“It’s my job, Nina.”
“Fuck you and your job! That you’re even a part of enforcing this kind of middle-age shit makes you a sissy-ass follower, collecting a paycheck at the expense of someone else’s life. Fuck. You.”
Aw. Nina really liked her. She’d linger on that revelation a little longer, but the color orange was in the distance, calling her name. “Nina,” Mara soothed, brushing her cheek on Nina’s shoulder. “I offered myself up, to keep Harry from having to lie and make up some wild story, and to keep us all free of guilt. Now let him take me, and let him take me peacefully. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Nina hissed in Cooper’s face, flashing her fangs in protest, but she didn’t try to stop him from taking her.
Harry put a hand on Cooper’s shoulder to thwart him. He loomed over Cooper, almost twice his size and bulk. “Just give me one minute, okay?”
Cooper nodded moving toward the opening of the door. “One minute. That’s it.”
Harry pulled her to his chest, kissing the top of her head. “I’ll come get you. Swear it. No way am I letting you take the fall for this, Mara. I’ll lie. I’ll tell them I drank the serum on purpose because I wanted to know what it was like to be a werewolf. They’ll believe it because I’m King of Geeks. Whatever it takes. But the hell I’m letting you go to werewolf jail. Hear me?” His breath shuddered from his lungs, making the width of his chest brush against her cheek.
She shook her head hard. “Don’t you dare do that, Harry! Stay with the kids. Hear me? They need you so much right now. Please,” she begged before pulling away, more tears threatening to escape. She rose on tiptoe and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “No matter what, they need you to be there. Don’t let them down,” she whispered before pushing her way past everyone and flying out the door toward Cooper’s waiting car.
The last thing her sharp ears picked up was the sound of poor Carl, wailing his discontent at Mara’s departure while Nina and Harry tried to soothe him.
CHAPTER
17
“Fuck!” Harry roared in impatience, making an already on-edge Carl jump.
Marty’s mouth was a thin line, her eyes rimmed with red as she, Wanda, and Nina gathered in the small cottage to formulate a plan to help Mara. “Keegan’s meeting with the council tonight. He’d better find a way to talk them out of this, or I’m going into full-on assault mode and storming the castle!”
Wanda squeezed Marty’s shoulder, her elegant face full of sympathy. She wiped a fresh batch of tears from Marty’s cheeks. “They’re really going to put her on trial?”
“Ain’t that some shit? Kid makes an honest mistake, one even Harry will tell them was without malicious intent, and still they have to try her in front of a jury of her peers. Some goddamn bunch of jackasses you got in your corner, blondie,” Nina growled.
Marty nodded her head. “You know what, Elvira? Today? Today I won’t disagree with you, and if I knew there was a way to take my family and get away from this ridiculous rule the council’s set forth, don’t think for a minute I wouldn’t!”
Mara had been gone for ten hours. Ten long, painful hours they’d waited to hear what the council’s intent was regarding Mara’s arrest.
Ten long hours wherein Harry kicked himself for not seeing the signs, the hidden messages she’d left him like a trail of breadcrumbs. She knew damn well he’d have found a way to try and stop her from handing herself over like she was guilty.
Wanda came up behind him. Grabbing his hand, she pulled it to her chest, as though she were trying to absorb some of his pain. Her voice was raw when she whispered, “Promise you, we’ll figure this out, Harry. No matter what it takes, we’ll find a way. Please believe.”
Nina clapped him on the back. “Goddamn right, we will. Don’t you worry, nerd. I’ll get her out of there if I have to chew my way through the motherfucking doors.”
He’d done all the believing he was capable of. Now he just wanted everyone to get the fuck out of his path while he got to Mara.
At that moment, Keegan walked through the door, his face grim, his eyes lined from exhaustion.
Marty didn’t rush to his side the way she normally did whenever her husband entered the room. She lifted her eyes to meet his, and Harry knew as the look passed between them it wasn’t good.
Harry stiffened and growled, stunning even himself with the level of his anger.
Wanda gripped him harder, holding him in place. On tiptoe, she whispered in his ear, “Harry, I’m begging you, think of the kids. Please. They need you so much. They adore you. I know you can’t feel that sometimes because they’ve struggled, but I’ve been with them almost every night since this happened, and they cling to your memory. Please, don’t be rash. We’ll help you. We’ll help the kids. Archibald’s fallen in love with them. Don’t deny him the chance to fall in love with you, too, because you did something stupid.”