“Good,” Felix said.
At the door, Dirk turned to look at them. “I’m afraid I don’t have any other spare cabins. Diana, do you want to come to my cabin or stay here?”
She hesitated and shocked Felix down to his toes when she said, “Stay here.”
Dirk pointed a finger at Felix. “I want a pack’s promise that you won’t assault her.”
“Pack’s promise,” Felix said easily. “I would never assault anyone in the way you’re thinking. I hate even the concept of rape.”
Dirk looked at the debris spread around the cabin. “I suppose so, since you went all out.”
“That wasn’t all out,” Felix said darkly.
If Felix went “all out,” masses of people could die.
“Either way, your promise is good enough for me since you can’t break it. You can stay for a week. I’ll decide what we should do after that.”
Felix saluted Diana’s father’s back as he left through the door, shutting it behind him.
The cabin was quiet and awkward with him gone.
Diana walked back over to her sleeping bag. “There’s another bag in the chest over there if you want it.”
Felix went to grab it, still marveling at the way things had gone that night.
He set up his bed on the far side of the cabin and listened as Diana made rustling noises changing and getting back in her sleeping bag.
When it was quiet and they were both bedded down, he realized he could hear quiet sniffling.
He sat upright, glaring over at her, and saw her back was turned to him as he faced the wall. “Are you crying?”
“No,” she said tersely. “Just cold.”
Felix picked up his sleeping bag and walked over to her, looking down to try and make out her expression in the dark. “I don’t believe you.”
She didn’t say anything, just pulled the sleeping bag up around her face, hiding.
Felix realized that despite her toughness, she was still just a young woman. Just like behind his assassin façade, he was just a young man.
And right now, he felt like comforting her.
He set his bag down next to her and laid on it, scooting closer.
When she stiffened, he wrapped one arm around her, pulling her sleeping bag in against him.
“I’m just going to hold you,” he said softly, running a hand through her hair. “Help you sleep. Nothing else. Remember, I made a pack’s promise. If you tell me to leave you alone, I will.”
“Why are you doing this?” She looked up at him, face tearstained. “You aren’t supposed to comfort me. I’m supposed to just get stronger. I’m not supposed to be afraid.”
“No,” he said, stroking her hair again, luxuriating in her trust as she closed her eyes. “That kind of thing would terrify anyone. Your father doesn’t understand.”
“And you do?”
“Maybe.” He pulled her in a little tighter. “Anyway, it’s fine. You just sleep for now. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
“You won’t do anything?”
“Nothing but keep you safe.”
“You’re so weird, Felix,” she said faintly on the edge of a yawn. “I never thought you could be like this.”
He laughed softly as she relaxed in his arms, headed for sleep.
“I never knew I could be like this either.”
Chapter 12
The Present
Diana awoke with the same sense of fury she’d had when Felix had used his power on her. When she looked down to see herself tied to a chair, her anger only increased.
“You’re going to regret that,” she said fiercely.
“I have the right to imprison someone who’s trying to assassinate me,” Felix said, sitting gingerly on the edge of the bed and facing her. He was wearing a black dressing robe over silk pajamas and was still glowing from the sex they’d had.
So she couldn’t have been out that long.
“That’s not why you’re keeping me here, and you know it,” she spat, struggling with the ropes. “You know I could just shift.”
“No,” Felix said. “You think I don’t have rope for binding wolf shifters? Silly. Now you’re going to answer some questions if you want to go.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have to tell you anything. Right now, you’re committing a crime.”
“My friends know you’ve been trying to commit a crime by killing me,” Felix retorted, folding his powerful arms.
“Yeah, and at least one of them doesn’t blame me,” she said sourly. “Besides, I’m not actually trying to kill you. You’d be at least hurt by now, if not dead.”
Felix raised his chin. “You couldn’t beat me. We both know that.” His brows lowered in consternation. “Just tell me why there was fear in your eyes when you were about to leave. Tell me who’s after you.”
“No one is after me,” she said truthfully. At least, it would be the truth as long as no one at the compound found out she’d been sleeping with the enemy. Literally.
“There, in your eyes. I saw it just then,” Felix said, snapping his fingers. “What were you thinking about just then?”
She shook her head. “Things I can’t tell you about. You can’t just keep me here like this, and I can’t tell you all my secrets. So I guess we’re at an impasse.”
Felix let out an aggravated sigh as he stood and walked over to her chair, looking like he didn’t know what to do either. “I can keep you here. I don’t mind paying whatever penalty there is, though I pity whoever tries to enforce it on me.” He leaned down so they were nose to nose. “You and I are inevitable. You know that now, as do I, after what we just did together. Your body responded like I own it. Perhaps I do. I’d like to.”
She let out a hiss. “You wish.”
“I saw you,” he insisted. “Flailing in my arms, lost in pleasure, calling my name. No matter what’s in the past, isn’t a future like that worth pursuing?”
She looked to the side, unsure. “I can’t mate you. I already told you that.”
“I can be patient. I can wait until you’re ready.”
