Chapter 148

Ardal

Just like that, our goodbye is cut. I slump against the couch, head in my hands.

"I'm sorry," Jack says.

I lift my head to shoot him a fiery glare.

The first rays of sun are lighting the windows. Around us, the quintuplets are Energizer bunnies- getting cranky, maybe, but still going. I'm scraping by on their fumes and my emotional torment.

Guilt is splashed across Jack's face.

What am I actually seeing?

I scrutinize him, hard. The emotion looks utterly real. For a second I am so disgusted, it renders me speechless.

"You’re pathological," I spit out.

He flinches at my words. I picture myself wolfing out and tearing him to bits.

Well, it’s a split between that, and throwing myself into his arms to melt into him. Inexplicably, my confusing feelings for him will not die. It only makes me hate him- and myself- more. My hands ball into fists and I battle the urge to scream.

Sasha pockets her phone. Next to Jack, Lottie and Milo fight over the box of cookies.

"Sit tight for now," Sasha says, disguising her threat with a warm turn of phrase and cheery expression.

"They need to go to bed," I insist, jabbing my finger towards the quints. Jack is wedged between Lottie and Milo, trying to break up their brawl.

Sasha's jaw clenches, her expression contorting. "They can wait a little longer."

Miss Pixie Cut does not take well to questioning. I narrow my eyes at her, but refrain from arguing. As soon as she exits through the back door, Gabe rushes into the kitchen to scrounge for food like an unruly pet.

This feels like a small window of possibility. My muscles tense, readying me for action. It's an inward call for escape. But one I'm trying to ignore.

The rest of Bob's lackeys are out of sight, but not gone, and Gabe can still see us. The kitchen is mostly open, and he keeps a watchful eye on us while he pillages, though his main concern is Sasha's return.

If we were to flee, what would we be fleeing to, anyway? I can't escape the reality that Kadeem is captured. I have no hope of saving him, and I would render his sacrifice worthless. My duty is to keep our children, and myself, safe. To do that, I have to comply.

It sinks in that I failed my family last night. I can't fail them again. I take a deep breath, trying to slow my heart. Trying to be still.

Just be still, Ardal.

But what about Jack? My gaze falls onto the figure of a man I cannot trust. Bruising is starting to show across his face and neck- anywhere with bare skin. For an enemy, he took a brutal beating on my behalf.

We lock eyes.

"Why are you here?"

He hesitates. "What do you mean?"

"What’s the point? Why didn’t Bob kill you last night, or just send you back on your wicked way?"

Jack clears his throat, "Ardal, I-"

"I don't have time for your usual games," I snap. "You owe me the truth for once."

Jack's gaze falls to his lap. "Bob is taking calculated risks. He won't let me go until he becomes Alpha. And he can't kill me. Not yet, anyway. It would anger my mother- they're working together."

"The vampire attack."

Jack is hushed by Lottie's teacup. She pushes it against his lips and whatever she has in there sloshes into his mouth. He coughs and sputters out an "Mmm," while I swat her away.

Behind us, drawers open and close in the kitchen. I fold my arms across my chest and stare at Jack.

"Why are they working together?”

Jack glances over his shoulder towards Gabe, who has found a banana to peel, then back at me.

“Bob has grandiose plans- taking over Red Moon, Pack X, and however far he can spread,” Jack says, keeping his voice low, while I picture tentacle arms, reaching. “And a lot of the vampires are ready to end the reign of the werewolf packs. Bob promised them equality.”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? Bob’s plan sounds a lot like Layla’s, except she wanted full dominion over the supernatural world, including vampires, whom she’d happily see eradicated. I suspect Bob does too, but he has a lot to gain by using them.

“He’ll eventually tell Red Moon he’s made a compact with the vampires, so he can still look like a hero,” Jack continues, “And then Red Moon’s wolves will join the vampires to amass a bigger army, against other packs.”

I swallow. “Why are you involved in all this, Jack?”

He lets out a breath. “Bob deals in black market magical artifacts. When Mingan was sick, I was desperate to find a healing stone or anything that could help her. It should have ended there, but I continued to source magical objects from him."

He seems to struggle for a moment, pausing, before he continues. “I was lying to you when I said I couldn’t do more than give you that rune.”

My fingers go to my wrist, feeling the raised mark on my skin.

“I was experimenting with a lot I shouldn’t have. I’m not some great sorcerer, especially when it counts, but I can do more than I led on.”

