Prologue
Two and a half months ago
She was dying. Remy knew she couldn’t fight the pain any longer. She hurt all over, and for the first time in her life she just wanted to give in and go in peace, no more pain. Remy hoped Bengie would live. She loved that kid. He’d been awesome fighting all those demons. Who would have thought the gentle giant of a boy was stronger than two massive, sixteen-feet-plus demons?
Remy groaned as she heard Kane’s voice. “Don’t you dare die, Remy. Faith needs you.”
Kane wasn’t telling her anything new. Of course Faith needed her, she had him for a boyfriend. Remy would never say ‘mate’, and she wouldn’t call him Faith’s husband unless he married her.
She screamed as Kane touched a nasty cut on her stomach. White clouded the black of her vision, and Kane swore.
“Fine. If being nice won’t keep you alive, I’ll be your fucking worse nightmare. Look, if you die, they’ve won. I’ve won, because I won’t have to put up with your shit and I know Faith won’t get into as much mischief. I know it’s you who encouraged her to stay away from me and move overseas. Hell, it was probably you who encouraged her to date other men.”
Remy felt him pause in his action, and she swam away from the bright white light and back to see what the hell Kane was doing. She cracked her eyes open and dim light greeted her.
“Come to think of it, those demons did me a favor getting rid of you. My life will be peaceful without you there whispering words to my mate.”
Remy could see Kane’s hands hovering over her and his eyes glaring at her. “God. You whine worse than a teenage girl, Kane. Just fix me and go away so I don’t have to listen to your bitching.” Crap, was that her voice? It sounded like sandpaper scraping wood.
Kane snarled, but she could tell he wasn’t really angry. His hands got back to work cleaning wounds and stitching her up. He put a drip in her arm and hung it from her bedpost.
The pain started to ease, and she heard quiet voices.
“Will she make it?”
“I think so. She probably will just so she can annoy me.”
“That’s not nice.”
“Remy is a pain in my arse. I can’t stand her. She’ll live just to piss me off. I feel really sorry for Arden.”
“If Faith hears you talking like this, you’ll have hell to pay.”
“I know...”
The voices got softer until Remy couldn’t hear them anymore.
Kane was an arsehole. She couldn’t die and leave her best friend to put up with him for the rest of her life without a buffer, someone to shrink the idiot’s bighead. Remy loved Sara, but she had her own lughead to deal with. And poor Kirby had been saddled with one of those huge baboon werewolves as well.
Nope, Remy couldn’t die. This time when the bright light came toward her she told it to fuck off, she wasn’t going anywhere.
* * * *
Arden wasn’t happy to be called away from his team. He knew they were going to the demon compound to rescue the paranormal people and they needed more wolves, but Canberra, where he’d been stationed, needed his presence. The demon problem there was getting worse. Why call him back when he was needed elsewhere? Something else was going on, he could feel it. When his dad phoned and told him to come home he’d sounded worried and unsure.
Arden had taken his time getting everything in order before he left as he knew they weren’t going to the demon stronghold for a couple of days. It wasn’t until he got a call from Kane telling him ‘get your arse home now before she dies’ that he knew he had to leave quickly. Arden had no idea who the ‘she’ Kane spoke about was, but he’d heard Faith’s voice in the background telling Kane to shut up.
When he was a couple of hours away from home he called his dad to tell him where he was. Minutes later he was told to detour so he could come and help. Instead of driving down the coast he turned and went toward the mainland country, heading to meet his pack at the demon stronghold.
* * * *
The pain didn’t go away, but it reminded Remy that she was alive. The crying was getting annoying. Everyone broke down when they came to visit her. Remy had no idea what they were crying about—she was the one in excruciating pain.
Bengie was getting better, and that made Remy happy. Faith was acting stranger than usual, which said a lot since she was always odd. Remy didn’t know how much longer she could hold on. Everything hurt and the white light kept coming back. She gave herself pep talks, that when this was over she would take a break from all the werewolf drama, and she would go away and explore. Those talks were what were kept her living—that and the thought that if she went her poor friends would be stuck with the Neanderthal men and no sane people to talk to.