by K Loraine
“Briar,” he said, reaching for my hand at the base of the stairs. “You are a vision of loveliness.”
“Don’t flatter me, Nik. I’ve decided to accept your proposal of mating. We will have the ceremony at the next full moon if that suits you.”
His mouth opened, then closed, and he frowned at me. “But you were so fiercely against it.”
“You were right about everything. Lucas was using me for his own devices. I should have listened to you from the beginning.”
He gripped my hand tightly and brought it to his lips, “I will be the mate you deserve. I swear to you.”
“Thank you.” He was right. He would be exactly what I deserved. Someone who was loyal but didn’t truly love me. Someone who sparked nothing but the barest friendly feelings. I would never have passion with Nik. But I didn’t think I could have it with anyone ever again.
We sat together, Nik next to me, as our servants brought out dish after dish, wine for all of us. It was strange to be seated at the table with our guests, which included my aunt and uncle who were here to bury their son, and two heads of neighboring packs. I had missed a great deal while grieving Lucas’ betrayal.
“My wife tells me we have a happy occasion to celebrate amidst all of the turmoil we’ve endured over the past months.” My father stood, holding his glass aloft. “Briar has agreed to a mating with our most trusted pack member, Niklas. We will have a ceremony and celebration on the next full moon.”
The guests all made murmurs of congratulations, but they were half-hearted. They didn’t know my connection to the attack from the Blackthornes, but tensions were high.
“This is all well and good, but what are we going to do about the vampire scum that took my boy?” my uncle asked, slamming his fist on the table and shaking the dishes.
“The offense has been dealt with by the High Council. Lucas Blackthorne was banished.” My mother offered this as though it frustrated her to have to say it again.
“He should have been punished with death.”
“Lucas attacked only after Maxim threatened the life of his companion. Apparently, she was the vampire he’d been promised to. Their marriage was imminent.” Nik’s pointed gaze found mine, and I swore he dug his claws into my aching heart. He’d been holding on to that, ready to use it whenever he needed it. Another point against Lucas.
“That doesn’t make his actions any less reprehensible,” my aunt argued.
“No, I’m not saying it does. But it does give the council reason to lessen the punishment.”
My aunt’s mouth tightened into a harsh slash. “You wouldn’t be saying that if it was your child he brutalized and left without a heart.”
“He did do that. He did it to Briar. She’s been walking around a shell of herself because of his actions.” My mother surprised me by coming to the defense of Lucas’ choices. “I’d see him dead if he returned to these lands, but I won’t go against the council’s decision.”
Standing too quickly, I pushed my chair backward with such force it toppled and startled everyone in the room. “I have lost my appetite. Please excuse me.”
I couldn’t stay there any longer. My heart ached from the weight of everything I was still working through. Conflicting emotions tore at me. I hated Lucas for putting this into motion, for making me aware of everything I could feel and then destroying it all.
Nik followed me silently all the way to my room before finally speaking. “Don’t give him power over you. Don’t let him make you feel less deserving of happiness. He is the villain in your story, but you are the heroine.”
“And I suppose you’re my hero?”
“If you want me to be.”
I stared hard at him. “I don’t need a hero, Nik. I am my own hero.”
17
LUCAS
* * *
There were worse places to be banished than London, but Gabriel knew that. He knew that the worst thing he could do would be to remove Briar’s mark, make me live without her, and show me what could have been before ripping it all away.
“Fucking angels,” I muttered as I prowled the streets, looking, not for donors, but for demons to dispatch. Gabriel had delivered me unto the angel Azriel with one set of instructions. Return as many demons to Hell as possible. If I wanted to go home, I had to meet an unknown quota of vanquishes. Only Azriel knew the number. The angel of death had my life in his hands. How fitting.
“You’re short tonight,” the deep rumbling voice said from behind me. Azriel stood a few feet away, his long, dark hair trailing down his shoulders, out of fashion for the time, but so was his style of clothing. He stood out like a sore thumb, and he didn’t care one iota.
“Perhaps I’ve scared them all off?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If anyone frightens them, it is I. You are never going to serve your penance this way. I wonder if you need a bit of…motivation.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “I am not in the mood for your angelic riddles, Death. I will kill more of them tomorrow, and the night after, and the night after. They will still be there.”
“I see. And you do not care to know what your soulmate is doing at this very moment?”
My stomach twisted at the thought of Briar, at the acknowledgment from an angel that she was my soulmate. “If I say no?”
“I will know you’re lying.”
“Fine,” I said on a sigh. “Tell me. What is she doing?”
“She is preparing for her mating ceremony.”
I felt sick. Who? That entitled ass, Nik? She couldn’t be with him. She was mine. “How do you know this?”
He sighed. “I have been…staying close to the area. Preparing.”
“Preparing for what?” He didn’t answer me, but his silence spoke volumes. “Someone is going to die. You’ll be needed there.”
He stared me straight in the eyes and didn’t flinch. “Yes. Someone will die. I will claim their soul. It can’t be stopped.”
“Briar…” I couldn’t continue past her name. I couldn’t utter the words because even without a mating mark or a blood bond between us, if I lost her, if she no longer existed in the world, she’d take every last part of me that was human with her.