I imagine Jack’s head bent over dusty volumes of magic - the kind I saw in the shop downtown- his natural curiosity and intellect, sucking him deeper and deeper… but that’s no revelation. He fed his sister to a vampire, for fuck’s sake!

The quints are starting to fade, and Jack drops his voice lower. Milo is slumped over a chair, with Erbao at his feet, slow-blinking into the sunrise. Ezra is sprawled out on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling fan, and Lottie and Silas are inside her pillow fort. His eyes are drooping as he tries to read his science book, and she is curled up with her stuffed wolf under her arm.

“To make a long story short,” Jack says, brushing back his blond hair, “I crafted a spell. I wanted to help Mingan go out in the sun again, and I also wanted to feel powerful. It went wrong, though. The vampires I tried it on became monsters on steroids and they very visibly killed a werewolf in our pack. This, my other magical experiments, crossing pack lines, and my involvement with Bob- all of it, has put me under Pack X’s and Red Moon’s radar - and Bob’s held that over my head.”

He sighs. “But before I realized Bob was an enemy, I made a horrible mistake. When Kadeem and I got into that fight, Bob and I met shortly after. He asked what happened, and the truth came out,” Jack says. “That's how he knew who you were, but I never meant to endanger you.”

But maybe he wanted to endanger Kadeem. My jaw tightens.

“And it gets worse from there.” Jack frowns. “Enter my mother. My connection eventually leads to her connection - to their connection. She and Kadeem made a deal in May. She’d save you, and in exchange, the alpha would grant her freedom, but in the end, that wasn’t enough. Bob promised more. Since we left Pack X, we’ve been hiding out with Bob and his associates. And I have very little freedom now, thanks to her bite. I’m sure that was her true motive in saving me - to enslave me. Fun for her.” Jack’s expression is dark.

“Enslave you?”

“Ardal,” Jack says, “You feel the way you feel about me because we’re connected through a blood tie from our vampire bites. You need to stay as far as you can from my mother. Sires wield control over those they turn.”

I suppress a shudder. “But we weren’t turned,” I argue.

“That’s why we might stand a chance,” Jack says. “That, plus, some magic.”

He lifts his shirt and my eyes widen. His torso is covered in runes.

“I’m not going to spend the rest of my existence as her puppet,” he says, gritting his teeth. “I’m going to cut the strings.” Then drops his voice so low it would be inaudible if I wasn’t a werewolf sitting close. “And then there’s this.”

Eyes quickly sweeping the kitchen first, he takes out something he’s hidden: It’s a wooden stake, as covered in runes as his chest is.

“Probably don’t want to know where you’ve been hiding that,” I say dryly. Bob’s goons searched us for weapons and took our phones.

“Probably not,” he whispers back. “Kadeem gave it to his beta, and I managed to get it from her. Call it luck, or fate. This is how I kill Diana.”

Gabe starts banging around in the kitchen, causing us to jump. Jack quickly hides the stake again.

“You made the sprites,” I say, finally accepting the weight of it. “You told Bob and Susan you were meeting me, and then you delivered me straight to them. You’re the reason Kadeem was captured.”

“Ninety-percent of last night was pure accident,” Jack says. “There were a million coincidences and turns - like the stars aligned for it. Even if I told you the whole story, you’d never believe me.” His face takes on a look of devastation. “And I didn’t know they would hurt you.”

“But you knew Kadeem would be killed.”

My stomach is sick.

“I didn’t have a choice, Ardal.”

I contemplate Jack’s true nature, despite all that he’s glossed over. He sees himself as a victim, but it’s only half the story. The thirst for power, his twisted "experiments," and his somewhat fatal attraction to me fills me with unease. My mind goes to his mother - our sire. He hates her, but I see what he can’t. He’s a mirror image.

No, the apple really doesn’t fall far.

What does that say about me?

Images flood my mind: My father, plotting in the shadows, whispering of rebellion. My mother, a fearsome fighter in our pack who was in on my father's plans for a coup all along. I never wanted to be anything like them - risk-takers willing to sacrifice everything. And yet, I realize now, maybe I am just like them after all.

Reckless.

The word has been hurled at me more than once - even by Kadeem. And that very trait is what sparked all this chaos in the first place. I should sit still, keep quiet, and behave.

“Mom.”

Erbao is peering at me through tired, but determined eyes. How much has he overheard?

“If Dad’s in trouble, we have to save him.”

Apparently everything.

And he’s another apple, not far.

I look at Jack. “We’re going to put some more of your magic to the test.”