Can’t get to both of them. His wolf told him what he already knew.
Penny had Elizabeth by the back of the hair. Why the hell hadn’t she gone back into the bathroom? Rex shook his head. No matter, he had to exist in reality and this was what was happening now. He called the shift onto himself. When he was fully transformed, he stared at Penny. “Let her go.”
“I don’t think you’re exactly in a position to dictate what we do with our slave, wolf.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. There was no way she couldn’t see his intention to kill her in his eyes. “We have a problem. You aren’t going to be able to kill me with your magic. It’s not possible. And I don’t honestly believe you will harm her.” Rex restrained himself from clenching his fists. He needed to look calm and relaxed even though he was anything but. Don’t worry, little witch. He tried to sound soothing in her mind.
Don’t underestimate them.
He wouldn’t.
“She is bound to us and she left us to go with you. We have every right to harm her.” Rex sighed. “What world do you live in?”
“Mine.”
Rex whirled around at the sound of a voice he’d not expected to hear in the room. He hadn’t smelled anyone coming or heard a sound, and yet there stood a man he’d hoped to never see again in his life. Well, he wouldn’t have minded witnessing the man’s death.
But like this? No. Not in a million years.
He could hardly breathe as he regarded the single figure leaning against the door like he had not one care in the world. His father looked exactly the same as the last time they’d been alone together. Kendrick Kane should have aged over the years—he’d been mated, which should have triggered his aging—but his father never seemed to.
Eternally thirty years old, at least on the outside, members of their pack often remarked how much their new alpha, Tristan, resembled Kendrick. But Rex didn’t see it.
He would never mix up the two. Dark-haired and dark-eyed, like the night had swallowed him up and spat him back out leaving a touch of itself behind, his father embodied all that was wrong in the world.
At the current moment, Kendrick didn’t have a smell. That meant he’d taken herbs that were better than the ones Azriel had for Westervelt, or Kendrick was dead. Rex didn’t suppose he could get that lucky. “Shouldn’t you be in Maine attempting to cause havoc on people who wish to never see you again?”
His father shook his head. “I can be many places. I can be all over the world in seconds. You’ve never understood how things could be, Rex.” Moving from the doorway, Kendrick limped slightly, a reminder Az had nearly managed to kill him recently. Rex smiled at the knowledge. His father was not invincible.
Not by a long shot. “Whatever you’ve done, whatever magic you’ve engaged in—I’m not interested in knowing about it. I never have been, never will be. And somehow, I’m not surprised by the company you keep.” His father was involved with the coven that had cursed Elizabeth. It all fit. Like finding like; evil teaming up with evil.
Are you prepared?
His wolf jarred him back to the present. Yes, he knew what his canine half asked him. Was he ready to fight his father? This is the gift, isn’t it? This was the way he could save Westervelt.
His wolf nodded. This is the moment you’ve always known would come.
The white light would come, he would shift, and they would fight. He would not let Kendrick walk out of here with any ability to continue to attack his home in Maine.
Kendrick was injured. Rex might actually be able to kill him. And if not? His heart hurt at the thought. He’d be destroying Elizabeth’s life. Shit. Why couldn’t this have happened before I met her?
His wolf sighed. Because it didn’t.
“You know, I never would have found you, Rex. I had no idea you weren’t festering on the island with your brothers. But then your little friend over there called and let us know where you were.”
His father’s words blew over him like a cold wind dousing the flames in his soul.
Elizabeth had called them? He turned to look at her. She’d stopped struggling in Charra’s arms, her face pale. But it was her eyes that told him all he needed to know. Guilt. Yes, Elizabeth had done this.
His mate had betrayed him.
Chapter Twelve
The two wolves tore into each other. Elizabeth wished she were the fainting type because she would love to lose consciousness as she watched Rex, in his black wolf form, take a hit from whom she thought, from his conversation, was his father’s extended claws. Rex wasn’t as big as Kendrick, whose name she remembered from Rex talking about him, but he looked to be just as strong.