"Why are you so hellbent on helping me when two seconds ago you whined about forever?" I asked, glancing over at him with a raised brow. "Couldn't have something to do with my mate, could it?"
I turned back around, but I both heard and felt his growl on the air.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
I shook my head as a sneer captured my lips. How the hell had it come to this, our three-man pack crumbling over something as simple and beautiful as me acquiring a mate?
"Why the hell can't you just be happy for me?" I asked. "Why do you feel the need to butt in and stake a claim of your own? Huh?"
"I saw her first."
That made me stop on a dime and whip around to face him. "The fuck did you just say?"
His eyes were pure gold, his fists clenched and his shoulders lifted, like he was one insult away from going Hulk.
When he spoke again, his voice was little more than a growl. "I said, I saw her first. I met her at the pub that night because you two thugs couldn't trust yourselves not to kill her. I flirted with her. I worried about her. I second guessed our plan to kidnap her because she made me feel things I wasn't expecting. Me. Not you. ME!"
"Fuck you, Goldi—"
But he cut me off and got right up in my face. "And then you come down with fated-mate-fever and suddenly my feelings for her don't matter anymore? You just waltzed in and snatched her away."
I shoved him hard in the chest but he only took a half-step backward. The crowd was too thick. It was midday. And we shouldn’t be fucking doing this, drawing attention near the precinct. But my wolf howled.
"I tried to leave her alone," he snarled, and a couple thick veins bulged in his neck. "But she asked me to stay."
My brain short-circuited. Somewhere between an overload of emotion and a knee-jerk reaction, I found my fist connecting with Easton's face. Right in the middle of the street.
He took the hit like a champ and swung at my face in return. I ducked out of the way, but only barely, as his other fist flew up to meet me.
People scattered away from us as if a sinkhole had just formed beneath our feet. We were making a scene. Shit.
I clenched my fists and shook my head, signaling to Easton that we needed to knock it the fuck off.
Like always, Easton listened. He actually hated to fight, unlike Drake and me. Our eyes flashed gold and we bared our teeth at one another, circling, but we reigned in our beasts enough to stop the outright fight here on a human street. I'd beat his ass back at headquarters, if he wanted, but it'd have to wait until after I slaughtered that piece of shit ma—
Suddenly, a scent swirled in the air above my head.
I sniffed, breathing in deep, practically tasting the pungent flavor of stale closet. The mothballer was nearby. Yes.
I regathered my focus and turned away from Easton. I followed the trail for a couple blocks before it banked a hard right and slithered down an alleyway.
"You smell that?" Easton asked as he came up beside me.
I glared at him as he took stock of our surroundings. "No, I just wandered back here to admire the trash. Of course I smell that."
"Not the mothball smell, you arrogant dick. The sugary smell. It smells like... magic."
The word had no more than left his lips when a dark cloud of magic surrounded us. It swarmed like millions of tiny insects, scraping and burning our skin like coarse sandpaper.
"Fucking pixie magic!" I shouted at Easton.
I couldn't see more than bits and pieces of him through the vortex of black.
"You think?" he cried sarcastically. "Whatever gave you that impression?"
I snarled. "Keep it up, Goldilocks, and I'll leave your dumb ass bleeding in this alley after I wring that pixie's neck."
He fucking chuckled. Who chuckles while they're getting slowly skinned by pixie magic? Crazy bastard.
"Looks like you're making a lot of progress with the pixie situation," he goaded me as I swatted senselessly at the undulating blackness around me. "Maybe Larry'll be able to use what's left of our bones in one of his potions."
"Seriously, man? What the fuck is wrong with you?" I’d always considered Easton the most level-headed of the three of us, the peacemaker. But clearly, he was off his rocker. Going after my mate. Making cynical jokes. He wasn’t himself.
All at once the magic stopped, the black smoke cleared, and I could see a tiny pixie fluttering in the air in front of us. Her hair was neon pink and she had both fists held firmly on her hips. "Do you two ever shut the fuck up?"
