by Sage, May
Avani hadn’t known at all.
She tried to smile. “What about the boys?”
Julie grinned back. “Their father is taking care of them while I work.”
That was a new one. They had a father?
Julie laughed. “Just because I had multiple lovers doesn’t mean that I didn’t recognize my own fated mate, you know. It’s only possible for one of us to procreate with someone we’re officially bonded with or our mate.”
Another thing Avani hadn’t known. Well, she’d heard about it, and had dismissed it as a legend. It didn’t make an awful lot of sense.
“What…does he feel about all this?”
Julie’s smile widened and her eyes brightened. “Oh, he’s very much into what I do. When destiny assigns you someone, it’s normally a person who fits you in every way. He’s a sharer.”
Too much information. Avani tried not to grimace. “I’m glad you’re okay.” That was the only thing that mattered.
Now Julie grew somber. “I am, and I will be. You? Not so much. Yves sent me to you with a message. He demands you present yourself to be judged for the crime of killing a fellow wolf and disobeying your alpha. Otherwise, he says that you, and everyone protecting you, are in violation of our most sacred laws—laws Fenrir himself cannot deny, as he wrote them.”
Avani blinked, confused. “Wait, aren’t I supposed to just fight a female assigned by the alpha to determine my guilt or innocence?”
If so, she wasn’t worried.
Julie nodded. “Yes, Avani. And everyone in the pack knows you’re twice as fast as any other female.”
Which meant she’d win the contest; it made no sense that Yves would demand that at all.
Mikar was right. It was a trap.
“Fine. I accept the challenge. Seeing as I’ve left the pack, I refuse to set foot on your territory. He can come to me—at the lake.”
Right between the woods and the hill.
“Avani—” Julie’s tone was cautioning. She wanted to add something, but she visibly couldn’t. She’d been ordered not to.
“It’s okay. I know it’s a trap. I know they plan to drug me, or cut me, or drag me back. But I’ll have people who won’t allow any of that around me.”
She was entirely certain of that, and Mikar grunted in agreement.
Julie closed her eyes, and after a long moment of silence, she finally nodded. “All right. The next full moon, then, at midnight.”
Her voice broke as she spoke.
There was more to this challenge.
And she had a month to figure out what.
Threads
“You did what!”
Alexius returned to his home to find his drawing room packed full of people gathered around Avani, wearing expressions ranging from worried to determined.
Then she’d told him about her crazy afternoon. Not only had she met up with a damn Elder Pack wolf, she’d also agreed to a fucking challenge for the crime of saving the human they’d been hunting— oh, and the crime Alexius had committed when he’d stopped the male wolf after her.
“I didn’t even kill the fucking punk!” he screamed.
Avani blinked. “You didn’t?”
He shrugged. “I drank a fair bit. I was thirsty. Plus, my skin had been burned off, give me a break. And I knocked him out. But I wasn’t about to start a war on my territory.”
All gazes were now on him.
“What?” he growled.
“It’s just, well…” Chloe tilted her head, visibly trying to find her words. “You’re a lot more balanced than I thought you were.”
“I would have killed the punk,” Levi added casually, shrugging.
“Ditto,” Ruby said cheerfully.
No one doubted her.
Alexius rolled his eyes. “Well, I have a body count a lot higher than most of yours. You have to do what you can to catch up. Besides, we weren’t talking about me. You can’t accept that challenge, when it’s clearly a setup.”
“I have to,” Avani protested. “I’m a dominant wolf. That’s what we do. I just figured I could take Cat, Ruby, and Greer as backup.”
“And me,” said every single person in the room, all at once.
The argument that followed was so stupid he didn’t even bother to take part, keeping his attention fully on Avani. “I’ll be there.”
There was nothing else to it. She met his glare and nodded her agreement.
Only then did he bother to listen to everyone else.
“You can’t go, you have patrol. I’ll go.”
“You can do my round of patrol,” Mikar grumbled to Blair. “I want to see the wolves fight. It’s boring in Oldcrest.”
“I want to see them fight too!” Cat’s boyfriend moaned.
And on and on they went.
“Why didn’t you invite me?” Chloe whined. “I’m your friend.”
“You have class, darling,” Levi reminded her. “Don’t worry, I’ll take a video.”
Avani got to her feet and waved until silence fell in the room. “Sorry guys, you can’t all come to the lake with us. Not when it’s clearly a trap, remember?”
Alexius grinned. His girl was smart.
“I don’t know why they’ve issued this challenge. I don’t know why they waited a fortnight. But it feels like there’s a plan in motion. Julie did everything she could to warn me. She knew I would pay attention to her expressions, her scent. She was telling me things will go badly. For me, for the rest of you. We have to be on our guard. You have to guard the hill, Oldcrest, Adairford, the borders…”
Alexius nodded. “You’re right. It’s likely a diversion. Since the bloodhunt, I’ve wondered if our issues may be related. It’s entirely possible that the pack could have gone on that hunt in the first place because they’ve ceased to respect Knox’s authority as their overall leader. We all know that the only way that could happen is if they’d elected another overall ruler. Given the timing, we have to assume our enemy is behind this. The queen could be preparing her next attack.”