“No, you don’t get it. I can’t mate you. Can’t.”
His unique eyes went cold like frozen violets. “What do you mean?”
Her throat was tight, jaw aching as she tried to figure out how to tell him. What to tell him.
She should be trying to kill him, not feeling bad for saying they couldn’t be mated.
She needed to stay strong.
“Let me go,” she said softly. “If I don’t get back…”
“Get back where? Why?” Felix asked. “I’ll let you go if you just tell me you’ll be safe there.”
How had she forgotten how overprotective he could be?
She blinked, fighting back tears. “You’ve had a whole different life since I knew you. You have a sister. Your life in the Tribunal wasn’t what I thought. Everything’s complicated, except for the fact that I’ve changed and I can’t take it back now. There’s nothing I can do.”
“How did you change? What do you mean?” Felix started pacing, hands behind his back. It was almost as if he could sense that she was about to say something he wouldn’t want to hear.
She gulped, wondering if she could actually show him.
She’d always been invisible before, afraid to let anyone see.
Surely, no one could accept her in her new form.
Perhaps that was the answer to getting Felix to give up on her, because no matter how sweet he was being, it was too late.
He would see why in a moment.
As she took one last chance to study him, she couldn’t help wondering what things would have been like if he’d just left the Tribunal to stay with her. If they’d been able to run away.
Maybe they’d be in a forest somewhere, running as wolves, free in warm sunlight and cool mountain air.
Maybe they’d be dead in a ditch.
Who knew?
Diana flicked out a claw and began to work on the rop
es.
“Don’t bother trying to break those,” Felix said. “They were designed by the Tribunal to hold even the strongest alpha wolves. Just tell me why you’re afraid and how I can help you, and I’ll let you go immediately. I don’t want to—”
The ropes fell to the ground with a thump, succumbing to the venom stored in her nails.
She flexed her hands, letting her long black talons hit the light.
Felix took a step back, staring down at them. “You… That’s impossible.”
She sighed as she examined them in the moonlight, lit by toxic green shimmer. “Your Tribunal friends… they do some interesting experiments.”
His jaw dropped as shock moved over him, and then his mouth snapped shut and his expression was angry. As angry as it had been when he’d beaten up Bernard all those years ago.
Angrier.
A little thrill went through her at the thought that someone actually cared that she’d been ruined.
She walked to the window and got on the sill again, taking a deep breath. Felix was walking over to her, raising his hand as if to put her to sleep again.
The rage on his face didn’t change the calm control he always had over his abilities.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Perhaps it isn’t your fault. Winslow said you betrayed me, but after talking with you, I’m not sure. But it doesn’t really matter because even if I forgive you, even if I’m not angry, I can’t make a life with you. I can’t mate you.”
“You don’t know that,” Felix said fiercely. “There’s still so much to work out between us. Where we’ve been. How I can help you—”
“I don’t need your help anymore,” she said sharply. “Ironic, isn’t it?”
She closed her eyes and let pain burst through her back as she bent forward and let the transformation take over.
She fell out of the window and onto the fire escape ledge right in front of it, and as she slowly stood, wings unfurling in unholy glory, she heard Felix let out a gasp.
His brows were lowered, his hands fisted, and his mouth was twisted in disgust.
He was horrified, taking a step back from her.
He fell to his knees, losing his strength as he watched her, and she felt savage satisfaction in knowing that he felt she was ruined as well.
“You’re a… a…”
“A wyvern,” she said, her voice hissing. “Happy now?”
He shook his head, looking blind to everything around him. She could smell his panic, his rage, his fear.
“But we… But you…” He looked down at his hands, so big and powerful, so helpless. “It shouldn’t…”
Diana faced the night, dark and cold and empty, and let her wings do a testing flap up and down. “This is what I am now, Felix.” She lifted into the air and turned to face him. “And now that you know we can’t be together, maybe you’ll be ready to fight me properly when I come back.”
Then she let herself go invisible and flew away into the night.
Chapter 13
“I can’t believe you called me over this late,” Lock said, pacing in front of Felix’s bed as Felix stared at the carpet, trying to regain his sanity.
It took a lot to shake him, but what he’d seen when Diana was leaving definitely had.
“I could be with Tasha, giving her sweet loving and—” He sniffed the air. “You were getting it on in here with your wolf girl, so why call me and ruin your night?”
Ha, Felix thought. You can’t ruin a night that is already ruined.
Lock sat in the chair and sighed. “All griping aside, what’s wrong, Fifi? You never ask for help.”
“I didn’t say I wanted help,” Felix said. “I said I wanted info. And you still owe me for not beating you up for mating my sister.”
Lock raised an eyebrow. “We saved your life.”
“I didn’t ask you to.” Right now, Felix didn’t really feel grateful. He just felt rage and sadness and a sense of regret.
The hope he’d begun to feel since Diana had come into his life had evaporated.
At some point, she’d been captured by the Tribunal. Experimented on. Turned into something forbidden. Fuck. No wonder she was furious with Felix. She must have thought he betrayed her. She’d even mentioned Winslow, saying he’d told her as much.