I glanced over at Easton whose skin was pink and bleeding in places from the countless abrasions. Pieces of his shirt now had holes. Looking down, I realized I hadn't fared much better. The pain… it was there. But my shifter side would heal it pretty damn fast, so I wasn’t worried.
But what the hell was a pixie doing in this alley? Especially one wearing a uniform that marked her as Mage Police.
"We didn’t do anything," Easton immediately led with a line that ended up making most shifters get fucking arrested.
The pixie snorted. "First you were fist fighting on the street, two seconds from shifting and going wild animal on each other. Then you argued like gorillas in this alley. For fuck's sake, you were even bickering while I blasted you with magic! What the hell is your deal? Lover's tiff? One of you forget to put the toilet seat down?"
I glared down at my feet, making the little pixie think I was ashamed of my actions. Then faster than light, I lashed out and grabbed her. Her body was in my right hand, her head in my left, as I prepared to snap her neck like a twig. Like twisting the lid off a soda bottle.
"Wait!" she screeched. "You're the ones who took Aubry, right?"
I locked gazes with Easton, whose eyes had suddenly lit up at the sound of her name. That mother fucker. It took everything in me to keep from headbutting his dumb ass since both my hands were currently occupied.
"Aubry was last seen with a giant red head male shifter at a bar. A couple patrons said he smelled like a bear shifter." The pixie eyed Easton. "Hair dye is easy enough to come by. I should know. Bear shifters… tend to like to live farther north."
God fucking damn it. Rage shot through me like a bullet. I shouldn’t have asked Easton to help. Where the hell was my head? The fucker was conspicuous on a good day.
Fine. This bitch knew who we were. Not for long. But I’d pump her for information first. "How do you know Aubry, you flying rat?" I growled at her. "You have three seconds."
"She's my friend!" the pixie shrieked. "You can't kill me until I kick your asses and bust her out of your evil lair."
I cocked my head and squinted down at her. "Are you fucking kidding me? What kind of a half-assed incentive is that to keep me from murdering you?"
"Uh... shit." She hesitated. "How about—I'm Aubry's second in command. Don't kill me when you can use me for ransom too!"
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "If the princess wasn't worth shit to the mages, what do you think that makes you?" I reached my second hand up to cover her head. I could snap her neck—make it fast.
"Don't," Easton whispered, putting his hand out to stop me from going over the edge. "She's a friend of Aubry's."
"I don't give a fuck if she's a friend of Satan—and with magic like that, it sure as hell wouldn't surprise me." My wounds had started to ache as my shifter metabolism healed them.
Easton bit his lip and turned away, staring off down the alley, which was empty except for us and one very normal, non shifter rat. "Fine. Then kill her. But I don't think Aubry will ever forgive you for it."
God fucking damn it, Goldilocks!
My grip on the pixie tightened for just a moment before loosening slightly.
I took a deep breath, fighting like hell against the grating of my nerves. It felt like nails on a chalkboard, scraping the underside of my skin. "Call Larry."
Easton immediately pulled out his phone and dialed the mage’s number.
I couldn’t believe what I was about to do
. It went against over a decade of self-preservation tactics. But I had to try something. Aubry was my mate whether she liked it or not, and if I wanted to strengthen our bond, and somehow make it about more than just mind-blowing sex, then I needed to do something for her. Something I'd never done before.
I didn’t leave survivors. Ever. That’s why, though Drake was The Shadow, I didn’t even have a name. I didn’t exist to the mages. Because I took out anyone who knew about me.
Except for today.
I was gonna show Aubry that I loved her by letting her friend live.
19
Aubry
"Well, don’t you look worse than a shriveled cock!" Tee exclaimed the moment she saw me, her bright pink hair the boldest thing in the forest.
My jaw dropped to see the six-inch-tall pixie in Easton’s huge hand. I was relieved, shocked, mortified—I didn’t know what I was. It was like a toddler was fingerpainting my feelings, blurring all the colors together into a muddy mess. I rushed toward the front door of the cabin, which Drake had left open. I figured he’d done it to mock me with the taste of freedom while he went and drank his instant coffee on the cabin’s porch steps.
