Tethers (2 page)

“I’m going,” he said. “But I’ll be back. You’re not the only one who can work a majority vote, and your puppets aren’t around to help you this time. I’ll tether that bitch if it’s the last thing I do!” He turned his back and strode off, his gait ungainly for some reason.

The lines on Willow’s forehead creased as she frowned. “He’s falling apart.”

“What’s he even talking about?” That was it. Mac had made my mind up for me. “You know what, Willow? You’re so right. I’ll absolutely help you whenever you need me to. This advocate thing works for me, too. I’m in.”

She clapped her hands together. “I can’t believe that shifter is good for something. Thank you so much, Ava. You won’t regret it. I promise.”

She slipped her arm in mine and started babbling about charities, but I couldn’t focus anymore. Mac was pushing his luck, and I would have to deal with him eventually. I also needed to get word to Esther that my place wasn’t safe for her to visit for a while longer. She had vanished from public view again when Mac started showing up in the cul-de-sac, and I had barely seen her since. She couldn’t leave the country, only partly because Mac had everyone watching for her.

Mac leading the shifters on a witch-hunt wasn’t fair, and the Senate allowing him to do that wasn’t right. But after Phoenix left, Mac got too big for his boots. The unfairness of Esther’s situation had lured me into agreeing with Willow, but maybe she was right. Maybe as an advocate, I
could
figure out a way to help Esther escape the shifters’ sick need for vengeance and maybe even drown out that pesky feeling of inadequacy.

***

I knocked on Peter Brannigan’s door and waited impatiently. Willow had buzzed off as though someone had lit a fire under her, but I needed to vent. Carl hadn’t been home, and Val was still living on fae territory with Leah, even though Phoenix had spirited away the twins. I definitely didn’t want to burden Anka with details about a misogynistic alpha, so I’d turned to Peter as a last resort. That probably wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had, and yet I found myself doing it more and more often of late.

He had cooled off considerably, giving me my space while he and Val received more cases, and I had discovered I still wanted to be friends with the man I had initially considered safe and protective—before I’d gone and fallen for him, that was.

The door opened, and I stiffened, completely unprepared for the stranger, a brunette I had never seen before, standing on Peter’s doorstep. Was that a
cupcake
piercing her nostril?

She gazed at me suspiciously, her grey eyes eerily colourless. “Can I help you?”

“Um.”
Who the hell are you?
I wanted to demand. A rush of something boiled up within me, maybe leftovers from my confrontation with Mac. “I’m looking for Peter.”

“He’s not here,” she said brusquely.

Well, duh.
“Where is he?”

“Who are you?” she asked, her left eye twitching slightly. Her nostrils flared, and she jerked her head to the left as though signalling to someone I couldn’t see.

Unsettled, I stepped back. My afternoon was turning into the
weirdest
day.

A voice shouted my name, and a skinny ten-year-old boy barrelled down the hallway and straight into me.

“Hey.” I ruffled Emmett’s dark-brown hair, completely forgetting the nutty woman in the doorway. Emmett was one of my favourite people. After being kidnapped as a toddler, the boy had been returned to Peter less than two years ago. The transition hadn’t been smooth, and Emmet had bonded with me instead of his father. At almost eleven, he had made a lot of progress, but he was still under the influence of magic that forbade him from speaking of his past. “How are you, kid?”

“Good.” His eyes were bright. “Dad’s not here.”

The woman cleared her throat loudly.

“When are you expecting him back?” I asked, ignoring the pink elephant on the doorstep.

Making that impossible, the woman said, “He’s working.”

I gripped Emmett a little more tightly and looked at him quizzically.

“Val had something urgent for him,” he said. “He’ll be back later.”

“Tell him I need to talk to him. It’s…” I glanced at the woman again. “It’s kind of important.”

“You haven’t met Melody,” Emmett said. “Ava, this is Melody. Melody, this is Ava.”

“Oh,” Melody said knowingly, crossing her arms over her chest.
“
You’re
Ava.”

I bit back on a snide remark. “How did you meet your new friend, Emmett?”

“Dad had a job.” The boy sucked in his lower lip and reddened. “He met Melody, and… um, she’s kind of like me.”

“
Like
you?”

“I’m Melody Love, the medium,” the woman said as if I ought to know what was going on.