“Goddammit,” Felix said, slamming his hand into the edge of the bed frame, making it crack.
“Benny won’t like that,” Lock said, eyeing it sardonically. “Now, how about we use our words?”
Felix didn’t have words. He’d seen Diana, his Diana, with glowing red eyes and grotesque, deformed wings.
A creature from a dragon’s nightmare. Something that was never supposed to exist at all. The Tribunal had previously taken volunteers for the wyvern project, but apparently, they also weren’t afraid to use force.
Because Diana loved her wolf. She never would have given it up.
“What do you know about wyverns?” Felix asked, folding his arms.
“Probably same as you,” Lock said. “You might even know more.”
Felix shook his head. “I wasn’t involved with the labs. I stayed away from them. Would have shut them all down if I had any say in it, but I didn’t.” He rubbed his forehead. “Everyone is right. I was just their dog.”
“For your sister,” Lock said. “No one should blame you for making the choice you did.”
“I tried,” Felix said, feeling his voice crack. Embarrassment at the visibility of his pain only made him more furious. “I tried to protect those around me. I tried not to kill when I didn’t need to. I tried to make a life that wasn’t awful, but I failed, and the woman I loved was turned into a wyvern.”
Lock stood abruptly. “The one from downstairs? She’s a wyvern?”
Felix nodded.
“She doesn’t smell like wyvern,” Lock said, exhaling as he stared at the floor. “I just… Damn, man. I’m sorry.”
Felix knew if he looked up, Lock would be trying to meet his eyes, but Felix didn’t want to see anyone.
Maybe not ever again.
Truly, Lock shouldn’t have saved him. He never wanted to see Diana like this. He never wanted to know how badly he’d failed. And what was the point now? He couldn’t help her. Couldn’t reverse what she was.
She was a monster.
Lock sat down by him on the bed, making the mattress sink. Felix looked away from him.
“Hey,” Lock said. “It’s not all lost. What do you know about wyverns?”
Felix clasped his hands so tight his knuckles were white. “I know they’re created by injecting dragon blood of varying levels into a wolf. I know it’s permanent.”
“Yeah, but there are different types,” Lock said. “Some can’t even shift, so that’s something.”
Felix looked up at him, hope filtering through for the first time. “So you think she isn’t full wyvern?”
“Is she an alpha?” Lock asked. “They have more resistance. They can shift back and forth or have a semi-shifted form.”
“She’s an alpha,” Felix confirmed. “What does that mean long term, though? All wyverns are ordered exterminated on sight. The Tribunal doesn’t even admit to creating them. Dragons hunt them.”
Though, Felix knew deep down that, wyvern or not, Diana was his, and he’d fight anyone who came for her.
Perhaps going down in a blaze of dragon fire, trying to defend her would be an adequate punishment for letting her down.
“Stop it,” Lock said. “You’re not like this. You don’t get hopeless. You get even. Find out who did this to her and take them down.”
Felix ran a hand through his hair. “All the labs were shut down when the Tribunal fell. And it wouldn’t help her if I killed every scientist they’ve got. Unless there’s some kind of cure.”
Lock shook his head. “It’s genetic mutation. We can’t undo it. Not without risking much worse.”
Felix pushed himself off the bed and paced again because staying still was practically painful. “I
… I still want her. Is it possible?” He looked at the bed. “We made love.”
Lock made a disgusted face as he launched off the bed like it was burning him. “I knew it!” He brushed the seat of his pants off, making Felix finally laugh. “So gross. Anyway… as for possible, I don’t know.”
Felix’s mind raced through anything he could remember about wyverns, other than the fact that he’d been trained to kill them on sight.
He’d killed probably hundreds, though Diana didn’t need to know that if she didn’t ask him. All were wolves that took dragon blood, thinking it would help them gain power, and ended up twisted, ruined versions of themselves instead.
None of them had looked like Diana, though, except for the wings and eye color.
It simply made no sense.
“What would you do if Tasha were turned into a wyvern?” Felix asked.
Lock’s sunset-colored eyes were haunted just imagining it. “I’d want to die just knowing I’d failed her. But of course, I’d try to make it up to her for the rest of our lives.”
“People will be hunting us,” Felix said. “Frankly, I’m surprised she’s found anyone to team up with.”
“Why do you think she has a team?”
“She was nervous about getting back somewhere, like she was expected.”
Lock’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, but if they take in wyverns, they probably aren’t people you want to meet.”
“Maybe they don’t know,” Felix said. “Maybe they were thrown off by her alpha female scent.”
“It bears a lot more investigation,” Lock said. “That’s for certain. What do you want to do about it?”
Felix had no idea.
“Now that you have her wyvern scent, couldn’t you track her down?”
Felix gritted his teeth together. “I suppose, but…”
“But you don’t really know what you’d do when you got there.”
“It’s more that I’m not sure how she would react.” He tapped his foot irritably. Now that he was recovering from the shock of seeing that she wasn’t a wolf anymore, his brain was spinning through various options and plans.
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