“He’s not human, right?”

“His heart is gone,” Jane snapped to her brother. “He can’t come back!”

Ryan frowned, and shook his head. “But she wants him back.” He touched his temple. “Bring him back.”

Yes, definitely insane.

“I can’t,” the witch whispered. “He’s not here anymore.”

A choked sob came from Zoe.

The witch glanced at Alerac. “Please, let me go.”

Not likely. He still remembered what had happened when the witch used her magic on him. He’d felt as if someone were cutting out his heart.

But Zoe couldn’t keep holding Finn. Alerac motioned through the open doorway, at the two werewolves who were watching in shocked silence. “Take care of Finn. Bury the human.”

They nodded.

Zoe tightened her hold on him. “You can’t do this! You can’t—” But then she stopped. She inhaled. Stared down at Finn with watery eyes. “I thought it was Lorcan. That he’d done this.”

So had Alerac. At first.

“Liam?” Zoe whispered as she inhaled. Then she screamed, “Liam!”

Yes, Alerac had caught his scent, too. Liam had come back, and he’d hunted right in Alerac’s home.

Was the bastard still close?

Alerac glanced back through the open door. You are, aren’t you? “Keep the witch here,” Alerac told Ryan. “I’m hunting.” He couldn’t kill Lorcan, not yet, but Liam was another matter. Liam had earned the death he had coming his way.

He’d betrayed the pack, turned on his own kind.

He would die.

Alerac pointed to the witch. “Find a way to break the spell that links Jane and Lorcan.”

“I can’t—”

“Find it, or you die. Because you’re no f**kin’ use to me otherwise.” Then his stare cut to Jane.

Jane.

It almost hurt to look at her. Because—I nearly killed her. He hadn’t realized it. Had never suspected that Lorcan had somehow linked their life forces.

If he’d severed Lorcan’s head from his body, Jane would have died, too. In an instant.

When he’d whirled and seen the blood flowing down her neck, horror had filled him. He hadn’t been able to get to her fast enough. Hadn’t been able to heal her soon enough.

He wanted to cross the room and take her into his arms.

But his job was to protect. To protect Jane. To protect the pack. So far, he’d failed at that job.

No longer.

No other wolves would die by Liam’s hand. Liam had been his best friend. His closest confidant for two hundred years. It was only fitting that Alerac be the one to end him.

Fitting? No, maybe just twisted.

But it had to be done.

“Sever the tie between them,” Alerac commanded the witch. He couldn’t even look at Finn’s body then.

He headed back outside, into the too bright sunlight.

“Alerac!”

Jane. She’d rushed toward him so quickly. “Let me come with you.”

There were some battles that he had to fight on his own. “Figure out a way to save your brother. Maybe the cure wasn’t total bull.”

Then he faced the sun. He inhaled the scents. And followed the trail that he knew Liam had deliberately left for him.

***

Jane grabbed the witch and pretty much dragged the woman upstairs. Zoe and Ryan followed her, though Zoe just looked shattered.

I’ve looked that way before.

Jane pushed the witch into the bedroom on the right. “Tell me your name.”

“M-Mina.”

Jane frowned at her, that name was familiar. She’d seen a movie, during her vampire research and—

“At least, that’s what he called me.” Mina’s voice was softer now. “I’ve been with him since I was five. I don’t really know…I don’t remember what I was called before that.”

“Dracula’s freaking bride.” Ryan sounded disgusted. “Guess it makes sense that he’d call you that. Asshole probably thinks that it’s funny.”

Mina’s head whipped up. “I’m not his bride.” Her index finger pointed to Jane. “She’s his bride.”

The hell she was. “You’re a witch,” Jane said. Stating the obvious, right?

But Mina still nodded.

“Tell me about the poison in my brother.”

“I-I didn’t craft that poison.”

“Right, of course you didn’t,” the disgusted snap came from Ryan. Zoe stared at them all, her hands wrapped around her stomach. Ryan continued, “Because you weren’t Lorcan’s flavor of choice back then. That was another witch. He killed her after she locked my sister in her prison with magic and poisoned me.” He braced his legs apart as he stared at Mina. “But every poison has a cure, right?”

A timid nod.

“What cures me?”

Mina’s gaze darted to Zoe.

Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “What. Cures. Me?”

Mina swiped away a tear that had slid down her cheek. “I read the old book that Shonna left behind.”

Shonna. The name meant nothing to Jane. Big surprise.

“Shonna was his witch back in the day,” Ryan explained. Had he read her mind, used their link to see what she was thinking? Or had he just guessed?

“The book said that the poison could be purged if you took the blood of a caged beast.” Mina spoke quickly. “She said the beast had to be dormant, locked, and your poison would destroy that beast even as you were healed.”

Ryan had turned to stare at Zoe. “Fuck me.”

Jane’s gaze darted between them.

Zoe laughed. “It’s me? You think I’m your cure?” Her eyes were on the floor, not on Ryan. “I’m a curse. Not a cure. Trust me.”

“Don’t worry,” Ryan told her, voice thick. “I’m not about to destroy you.” He turned his glare back on the witch. “Think of another way.”

Jane heard a howl then, seeming to echo off the mountain. She headed toward the window. Stared out. She didn’t see Alerac, but she knew that he was out there. Hunting.

Preparing to kill the closest thing that he had to a brother.

“I shouldn’t have let him go alone.” He’d been so determined. She’d been—