Jay

We were piled in the care accordingly. As I drove, Mat sat in the passenger seat, behind us Elliot lay strewn across the middle row, Sydney sat with his head in her lap. Meanwhile, Terrence and Jaci were huddled in the back row, Terrence's crutches poked out and kept pulling my eye in the rearview mirror.

The ride was quiet outside of Mat's murmurs through the phone to Aaron updating him on Sydney. Annoyance twisted Sydney's face as her best friend informed her brother about her activities. It was probably similar to the look on my face when Sydney refused to let Elliot roll around in the middle row of seats like I desperately wanted after I all but chucked him into my Hummer.

Now sporting a large jacket of mine, she cradled the wolf's head as Elliot remained unconscious throughout our drive through the stormy slew of rain.

"So you and Mrs. Silvia will meet us at Jaycen's house?" Mat's words anchored me back to the road in front of us and away from Sydney staring down at the wolf form of Elliot. "See you there. Bye."

Subconsciously I pressed on the gas more and more the anticipation of getting to my house was eating me alive. I wanted to know what my father had called about, and we needed to find out what was wrong with Elliot, whether or not I liked it.

Anything to get him away from Sydney. I hate the look on her face whenever she looks at him. How long were they together before she called? What were they doing?

"Jesus Jay! You're going to kill us all before we get there!" Mat clutched the door handle with his life.

Frowning, now out of my little trance, I looked in the rearview mirror to see Terrence hugging a frantic Jacinda to him. Sydney's lips were bowed in a frown as she braced her arm against Mat's headrest while her other arm curled around Elliot to keep in from sliding off the leather seats. "Sorry..." I mumbled and wiggled my fingers to force a looser grip.

Thankfully the ride only lasted a handful of minutes more. We pulled into the driveway and the moment I stopped the car I was out of it and at Sydney's aid.

"I'll grab him," I guided Sydney out of the car then tugged a towel free from the side door.

I should've put the towel under the mutt before letting him ruin my seats.

Annoyed with both Elliot and myself, I wrapped him in the towel and lifted the giant wolf the best I could over my shoulder.

Big green eyes flickered from me to the mass on my shoulder, and I could see a lit tinge of amusement in her eyes as Sydney took in the sight of me and Elliot.

"Come on, everybody inside," with my free hand, I ushered Sydney softly towards the door. Jaci and Terrence were left to their own devices until Mat helped adjust the seat to ease Terrence out.

Inside the house, an ambush lay in wait.

Robert, the pack doctor, and Terrence's dad, leapt up to my aid as I struggled to maneuver Elliot inside with me.

"Jesus he's big in his wolf form. Probably bigger than you and your father!" Robert yelled.

The words brushed me the wrong way, but my wolf didn't rise to the challenge. He hadn't since Sydney's condition had been diagnosed.

"Robert," The name came off my father's tongue pointedly.

With a mumbled apology Robert took Elliot from me and took him to a room to evaluate the issue.

"Sydney!" "Jaycen!" My mother's cry tangled with Silvia's, both of the women came rushing towards me and Sydney.

Aaron antsy remained seated next to my father where his face held a grave look.

"Mom, what is going on?" I demanded immediately, pulling back from her embrace.

Just as she opened her mouth to answer my father's voice permeated the room.

"Son, Sydney," My father addressed us both, "I think you need to sit down to hear this."

Beside me Sydney stepped back a hair, I felt her fingers brush my clothes then pull back reluctant to reach out to me. Her eyes were poised away from my father though and instead aimed towards a slender figure who cradled a cup of steaming liquid. Her face was cloaked in shadow as she stared out the window into the storm.

Tension coiled through my body and I instinctively stepped in front of Sydney protective.

My father peered over his shoulder seeing where our attention was now at. "Yes, she came here to warn us."

"Of?" Sydney inquired. By now she had shuffled closer to my side and my hand ached to curl around hers. The heat from her body was almost torturous.

No. Frame it instead as being a comfort that she is even this close to me.

The figure by the window smelled like a mixture of herbs smothering wet soil. "A witch?" The foreign word came off my tongue bitterly. I shook my head no. "I'm not listening to anything they have to say."

"Jaycen," There was an edge to my father's voice.

I bit my cheek hard to force myself not to say anything disrespectful to my alpha. Grabbing Sydney's hand I surprised her from her frozen state, then tugged her towards an empty couch. Her mother shadowed close behind Sydney's side and wrapped her arm around her daughter comfortingly as we all waited on bated breath.

Pleased with our sitting, my father glanced back to the person at the window. "Please go ahead. Tell them what you told me."

The woman swayed from the window, but only enough to face the conversation.

"I appreciate your pack allowing my presence, but I'm afraid I bring no good news with me. It has recently come to light that a member of our coven has been involved with the maleficent creature by the name of Logan. She aided him in a dark magic that effectively tied Logan to many of his victims, such as the case with Sydney."

Taking advantage of her pause, I questioned, "Okay, but why the hell is this important anymore? In cause, you didn't hear Logan's dead."

A grim line pulled at her lips and furrowed her forehead into wrinkles. "You see because of his death those magical ties are likely to come undone and have dire consequences. We are still conducting our own investigation into all of Logan's interactions with our coven, but we suspect Sydney is only one of the few he tangled with..."

"What do you mean 'have dire consequences'?" Jaci asked as wary of where this was going as I was.

Instead of the witch responding a new grumbled voice broke into the conversation.

"We're going to get very sick, very suddenly, very fast, and then..." Elliot stopped in his spot slumped against the doorframe. His eyes rested Sydney, something stopping him from continuing the dark words spewing from his mouth.

"And then what?"

Elliot looked up at me and looked me square in the eye. "We're going to die."

After everything that the last month had been, at the very least was disastrously chaotic, somewhere I could only find it in me to laugh. A throaty and sick laugh that had everyone looking at me bewilderedly.

"I knew you were fucking delusional, must be something that runs in the family. Now be serious Elliot and let her do the explaining."

My eyes snapped back to the witch desperately. The unmoving expression on her face told me what he said was true.

"No," the words weren't from my lips, but Sydney's.

My heart was in my ears the second her whisper and the witch's look registered in my brain.

How are you supposed to handle hearing that your mate is going to die?

Shoving myself out of my chair and I found myself pulling Sydney alongside me and away into a nearby and unoccupied room. Her steps were silent as though she was a kite I was tugging away from the storm I was determined to outrun.