He hated that there were so many could, likely, and assume in his sentence. They needed certainty. They needed answers. They needed…
“Eirikr.”
All eyes turned to Greer, who was looking out the window, in the direction of Cosnoc, the eastern hill of Oldcrest, forbidden to most of the Institute students or Adairford inhabitants, where Chloe’s ancestor was locked away.
Greer’s ancestors had sealed him in a deep cave before creating the walls that separated Oldcrest from the rest of the world.
“We have questions. We’ve had questions for months about that queen. We know she wants Chloe out of the way. We know she wants me out of the way. We know she wants into this territory. The only thing that links all three data points is him. We’re dealing with demons and zombies and greater magic. The sort of things that belong to his world more than ours. For all we know, it could be one of his fans, trying to do what they can to free him. We have to ask him what he knows.”
She turned to Chloe when she said that—the only person who actually spoke to the insane, vampire-hunting elder.
As the very first vampire created, Eirikr would have been the stuff of nightmares in any case, but he’d chosen to only hunt and drink from vampires, rather than humans, to make himself a little more terrifying.
Chloe seemed certain he wouldn’t hurt her. Maybe she was right. He’d saved her when she’d been dying after her transition. He’d even come to their aid a few months back when the Stormhales had attacked Oldcrest. But Alexius remembered the way he moved. Like a beast who lived for the hunt. Like a wild thing who didn’t have any fucks left to give about anything. He knew better than to trust someone like that.
“If it was one of his pals, you think he’d chat about it?”
Chloe didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Alexius lifted a brow, clearly dubious.
The fledgling laughed. “He likes to hear himself talk. He’ll share if he knows anything. I’ll
go speak to him now.”
Levi rose from his armchair. “I’ll tag along, in that case.”
Chloe grinned. “What, you mean to stay in front of the cave and hide until we’re done talking?”
“Not today, darling. I think it’s time I meet your forefather.”
Chloe seemed shocked.
Ruby beamed. “Oh, perhaps he intends to ask for her hand! Rejoice. We shall have a wedding or a funeral, depending on how it goes. Either way, there’ll be flowers.”
Betrayal
Avani remembered the first time she’d heard Eirikr’s story around a campfire, a few weeks after arriving in Oldcrest.
She wasn’t one to be afraid of ghost stories, but she had to admit, that one got a shiver out of her. The caves where the monster was buried were just a few miles away, after all. If he was crazy enough to hunt vampires, maybe he wouldn’t mind a wild wolf snack every now and again. As a teen, she’d found him fascinating and terrifying.
As they approached the caves, the air seemed to change around them; Avani sensed a slight change in the smell of the forest. Sounds from the Institute all but disappeared. The gloaming overhead grew more somber with every step.
“This place isn’t meant to be disturbed,” Ruby said, her usually loud and confident soprano lower, more hesitant.
Everyone decided to tag along, no doubt out of curiosity.
“That’s just a repulsion spell, to push people to turn away. Like using a bad smell to stop dogs from going forward. Except, it’s the atmosphere around us that’s been made unfriendly. I might be able to lift it.”
Greer tilted her head and closed her green eyes, a little frown between her eyebrows indicating she was concentrating.
A moment later, Avani’s heart was considerably lighter.
“Badass!” said Blair.
Greer shrugged. “Not really. I mean, these boundary spells would be hard to change for someone who’s not of my bloodline—me? I just have to clearly indicate my wish, and Oldcrest normally responds to it. The trickiest bit is that it has to be done in Latin.”
As the two witches merrily kept chatting about spells, Avani slowed down to be at Alexius’s side. “Do you know Eirikr?”
The elder shook his head. “No, he was locked away out here about five hundred years before I was born. Your friend Knox knows him, though.”
“No way!”
Levi laughed. “Oh, yes. Those two were quite the team, once. They met when they were hunting the same prey—a vampire who had gone on a rampage and killed a few wolves under Knox’s protection. I was in Rome at the time, but a friend told me they were in quite the state after arguing who should get the kill. A lot of bite marks on both sides. They eventually agreed to let fate decide and tossed a coin.”
“Wait, heads and tails worked back then?” Chloe asked.
“Indeed. Knox won that kill, I believe. But they spent a good century hunting together. The Wolf was one of the Vespians' greatest enemies after they betrayed him.”
Greer winced. “Great. More inherited enemies. Just what I needed.”
“I don’t think Knox is one to hold a grudge. Well, not for more than a handful of generations, in any case. He recently buried the hatchet with the descendants of people who murdered two entire lines of wolves and tortured him for years.” All turned to Chloe, visibly surprised. She grinned. “I do pay attention in Immortal History classes, you know. Varra mentioned it last year.”
In the distance, Avani could see the entrance of a cave that looked like it might have been rectangular a long time ago; now the stone had been corroded, marked by time. As they approached, they could see signs around the entrance clearly, runes that Avani wouldn’t have been able to read.
The entrance led downward, to a dark hole with uneven, polished steps. Avani shivered.
Unexpectedly, a comforting arm wrapped around her waist and squeezed, caressing her side. She turned to Alexius, a million questions in her eyes. His were fixed on the doorless hole, narrowing.
