‘What’s wrong?’ Kai asked.
Shit. I couldn’t control my emotions anymore. I was almost at my mother’s.
‘Don’t be mad. Layla has my mother and told me to come alone. I’m almost at her house. If you come alone, she won’t smell you. Don’t bring anyone else or she will kill my mother the second she smells other wolves.’
‘Aurora, stop!’ he screamed.
I felt a shock as I was suddenly saturated in Alpha power. He was trying to stop me! Holy shit, my foot slammed on the brake without me controlling it. I looked down at my body in shock, I was stuck in my car unable to move. Kai was controlling me! Oh, hell no. I mentally pushed him back.
‘How is this possible? How dare you!’ My hands shook with rage.
‘I’ve wanted to do this to you a dozen times. Any other Alpha would have! I’ve tried giving you your freedom but you’ve gone too far. This is stupid!’ Kai scolded me.
I could feel that his actions only came from a place of love and protection but this was NOT okay with me. Big, bad Alpha was about to get booted out of my head.
More mist crept from my skin. ‘Kai, if my mother dies because of you, I will never, ever forgive you! I will move to another country where you can’t find me. I will never be able to look into your eyes again. Do you understand me?’ My words dripped with dominance. If he thought he was keeping me from saving my mother, he was dead wrong. The hold was broken instantly and I could feel that the effort to keep me frozen had cost Kai and the entire pack. He had sucked strength from all of them and was now left exhausted. With relief, I sped the car up and drove into my mom’s driveway, throwing the car in park. Jumping out, I ran up to the door in super speed.
‘You can’t control me and you shouldn’t want to,’ I scolded him again. I needed to make sure that shit never had a repeat.
‘I’m almost there, please wait,’ he said, strained. He was weak; it was stupid of him to use all of his energy.
Did I blame him? I would have done the same to keep him safe. Pushing Kai out of my mind, I threw the front door open.
My breath hitched when I saw Layla, standing in the kitchen with a gun to my mother’s head. My fragile, beautiful, human mother.
Slowly, swiveling my head to the left, I saw Prudence who gave me a bitchy wave. Black mist crept from her skin as white mist began to pour from mine. The ground began to shake, rattling the pictures on the walls. The Devi inside of me was livid; we both were.
Suddenly, a male vampire appeared beside me holding a device.
“Move and your mother dies,” Layla said.
I went through ten different scenarios in my head. My mother was fifty feet away, Prudence, ten feet. Could I hold Prudence with magic and get to Layla without my mother getting harmed? No. I was fast but not faster than a bullet. The house shook with my barely contained magical rage; the Devi wanted to end things. Now.
“Stop that!” Prudence shouted and threw black magic at me, as my white magic reflected hers causing me no harm. The shaking stopped as I shoved the Devi down inside of me.
I grinned at Prudence. “Scared?”
The vampire holding the device grabbed my right arm and attached the device around my upper arm like a metal cuff with an LCD display screen. I tried to struggle but I heard Layla cock the gun from across the room. Cold, numbing fear saturated my body. My whole life I was conditioned to just sit by while my mother’s life hung in the balance at the hand of my father. Now it felt like it was happening again and I was helpless.
I froze, completely still as my mother looked surprisingly calm. We held each other’s gaze as I felt a pinch in my arm. Looking down, I saw that the device was draining my blood into a bag. Mother eff. There was nothing worse as a dominant than having to helplessly submit your will.
‘Kai, I’m in the open front door. There is a vampire taking my blood. Prudence is in the living room and Layla has a gun to my mother’s head in the kitchen,’ I told him.
He was tired, I could feel it, but at my words, Alpha power surged through the bond as he again pulled from the pack and pushed hard to get to me faster.
Layla had her back to the glass door that opened out onto the patio. Kai bought my mother this house. We had dinner here with her once a month. He knew the entire layout and I was hoping he had a plan because I was so severely screwed right now.
“I love you, Aurora,” my mother suddenly said, calmly meeting my eyes. If Layla thought she could scare my mom, she was mistaken. My mom was a domestic abuse survivor. She could take a beating. She took many beatings from my dad and never fought back. That’s why it shocked me when my mom’s arm flung out quickly and karate-chop cracked Layla in the throat causing her to drop the gun.
Holy shit! Go, Mom! I shook off my shock and slammed the vampire nearest me against the wall, ripping off the arm cuff which spurted my blood everywhere. The vampire snatched the hanging full blood bag from the bottom, and head-butted me hard in the face before bolting out the front door. Dammit!
“Freeze!” Prudence yelled, as black mist surrounded me and my legs felt cemented to the floor.
I saw that Layla now had my mom’s throat in her hands.
“Layla, no! I’ll go with you. I’ll give you my blood, just stop!” I screamed as my mother’s face turned purple, her body slack. A grin spread across Layla’s face as she dropped my mother to the floor, gasping and coughing. Just behind Layla, out the kitchen window, I saw a streak of black and smiled. Kai came crashing through the back window, spraying glass over Layla and my mom and knocking Layla to the ground. He sank his teeth into Layla’s arm, which was raised above her head to protect her face as my mom rolled off to the side and out of the way. Kai was engaged with Layla, hopefully two seconds from ripping her goddamn head off as I struggled to breathe against the black witches’ power. It crept up my legs and was trying to cover my body. Oh, hell no. Never again.