Liz fastened her hands on my shoulders and shook me hard. “Damnit, Celia—snap out of it. You have to get us through this or we’re all going to die. Do you hear me? We’re all going to die!”

Blood coursed through my veins like lava. I’d felt this relentless pull once before, when Aric first left me and we were forced to remain apart. I recognized it now for what it was—our souls’ need to merge and bond. Damnit. I lowered my lids and concentrated on my baby. Liz was right: I had to get us through this. I took several calming breaths and managed to steady myself. “Okay. Okay. I’m ready.” It was a total and complete lie and they all knew it, except I couldn’t exactly hide in the bathroom forever.

We hurried back toward the foyer. Uri and his guards were already in the meeting room. I could hear him arguing with Anara. I forced myself forward, only to be intercepted by a she-wolf. She was taller than me, with olive skin and jet-black hair. In my distress, I failed to realize she was challenging me. I tried to sidestep around her. Again she blocked my path. “No,” I told the vamps when they hissed. I frowned, confused as to why she was picking a fight with me. Her eyes didn’t glow gold and no song of wolves accompanied her presence.

I moved toward the right. This time she hit me hard in the shoulder.

“What—?”

“Get away from my mate,” Aric growled. But it wasn’t until he snaked his arm around the she-wolf that I realized he didn’t mean me.

Chapter Nineteen

Mate. Aric had called her his mate. My breath came out so hard my chest threatened to collapse inward. Emme and Danny whispered tightly in my ear and the vamps urged me forward, except no one made sense. My entire focus remained on Aric and the she-wolf he held in his arms. A smug smile inched across her face as she leaned her body against his. But it was what she said that slammed me back into reality. “Aric promised to give me a child.”

I didn’t think. I reacted, yanking her from his grasp and embedding her in the back wall.

The she-wolf grunted from the impact. I thought Aric would rip into me for attacking her, or rush to her side. After all, he did call her his damn mate. Instead he froze, watching me while I fought the rage and hurt that burned my eyes with tears.

“How could you do that to me?” I demanded. “How could you fucking do that to me?”

Aric leaned back on his heels. “You left me,” he answered quietly.

A single tear dripped down my cheek. “No…I didn’t.”

The wall behind me cracked. The she-wolf dislodged her body and charged. Aric snatched her up in his arms and hauled her back before she could reach me. “Go back to the room, Diane,” he told her, continuing to scrutinize me closely. “I’m needed inside.”

“I’m going to kill you, you stupid freak!” she growled at me.

“I’ll be sure to add you to the list,” I shot back.

Emme had to run to keep up. I threw open the doors to the meeting room with the vamps hot on my trail and marched across the polished wood floor to the end of the room.

The Elders sat on a raised platform. Uri stood before them; they hadn’t even offered him a chair. My sisters waited at a nearby table with their wolves. Their brows shot up to the moon upon catching the fury burning its way across my face. “She must have met Diane,” Koda murmured to Shayna. Next to them lounged Tye, a werelion with whom some crazy clairvoyant named Destiny claimed I’d make babies—babies who’d apparently rid the world of evil. He greeted me with a lazy grin and a flash of a dimple. I didn’t smile back, but if he needed something dead, I’d gladly oblige.

Three master vampires and their families lined the opposite wall, including Angelo Cusamano. Angelo was the most powerful vampire on the East Coast. He was also an evil bastard who’d come close to killing me, Danny, and my sisters. Danny tensed beside me. Angelo chuckled and tipped his glass of red wine my way. He appeared pleased to see me, but in a way that clearly meant trouble.

Anara and Uri didn’t react to my arrival, too wrapped up in their argument to pay attention to little ol’ pissed-off me. Anara sneered. “We will not waste valuable resources on the hunch of an unstable woman. If you want your property back retrieve him yourself.”

Uri seethed hard enough to burn a hole in the floor. “My position in the European Alliance does not permit me to fight nor use my resources for personal issues.”

Anara waved him off. “Then I suggest you step down from your position.”

Uri clenched his fists. “You have never held more than the position of Elder. What do you understand of the responsibilities I would be walking away from?”

Anara leaned forward. “I will know soon enough. My efforts to ensure the survival of our species have impressed the members of the North American Were Council—so much so I’ve been elected prime advisor to our president.” He stole a glance my way. “Soon I’ll be everywhere, with power so immense it will crush the trivial amount I currently possess.”

Martin stiffened, seemingly furious at Anara’s disrespect. Makawee raised her chin, more embarrassed than insulted. Neither spoke up, but I did.

“I’ll go after Misha.”

Suddenly all eyes were on me. Anara laughed. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.” I didn’t bother masking my resentment or hatred then. “I’ll take a group of vampires with me and we’ll find Misha ourselves.”

Uri’s shoulders slumped with relief. He hurried to my side and kissed my cheeks. “My son has chosen well.”

Shayna rose from her table. “Ceel, you can’t be serious.”

Aric leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, his anger toward me returning now that I’d volunteered to find Misha. “Of course she’s serious,” he responded stiffly. “After all, he is her lover.”

“Oh, shut up!” I snapped. Despite his immobile expression, Aric regarded me like I’d slapped him across the face. I didn’t care. His freaking mate would help him get over it. “We’ll leave tonight,” I told Uri.

I barreled toward the exit. Angelo and his family swept in front of us like a breeze, his vampires blocking mine and crouched to attack. Guttural hisses echoed along the vast room, promising to smear the walls with death.

Angelo’s glare bore into me like a slow-twisting screw. “I challenge you, Celia Wird, for your family. I—”