Page 35 of Brick
Carver, one of the high ranked males, stood next to her. “Good job catching sight of whoever the hell that was.”
“Thanks,” Jade said. “It was just a fluke I came out here. I wonder who it is?”
“I don’t know, but Brick’s fast, I don’t think they’ll get far.” He smiled at her. “Stay in the house, okay? I don’t need Brick kicking my ass because you wandered off and got abducted.”
She chuckled. “I promise. I don’t want to get abducted either.”
It didn’t take long for the pack members to return, with Brick escorting a red-headed female back to the house. He pushed her roughly to a chair on the porch and called for Jade.
As the pack surrounded the female, Jade hurried to Brick and hugged him.
He kissed the top of her head. “Thanks for noticing her.”
“Thanks for catching her. So what’s the deal? Why was she watching?” she asked.
“She doesn’t want to talk, but we’re going to do something about that,” Brick said.
Adam disappeared into the house and returned with Cinder. He brought her to stand in front of the female, who looked up at them with a mixture of arrogance and fear.
Cinder rubbed her hands together and a purplish-golden glow appeared. Her voice took on an ethereal quality as she spoke, “You will tell us what you’re doing here or you’ll suffer. I’m lygisa of this pack, guardian and protector, and you have made the mistake of pissing me off.”
The hair on Jade’s arms stood up as the air became electrified. The purple-gold glow rose slowly up Cinder’s arms and seemed to expand outward. The female’s whole body was highlighted by the magical glow.
The redhead pressed her lips together in defiance.
Cinder took a step forward and Adam let out a deep, low growl that made Jade want to hit the porch on her knees and tilt her head in deference to his authority.
“Okay. Okay! I’m sorry!” the female said, her eyes going bright with tears. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do!”
As Jade listened, the female—a Wiccan coven member named Maris—wove a tale of being blackmailed by Brent Foley to reveal the weaknesses of the protective wards. “He threatened my sister. He had pictures of her and her schedule as if he could get to her! I thought just getting him information on how to get through the protective wards would be enough, but then he demanded I spy on you myself! I didn’t want to, I tried to resist, but he ran my sister off the road when she was coming home from school and nearly killed her in a crash! I had no choice. I had no choice!” Maris sobbed, her voice cracking.
“Son of a bitch,” Adam said. He put his hand on Cinder’s shoulder and the purple-gold glow ceased. She let out a deep sigh and leaned on him. “Keep an eye on this female, I’m going to call Lorene. Brick, send word to pack members that our territory is not safe and everyone needs to shelter in place until we can get this fixed. Double security, run the perimeters tightly.”
Jade grabbed Cinder’s hand. “Are you okay? I thought you couldn’t use magic.”
“It was showy magic, not anything nearly as powerful as when I shift. I thought it might scare her.”
“It sure did the trick.”
“Thanks for seeing her. You saved us, I’m sure,” Cinder said.
“Just a girl answering texts at inappropriate times,” Jade quipped.
Cinder laughed as she followed Adam into the house.
Brick dispatched the high ranked males to join the current security team members to keep the territory safe, then sent out a text to the pack to stay in place. Then he used rope to bind Maris’s wrist to the arm of the chair so she couldn’t leave.
As Jade thought things might even out for a little while, she felt a strange tension fill the air, and then someone bellowed her name.
Malrick!
Brick could not fucking believe that bastard Malrick had not only come for Jade but had the audacity to forgo all wolf pack protocols and come directly to the alphas’ house.
“What fresh hell is this?” Adam demanded as Brick and Jade moved through the house toward the front door.
“That son of a bitch came here,” Brick said.
“How did he get through the protection wards?” Jade asked.
