Katie


    What the hell?


    | turned back toward the door to mine and Mason’s room, immediately wanting to hold Ste and make sure she was safe. But


    before | could move back down the hall, Rhiannon crashed into the hallway.


    “The ritual is off,” she shouted at me. Her face was twisted with anger and pain. “Your memories are gone.


    forever, thanks to one of Gabri’s disgusting dogs,” she sneered.


    I


    “What happened?” | asked her. She looked sick, almost green in the face, and unsteady on her feet.


    She barked out a mirthlessugh. “Someone ransacked my spell supplies. Ingredients I''d worked at lifetime to gather...


    destroyed in one night.”


    Her voice was manic and high-pitched “This is why | hate werewolves.”


    Panic shot through me. F uck. How would | get my memories back now?


    Suddenly, Xander and Zane came sprinting down the hall, with Gabri trailing behind them.


    They ran up to Rhiannon, and | instinctively stepped back, slowly inching back down the hall to where the


    guest rooms were.


    Now that I knew Xander’s n, | wasn’t interested in being anywhere near them.


    “YOU!” Rhiannon screamed, shoving a shaking finger toward Xander and Zane. “You''re the ones who destroyed everything!”


    “Whoa, whoa,” Xander said. “Destroyed what?”


    “Very funny.” Rhiannonughed hysterically, but she clearly didn’t find it funny at all. “| know what you’ve done. Is this why you


    actually came here?!” she demanded.


    She lunged at Xander and he stepped back, his face wrinkling in confusion.


    “We really don’t know what you''re talking about,” Zane said.


    Rhiannon narrowed her eyes, and | saw them sh with an eerie light. Was she about to do magic?


    “You don''t, do you?” she said wickedly. “Maybe this will teach you not to touch a witch’s sh it again.”


    She raised her hands high in the air, and a cr ackle of electricity jumped between them.


    “NO!” Gabri cried, diving at Rhiannon and knocking her to the ground. Her head hit the floor with a


    smack and lolled to the side.


    Gabri’s eyes widened in horror.


    “What the f uck?!” Xander said. “Did you kill her?”


    when she wakes up.”


    “Zane, grab Mason, we''re taking him to the Council.” Zane ran toward my room, not even ncing at me as he passed.


    So Mason was right. They really were going to force him to hand himself into the Council. Did that mean


    they were going to take me back to the mansion, too?


    | backed away slowly, wondering if | had any chance of grabbing Ste and slipping away, but then Xander rounded on me.


    “Pack your bags and get Ste. We''re taking you home.”


    They would lock me away again, just like Mason said. Not if | could help it.


    “No,” | said. “I’m not going.”


    Xander raised his eyebrows. “Yes, you are, Katie.”


    “No, I’m not,” | argued again before diving for the door next to mine-the door to Braden’s room.


    Iran inside and mmed the door behind me, thanking the go ds it locked from the inside.


    |tched it and sprinted to Braden’s beside.


    “Lanie?” he asked in a confused voice.


    “It''s me, Katie,” | said. “You need to drink my blood. Now”


    The only way to stop Xander and Zane’s n now was to heal Braden’s bite.


    Braden picked up his head and winced in pain. “I’m not doing that,” he said simply “I refuse to hurt you.”


    A body mmed into the door. Sh it. They wereing to get me.


    “You have to, Braden,” | said. “You can stop, | know you can.”


    “| don’t trust myself,” he croaked out. “Please don’t make me do this.”


    On the other side of the door, | could hear the scratching and snarling that meant Xander and Zane were


    shifting.


    And then another huge m. The door started to splinter.


    F uck.


    | cast around the room looking for something sharp. If Braden didn’t want to bite me, then I’d make himN?velDrama.Org owns all content.


    | fingered the sharp metal edge of the side table and decided it was my best bet. | closed my eyes and


    raked my forearm across it as hard as | could. Blood bloomed from the scratch.


    | held it up to Braden’s face and watched as his nostrils red and his fangs dropped.


    Another m of the door. It wouldn’t hold much longer.


    “Drink,” |manded. And this time he did.


    His fangs sank into my skin like a dozen silver daggers. The pain momentarily blinded me, but then a different picture swam into


    my field of vision, and then another, and then another.


    Me with my younger sister and my dads.


    Me hanging out with Mindy.


    Me being mated to Xander and Zane..


    “G ods,” | whispered, “I remember everything.”