“I don’t know who. I only know I will be called when the time comes.”
“Take me with you when you go.” Desperation clawed at my chest. I had to do anything possible to save her if Briar was his target.
“It isn’t permitted, Lucas. You’re banished until Gabriel sees you’ve served your penance.”
“I have vanquished hundreds of demons. Saved countless oblivious humans. Surely I’ve done enough.”
“Has your mark faded?”
I looked down at the wings etched into my forearm. There they were, black like my soul. “No.”
“Then you haven’t earned your place. This punishment is meant to last centuries, Lucas. It isn’t something the council takes lightly. You murdered another protected by the accords. It is a serious and capital crime. By all accounts, you should have paid with your life.”
“I’ve paid with my love. I lost her. Now she may be in danger of death, and I can’t help her.”
The air shifted, and the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Gabriel appeared next to Azriel, an expression of annoyance and frustration etched across his features.
“Brother, I wasn’t expecting a visit,” Azriel said.
“I wasn’t expecting such a turn of events. Lucas, come with me. There has been a…revelation in your case.”
Azriel grinned. “You were wrong, after all?”
Gabriel shook his head. “No. I was more right than either of us believed.”
He gripped my elbow, and the world spun, a dizzying, sickening tilt of my center of gravity. When we stopped, I was immediately inundated by scents familiar and heartbreaking all at the same time. Briar was everywhere in these woods. “Gabriel?”
“You did not disclose every detail of your conflict with the shifters, Lucas.�
�
“I gave you everything I was part of.”
“But it was Astrid who shed first blood. Astrid who was the aggressor. Without her attack, you would have never become involved.”
A bitter taste filled my mouth at the memory of watching her run for the witches. I should have stopped her. “I was responsible for her.”
“I cannot banish you for what happened. You were right. Maxim was ready to deal the killing blow. Astrid was defenseless at this point. Though he was retaliating, you acted in defense of your kind. You do not deserve banishment.”
“And what of the punishment for the attack?”
He glanced to the east. “Astrid has paid the price.”
“How?”
“She will bear the scars of her punishment for eternity.”
Burning pain raced up my arm where my own mark had been placed. I glanced down to find it gone. “I’m free?”
He nodded. “Go. Your destiny waits for you. Though I can not say whether it ends happily.”
“Where is she?” I asked, desperation making my voice break.
“My part is done here. Whether you find her is not my concern. Good luck to you. May our paths never cross again.”
My ears popped as he left me there, alone in the woods, straddling Blackthorne and Dumond lands. “Give me strength to find her,” I whispered, not sure to whom I spoke.
Her blood was no longer in my system; we weren’t bound in any way thanks to Gabriel removing her mating mark. All I had left was a faint scar as a reminder of our love. So I had to use the only thing I could think of to find her. Scent.
I ran hard and fast, tracing the beloved wildness that was Briar. It brought me to the Dumond estate, dark and empty. Not a hint of anyone residing inside. The door was ajar, and I stepped over the threshold. Dread sank my stomach like a stone. The house was void of life, furniture covered in sheets, the air smelling of emptiness. They’d left. She was gone. Why would Gabriel bring me here if I wasn’t going to find her?
I screamed as rage took hold of my senses and overwhelmed me. My throat raw from the ragged sound wrenched from my soul, I sat on the staircase and wracked my brain in search of some sign to her whereabouts.
“Where are you, my wild wolf?” I whispered.
Then I heard the howling. A chorus of wolves all in unison, calling to the moon, calling me without realizing their mistake.
On my feet within a heartbeat, I raced in the direction of the sound, needing to see her with my own eyes to ensure her safety. Azriel would not come for her. He would take me before he took her.
No matter how she hated me, I would not see her harmed.
BRIAR
* * *
The howling made my bones vibrate with the sheer power of the moment. This was the beginning of the end of my life. I’d be mated to a man I didn’t love, locked into a life with him that was shaded by pretense. But at least I’d have my pack. That was what I’d told myself every day since Lucas had left. Now, I stood in the moonlight, under a canopy of stars and night-blooming jasmine, flowers in my damn hair, and a white dress that kissed the forest floor.
“You look beautiful,” my mother said, fiddling with my hair and giving me those proud eyes that made my stomach twist with guilt for not being happier about this.
“I’m so sorry about everything.”
Her fingers brushed my cheek. “I know. But the time for guilt is over. Tonight you’ll move forward and make strides toward fixing the break in our pack. We won’t let them come between us.”
I took her hand and nodded. “We won’t. Not again.”
The howls stopped, and the air around us grew heavy with magic. “It’s time,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the archway of trees and the mist-covered path that would lead to the altar they’d made this morning. “Niklas will be a good mate. I promise.”
Swallowing back the tears I fought to contain, I whispered, “I trust you.”
We walked together, slowly and with purpose, her hand in mine. She carried me into this life, she would carry me to the next chapter. Pack tradition decreed it so. I thought of other daughters who’d lost their mothers to hunters over the last few years. Girls I called friends and pack members. They wouldn’t have this when their time came to take a mate. My mother would act in their stead. I was a lucky one. I should have been thankful. Instead, I was terrified.
