Alpha Divided (Alpha Girl Book 3)

And she still hadn’t seen Daniel.

Chanting back was the best thing I could think of. In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you back to hell. I had no idea if it’d work, but I kept saying it. Hoping something would change.

The third time I thought the words, the ground stopped rumbling.

Thank God.

I lay there for a second, and then I sat up.

Mr. Hoel was backing away from me. He couldn’t get away with what he’d done.

I didn’t hesitate. Rage swamped my body and I shifted fully.

“The jars!” Luciana yelled, but it was too late. “Where are you, you little bitch?”

Mr. Hoel spun around, toward Luciana’s angry tirade, and I took advantage, leaping at him. He glanced at me at the last second, but it was too late. My teeth sank into his neck.

The taste of copper filled my mouth in a hot wave.

Luciana was running toward us, screaming something unintelligible. I had seconds before Luciana closed the space. When she did, she’d see Daniel, and I didn’t want to know what she’d do for revenge.

I knew the second she’d seen him. She stumbled before changing direction. She’d glared with pure rage, but now her features twisted between rage and sadness. I wasn’t sure which was worse.

“No!” Luciana screamed as she knelt beside Daniel. Lightning crashed down around the quad as she sobbed. The ground had stopped rumbling, but the scent of sulfur still hung in the air. She might not be able to use my powers to finish calling up whatever demon she’d been summoning, but as she looked at me, hate filling her eyes, I knew it wasn’t over.

“You. This is your fault,” she yelled.

Dastien howled as he bounded across the quad. He slid to a stop between Luciana and me. Her hands glowed as she stared me down.

I spared a glance around. Fires burned throughout campus.

The vampires were all burning or already turned to ash. Their stench had begun to clear.

Wolves fought wolves. Brujos fought wolves. And the handful of brujos on our side fought their own coven.

It was bloody. Howls and screams of pain tore across the night.

“Wolves. Hear me,” Donovan’s thick Irish accent echoed, cutting through the chaos. “You will stop fighting. Now.”

At once, the wolves on both sides of the battle stopped their attacks.

When the Weres froze, the witches stopped in place. They looked to their leader for some direction, but she was still sobbing. Kneeling beside Daniel.

He’d saved my life.

Maybe all of our lives. Nothing but his death would’ve stopped Luciana.

Why had he done that? What was he thinking? I couldn’t breathe. I’d been imagining he was a traitor, but instead Daniel had traded his life for mine.

He was gone. It was my fault.

A brujo came to help Luciana stand. She whispered something to him, and the man bent to pick up Daniel’s body.

She held her head high as she turned to us. “I will bury my son, but I’ll be back. The covens are coming.” She pointed a long, bony finger at me. “You will pay for this.”

Two more coven members immediately flanked her, and the rest fell into place as their group hustled away.

No wolf dared to move as the witches left campus. Not under Donovan’s watch.

“You wolves who have fought against us are banished from the packs. Consider yourselves lone wolves who will be hunted and killed if you so much as sniff our lands again. You have thirty seconds to get beyond our boundaries before we start chasing. Run. Now.”

More wolves than I would’ve thought—at least thirty—took off running into the trees.

But one wolf stayed. His white coat was streaked with blood. As he shifted, I recognized his long, blond beard. “The old ways no longer work,” Ferdinand said. He was the one who’d pushed for the Tribunal. Who wanted me to go to the coven’s compound.

It wasn’t just Mr. Hoel who was directing the wolves.

It was Ferdinand. One of the Seven.

“I thought it was you,” Sebastian said. “You’ve grown power hungry over the last century.”

“And why shouldn’t I be? I’m the oldest of the Seven.”

“Not by much. And you’re the most full of ego. Pride. Anger. You’re not worthy to be a member of the council,” Donovan said. “We should’ve done this long ago.”

Donovan and Sebastian joined hands, and murmured something in Latin.

Ferdinand shifted with a snarl, and took off running. Donovan, Sebastian, and Mr. Dawson shifted and bounded after him.

I sat on the ground, still in wolf form. Exhausted. Dastien butted his head against mine with a whimper.

I wanted to check on my cousins and the others, but suddenly I was too exhausted to even move. I needed to change back and take a shower. I needed clothes.

After a quick look around the quad, I found the twins huddled together with the other brujos. They were crying, but otherwise unharmed.

Dr. Gonzales moved through the pack, checking on the injured.

Dastien bumped against me again, and then started toward his cabin.

This time I followed.