Page 22 of Rising Reign

“Yes,” Wren answered. “My father is a wolf. And my mother…she was a caster.”

Clyde’s brow furrowed. “A caster?”

Wren nodded. “You’d likely think of them as witches, but they derive their power from nature itself.” She lifted a hand and closed her eyes. The water fountain in the corner flared to life, the liquid turning into pure blue energy as she wielded it.

I’d only felt Wren’s caster magic flare a handful of times and had never seen her use her gift quite like this. It was a thing to behold. Beauty and power in equal measure.

“Holy shitballs,” Juan said in awe.

Wren grinned, manipulating the power so it swirled around him. “Want to fly?”

He nodded like some feral bobblehead doll.

A second later, the blue energy lifted Juan, floating him around the room in a circle.

“Dude, look at me,” Juan called to Franco. “I’m so badass.”

“You mean Wren’s badass?” Franco corrected drolly.

Wren slowly lowered him to the floor, and Juan stumbled as he caught his footing. An instant later, the water and energy disappeared altogether.

“What can we do to help?” Clyde asked. “How do we get rid of the asshole trying to hurt Wren?”

“Yeah,” Juan echoed. “We’ll stand with you. I don’t care if they can all go hairy beast. I’ll take ‘em.”

Anxiety swept through me as I began shaking my head. “You have no idea what you’d be up against, what all is out there. You have to be incredibly careful. If something feels off, get the hell out. Because they’ll be coming here, I have no doubt.”

Franco crossed his arms again. “We might not be able to stand against them in hand-to-hand, but we can help in other ways. I’m a hell of a shot. And we can be lookouts.”

Locke glanced at me. “We could have one or two of them on the monitors when the time comes.”

“If we can bait them into striking while on our territory,” Ender argued.

The bickering began in earnest about what—if any—role the humans should play. But I knew we wouldn’t be able to keep them out. They cared for Wren too deeply.

“Wait,” Juan cut in. “You said we don’t know what else is out there. Are there mermaids? Because I got a real thing for Ariel.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Someone just shoot me now.”

14

LOCKE

An edginess had settled over us as we headed back out into the sunshine. It didn’t matter that our conversation with the humans had ended in jokes, or that it was clear they had our backs, their knowing about us was a risk, and we knew it.

Everyone dealt with the edginess in different ways. Brix and Ender had done an especially brutal round of sparring. Puck made endless jokes about Juan trying to pet him. King spent a good hour running through precautionary measures for the gym with Clyde. And Wren…she’d gone quiet.

She’d spent the past hour alternating between running on the treadmill, jumping rope, and hitting the heavy bag. and refused any offers to spar or for someone to hold mitts for her. Every second that passed had her turning more inward.

I didn’t have Wren’s empathic gifts, but the fact that my wolf was submissive meant that I felt others’ emotions more intensely than most. And I could feel the anxiety wafting off Wren in waves.

Ender climbed behind the wheel of the SUV as the rest of us took other seats. Puck and Brix sat in the back, and King took the front passenger seat. The moment I climbed into the middle row after Wren, I tugged her gently onto my lap.

“Locke,” she protested.

“Let me have this,” I whispered.

Wren pulled back for a moment and studied me. She seemed to find…something because the tension radiating through her muscles eased a fraction, and she curled around me.