A glow as bright as a star, in faerie form. I couldn’t look at it dead-on, the light too bright for my wolf even with a squint. But the sheer magnitude of power emanating from the fae was undeniable.
The light faded quickly, and things hit me in waves. Two beings, one with wings, one without.
The winged creature was a greater fae, easily powerful enough to wipe the lesser fae we’d been fighting off the map with a snap.
But as the light faded, my shock only grew.
The greater, winged fae standing in the clearing was Shay.
Lucien
Winged Shay glanced briefly at me and Reed, a half smile the only acknowledgment that she recognized our wolves, before turning the full force of her gaze on the lesser fae behind us.
He started begging and backing away before she even said a word. “Please, no! I don’t want to go back. I can’t ever go back!”
“The queen would like to see you, Narshall. We both know we can’t defy the queen’s orders, don’t we?” Shay’s voice was calm and even as she raised her right hand. A simple snap-nothing more-and the other fae winked out of existence, leaving nothing but sharp ozone and fur-tingling power behind.
Dirge stepped toward us, concern etched into the familiar lines of his face. “Where is the rest of the pack? We came as quickly as we could.”
Reed yipped, and we both took off back in the direction of the raging battle, knowing they’d follow. And follow they did. As we tore through the ODL enforcers from behind, cutting through them with fang and claw and renewed might, Dirge shifted to run with us, and Shay flew behind, sending bright white jets of power and blasting anyone who dared try to attack us from the sides.
After the endless time warp that was a battle to the death, the field fell eerily silent faster than seemed possible as the sun rose to beat down on us. We met the other pack males in the middle, surprised to see the goblin warriors in simple leather armor, trailing behind with chests puffed up practically to their ears.
We all shifted back, exhaustion filling me from top to toe as I stood swaying on my human feet once more.
Everyone began to talk at once-most asking Shay how the fuck she’d gotten wings
-but there was only one woman on my mind, and wanting to see her again was like an itch I had to scratch.
“I need to go check on Olivia,” I announced to no one in particular, then set off across the body-strewn battlefield. Objectively, there were fewer than expected because the vampires turned to ash after the sun rose on their dead bodies. But still, it was gory. The goblin warriors who’d grown bored with admiring the fae-wolf and the high alpha had already begun dragging the bodies toward the end of the clearing, working in teams as they did with everything.
I wasn’t far into the city when I realized I had no idea where the caves were that the women had hidden in. Luckily, as I paused amid the steaming rubble of fireball-damaged houses, Kane appeared at my side like a ghost.
That, or I was just so exhausted from battling all night and into the morning, I hadn’t heard him approach.
“Brielle sent me a map.” He tapped his temple, and not for the first time today, I was jealous of the other mated pair’s mental connection. Slowly, a mate bond was becoming a good thing in my mind, and frankly, I never saw that coming. But here I was, and I couldn’t deny how appealing it sounded to have my hellcat in my head, her wolf tethered in my chest where I could always feel her. “Come on.” He smiled, gore-spattered face and exhaustion not dimming his excitement at getting back to his female, and it was just another tick in the pro column for a mate.
“Do you think the ODL will strike again before we can get out of here?” I asked, the question dogging my every step.
He shook his head, a thoughtful expression telling me he took the question seriously. “This was a major setback. I have no doubt they’ll come after us again, but I don’t think it will be immediate. They know now what we’re capable of, and they’ll be more prepared next time.”
It was grim but accurate. After that, we walked in silence for several minutes, until a more personal question occurred to me. “Kane, if you don’t mind me asking… How did you know it was the right thing to complete your bond with Brielle? She had health issues, right?”
He nodded gravely, shadows crossing his face as if he were reliving those early days and didn’t like it much. “She was tainted with the curse that hid her omega powers, the same curse that killed her mother, and didn’t want to bond with me because she knew if we did, it would kill me too.”
“Wow. So she was the one refusing the mating?”
“Not at first. At first, I thought she was too weak to be an alpha mate. I was wrong. Her strength isn’t like mine. It’s softer, but no less made of steel. If she hadn’t been in danger of being kidnapped or targeted today-and as a result, I asked her to stay back-she would have been on that battlefield at my shoulder, without question.”
I pondered that as we left the city, meandering through the woods. There wasn’t a path, per se, but there was trampled foliage where many small feet had tread recently, and it was easy to spot in the daylight. I made a mental note to mention that to Rivetsky, that they needed a more discreet way to access their cave safe house so attackers couldn’t follow them in the future.
“What if I hurt her?” The question was humiliating, but I had to ask it. I was leaning toward falling headfirst into this relationship, but if I hurt her… it would kill me.
I could not be my father.
I refused to be my father.
“You will hurt her. Not on purpose, or you’ll be dealing with me-but it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll fuck it up.”
What a vote of confidence.
“Do you know how I know?”
I grimaced, not excited to ask which of my failings made him so certain I would be an awful mate. Eventually, I shook my head.
“Because I fuck it up all the time.”
I stopped dead in the middle of the path. “What?”
He turned toward me, laughing as he slapped me on the shoulder as if we were two old friends and not the high alpha and his subject. “You think I’m perfect? I’m just as damaged as the rest of you. Burying my parents before their time was not something I’d wish on my worst enemy, let alone figuring out a new mate bond and taking over as high alpha at the same time. That’s all before the part where half the world wants to murder my mate. I fuck up constantly. But she forgives me. And whenever I make a mistake, I just do my best not to do that thing again.”
Holy shit.
It sounded so simple. But was that really possible? The only relationship I’d ever seen up close was my abusive father and my mother, who was just trying to survive him.
“And that works?”
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