So how had he known that Katarina and Tess would be in the same place?

And that was when the answer hit me like a million volts of lightning.

The constellation tattoo.

My mouth dropped when I remembered the Fire Wolf’s total dismissal of me at the Black Underbelly until I’d sarcastically mentioned the tattoo right before he’d disappeared into his personal portal. He’d shown up at my apartment a few hours later.

Was that how he’d realized that Tessa was abducted by the same people? Was that why he’d seemed so interested in me describing the tattoo? Had Katarina’s abductors also sported that same identifying mark?

I’d just reached that conclusion when Tessa stumbled out of her room, her blond hair a wild mess around her head, her expression tight with fear. “Tala!”

Pushing the staggering realization about the Fire Wolf aside, I rushed to a stand when I saw my sister, and we met one another in the middle, both of us throwing our arms around each other.

“Oh my gods,” she sobbed. “I thought I was going to die there!” She cried harder, and the tears streamed out of her as I held her tight.

I began crying, too, just when I thought I’d cried all I could that morning. “You’re safe now. You’re okay, and you know that I would never abandon you. As soon as I sensed that you’d been taken, I began looking for you. I wasn’t going to give up until I found you.”

She sobbed more. “I knew you would,” she said between breaths. “I knew you’d come for me.” She pulled back to look me in the eye. Her face was already red and blotchy. I was pretty sure mine was the same. “But how did you find me? How could you have possible known where to look? And who was that guy?”

My stomach tightened. “I hired a hunter.”

Her eyes widened. “Is that who he was? He wouldn’t say much when he stormed into my cell after you’d passed out, but he was so agitated, constantly going to where you lay on the floor. He wouldn’t tell me what happened to you. Why did you fall unconscious?”

I sighed, the sound deep and aching. “Do you want a cup of coffee first? That question doesn’t have an easy answer, and we’re going to have to make a trip to the SF at some point today. It’s gonna be a long day, but you were legitimately abducted, and they need to catch who was behind it all and figure out why they targeted you.” The name Jakub flashed through my mind along with the question of whether the European mafia was truly behind this or if all of that was a ruse to mislead us. I waved toward the pot.

“Oh, lovely, delicious coffee. Yes.” Tessa stumbled toward it and grabbed a cup. Her legs were bare, her breasts braless. As always, it was like looking in a mirror.

After she poured a mug full of the piping hot brew, she snatched the box of scones from the counter, then joined me at our old, creaky flea-market table.

“I’m starving,” she said and dipped her hand into the box of buttery almond scones.

Tessa began inhaling a pastry as I eyed the scoured lines that were etched deep into the table’s wood. I had no idea who this table had once belonged to. But like everything in life, it held its secrets. Who knew what kind of people had once sat around it. Perhaps they’d been happy or sad, maybe lonely or irritated, when they’d made these marks. How many other people had picked at its scarred wooden surface while chugging coffee and contemplating their very fucked-up life?

“Tala?” Tessa said quietly. Her hand snuck across the table to grip the top of mine after she’d polished off her second scone.

Tears had formed in my eyes again, completely unbeknownst to me. I jolted myself back to the present, back to what mattered most.

“It’s okay. You’re safe, and you’re home.”

Tessa squeezed my hand. “Thanks to you.” Her fingers shook when she set the scones aside and brought her coffee cup to her lips. “So how did you find me?”

She didn’t ask about my tears, and I didn’t enlighten her that they were in fact over a fire-filled demon wolf and not her. Somehow, someway, the Fire Wolf had wormed his way into the fabric of my being, but that needed to become a thing of the past. I would not be used by him again, and I would not let a werewolf mating bond interfere with reality. Because the truth was that before the bond had formed, the hunter hadn’t wanted me in the slightest.

Forcing a smile through my tears, I brushed them away with the back of my free hand. “Your rescue was more complicated than I thought it would be. Since the SF wouldn’t help me, I hired a hunter.”

Her brow furrowed. “The SF refused to help?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Are you surprised after all the stunts you’ve pulled?”

She sputtered. “What are you talking about? They always look for me.”

“Not this time. They meant it when they said they weren’t doing it anymore unless there was proof you were actually missing or if I funded it.” Which would have been even more expensive than the Fire Wolf.

A momentary flash of guilt flitted across her face, but it was quickly replaced by defiance. “That’s absurd. It’s their job to help supernaturals, and it’s abhorrent that they wouldn’t search for me just because I’ve had a few run-ins with them.”

I sighed as a brief flare of irritation sparked within me. “You can’t blame them for thinking it was all a prank. You can only cry wolf so many times before they stop believing you. If you stopped being so irresponsible and disappearing like you do, I never would have had to hire a hunter. The SF would have helped me from the start.” And I might never have found you.

It was a thought that had been plaguing me all morning. While the SF had so many resources, the Fire Wolf was unique in his ability to track. Even with a seer or someone with the ability to scry, it was possible that the SF wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint Tessa’s location so precisely. And if they’d forbidden me from joining them, as I was almost certain they would have since I wasn’t an SF member, they wouldn’t have had my witch-twin bond to help guide them. But I’d never know if that would have been the case, because the Fire Wolf had found Tess, even though it’d cost me an arm and a leg.

Speaking of which . . . I still hadn’t given him the final payment. I would have to do that this afternoon.

“Tala.” Tessa’s hand pulled back, a hurt expression growing on her face. “How can you say that?”

But instead of reassuring her as I usually did, I didn’t. Maybe everybody was right. Maybe it was time I stopped coddling her and forced her to see that it was time to grow up.

The expression on her face grew the longer I stayed silent, and I felt myself caving.

Fuck it. I don’t have the energy for this today.

“I’m sorry.” I reached across the table again and threaded my fingers through hers. “But anyway, about your rescue . . .”

∞     ∞     ∞

I told her the whole story but left out the scorching encounter the Fire Wolf and I had shared in the alleyway before entering the club, and the one in my bedroom. No need to go into all of that because the brief and explosive attraction we’d shared was over and done with. I wouldn’t fall prey to his seduction again—not to mention that I was still pissed at him for using an alpha command on me—and I definitely wouldn’t fall victim to whatever fucked-up mating shit had been born between us.

I also glazed over the fight we’d had with the supernaturals in the club’s basement, not telling her that I’d taken several lives in the process of getting her back. Those kills were something I’d only just started facing. And even though I knew they’d all been bad men—evil even—I’d never killed anyone before. During training with Prisha and her family, our strikes had always been pretend, never real, yet now . . .

I’d killed.

I’d taken lives, and the unease that accompanied that left me shaken. Even though I knew I would never view death as flippantly as the Fire Wolf, the truth was that I’d do my actions all over again. And because of that, I didn’t know what to make of myself.