by Kimber White
“Don’t pretend to know what I am or what I want,” he said, growling.
“I don’t have to,” I said. “I can feel it. I can see it in your eyes. You can taste it, can’t you? And you’ve probably managed to convince those fools out there they can have it too. Did you tell them you’d protect them? That you’d die for them?”
The moment I said it, I realized the dark current of truth.
“My God,” I said. “You really are a fool. Christ. Viktor. Open your eyes. Those are a bunch of betas out there. Soldiers. Free betas. How many? Ten? Twelve? The Ring has you doing their hunting for them. You think for one second they’d be willing to let you have that kind of power? They’ll come for you here. They’ll subjugate every one of those men out there and probably make you watch. Then, they’ll strip you of whatever it is you really want most.”
His nostrils flared. He caged me against the wall with a flat palm on either side of my head.
My body responded to his heat. So close. I wanted to thread my fingers through his hair and pull him down to me. At the same time, I recoiled at the thought. How could I want this man so badly? I knew what he was.
Then it was as if a switch flipped inside of me. I knew the way out. I knew how to get myself out of here without revealing what I was. I could even get this fool to help me.
I licked my lips. “What is it that you really want most, Viktor? Deep down. In your soul. In the most primal part of you.”
His nose twitched. I could feel his wolf just under the surface, straining to get out.
Want. Mine. Take.
It was me. He wanted me.
I could use that against him.
I arched my back just a little, pressing my breasts forward. Blood rushed to Viktor’s head, turning his neck crimson.
“They’ll ruin me too,” I said. “You know that, right? Even if you do what they ask. Just the idea that for a moment, you thought you could get one over on the Ring. They’ll make an example out of you. I’ve heard they sometimes make procurers watch when a new shifter’s mate is marked. So you know. So you never forget what happens if you go against them.”
He dug his claws into the wall, breaking through the plaster.
“I said,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “Don’t presume to know me or what I want. Or even who I am.”
“Then help me,” I said, breathless. “I know powerful people too. You know it’s true or I wouldn’t have been on the Ring’s radar. I can put you in touch with people who can help you and your pack find a way to freedom, Viktor. I swear, my people are just as strong. Do your research. My father is Gideon Brandhart. I know you’ve heard the name. In the Neutral Zone, they call us body smugglers. An ugly term. But we’ve helped men like you before. You can have at least some of what you want.”
He snarled. “Your people.” He said the word as if it tasted bad in his mouth. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he knew exactly who I was.
“Your people have already stolen far more from me than the Ring has,” he said. He crooked a finger beneath my chin, raising my eyes to meet his.
I’d miscalculated. He saw right through me. But there was no denying the lust blazing through him that matched my own.
He crushed his lips to mine, setting my nerve endings on fire. One kiss. One touch. I closed my eyes for an instant. When I opened them again, Viktor was already gone.
Chapter 6
Viktor
She shook me.
I barely made it out of the house to the edge of the woods before my wolf ripped out of me. Mia’s lips. Her heated blood. The lust that coursed through her veins. It was there. I felt it. I knew it.
I knew her.
She was mine. The urge to take her thundered through me. I channeled it into the thrill of the hunt. The other Vadim wolves were scattered throughout the woods, each taking their own kills. Feeding.
I found my quarry in less than a minute. A young buck just dipping his head to take a drink from the cool, fresh spring. He was unused to predators here. No humans. Certainly no wolves of even the regular kind. I gave him a quick, painless, honorable death and took what I needed. Later, we would field dress what was left and have a proper meal. Ancient instincts boiled through me. I would offer my mate a feast.
My mate.
No. I shook my head to clear it. The hunt and the deer helped. But I needed to get my legs back under me. She’d brought out something wild in me. I’d almost lost control. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was a witch. But...I did know better.
I made my way back up to the house, wiping the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand. I changed quickly. By the time I entered through the back door to the kitchen, Luka and some others were already helping themselves to the beer stocked in the fridge.
He tossed me one. I took a seat at the long, copper-topped island in the center of the room. Clairmont House had a more formal dining room through the hallway. This suited us all better for now.
I twisted the cap off and nearly downed the whole bottle in one swig. It would only help for a moment. Shifters couldn’t stay drunk for long. I trained my ears toward the front of the house. Mia was still upstairs. She’d gone back to her room and shut the door behind her. The touch of my lips shattered her just as it had me.
“So,” Luka said, sliding into a high-backed chair opposite mine. “Tell us what you’ll need. Should we lie low? Are you expecting more company?”
“Not for a while,” I said. “I don’t have to report back to Denall for a few days. So far, he’s honored his half of our bargain. I’d say we have at least tonight. Then find a place to hide out in the woods. You’ll be safe enough if you stay on the Clairmont grounds. Don’t be tempted to head into Shawnee proper. Not yet.”
“I haven’t felt this good in years,” Gregor said. He was Luka’s youngest brother. Though their wolves were identical, they couldn’t look more different now. Luka had dark hair like most of the Vadims. Not overly tall, but stocky and solid. Gregor was long and lanky with prematurely gray hair, though he was ten years younger than Luka or me.
