Page 182 of The Case of the Missing Love Stone

The Love Stone lies inside the basin. The damn thing isn’t a stone at all. It’s a carved gator tooth nearly the length of my forearm, surrounded by cloudy liquid and crushed flowers.

My alpha wants blood.

Scarlet makes a broken sound beside me, and Sullivan turns. He rises the pistol.

I shove Scarlet and Roman behind the widest cypress as the first shot cracks through the swamp. Bark explodes beside my face.

Deputies return fire from the eastern channel.

Myrtle throws herself over Maribel, and Sullivan reaches into the basin.

“Move and I drop it!” He lifts the carved tooth with both hands, holding it above the chemical mixture.

Everything stops.

Scarlet presses against my back. “Don’t let him put it back in.”

“Why?”

“The basin is wrong.”

Sullivan hears her. His face twists. “You don’t know what you’re looking at.”

Scarlet steps far enough around me to see him. I catch her waist. She covers my hand but doesn’t retreat. “The protection rite never used standing water,” she says. “It used moving water so the pack could choose whether to remain or release.”

Myrtle lifts her head. Confusion cuts through her expression.

Sullivan’s grip tightens around the tooth. “The artifact anchors bonds.”

“No,” Scarlet says. “That is what the town legend claims.”

Maribel’s body jerks against the chair. A low, terrified whine escapes her.

Roman moves at my other side. “She recognizes someone,” he says.

I follow his attention. Ellis stands with the boat team across the channel, held behind the deputies. Maribel’s eyes keep finding him, then sliding away as the mist reaches her face.

Recognition. Loss. Recognition again. The experiment is happening in front of us.

Scarlet sees it too. “The Love Stone is not stabilizing her,” she says. “The moving air is dosing her over and over.”

Myrtle looks toward the fans, then the basin. “What did you change?” she asks Sullivan.

He doesn’t answer.

Her face collapses. “You increased it again.”

Sullivan swings the pistol toward her. “The lower dose failed.”

Myrtle’s hand tightens on Maribel’s shoulder. “You said the site would make it hold.”

“It will, if everyone stops interrupting me.”

Sullivan had the money, trucks, couriers, and GatorX operation. Myrtle had Heritage Hall, the old records, and the belief that the Love Stone could preserve what the drug was destroying. They came to this through the same family loss. Lenora was Myrtle’s sister, and her dead alpha was Sullivan’s brother. Myrtle wanted to prevent another bond from ending the way Lenora’s had. Sullivan kept escalating the experiment to make that happen.

Tom gives a subtle hand signal.

Roman sees it too. His fingers squeeze my arm twice.