“Oh,” I said slowly. “She sees ghosts.” I waited, wondering if she controlled the dead, just as Emmett did.

“Spirits,” Melody said sharply. “I see spirits.” She glanced at Emmett. “People like us need a guide. I’m here to be Emmett’s guide.”

“A guide?” I frowned. “He already knows how to see spirits.” And more.

“It’s not about seeing them.”

Emmett looked from one of us to another, confusion clouding his features. I was confused, too. Melody’s seemingly instant dislike of me was definitely mutual.

Melody sighed when Emmett frowned at her. “It can be dangerous for young mediums. They can have out-of-body experiences and see spirits as a part of them. Sometimes, they get too engrossed with the spirit world to return.”

That immediately made me think of Shepherd, who had once sent me back into my own world after I got stuck in another plane of existence. “You’re teaching him control?”

“Something like that,” she said. “He’s so young and so powerful that it would be a shame to see so much talent go to waste. If directed properly, he could be a very successful medium professionally.”

I gave Emmett a sceptical look. “You want this to be your job? Talking to ghosts?”

Melody made a frustrated sound through gritted teeth.

“I just want to know more,” Emmett said. “I don’t know anyone else like me. Melody can answer my questions. ’Sides, she says it’s dangerous for someone like me to go it alone.”

And Peter was agreeing to Melody’s plans? Letting in other people when it came to Emmett didn’t sound like Peter. Then again, he kept saying he was changing. Maybe the whole “spirit guide” thing was part of it.

“Well, we have a lot to do today,” Melody said, drawing Emmett toward her, out of my reach.

A flash of red-hot emotion burned my chest. I swallowed it. “I’ll see you later, Emmett. Don’t forget to tell your dad I need to speak to him.”

“I’ll let him know,” Melody said with a weak version of a smile. She ushered Emmett inside and slammed the door behind her.

Baffled by the entire day’s events, I turned around and walked away, choking on the waves of emotion wrestling to the surface. What was I even feeling? Confused, yes. Protective, probably. But something else was mixed in there, something entirely unexpected.

Peter had moved on and let somebody new into his life. Emmett had someone other than me to turn to, someone he probably needed even more than he needed me. Keeping everyone I cared about so close wasn’t healthy, and that was why I hadn’t made a move to stop the twins from leaving or even to discourage Val and Leah from following. But everyone in my life seemed to have found a new path. Carl had the school to contend with, Anka had her business with Margie up and running, and even Peter and Emmett had this Melody person in their lives. Peter had let her take care of Emmett when I was free, without even introducing her to me. Everyone had moved on, but for the past year, I had been running in place.

And maybe that was really why I’d said yes to Willow and why I felt so eager to put Mac in his place. I needed a project just for me. Being the Matriarch hadn’t exactly made my life busy so far, despite my memorable first try. Something was missing from my life, and I hadn’t been able to quite put my finger on what that was.

And as I returned to my own house, I finally recognised the feelings that had engulfed me at Peter’s doorstep in front of Melody bloody Love, the so-called medium. For the first time, and completely unexpectedly, I had been experiencing out-and-out human jealousy.
Damnit.

Chapter Two

A hammer, or maybe a tank, tried to break down my front door a few days later, pulling me from a nice, warm, non-annoying dream. Bleary-eyed, I glanced at my watch and discovered it was still stupid o’clock. I sat up and pulled on some clothes, noting that dawn was trying to break through on the horizon. The banging repeated, somehow echoing all across the cul-de-sac. Concerned, I looked out the window. Figures stood at every front door in the cul-de-sac, obnoxiously attempting to wake the entire neighbourhood.

Oh, hell no.

Furious, I sprinted down the stairs as the banging on my door resumed. I swung open the front door, my fangs on display. My appearance forced the two men at my door to simultaneously take a step back, their apprehension stinking the air.

“What in the
hell
is so important that you have to wake everyone up before the bloody sun rises?” I demanded.

“There she is,” Mac called out in an unbelievably smug tone. “Step aside, boys. I’ll deal with her.” He strode into my garden, holding up a piece of paper. “I’m acting under the authority of the Irish Senate to take your shifter friend into custody. Esther is mine, and the Senate agrees.” He shoved the paper at me.

I ripped it out of his hands. It was some kind of permit, freshly stamped with the Senate seal. “Who did this?”