“Enjoy it,” I said. “Soon you’ll have more days like this than not.”
Gregor’s eyes flashed with longing. I knew he wanted to believe me with his whole heart. But he’d lived too long in fear and hiding to trust my words completely. I had a lot to prove. So much had been taken from all of us.
That familiar tribal anger roiled through me. Kalenkov. He had made my pack more vulnerable to the Ring, and they pressed their advantage. It was hard not to imagine what might have been if my Uncle Pavel had been alive during the shifter attacks.
“She’s the real deal?” Luka said, partly reading my mind.
“She’s something, all right,” I answered. Protective anger flared through me. Luka was no threat to me. But even the idea of another wolf taking an interest in Mia stirred my blood. I had to get over it. It would be more than wolves taking an interest in her soon. The men in this room and those still out on the hunt depended on me. My father’s legacy and my family’s vendetta depended on me.
Luka shot a look at his brother. I sensed some prearranged signal. Gregor cleared his throat then cleared the room with the other men, leaving Luka and me alone.
When their footsteps died away, Luka met my eyes.
“I have what you asked me for,” he said, pulling out a small, gold disk, roughly the size and shape of a pocket watch. He slid it across the table to me.
I picked it up. Hard and smooth, it had an energy about it, like little shocks of electricity when I touched it.
“I’m glad to be rid of it,” Luka said.
“It can’t hurt you,” I said.
“You sure it’ll hurt her?” he asked.
“I’m not trying to hurt her,” I said. “I’m just trying to find out the truth about what she is.”
Luka finished his beer. “It can’t be possible,” he said. “It just can’t be.”
I shrugged. “You’ve heard the same rumors I have, cou
sin. Kalenkov’s daughter gave birth to a female shifter.”
“Kalenkov’s daughter is human,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that. Our Uncle Pavel would have known if she was…”
“I know,” I said.
“What else do you know?” Luka said. “I mean, you’ve spent time with her.”
I grabbed another beer. “I know her father is Gideon Brandhart.”
Luka whistled low. “Smugglers. Dangerous connections. They’re gaining a reputation. Some of our friends have tried to get in contact with them. They say Brandharts can get you into the Oasis Territories if you’re rich.”
“Rich and foolhardy,” I said.
“I want to meet her,” Luka said. “This Amelia...maybe we don’t need that thing to get to the bottom of it.”
“She’d have good reason to try to shield the truth from us,” I said.
“So how does that thing work?” he asked.
I smiled. I could have just told him, but quite honestly, I wasn’t altogether sure it would work. I grabbed Luka’s hand, drew blood with my claw, then pressed the disk into his palm. The mage I’d bought it from five years ago had shown me once what to do. I nearly killed him on the spot.
With the disk pressed in Luka’s palm, I pushed hard, releasing a small mechanism in the center of the disk.
Luka yelped. His back went rigid and his wolf sprang forth, breaking the chair he sat on.
I pulled the disk away from him. Luka’s wolf snarled and snapped. But he was a beta. I was an Alpha, even if I wasn’t his Alpha. Yet.
Luka got a hold of himself and shifted back. He picked up his ripped jeans from the floor and slipped back into them.
“What the hell is in that thing?” he said.
“Fae magic,” I said, nearly choking on the words. Luka grimaced with similar distaste.
“Well, it works like a motherfucker,” he said.
“I know,” I said. “I had it used on me once. The day I bought it. I had to make sure it was legit.”
“It’s legit, all right,” Luka said. “I tried to stop shifting. It felt like a bomb got set off inside of me.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Maybe I should have warned you.” I put the disk back on the table. Luka sat down and put a finger on it, afraid he might accidentally set it off again.
“I was carrying that thing in my pocket for a day. Why didn’t it go off?”
“There’s a trick to it,” I said. “You have to draw blood.” The cut I’d made in Luka’s palm was already starting to heal. I’d been so quick, he barely felt it.
“Yeah,” he said. “Better I don’t know. You’re right, though. If this girl has wolf in her, it’ll take about two seconds before you find out for sure.”
“That’s the idea,” I said.
“Fae magic,” he repeated. “I hate that they have that over us. Superior beings my ass.”
“They’re not superior,” I said. “They just have a few extra magic tricks. And like it or not, it’s connected to our essence too.”
“They like to think they created us,” Luka said. “That’s what my grandmother always told me. Shifters came into being when fae tried to steal the essence of wolves. They couldn’t though. They can only ever be just what they are. Fucking fae.”
“So we’ll use what we can of them,” I said, twirling the disk between my fingers. Then, I put it back in my pocket.
“What are you going to do if she really is a shifter?” Luka asked. “Will you tell Denall?”
“No,” I snapped. “God, no. We’ll stick to the plan. Denall owes me. The Ring owes me. I’ve waited too damn long to take back what’s mine. What’s ours. I just need you and the others to be patient just a little while longer. Everything I’ve been working toward, every battle, every lie I’ve had to tell, it’s all for this, Luka. For us. I’m this close to getting us all out.”
“You could do it now, Viktor,” he said. “To hell with Denall and whatever deal he’s promised you. Maybe this girl is a different kind of ticket for us. If she’s really a Brandhart. Have you thought about approaching her for help?”
