Blaise groaned again, his eyelids fluttering. Hauling the male up so his back was against the side of the car, his arms tied behind him and his ankles lashed in front, Ethan then stood watch, ready to take him down the instant he became a threat.

Selenka didn’t crouch down to speak to him. Feet set apart, she stared down at Blaise as he focused on her with eyes boiling with rage. “I’ll have you prosecuted for this!” were the first words out of his mouth. “You animals can’t go around attacking innocent civilians.”

“Since you seem to have forgotten, Blaise,” Selenka drawled, “you’re an animal, too. So was your sister. Now she’s just cold, decomposing flesh.”

Blaise’s face chilled. “You’re lying. Nomi! Nomi!” When it was silence alone that greeted his cries, he screamed. “Murderers!”

Selenka leaned down and slapped him. Just once. Very hard. With claws scraping lines across his cheek.

The noise cut off, but the rage continued to boil.

“You attempted to kill my mate and one of my lieutenants,” she said. “Why?”

“You’re going to take the word of a Psy assassin over one of your own kind?” Blaise spit on the ground. “No wonder your father is ashamed to have you as a daughter.”

“Make up your mind, Blaise. Either you’re one of us or we’re filthy animals.” Selenka raised an eyebrow. “And yes, I’ll take my mate’s word over that of a man who murdered one of mine.”

The flicker of satisfaction was fast, there one second and gone the next, but Selenka caught it. Snarling, she struck out with a clawed hand . . . only to bring her claws to a stop a bare millimeter from the wet ball of Blaise’s left eye. Perspiration scented the air, his fear acrid. It gave her no satisfaction. Emanuel was still dead, and for what?

“You don’t get to die easy,” she whispered silkily. “I’m going to give you to Emanuel’s parents and brother.” Taking vengeance for their son and brother was the only thing she could give them to assuage their pain—maybe humans would find it barbaric, but she wasn’t human and neither were they.

“Bitch.”

Selenka held up a hand when she felt Ethan stir. “Yes, I am. A deadly bitch who is going to raze Haven’s Disciples down to the foundations and wipe your name from history.” She smiled as he jerked toward her, as if wanting to headbutt her. “It’s pathetic, really, how small and weak you truly are—so weak that you had to kill with a weapon instead of your claws, and had to manipulate children to do your dirty work.”

Blaise snapped. “You think you’re so wonderful. Selenka Durev, granddaughter of Yevgeni Durev. Such an honorable lineage. Do you ever ask your grandfather about the friend he shoved out into the cold to cover his own ass? Do you ever wonder where your grandfather gets the money for all these trips he takes with his mate?”

Selenka stared at Blaise. “Andriy Golyas,” she said slowly. “I see it now, in the shape of your face, the color of your eyes. I saw a photo of your father a long time ago.” It had been after her grandfather stepped down, when he took her through the pack’s history.

She could still remember the dual lines of anger and pain on his face as he told her the full story of the packmate of his who’d been a highly qualified accountant, the perfect person to help Yevgeni and his lieutenants maneuver a growing pack’s finances. Andriy Golyas was guilty of many crimes—including fracturing a part of Yevgeni Durev’s generous and loyal heart.

Yet because the crimes had all been financial, with Andriy not taking enough to affect the physical health of his packmates, her grandfather had followed unwritten pack law and imposed a sentence of expulsion instead of execution. BlackEdge wolves rarely demanded blood for nonphysical crimes.

“Andriy didn’t have a son when he was exiled from the pack,” Selenka murmured. “He didn’t have any children.”

“He met my mother after he was kicked out of the pack.” Blaise’s face was red, his words like bullets. “We had to scrape by alone because no pack would take us. Your grandfather badmouthed him all over the world.”

“My grandfather simply answered questions when asked. As I would if another pack asked me if an exile was safe to have in the pack.” Selenka couldn’t imagine spending an entire life nursing hate, and yet this was what Blaise and Nomani had done. “Your father not only embezzled from his own people after being given a position of great trust, he betrayed his alpha over and over again.”

“Lies!” Blaise wrenched against his bonds. “Lies! Your grandfather took the money and put the blame on him!”

“Blaise, I don’t know what Andriy told you, what poison he fed you, but the pack brought in a neutral human auditing team to do the accounts in the aftermath.” Yevgeni had given them full access to all records and then left them alone to do their job. “Your father blew tens of thousands of pack funds on high-class escorts.”