He leaned forward until his nose nearly touched mine. “I did this, little lady, so you had better get used to it.”

“Who did you bribe and threaten for this crap?” I asked, fighting the urge to crumple the paper in my hands.

“This is the law,” he said. “It’s the law of my people, the law of the shifters, and now it’s the law of the entire country. My traditions supersede any crap you human-lovers can come up with.”

“So find Aiden! Leave Esther out of this!”

“Oh, it’s not just about retribution anymore. I warned you not to push me, and now you’re five steps behind. While you’ve been making enemies, I’ve been making allies.” His sneer grew excited. “The fact that Aiden might return to save his precious sister is just a bonus. He turned us from our true path, from our true ways. He let shifters leave the pack, and—”

“Oh, noes. He was such a monster.”

He ground his teeth noisily. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not the only one who knows what happens when shifters go untethered for too long.”

“Do I look like someone who knows what the hell you’re on about?”

He lowered his voice, his eyes sparking with passion. “Esther is a danger to the people of this country because she is untethered. She is without pack, and shifters without a pack—and more importantly without an
alpha
—are vicious, unpredictable, and feral.”

“Wow. Esther should feel honoured that you made up that little spiel just for her.”

“It’s not made up!”

“Oh, please. Vicious, unpredictable, and feral? You just described yourself.”

“I am
alpha
,” he bellowed. “The untethered have long been a cause for concern, and Aiden let it get out of hand. Now that I’m in charge, I’m prepared to rein in high-risk shifters.”

“High risk because she doesn’t want to join your little pack? Give me a break, Mac. Even you can do better than that.”

“Ignorant little half-breeds should do their homework before opening their mouths. I’m pushing for a return to the old laws forbidding the untethered. Your little friend is dangerous. We need to avoid any more incidents before even more Irish citizens flee the country in terror.”

“Seriously? You’re blaming emigration on Esther? Nothing to do with the incompetence of the previous governments or the recession or any number of fucking serious reasons! Get a grip. This is personal for you. What’s wrong? Are you afraid she’ll try to take the alpha role from you?”

“As if a
woman
could,” he said. “There’s never been a female alpha in Ireland, and there’s never been one as broken as Esther. Don’t think I haven’t heard about her brain damage.”

I rolled my eyes. “If she isn’t a threat, why can’t you back off?”

“You don’t have people,” he said, lowering his voice. “You don’t understand what we must do to protect them.”

“This isn’t protecting anyone. It’s just causing more problems!”

“This is the only choice, and higher powers are ready to back me up. I was willing to give you a chance, but you’ve gone against me far too many times. I can’t sit back and wait any longer. I’m coming for Esther, whether you like it or not, and I have permission to search every building in this neighbourhood.”

“Leave the rest of them alone.
Please
.” Swallowing my anger killed me. “Esther isn’t here. You can look in my place all you want, but this has nothing to do with the rest of these people.”

He smiled. “Should have thought about that before you decided not to cooperate, Delaney. This is what your smart mouth earned you.” He raised his hands. “Go to it, lads. No need to be gentle.”

His shifter duo pushed me aside and strode into my house. Something inside of me broke. I didn’t see the point of signing away a century of my life to a secret group of powerful people if they couldn’t even stop my home from being invaded. I made to follow, but Mac got in my way. I resisted the urge to back away from him. Even his scent was obnoxious.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said. “I know your kind. Go whine somewhere else.”

“If they break anything, they’re paying for it,” I retorted.

I headed out of my garden and toward Peter, who was having a raging argument with the shifter attempting to gain entry to his home.

“You can’t just come into my house!” he shouted. Emmett’s pale, worried face peeked out from behind him in the hallway.

“The quicker you let them in, the quicker they’ll be gone,” I said, but I really wanted to punch the shifter out.

“Thank you,” the shifter said, looking embarrassed when Peter finally stepped aside.

“What the hell is this?” Peter asked me, holding Emmett close.

“Mac asserting his power,” I said. “It’ll be over soon,” I added for Emmett’s benefit.

We moved into the centre of the road to group up with other dismayed residents.

Carl strode toward us. At well over six feet, he looked every inch of his height while angry. “He’s trying to fucking dominate us. He might as well start humping our legs.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far,” I tried to joke.

