Mila reluctantly moved her shaking hands just as his eyelids opened. She bit back a sob of sheer relief and gave Helena a nod of thanks—it was all she could manage while emotion clogged her throat. The healer gave her a gentle smile, and then a brief spurt of Helena’s healing energy jolted through Mila and caused her wounds to knit partially together.

“Too tired to heal you both fully, I’m afraid,” Helena apologized before weakly standing. “Have to help the others.”

Dominic slowly sat upright, chest squeezing at the unshed tears in his mate’s eyes. “Come here, baby.” He pulled her onto his lap and held her tight while his wolf strained against Dominic’s skin so that he could rub up against her. Greedily sucking in her scent, Dominic kissed her hair. “You okay?”

“Been better,” she choked out. Her throat thick, she let out a shuddering breath. “Don’t ever put me through that again.”

“Right back at ya.” Gently rocking her from side to side, Dominic looked around. Although the air was hazy with smoke, he could see that they weren’t the only people taking a moment to give or take comfort. Many were cuddling or, like Adele and Joel, were helping to clean each other’s wounds. Trey was forcing Taryn to sip water, berating her for overexerting herself. Sadly, there were also some people who were holding limp bodies, their faces creased with grief.

The battle was officially over, and the ground was covered with bodies, bullet shells, weapons, and puddles of blood. Although thick plumes of dark smoke still wafted from the building, it also looked as though the fire was no longer out of control.

“Hey,” said Dante as he came toward them, a bunch of clothes in his hands. “Got your stuff. You two all right?”

“Yeah.” Dominic took the clothes gratefully. “The rest of the pack?”

Dante’s brows lowered as his expression turned grim. “They’re fine, but there were a lot of casualties on both sides of the fight. Luckily, none were from the Mercury Pack or Mila’s pride. Ryan came about an inch from death, though, so Makenna’s gonna give him hell.”

Dominic and Mila quickly dressed, wincing as each movement pulled at their barely healed wounds.

“Given how well armed they were,” began Dante, “I think the extremists figured that some of us would get out, but not all. They were counting on smoke inhalation to do most of the job for them. If we weren’t shifters and tougher than humans, it might have.”

Taking in the sight of the charred building, Mila swallowed hard. “Harley must be devastated.” The place had been special to Mila, but it had meant so much more to the margay shifter.

“She is,” confirmed a new voice as a powerful figure approached. Nick. “But we’ll fix it up,” the Mercury Alpha added, a grim twist to his mouth. “It’ll take time, but we won’t let the extremists shut us down.”

Mila gave him a weak smile. “Still, I’m sorry this happened.”

“The extremists did this because they’re assholes—you and Dominic were just the excuse.”

Lightly squeezing her shoulder, Dominic tugged her closer. “Tell us what you need,” he said to Nick.

“There’s really nothing for you to do,” replied the Alpha. “The fire’s almost out. The survivors have been, at the very least, partially healed. And we’re not moving the dead bodies. The police will soon be called, because I want them to see exactly how much damage and suffering the extremists caused. Those firefighters were human, which means the police can’t and won’t ignore this.”

Nick’s gaze slid to Mila. “I told Vinnie to take your pride and go. Humans don’t know your kind exists, and it’s best that it stays that way. We’ll deal with the police.”

Sidling up to Dominic, Luke cleared his throat. “Before I leave . . . I thought you might want to know that there was a guy hiding in a swanky car in the parking lot.”

Dominic stilled, and his wolf’s ears perked up. “Was there now?”

“Yep. My pride noticed him when we first arrived. I slung him in the back of Dad’s van; a few of the pride are keeping watch over him.” Luke pursed his lips. “Now, I’ve never seen Emmet Pierson in person, but I’ve seen his picture. I’ll bet good money that guy in the van is him.”

“Really?” Dominic drawled.

“Yeah. I figured, since this shit was all about getting at you and Mila, that you both should have the honor of dealing with him.”

Dominic nodded his thanks at Luke. “I got this.”

“We’ve got this,” corrected Mila.

Since Dominic had no wish to part from her for even a little while, he didn’t ask her to remain behind. Instead, with his mate at his side, he stalked down the alley toward the parking lot.

Mila pointed at a navy-blue van. “That’s Vinnie’s.”

Reaching the vehicle, Dominic pulled open the rear double doors. And yes, there was Emmet Pierson. His wolf peeled back his upper lip.

The human was huddled against the wall, trying to keep his distance from the hissing, snarling pallas cats. The felines seemed to be toying with him by pitching forward and swiping out with their claws, ripping his clothes but not drawing blood.

His eyes widened at the sight of Dominic, who fisted Emmet’s shirt, dragged him out of the van, and slung him on the ground. The pallas cats hopped out of the vehicle and surrounded them, growling at the human, but they didn’t pounce on him.

As he stared down at Emmet in utter contempt, Dominic felt a roiling heat low in his stomach. So many people had died tonight. Even more of them were injured, including Mila. Hell, he’d almost died himself from those goddamn stab wounds. And why? Because that bastard on the ground had sicced the extremists on them to do his dirty work.

Mila cocked her head as she spoke to Dominic. “My guess is he stayed in his car, hoping no one would notice him. And when the tide turned against the extremists, he was too scared to move in case one of the shifters saw him and took his ass down.”

Dominic gave a slow nod. “He probably would have tried to drive off at some point if the cats hadn’t gotten to him before he had the chance.”

Eyes flashing with fear, Pierson still managed to look haughty and indignant. He looked at Mila, taking in all the streaks of dried blood on her face, neck, and arms—it was more than obvious she’d been covered in wounds not so long ago. “Are you really even human?”

She smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant sight. “No, I’m not. Fooled ya, though, didn’t I?”

Dominic took an aggressive step toward Emmet. “You sent them here. The extremists. You told them to go after the club.”

Bracing himself on his elbows, Pierson edged back a little. “It’s a hot spot for shifters—the extremists would have targeted it eventually.”

“And thanks to you, they did it sooner rather than later. But it wasn’t about the club, was it?” Dominic clipped. “It was about taking my mate from me. You found out she was working here, you suspected she’d come back, and you just bided your time. You made sure the extremists were prepared to make their move when you were ready for them to.”

“Rosemary is your mate,” Emmet bit out. “Deny it all you want, but you know it’s true. She’s yours, and you abandoned her. And now she’s in a fucking coma. Did you really think I’d let you go on and live a happy life with another woman? Did you really think I wouldn’t do whatever it took to make you suffer as Rosemary suffered? I warned your Alpha that I’d make a bad enemy.”