I remembered my sister's words when I saw her three weeks ago: Soon, Ifrita. Soon.

Soon we would finish what we had started many, many years ago with the other magicks, but the wolves had miraculously stopped. Somehow those mangy mutants had discovered what was going on and had destroyed our people instead of us destroying them.

As it should have been.

Although those vile hairballs had learned how to stop the magicks, Raevyn and I had later snuck in and destroyed the evidence in the wolves' archives, leaving nothing behind that hinted at magicks. We erased all knowledge not only of us, but of how to destroy us. That would be critical for the plans my sister and I had.

Then we sat back and bided our time, patiently waiting for hundreds of years until the memory of magic and the magicks faded...and faded some more until it was a hazy, vague memory...and finally was forgotten altogether.

Three years ago, following the war between the Aibek pack and the Luniere pack, which my sister and I helped to start, I discarded the body I had claimed at the last moment when Raevyn and I were about to be killed all those centuries ago.

Blaisall had become sufficiently cowed with my sister running her body, knowing the nasty consequences of disobeying my sister's wishes, but the woman's body I had taken four hundred years ago still, even after all this time, tried to assert herself. Dalela needed to die.

So I found Lindsay Morgan, the weakest woman ever. She and her Destined One had just discovered each other when I appeared, and when presented with a choice between her Destined One's life and her own, she chose her own. I left Dalela's body -- which, now that it was four hundred years old and without its magick, quickly crumbled into dust. Bye bye, Dalela. It's been fun.

Lindsay Morgan's body was much easier to control since she had already proven her innate weakness. She stayed down, down, down, never trying to surface, and I was able to enchant Night with a drink I kindly brought to my Alpha and a few words whispered into his ear. He became mine, never suspecting he was under enchantment because all knowledge of magic had been erased from the wolves. How can you suspect something that doesn't exist? He thought he'd been struck by love, the fool, but I made sure to whisper those words into his ear each morning and each night as he drank my special concoction.

You love me, Night, and I love you.

Very little magic could be performed without some sort of concoction, and if it was, it could drain a magick quickly.

The day Neera showed up at our door, I knew we were in trouble and our plans were at risk. I had answered the door before I could make Night's concoction and whisper the spell into his ear, never thinking it would be his motherfucking Howl.

He'd started to look at her, so I quickly turned Night's head and took over his body, making him drag her to the Den. That had been hard enough, so I receded from him, thinking I could save some of my strength, but damned if he didn't look at her again. I could almost see the bond starting to form between them, so I surged back into him, long enough to ensure Neera was thoroughly, completely and totally rejected and humiliated.

That half hour had drained me, drained him and we both collapsed.

After I regained consciousness, I got word to my sister. I knew Night wouldn't let me near him again, the Alpha not knowing what was afoot, only that something was. If I couldn't get near to him, I couldn't spell him. He refused to see me, try as I might to get him back to me.

It would be up to Raevyn. She got word to me when Neera was leaving her place, saying only that she had fed Neera concoctions every day for two weeks and had spelled her right when she left with a particularly strong spell, hoping that it would prevent her from accepting Night's bite for a few months.

Long enough to buy us some time.

Long enough to put our plans in motion.

Long enough to start another war and help the wolves to destroy each other. Then we could move on to the next two packs, until eventually, someday, all of the wolves would be dead and we would have vengeance for what the wolves had done to our own kind.

When Neera ran from him almost immediately upon her return from my sister, I couldn't believe our luck.

So in the time she was gone, I was able to kill Aibek wolves and make it look like the Luniere pack had committed the crime; then I framed the Aibek pack for the deaths of the Luniere wolves.

Then Night had found Neera and brought her back. Rumors this morning said he had Taken her Blood, but she had not returned the favor.

Thank you, Raevyn.

Her magic had held, fortunately. It was already difficult enough to destroy so many mutts; but a Bonded wolf was another creature entirely and in this way the wolves had almost ended the magicks completely four hundred years ago. Even our small bursts of magic couldn't stop a Bonded wolf for long, and the wolf would recover before we could. If Night and Neera completed the Taking of the Blood, that would mean the end of Raevyn and me.

We could not let Neera Take his Blood, or all of our years of waiting, all of the years of planning and moving the pieces into place, would be for nothing.

Now that she was back, but not fully his Howl, I would need to act fast, in case my sister's spell failed and Neera wanted to bite him back. Complete the bond.

Neera Karis needed to cease existing.

And I was just the magick to make sure it happened.

Brutally.

If I could do it right in front of Night's eyes, so much the better because I knew the pain it would cause him. He'd certainly cried like a little bitch when his mother came back to him in pieces. He never realized he'd been sleeping with his mother's killer for three years. It made me laugh inside every time I made him tell me he loved me.

Now, when I ended his Howl, I would savor his pain in person.

Right before I ended him, too.

This was going to be so delicious, especially after waiting so many long, frustrating years.

All I needed was for Raevyn to arrive and then we could execute our plan.

And end the two packs, once and for all.