My normally mild-mannered best friend’s cheeks had turned puce. “I
hate
this prick.”

“I hate shifters.” Peter absentmindedly scratched his three-day-old stubble. “I’ve decided.”

“Esther’s a shifter. So is Val. Think again,” I said.

“They’re not like
this
. Even Aiden wasn’t like this,” he said. “Who does Mac think he is?”

“He got permission from the Senate.” I shrugged. “Looks like the Senate’s against us now.”

“Worst thing that ever happened to us was Shay retiring from the Senate,” Carl said. “Is this really about punishing Esther? It just seems so ridiculous.”

“It’s personal,” I said. “But he has a new excuse. Esther’s untethered from a pack, and untethered shifters go wild or some crap like that. He reckons she’s a danger now, and apparently, the Senate agrees. Oh, and some mysterious higher power is going to back up the shifters. Willow was just here a few days ago. Why didn’t she warn me?”

“I’m going to call Shay,” Carl said. “See if he can do something.”

I looked at Peter. “I doubt he can. Not now.”

Peter was still staring at his house, his mouth twisted into a grimace. “I reckon Mac did this without most of the Senate knowing. All he needs is the majority vote, right?”

“Looks that way. But he would have to bring it to the entire Senate, no?”

Peter shrugged. “Things have changed.”

“Never thought I’d wish Elathan would come back,” I said.
And Phoenix.

Peter pulled Emmett closer. “He’s always had a soft spot for Esther, but he doesn’t seem interested in actually leading anything here.”

“I know.” I glanced at him. “I met Melody, by the way.”

“Yeah.” His gaze shifted away from mine. “I texted you when I got back.”

“I had already vented to Carl by then.” I bit my lip. “So Emmett needs a guide?”

“Yeah, I kind of… bumped into Melody on a job last October. She filled me in on the dangers of him becoming a wanderer.”

“A wanderer?”

“A kid who’s more into death than life and walks with the spirits until they sort of lose their way home.”

“Sounds scary.”

“It is. But he seems okay, right?”

“He’s definitely happy,” I said. “Are you?”

He gave me a sharp look and opened his mouth to speak, but a loud crashing sound from inside my home stopped him.

“Oh, no, they bloody well didn’t!” I raced over to my house.

Mac, along with a pair of oversized shifters at his shoulders, blocked my way. “Now, now,” he said, unable to contain his smile. “Let the boys do their job.”

“They’re wrecking my house!”

He shrugged. “Accidents happen.”

“That’s my… there are sensitive relics in there. You can’t just barge in and wreck the place because you have a bone to pick with someone who knows me.”

He closed the space between us. Up close, his eyes looked wild, as though his average-looking body could barely contain his animal half. I shivered at the void staring back at me, wondering how the hell the shifters had managed to find an alpha who actually beat Aiden as the worst shifter of all time.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said in a distinctly growly voice. “What are you going to do? Take on the Senate? There’s nobody left with a soft spot for you. We’ve cut the wheat from the chaff already, Delaney, and you’re the one left lacking. Now back away before I teach you what an alpha truly is.”

“You wouldn’t know what an alpha truly was if one beat the shift out of you right now,” I spat. “Get out of my house, Mac.”

“You think you can take on the entire pack?” he asked, chuffing softly. “Do you think the innocent little children would survive that?”

Shocked by the overt threat, I froze. Then the heat came, burning my veins with a longing for violence. Blood pounded in my ears, and I took a step forward, sending the alpha back a step. “Do
not
threaten the people I care about, Mac. That might be dangerous, even for the worst alpha.” I held his gaze, seething with fury, and he dropped his first.
Some alpha he is.

He quickly recovered. “She threatens me.” He barked out a laugh. “And she thinks that Esther is the end of the line.” He poked my shoulder. “I’m just
starting
with Esther, but after that, I’m coming back. You’re hiding the most pathetic bunch of mongrels here, and I won’t have it. You crossed me, tried to make a fool out of me, and now you’ll pay.”

“You’ve been imagining confrontations with me.” I steeled myself as his face reddened. I couldn’t fall into his trap and attack him first, even if my fangs were itching to appear. “Is it playing out the way you hoped?”

He gripped the collar of my shirt, his pupils dilating.

My fangs did break through then, and I caught the scent of Mac’s fear.

“Mac!” Shay shouted.