“Abby did you intentionally disobey my order and kill an unarmed, restrained human?”

Say no. Tell me you had a flashback. A psychological break. Tell me the fucking devil made you do it. Just give me an excuse to make this go away.

“Yes.” She met my gaze boldly, and Lucas groaned. “You know damn well I did.”

Anger blazed a path up from my gut like heartburn. Every word she said made it harder to help her. Did she have any concept of the position she’d put me in?

This is why Alphas shouldn’t sleep with their enforcers. Much less fall for them. But it was too late for that, and she’d left me with no choice about what would come next.

“Okay.” I took a long, deep breath, and for the first time since taking over the Appalachian Pride, I hated myself for doing my duty. “Abigail Wade, you are hereby permanently relieved of duty as an enforcer.” An ache swelled inside me, and I couldn’t pinpoint the source because it hurt all over. Why was she making me do this? “I’d tell you to turn in your phone and your credit card, but I haven’t issued them to you yet.”

I felt like I’d just put a bullet in my best friend, but the lines in Abby’s forehead faded and the tension in her jaw relaxed. She’d clearly gotten exactly what she wanted from pushing my buttons, but I had still had no clue what the hell was going on in her head. Or how I was going to explain this to the rest of the council.

Why would she manipulate me into hiring her, then provoke me into firing her?

“I understand,” she said with a formal nod. “You have no choice.”

I wanted to yell and throw things. She could have given me a choice. If there was ever a time for her to lie to her Alpha, that was it.

“Don’t let them pin this on you,” Abby said, as she carefully shifted her right paw back into a human hand, and I saw the first glimpse of regret in her eyes. Of guilt. She turned to glance at the guys, each in turn. “Do not let them pin this on Jace. I killed Gene Hargrove against orders. You all heard that. He told me not to, and I did it anyway. He couldn’t have stopped me.”

“Abby…” Lucas began, and she cut him off with a fierce look.

“You know what happened here, and if you lie for me, I will never forgive you.”

No one tried to argue with her that time, so she nodded, as if something had truly been settled. As if emerging from shock had put her back in control not just of herself, but of the rest of us too.

She was wrong on both counts.

Abby swiped at her face one more time, then began scrubbing blood from her left hand with her newly formed right one. We probably weren’t supposed to notice that they were both trembling, or that her eyes were standing in tears.

She set the bloody towel on the kitchen counter, then took a backward step toward the door. “Okay, I guess I’ll go back to the lodge and let you guys do your job.”

“That’s no longer an option for you,” I said, and every word hurt as if I were carving my own heart from my chest. But again, she’d left me no choice. “Your membership in the Appalachian Pride is hereby revoked. Lucas, take her to the airport and put her on a plane.”

I headed straight for the back door, desperate for the shock of cold air. For some distance from the most painful sentence I’d ever uttered.

“No!” Abby grabbed my arm, then planted herself in front of me, pleading with her eyes. “You can fire me. I won’t fight that. But don’t send me away, Jace. I need to be here. With you.”

“Don’t you dare say that.” I ripped my arm from her grip, but the truth was that I was almost relieved to be angry at her. Anger was much easier to deal with than the confusion and betrayal I was starting to associate with her very presence. Abby was hot and cold. Innocent and manipulative. She’d whispered brave truths and shouted bold lies, and I couldn’t tell from one moment to the next whether she was going to kiss me or put a knife in my back.

The really scary thing was that she didn’t seem to know either.

“Jace, please...”

“You broke your vow!” I yelled. “You disobeyed a direct order. You killed someone in cold blood! You’re finished here. Don’t make this worse for yourself.” I pushed past her toward the back door, but she shouted after me.

“Do not walk away from me!” Desperation echoed in every syllable, but it was her underlying anger that triggered the dangerous rumble rolling up from my throat.

The guys froze, still mired in the tension rising from Abby and me like fog from a lake. I turned slowly, and the room came into crystal focus as my eyes hovered somewhere between human and feline. “If you were anyone else in the world, you would lose a tooth for that,” I growled. But I couldn’t hit her, even if she was the single most insubordinate shifter I’d ever met.

Bar none.

“Everybody out,” I snapped.

Logically, I should have left them inside to start cleaning up Abby’s mess, but this wasn’t a fight I wanted to have outdoors, where it felt like the whole world would be watching. It was bad enough that they’d all seen her push me around like a pawn on a chessboard.

Mateo and Warner headed into the backyard, but Lucas stopped in the doorway. “I’m staying.”

He was six inches taller and at least sixty pounds heavier than I was, which made him both stronger and slower. He might only get in one punch before I took him down, but it’d be one hell of a blow, and I couldn’t afford to have to fire another enforcer. Especially one whose brother had knocked up my sister, and whose sister I was in love with. Even when I wanted to kill her.

No family tie had ever been quite so tangled.

“Get out,” I growled, irritated that I had to look up to threaten him. I was losing control of my Pride, my enforcers, and my entire territory, and the only sure way I knew of to get it back would be to unleash more violence. But we’d all seen more than enough spilled blood. “Lucas, I gave you an order. I don’t have to explain it. I shouldn’t have to repeat it. You should know and trust me well enough to do whatever I tell you, without hesitation.”

“Luke—” Abby began.

I snarled at her, and she flinched. He had to go because I’d told him to go. Not because she’d given him permission.

“Don’t make this worse,” I said, turning back to her brother, and finally, Lucas nodded. Then he stepped outside and pulled the busted door shut after him. As shut as he could, anyway.