I could only get as far as the open front door before my chain ran out. My eyes traveled up to Easton and Bodie who stood side by side. Behind them was a beat up car that I hadn’t even heard drive up; I’d been too busy cursing Drake under my breath and watching the one and only children’s movie in the place for the eightieth time.
Last time I’d seen Easton, he’d looked wrecked. Even now, his eyes were shuttered, like he was trying hard to keep whatever was going on inside of him locked up tight.
Bodie, though, he looked at me with fire in his eyes, and I couldn’t tell if it was fueled by desire or hate. Not until he said, "According to the flying rat, the two of you are friends. So I didn’t kill her for you."
My hands flew to cover my mouth, shock and disgust my first reaction. Unlike the finger paintings from a moment ago, these emotions were very distinct. Then came anger. I launched myself at Bodie, but the chain around my ankle halted me so abruptly that I smashed face-first into the floor.
Fuck me.
No, fuck them!
I glared out at Bodie and Easton. "You can’t go kidnapping the people in my life."
"You’d rather I kill them?" Bodie asked, pulling out a giant hunting knife from his jacket and turning toward Tee. The knife glinted in the early morning sunlight as he stepped closer.
"Jesus-fucking-Christ! No! That’s not what I said!" I held up my hands and clambered ungracefully to my feet.
Easton stepped away from Bodie and his giant Bowie knife, lifting his elbow to shelter Tee by blocking the wolf shifter. For once, Tee seemed to have no words.
"Well, those were the options." Bodie smoothly slid the knife back into his jacket as if he was discussing financial statements or some shit. "She saw me, so it was either kill or kidnap."
He had no emotion in his tone whatsoever. His light green eyes stayed calmly focused on me. Psychopath. And to think I’d been starting to wonder if we were truly mates.
No. No way. I refused to believe it.
I turned away from the rabid dog shifter and held my hands out to Easton. I spoke through my teeth. I couldn’t even look at Bodie again just then or I was going to try to shoot fire from my hands and melt his fucking face off. "Can I please have Tee?"
He shuffled forward along the gravel drive, still avoiding eye contact with me.
Drake stood from his perch on the stairs, allowing Easton passage, before walking off in the direction of the piece of shit car the other two had rode in on.
He doesn’t care that his wolf pup almost killed my friend?
Of course he didn’t. Drake only cared about himself. That ass.
Easton thrust Tee toward me and I gently scooped her up, brushing his hand softly in thanks. I had no doubt it was Easton, not Bodie, who’d spared Tee. He pulled back like my touch had stung him and then shuffled over to Bodie’s side. I glanced between them.
Bros before hoes, huh? Fine.
They were three of a kind. Three peas in a fucked up pod. Three strikes and I’m out. The rock, paper, scissors of my tumultuous existence. A match made in hell.
I had Tee. I didn’t need another friend… or ‘good captor’ or whatever the hell they were.
My sarcast-o-meter was apparently broken, but that didn’t matter. Tee was safe, and she was here—that’s all I cared about. I hugged her tight against my chest as another thought came to me. If she was here, there was no way Aaron wasn’t searching for us already.
If Bodie could feel me leave, surely Aaron could feel Tee. Or was he used to her leaving? Would he assume nothing was wrong if their mate bond stretched because it often did in the MP line of work?
I shuttered my face so the guys wouldn’t know that seeing Tee had given me hope for another rescue attempt. A better one. The fact that Trite had only brought one Portal Potion had been rubbing me wrong for days. I mean, if he’d been planning on rescuing me, then why the hell hadn’t he brought two?
I walked Tee into the living room and curled up on the broken couch with my back toward the buttlicking shifters.
I stared down at her, noticing she had small iron cuffs around her wrists. Of course. "Tee, are you okay?"
She glared up at me. "No, I’m not okay! Those floppy-eared fucks stemmed my magic! I can’t fly, can’t hurt anyone. I’m like a fucking infant that has to be carried around." She flopped down on a couch pillow, stirring up a cloud of dust. After coughing for a moment, she lowered her voice and leaned in close to me. "And why the fuck haven’t you broken out of here yet?"