“My father was a good man! A blessed man! A man of God!”

Selenka twisted her mouth. “There are plenty of wolves still alive who know the truth and will give it to you—but I don’t think you’re interested in the truth. I just want to know one thing: why did you kill Emanuel?”

Having obviously decided that he had nothing to lose, Blaise bared his teeth. “BlackEdge took everything my father loved. Why should you be happy?” A harsh laugh. “At least your father despises you. That’ll delight me for the rest of my life.”

Ethan’s light power burned, wanting out, wanting to eliminate the threat of Blaise. He held it back with sheer force of will. He was the knight, he repeated to himself. Selenka was the queen. A queen who had made her decision. Taking out her phone, she walked away into the trees—after stopping by Margo for a short discussion.

When Blaise tried to taunt Ethan into a conversation, Ethan burned an X onto his cheek. It was a deliberate choice on his part—Blaise was a man well aware of his looks and proud of them.

Eyes red with fury, Blaise nonetheless got the message and shut up.

Selenka said nothing about the new mark when she returned. “Emanuel’s parents and brother have accepted the vengeance due to them.” Her tone was merciless. “They’ve asked to hunt you to the death. You will know fear and pain and helplessness before you leave this earth. It will never be enough to make up for the murder of a wolf worth a hundred of you, but it will be justice.”

Blaise hissed at her . . . and the area around his body began to shimmer.

A glance from his mate and Ethan hit the male with his light. Blaise slumped, the shift stopping before it began. Selenka looked impassively at the cult leader. “What did he think? That he’d escape me in wolf form?”

“The man has delusions of power.”

Selenka’s expression didn’t change. “I have to drop him off at a particular spot. I’ll see you afterward.”

“I’ll find you.” The mating bond was bruised with her pain, but she needed to be alpha right now, and he needed to back her up. But he’d hold her before this night was out, and he’d remind her that trust wasn’t always betrayed, and people didn’t always let you down.

Instead of leaving right then, Selenka turned to Kiev Durev, who was sitting on the ground in a fog of shock. “You were disloyal to your pack and your alpha,” she said flatly. “Those actions led to the presence of an enemy in our lands and to the death of one of our own. At which point, you sought to hide your disloyalty instead of helping the pack find the killer.”

Kiev Durev’s hands shook as he rubbed his face. “I didn’t know. I swear it.”

“Your vows are meaningless.” The words were cut from glass, each one a razor-sharp shard. “Emanuel’s family doesn’t want your head—they’re more merciful than I would be in their place and I think they do this for their alpha, even though I made it clear execution was on the table.”

Because, Ethan understood, her packmates loved her and not even for their own vengeance would they put her in the position of having to execute her father. That she’d been willing to do it would be enough for them . . . and was crushing for Kiev Durev. For the first time, the man looked broken.

“But,” Selenka continued, “they never want to see your face again and neither do I. You may remain a member of BlackEdge, but you are banished from den territory. Your actions will be made known to the pack and your possessions delivered to your office. Should you attempt to enter den territory, you will be executed on sight.”

Kiev’s face was a white sheet. “I’ll be an outcast. Selen—”

“You do not ever address me as anything but Alpha Durev.”

Swallowing, Kiev said, “What will I do? I’m a wolf. How can I live without pack?”

“At least you get to live. Be thankful for that.” A hunting wolf in her voice. “Grandfather showed mercy in allowing Andriy to live and it ended in blood—and will cause him pain he does not deserve. I have the veto of an alpha, can end you now regardless of anyone else’s wishes, but Grandfather and Grandmother will mourn you even if you are not worth a single tear—and so I will bow to the wishes of Emanuel’s family and allow you to continue breathing.”

With that, she turned on her heel and didn’t look back, a queen who had made a brutal judgment and would not flounder . . . not even when Ethan could feel the blood dripping from the grievous wounds on her heart.

Chapter 41

Changeling justice is brutal in its honesty. We humans love to call it barbaric, but is it not more barbaric for a proven murderer to walk free because of a legal loophole?

—Editorial by Oceane Vargas for The San Francisco Gazette (January 2082)

SELENKA FELT NO pity for Blaise when she dropped his semiconscious body in a small forest clearing, only a hot, primal satisfaction. Emanuel’s parents and Vadem weren’t stupid and had no intention of allowing Blaise to escape—she could scent them on the air, knew they were in the trees already.