“So, he’s here?”
“Yep. Don’t worry. He can’t come up. Besides, I don’t think he’s that into pretty boys.”
“Well, that shows what you know, little daughter,” a deep voice replied.
Chloe grinned, advancing to the first step before turning to her mate and extending her hand. Levi took it, his expression resolved as he joined her on the white stone stairway.
“Ah. I wondered when I could expect you, boy. Why don’t you bring some more of your friends with you, Chloe dearest? I’ll be on my very best behavior.”
The voice wrapped around them, seductive and threatening all at once.
A normal person would have run the other way. Avani raised her hand. “May I?” she asked Chloe, who grinned.
“Sure. Eirikr’s fine, really.”
At her side, Alexius groaned. “You just had to volunteer.”
She was entirely unapologetic. “When would I get another chance like this? This guy’s living history.”
He sighed, before stepping forward. “Let’s go, then.”
Avani grinned, secretly reassured. Just because she wanted to see Eirikr didn’t mean that she wasn’t frightened of the guy. Alexius being there would help.
He was comforting. Not only because she was absolutely certain that he’d protect her if the need arose; his presence made her feel stronger. Like she had someone who’d cheer for her, on her side.
Greer closed the procession, walking down right behind them without a word. The walk was shorter than expected. To her surprise, they reached a cave dwelling outfitted with modern amenities and technology. She took in the large four poster mahogany bed with red silk sheets, the sofa, and tree trunk used as a table. There were thick tapestries on the wall and a plush blue and white Indian rug on the ground. It felt homey.
Farther into the cave, there was a quartz bathtub almost as large as the pool in Avani’s room at Alexius’s, and even a toilet.
“Who installed plumbing?” Avani asked.
“The people who work on the hill and the Institute. I made Eirikr stay hidden, and paid them triple to come here. They were done in record time.”
Alexius laughed. “I bet. And where is our host?”
Chloe rolled her eyes, taking a seat on the sofa, making herself at home. “Being dramatic. Show yourself, Eirikr. You’re suitably frightening without the whole disappearing act, I assure you.”
The next instant, the creature was there.
To call him a vampire was like calling a shark a fish. Just as Levi and Alexius had an air about them that distinguished them from common vampires, Eirikr seemed…preternatural.
The aura around him was darker and his scent didn’t even come from earth. She couldn’t name a single thing similar to the metallic, flowery, and spicy fragrance.
He was handsome in the way predators could be beautiful; a jaguar about to pounce on his prey wouldn’t get admiration out of the gazelle. Avani didn’t think she’d ever been this tense, not even when the feral wolf had cornered her as a child, or when Zayn had run after her.
He’d appeared right behind Greer, and now, he leaned forward, taking a deep whiff of her.
“Ah. My jailor.”
To her credit, the woman didn’t cower and cry in a corner of the room, even when Eirikr’s eyes flashed deep blue.
Finding some courage, Avani cleared her throat. “Is it me, or do you guys really look alike? Same hair, same eyes. You’re like a prettier, female Eirikr, Chloe.” She was rambling, and she knew it.
Chloe laughed good-humoredly. “I do, don’t I? My brother is very similar to Eirikr, too.”
“My seed is mighty,” the ancient said simply.
There was a stunned silence. Then everyone chuckled. Only Avani bothered to disguise it as a cough.
“Did you seriously say that?” Greer couldn’t stop laughing.
Eirikr watched her with a focus that would have made a grown man beg for mercy.
Finally, he switched hi
s attention elsewhere. To Avani. “I’m more surprised the immortal wolf dared speak to me that way. Chloe is prettier than I, is she?”
Eirikr was smiling. The sort of smile a villain might have before pressing a button that’d end all life on Earth.
She gulped.
“Well, most men don't want to be called pretty.”
“Tell that to Varra,” Chloe supplied.
Not helping.
“Or Seth,” Levi added.
“Or me,” Alexius supplied.
“Fine. You’re pretty. Please don’t eat me.”
Now, Eirikr was laughing. It was springtime, a nice sunny morning by the sea, and a surprising ray of sunshine in the dark, all wrapped in one. Pure delight. His entire aura seemed to lighten, and his presence was so potent that when he felt joy, the atmosphere all around him changed.
His laughter felt like it could end a war.
It felt rare and precious.
“I like you. I usually like wolves. You’re straightforward.” A glare engulfing Levi and Alexius indicated that they shouldn’t feel included in this statement.
“Now talk. Chloe, I expect anytime. The rest of you want something from me.”
He was back to the dark and menacing persona.
Jesus, Avani was going to get emotional whiplash just standing in the same room as him.
“We’re here about the queen,” Chloe explained. “She tried to have Greer killed a couple of weeks back, using a huntsman she’d killed. His body attacked her, specifically. I mean, it fought us, but even when it was cut into pieces, it wanted to get to Greer.”
The first vampire turned back to Greer, extending his hand to her. She didn’t flinch, not even when his hand settled on the nape of her neck. “I’m entering you. Show me, child.”
“I’m no child,” she retorted.
But she closed her eyes, and so did he. Half a second later, he dropped his hand.