My gown trailed along the path lined with pillar candles, all glowing with warm light. I could feel them all, the shifters of my pack. Every last one of them was here to witness the mating rite of their pack alpha’s daughter.
“Mother, they’re all here, aren’t they?”
“Yes. Of course. Word traveled fast after…after Maxim was murdered. They’ve all been mourning, as have we. Tonight they celebrate a happy union.”
“Happy,” I muttered.
“Yes. Because that’s what you’ll show them. A happy union, not a broken girl suffering the aftereffects of a manipulative bastard.”
I cringed at her words, but she was right. Pushing aside the flash of memory, the wave of unwanted desire, the heat that crawled up my skin, I took another step along the path.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said.
My hands shook as we grew closer to the crowd, and when I saw Nik standing at the end of the aisle, a handsome bridegroom to be sure, I felt…nothing. He deserved more than my apathy, and I would do my best to learn to be happy.
Nik didn’t smile. He wasn’t the smiling kind. Instead, he kept his hands clasped in front of him, eyes hard, jaw tight. But there was something else in his eyes. Excitement, perhaps.
He wanted this. That wasn’t a surprise to me. But it stirred something inside me.
He held out a hand, and my mother lifted mine and placed it in his palm.
“I place her in your care, Nik. Treat her as precious and rare, for that is what she is.”
Nik nodded and squeezed my fingers. “I give my word.”
He pulled me closer and leaned in. “You are stunning.”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to be the woman he thought he was getting. Instead, I was a shell, hollow and thin, easily broken.
My father stood under the archway made of woven branches. “Tonight, we join my daughter and my most trusted pack member in observing the mating vows.”
The pack howled in chorus, even in their human forms. My father raised a hand, and they fell silent. “Nik, go ahead.”
Nik locked gazes with me and took both of my hands. “Etched in blood, sealed together, I give my power, my love, my faith, to you, Briar. My mark will be yours alone as long as we live. My heart will be yours alone for eternity. My soul bound to yours until time stops.” My heart ached at the sound of the words instinct had taught me. Those very words I’d spoken to Lucas when I gave him my mating mark.
I stood there, taking it in, lost in the weight of everything around me, until my father cleared his throat and said, “It’s your turn, Briar.”
I swallowed hard, my hands trembled, and nausea clutched my gut. I opened my mouth and began to speak words I thought I’d never utter to another.
“My, my, my, what a dress. Is white really your color, my wild wolf?” My whole body burned at the sound of his voice.
Gasping, I turned and saw Lucas standing at the far end of the aisle, clad in a black suit, bow tie carelessly undone and draped around his neck. He was rakish and painfully beautiful.
“Blackthorne, what are you doing here? You’re banished.” My mother shouted the question and stood.
Lucas shrugged. “Afraid not. Seems banishment only works when you’re completely at fault.”
“You killed Maxim.”
“And he was going to kill Astrid.” He shrugged. “Gabriel pardoned me. If there’s any issue, take it up with him. I am certain the archangel can find time to speak with you.”
“This is an outrage.” Nik released my hands and stepped in front of me. “My mate and I are in the middle of something, vampire.
”
Lucas laughed. “Oh, what a pity this isn’t going to end well for you.”
“I have the power of my entire pack behind me. Interrupting us, threatening us, that’s grounds for defense.”
“Did you tell him you can’t be his?” Lucas asked, eyes on me.
“I—”
Nik interrupted me. “She can and she will.”
A low chuckle fell from Lucas. “Oh, poor stupid dog. She’s already given away her mark. To me.”
He pulled up his shirt to show the mating mark I’d etched into his skin.
It was faded, but there. My mother gasped, and my father emitted a low growl. But it was Nik who lost all control. He snarled and shifted into a wolf, bounding down the aisle faster than Lucas could get out of the way. The wolf got in a strong swipe along Lucas’ side, making him grunt with pain and fall to his knees. Then Nik leapt on him, pushing him onto his back.
I couldn’t believe he’d bested Lucas. Nik’s claws dug into Lucas’ chest, but the vampire let out a low growl, and with one harsh shove, he threw Nik off him. Blood ran down the front and side of his white shirt, staining it a striking crimson. The wolf circled, teeth bared, hackles up, every muscle tensed. But Lucas turned away from him, showing no fear. He locked gazes with me and said, “Come with me, wife. You and I need to have a conversation.”
Nik lunged, leaping through the air silently, and I gasped. It was all I could do. Lucas didn’t tear his focus from me. His hand shot out, a blur of motion, and he caught Nik in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Was this really the true power of a vampire? His senses were heightened beyond what I’d thought possible. Nik shifted back into his human form, knocked unconscious, unable to keep himself changed. Lucas strode toward me, the crowd watching in awe. No one moved a muscle, likely from the shock of what they’d seen. They were waiting. For me.
“Lucas, I’m not your wife. You lied to me. You used me.”
“You don’t understand what was at stake, Briar.” He reached for me, but I pulled back.