Her dark brown eyes gleamed, full to the brim with conspiracy theories.
"What?" I leaned back as if she’d slapped me in the face.
"You know the council expects you to break out and bring these fuckers in, right?" Tee raised a brow, like I was the one acting crazy, not her.
"Excuse me!" I intended to whisper, but it came out as more of a shout.
I glanced over my shoulder. Bodie stood in the doorway, watching us as he leaned against the doorframe, as casual as could be. I left the couch and stormed over to him.
"We’re having a private conversation! Get the fuck out!"
"Not before I get my thank you kiss," he murmured, his green eyes dropping to my lips.
"Thank you? You think I want to fucking thank you for stealing my friend away from her life?" I marched right up to him, rage billowing around me as I leaned in close. "You want me to thank you for hunting down my best friend with the intent to kill him? No. You are dead to me, mutt."
Bodie’s eyes lost their calm and something fierce lit up beneath them. They turned that mixed shade of gold and green again as he grabbed my upper arms roughly and pulled me against his chest. He snarled and fur started to erupt from his arms and down the sides of his neck.
I narrowed my eyes and glared up at him. "Get away from me, filthy shifter."
With a howl, Bodie’s head shifted and he shoved me to the ground. I fell hard on the chain as he ran out the front door and into the dawn in werewolf form.
I sat there, staring after him, my heart dragging through the brush along the ground, tripping over stones, getting caught on sticks, brutalized… but still chasing after him.
I had to swallow down the urge to call out his name. Fuck emotions. I could live without a heart.
I turned away from Drake and Easton, who stood in the kitchen holding grocery bags of food as they watched me. I was starving, but suddenly, eating sounded like the worst thing in the world. Or maybe the best. I wasn’t sure. My body was going haywire. I felt like I’d fallen into a hole like Alice and I had emerged somewhere unidentifiable. Somewhere insane. Nothing in my life made sense anymore.
I stumbled back to Tee and tried to hold back the tears of confusion and frustration.
She shook her head and stared up at me, thoughtfully blinking a couple times. Then she lea
ned forward and whispered. "Honey, are they drugging you? Like with human stuff?"
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. "I wish."
Tee’s eyes popped and she glanced over my shoulder at the kitchen, where Drake and Easton were shuffling around and putting away boxes and shelving fresh vegetables. Shit that smelled like real food, not just the canned gruel Drake and I had choked down every night for dinner because neither of us could fucking cook worth a shit. Not even rice. How could we fuck up rice?
"What’s going on, then?" Tee wrapped her hand around my little finger.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I was nervous to say it. No, not nervous. Humiliated. No, furious at the fucking stars for aligning like this.
"That taint curd who shifted and ran off… he thinks we have a mate bond." I peeked out at Tee, whose jaw had dropped and left her mouth gaping.
"No! A mate bond with a shifter? Who not only gives off total serial killer vibes but is one of your kidnappers?" Tee climbed up my arm and sat on my shoulder to give a full body hug to my cheek. "I wish I had a growth potion right now, so I could get larger and squeeze you. You poor thing! No wonder you haven’t gotten away."
Her sympathy broke my shell of anger that covered the sadness hiding deep inside. A single tear escaped. But I quickly wiped it away when footsteps headed our direction. I pulled Tee down onto my lap and cradled her, determined to take the brunt of whatever anger Drake was about to throw my way.
That asshole was always angry. The only time I ever saw him smile was when he’d walk outside at night and shift to expel the tiniest bit of fire. He’d stand there and stare at the flames, entranced. But I was pretty sure I was about to get reamed for telling Bodie to eat shit. I straightened my back and tensed, ready to give back as good as I got.
But it wasn’t Drake who walked up. Easton stood off to the side of the couch, holding out a bowl of Pho. My eyes widened and my stomach turned traitor. It grumbled, begging him for the food.
Fae Captive (The Mage Shifter War Book 1) Page 20
