiev snarled before turning back to Ethan, his face red. “She’ll hate you for hurting me.”

That might well be true, but Ethan would still protect her. “Are you prepared to answer or shall I perform the first amputation?” He lifted a hand licked by shadowlight.

Flinching, Kiev began talking. “Blaise wanted me to help smooth things over with the pack, with Selenka, that’s all.”

“His people would’ve burned our territory.” Ivo’s voice trembled, the words hard to understand, they were so rough.

“It was only youths being stupid,” Kiev argued. “At least he was respectful when he called me—he understood he had to go through the pack’s elders. Now look what you’ve done!” A pointed glance at the bloody body by the fallen tree. “The world already thinks changelings uncivilized monsters; you’ve proven them right.”

“What was your task here tonight?” Ethan had an idea and it was turning his blood to black ice; he wanted to end Kiev Durev then and there.

Kiev tried to slide around the question. “Blaise wanted to do it late at night because he thought Selenka would be more relaxed then, in a receptive frame of mind.”

Ethan’s hand glowed.

“Fine!” The older man threw his helmet on the ground. “I was to go to the den, get Selenka out here so they could meet in privacy.” He swallowed hard. “But I’m twenty minutes late and it’s all ruined now!”

Ethan wondered if the other man really was that stupid, or if he truly didn’t care that the people he wanted to assist had set his daughter up to die. The answer didn’t matter to Ethan. All he wanted to do was end this threat to his mate.

Ivo closed his hand over Ethan’s forearm. “Selenka’s call.” A whisper so quiet it would reach only Ethan.

Knight, Ethan reminded himself, I’m her knight. She is the queen. And this wasn’t an exigent circumstance.

As if giving Ethan time to regain control, Ivo bared his teeth. “How did Blaise and Nomani get out of their compound without being tracked? Gregori has the place under full watch.”

Ducking his head, Kiev mumbled something too low for Ethan to hear, but Ivo’s chest rumbled. “One of Blaise’s congregation deliberately got into an argument with a sentry as a distraction so the two could slip out.”

“You didn’t find that strange?” Ethan managed to say through his cold need to kill. “That they’d use subterfuge to get out instead of simply requesting a meeting?”

“Blaise couldn’t even get through to Selenka! Artem blocked him!” Kiev’s eyes weren’t human anymore . . . and they were gold rather than the more prevalent shades of amber.

Father and daughter.

But genetics was where the bond ended. Because as Ethan considered everything that had happened to date, the pieces clicked into place one by one. “You planned to meet with Blaise once before, didn’t you?” He spread out his palm, fingers glowing. “On the day of Emanuel’s murder.”

Chapter 40

Endless masks

A cupboard of faces

Betrayal painted in glitter

—“Duplicity” by Adina Mercant, poet (b. 1832, d. 1901)

ANOTHER JETCYCLE SOUNDED from the direction of den territory before Kiev Durev could respond. Exchanging a glance with Ivo, Ethan stopped the questioning. It was two jetcycles that emerged, not from the road, but from the trees. Parking their sleek black vehicles side by side, Margo and Selenka strode over.

Ethan’s mate took in both him and Ivo. “No injuries?”

Even as they confirmed they were unharmed, her father jumped off his own jetcycle. “I’m the fucking injured one! Look what your pet Psy did!”

Selenka’s look was as hard as stone. “If you can’t handle a couple of small bites, you don’t deserve to call yourself a wolf.” Her voice was pitiless. “What’re you doing here, Father?” This time, Ethan heard the “push” in her voice, the tone of an alpha who wanted an answer. Now.

Kiev Durev sweated and looked away before mumbling out the same explanation he’d given Ethan. Pain raked its claws across Selenka’s features, but she was stone-faced again by the time her father looked up. “Is this the first time you’ve collaborated with Blaise?”

“It wasn’t collaboration! The Disciples can help us be more a part of the future, civilized and intelligent!” His voice was breathy and his eyes kept flicking away. “Look at the respect Blaise commands from his flock without any show of brawn.”

“Did you intend to meet him the day Emanuel was killed?” Selenka’s voice was colder than Ethan had ever heard it, colder than he’d imagined she could ever sound—yet it wasn’t a Psy cold. No, this cold was a flame so hot it had turned blue.

When Kiev didn’t reply, she said, “Did you intend to meet him on the day of Emanuel’s murder?” The threat in her voice was a knife thudding into bone, claws ripping flesh off the body.

“Yes.” Kiev spoke as if the word was torn out of him, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “But he got spooked at being caught in our territory without a guide and took off before I arrived. He was long gone by the time Emanuel was murdered!”

To Ethan, it appeared that Kiev actually believed that. Or he’d told himself that so many times that he’d turned a hope into a truth.

“Did you disable the cameras at our border?” Selenka’s voice had no give in it, no forgiveness.

“What? No.” A flicker of confusion. “I don’t do technology.”

“But you know it well enough to call in a false alert about a lost child using an ID stolen from an elder.”

Kiev Durev paled. “I didn’t permit Blaise anywhere close to the den,” he said, as if that excused anything. “The area in our territory was just a good private meeting spot.”

That made no logical sense. If Kiev had wanted to meet Blaise away from prying eyes, all he had to do was go to Blaise’s church. To bring an outsider into pack territory without his alpha’s permission and knowledge? It reeked of arrogance that said Kiev Durev was more important than anyone else—more important than the safety of his pack.

Selenka’s face mirrored Ethan’s thoughts, the bleak pain Ethan felt emanating along the mating bond shuttered behind a stony facade. “Your punishment will depend on what Blaise says when he wakes up, but, Father?” She waited until Kiev met her gaze. “We’re done. There is no longer any father-daughter relationship between us. I am your alpha and you will obey my commands or you will die at my claws.”

Kiev’s face went white. He, too, had heard the finality in Selenka’s voice, heard the lack of give.

Leaving the older male standing helplessly next to his jetcycle, she strode over to join Ethan and Ivo while Margo continued to crouch by Nomani’s body, a phone to her ear. The first thing Selenka did was cup Ethan’s jaw and look into his eyes. Apparently satisfied by what she saw, she dropped her hand and turned to Ivo. He got the same intense scrutiny before she said, “Tell me what happened.”

Ivo did the talking and it didn’t take long. The lieutenant ended with, “Her weapon was set to kill. I had to take her out.” There was no guilt in those words, and his body didn’t tense up.

“Blaise’s weapon was also set to kill.” Ethan showed Selenka where the weapon had fallen. “I believe we were a target of opportunity. You were the intended one.” Even saying the words made shards of light ricochet inside him, body and mind both ready to eliminate the threat.

His mate stepped in to tug him down for a kiss.

When she broke it, he had moved away from the murderous precipice.

“There’s also a slight chance they intended to kill your father.” Ivo folded his arms across the jacket he’d never zipped up.

“No. Blaise wouldn’t eliminate his source of intelligence about BlackEdge.” The wolf lived in Selenka’s eyes. “Ivo, you go brief Margo. Tell her I want a team at the church to round up the congregation. Sit tight on them until I decide what comes next.”

A groan, Blaise stirring. But the cult leader wasn’t yet awake.

Selenka looked at Ethan after Ivo was out of earshot. “You say something to Ivo about the weapon being set to kill?”

“It was,” Ethan replied. “He had no choice.”

“The woman attacked a predator. She asked for death,” Selenka said on a growl. “But Ivo, he has scars not so different from yours.” Fingers caressing his jaw. “You took care of one of ours, Ethan, and because you did, Ivo will probably sleep tonight instead of waking with nightmares.”