“She’s only half a Brandhart. It’s the other half we can’t trust,” I said.
Luka considered my words. He took a breath. “You know each and every one of us will follow you to hell and back. We want you as our pack leader. We need you as our pack leader. And we...Viktor, we already agreed before we came. It can happen tonight. Right now.”
Luka’s words cut straight into my heart. He and the others had risked every bit as much as I had. And here they were, about to do it all over again. It was just this one last thing.
Mia.
She would lead the Ring to the Kalenkov pack and it would be the end of me. It was good for me. Good for the Ring. Neat. Tidy.
Except for her.
I tried to push away the thoughts of Mia’s lips. The way her body curved to mine when I got close. My head had gotten me this far. I couldn’t let other parts of my body pull me off track.
“Viktor?” Nico, another cousin, poked his head in through the kitchen door. “Um, we’ve done what you said and stayed away from the second floor. It’s just...I think your guest is getting restless. We heard the sound of breaking glass.”
I rose to my feet. “Breaking glass? The door’s not even locked.”
I pushed past Nico and headed for the stairs. Sure enough, I could sense the shift in Mia’s mood. It wasn’t fear, but she was restless, for sure.
I charged up the stairs and reached for the door. It swung open just as I did, making me stagger through it. I righted myself. Mia’s cheeks were flushed. Her chest heaved with hard breaths. I tried to keep my eyes focused on her instead of the tempting lure of her breasts beneath the white tank top she wore.
“I can’t stand it in here a second longer,” she said. “If you want me to stay in this room, you’re going to have to tie me up again.”
I couldn’t help it. A smile came over me. “Is that a promise?” I asked. “I’ll admit I like the sight of you tied up.”
Her mouth formed a little ‘o.’ Dammit if she didn’t like the idea just as much as I did. I’d put the little fae charm back in my pocket. I could use it. Right here. Right now. Find out what she was once and for all. But then the others would know too. It shocked me for a second that I cared. It was the whole point of this, wasn’t it? Another bargaining chip to use with the Ring. Something else to hold over the Kalenkov family. If they’d known what she was. If they’d lied about it, it wouldn’t just be the Ring and the remnants of the Vadim pack wanting a piece of them.
But somehow, I wanted to keep Mia and her secrets to myself just a little longer. There was another, more pleasant way to draw her wolf out if she was in there.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I still have company.”
“I’m hungry,” she said.
She was. I could sense that too. Her eyes filled with the hint of tears and it gutted me. As much as I wanted to bend her over the bed, I also wanted to take her in my arms and comfort her fears. I wanted…
Shit.
I wanted to protect this girl. I tried to push that away too. That wasn’t the plan. She was worth too much. I couldn’t give up one thing that was mine for something even more valuable. Could I?
“Viktor,” she said, pressing her advantage. Her hands were on my chest. “I’m scared of you.”
“Are you?” I asked.
A lie. A tease. I knew it. Still, she drew me in. She was just so damn beautiful with her midnight hair and glittering eyes.
“Come on,” I said. “We hunted today. We’re planning a feast. If you behave yourself, you can join us.”
She nodded, still looking a little scared. She tucked a hair behind her ear. I stepped into the hallway. Mia hesitated, then joined me. A large part of me really wanted to keep her locked in that room. I trusted the men downstairs with my life. Still, I didn’t want their eyes on her.
We came to the top of the winding stairs. I was just about t
o turn back to her and say something else to put her at ease.
All at once, the hairs stood up at the back of my neck.
Danger. From everywhere.
Luka and the others had sensed it as I did. Mercifully, they’d retreated back to the woods already. When the front door burst open, it was only Mia and I who faced the threat.
Denall walked through. And this time, he’d brought reinforcements.
Chapter 7
Mia
Something was wrong. Deadly wrong. Viktor charged to the front door. His hair grew longer in the back as his wolf strained to get out. So did mine.
He chanced one quick look at me and mouthed two words. “Go back.”
My feet felt rooted to the spot, though.
The man at the door wasn’t a shifter, but he crawled with magic. Long white hair and a face with no lines. Ageless.
“Denall,” Viktor said. “You’re early.”
I darted backward, concealing myself from view.
“You haven’t checked in,” Denall said. I couldn’t place his accent. It reminded me a bit of my father’s. At over three hundred years old, Gideon Brandhart had lived multiple human lifetimes all over the world. He spoke like he was from everywhere and nowhere. This Denall was like that, though he was no dragon.
There were others. Viktor’s distress poured into me. If he’d marked me, without a doubt, would have used telepathy to transmit an order.
Hide.
I turned, trying to make my way back to the master bedroom. I could jump from the balcony there. I made it three steps before a point of light appeared in front of me, half-blinding me. Out of it, two more men appeared bearing an uncanny resemblance to this Denall.
Shit.
Fae. They were all fae. If I’d learned one thing from my father and uncles, it was that fae magic couldn’t be trusted. And my cloaking magic may not work with them. I’d have to keep my wolf away the old-fashioned way.
“She’s here, Denall!” One of the fae called out. Viktor snapped and growled. From beneath me, Denall laughed.
