Monique strolled over to me, her brows furrowed. “What’s wrong? I can hear it in your voice, Michael.”
“Can we sit down?”
She nodded and directed the guys to the couch. Xander stirred the pot once more, then left it to simmer before coming to join us.
She sat between them on the sofa. The fact that it had been exposed that she still wanted me hadn’t deterred them at all.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
I sighed. “I think my dad’s up to something.”
“What do you think it might be?”
I noted there wasn’t any surprise on her face.
“I don’t know, but something’s changed in my house. I can sense a darkness that’s never been there before.” I glanced at the wolf shifters. “Have you two done, or said, anything that he could use to strengthen himself?”
“Like what?” Xander asked, his mouth turning down on either side. “We don’t know anything about magic. It doesn’t exist in our world—other than the magic that comes from the shift itself.”
The other wolf shifters I’d met had been the same, but as I hadn’t had access to my full powers out there, I’d never been able to show off more than a few tricks.
I glanced at Monique, frowning.
“Oh no.” She covered her mouth with her hands. “Could it be... I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
The hairs on my arms prickled and a sense of premonition flowed over me. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.
She swallowed hard. “He took their blood. While they were in wolf form.”
“No,” I whispered. “That’s not possible.”
Xander sat forward, removing his arm from Monique, to focus only on me.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “Of course, it’s possible. He took some the other day from both of us, then more from me this morning when I went to see him.”
I got to my feet, needing to move around.
The idiot! The fool. The power hungry... asshole.
I pressed my fist to my lips to keep the scream at bay.
Kyle got to his feet too. Even though he was the smaller wolf shifter, he was still six foot two and a couple of hundred pounds. Clearly, they didn’t breed them small in their pack.
“What’s wrong? Can someone please explain this to us?” Kyle said.
I dropped my fist to my side and focused on him. “Did my father tell you what he needed the blood for? I could be jumping to the wrong conclusion.”
Doubtful, but possible.
Kyle frowned, his eyebrows drawing together. “He said he wanted to try some spells that needed wolf shifter blood.”
I let out a low groan.
I was right.
Kyle glanced at Xander then back to me. “We didn’t want to do it, but he said he’d help us break the curse on our pack if we gave him what he wanted. Not that we really had a choice. He chained us up like animals.”