Chapter 36
Henry
Henry would have lost his mind when Ophelia walked out of the house to confront Rocko on her own if he hadn’t already had a backup plan in place. Which was why he and Evershaw told Mercy a stern “no” to haring off after the trio who thought they were going it alone. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Deirdre and Ophelia and Nola. He trusted them all the way to his bones. Mostly.
He didn’t trust the damn sorcerer for a second. There was no way a bastard like that would let Ophelia get away a second time. He wouldn’t stick to any agreements made. Smith had been clear on that when Evershaw called him to discuss the matter, and even though Deirdre had almost hexed the alpha for it, Henry knew it had been the right decision. Of course, it was easy for him to think that, since he wouldn’t be paying the price like Evershaw would.
Evershaw stormed back into the house, slamming the door hard enough that it bounced off the frame and then broke the hinges to collapse with a thud on the floor. Mercy’s eyebrows arched as she looked from the door to the alpha, then said cheerfully, “So what’re we doing, boss?”
It took the alpha quite a while of just snarling and growling before he quieted enough for Henry to say, “Smith and his friends are setting up a perimeter. We need you set up to cause a distraction when we give the signal—stay to the east of the empty lot. Dodge, James, go to the west. Evershaw, Todd, and I will take the south.”
Mercy grinned and clapped her hands. “A distraction. I like that. Do you have anything in particular in mind?”
“You and Sadie can figure it out.” Henry nodded to the two wolves. “Get moving. Make sure Deirdre and Ophelia don’t see you.”
Todd ignored Evershaw as the alpha continued to rip apart furniture in the living room, and Henry refrained from pointing out that going on a rampage in the witch’s house would just create more trouble later. Todd clicked his radio and nodded to Henry. “The trackers are still searching, but no signs of Silas. The girl from your pack, Fran? She’s good. Caught a possible signature common to a bunch of the tracks we found over the past week—it’s not the sorcerer’s scent, but something about the magic behind it. We think we can start getting close to him once the sorcerer shows up.”
“Good.” Henry nodded and steeled his nerves. He didn’t like the feeling of Ophelia getting farther away. He just had to convince the wolf that they would be on the way to protect her soon. As soon as they could convince Evershaw to get his shit together. “We need to get moving. Is Smith... ready?”
“He says he is.” Todd shrugged, glancing at his cousin as Miles finally lumbered to a halt, chest heaving as he struggled to breathe and gray fur sprouted on his arms as he fought an uncontrolled shift. “So we’ll go with it. Ready, boss?”
Evershaw snarled, “Let’s get this over with,” and headed for the door.
Henry traded looks with Todd, issued the last few orders to the rest of the pack before they dispersed into the yard, but paused as he caught sight of Cricket sitting in the front window. The cat yawned and cleaned his paw, tail thrashing with disapproval, and watched them all with his unblinking gaze. Henry had to believe the cat would have been energized if anything was going to happen to Deirdre. Maybe that weighed in their favor.
He jogged to catch up with the alpha as Evershaw set off on foot. Henry was confident that Nola would take care of Ophelia, and had asked his sister to get Ophelia away from the scene if it looked like the sorcerer would steal his mate. Henry could deal with the fallout later if Ophelia objected to him stacking the deck in their favor. He was confident that Ophelia could hold her own, but if her magic began to act up or she lost control...
Henry pushed away the thought. She would be fine. She and Deirdre would confront the sorcerer with their magic, and Nola was there to rip the bastard’s throat out the moment she got the chance. Tracking Silas down would be easy once Smith got a look at where the sorcerer showed up from; apparently the old fae could see through the rip in whatever that Rocko would use to find the original location. Or something like that.
Ophelia just had to keep the sorcerer distracted long enough for Smith to do... whatever it was Smith was going to do.
He jogged after Todd and Miles, thoughts on the multiple backup plans they’d come up with while the witches were communing in Deirdre’s secret workroom. He would have preferred being at Ophelia’s side during the confrontation, but he couldn’t argue with her reasoning, as much as he wanted to. The sorcerer would underestimate her, and would not take Nola or Deirdre seriously either, from what Ophelia said about him.
Henry had learned very quickly after meeting Deirdre that any man who thought he knew more than the women in his life was probably getting his ass handed to him on a regular basis and didn’t even know it. Like Evershaw. Henry snorted and shook his head, ignoring the sideways look that Todd gave him, and concentrated on the task at hand.
They kept to side streets but received regular updates from the various wolves who stalked the blocks around the empty lot. Evershaw had settled into an icy rage, no longer gnashing his teeth or making noise, which meant he’d passed through the “just dangerous” stage and into the “about to go nuclear” stage. Todd kept an eye on him and Henry focused on keeping his ears tuned for any signs that Ophelia needed help. There wasn’t much time left. The two hours ticked away too fast, and it was a matter of minutes, if not seconds, until the sorcerer showed himself.
Henry braced himself for the next few minutes to feel like an eternity. The rest of his life hinged on the decisions of a few people in the space of a few heartbeats. His wolf growled and raged for control, and he held on with his fingernails. He needed to be in control, for Ophelia’s sake.
