But first I needed a viable sample of the Kitsune infant’s blood to bond with mine. Since losing Riza and the child she’d been carrying, her sister was my only source, and I’d damn anyone to the pits of Hades, even Manda, if they tried to take her from me.
Kitsune babies were the key to everything now.
Sochi delivered her first baby months ago and was already pregnant with a second. Since the second pregnancy started, I’d eliminated all her outings and put her on drug-induced bed-rest, but not before making sure she made an appearance on the news. If Riza saw her sister, she would come back and perhaps I could bring her back into my breeding program.
Djinn guards and loyal Lycans I’d brought over to my side patrolled the mansion. Lycans who hated humans and wanted to see them pay for the atrocities they’d brought down on their species. Finding those who had a thirst for vengeance hadn’t been hard.
Supernaturals either wanted peace or wanted to rule. Manipulating people who were greedy for power and revenge was easy.
I glanced up at Manda’s shapely body. She wore a tailored black business suit and a sheer blouse beneath the jacket. She always attempted to hide her figure, but I knew exactly what she tried to hide. Normally I would ask her to strip and bend over my desk before delivering her report. But today was different. Today, she was bringing me the report from the lab.
“Well?” I asked, impatient to see what was in the blue file folder in her hand. “Give it to me.”
She laid the file on the desk quickly and backed away.
A grin tugged at my mouth, and I lifted one hand, grabbing her around the neck with my magick. She choked as I pulled her closer. Her shoes scraped against the floor as she fought the invisible leash.
“Why do you try? You are at my mercy. You will always be at my mercy. Even that Phoenix didn’t have the heart to put you out of your misery.”
Her bright eyes, sapphire blue from the contacts she wore to hide their natural lavender color, widened. The lustrous olive tint of her skin was beginning to pale as I starved her of oxygen.
A moment later, her eyes closed and she stopped struggling. I tossed her across the room and picked up the file she’d delivered –the lab report on the latest trial. Skimming it quickly, I passed over all the boring data until my eyes alighted on the single red word at the bottom of the page.
POSITIVE
I read on, burying the urge to shout in celebration. Finally.
Subject showed no signs of illness in the first twenty-four hours. Subject is now testing POSITIVE for human on all blood-related tests.
I flipped the page. Where was the trial on the scanning equipment we’d stolen from the Washington Republic? Why didn’t I have data on that?
Glaring across the room at Manda’s unconscious body, I growled.
The lack of data from the second trial was no doubt why she’d been so fidgety. So much for getting through the meeting without fucking her a couple of times. I suddenly needed to release some frustration, and she was going to oblige me. My earlier generosity had vanished when I realized the trials with the Kitsune blood were once again running behind schedule.
The idiots in the lab had assured me weeks ago that they were almost finished, yet each test had come back with negative side effects or inconclusive data. Screw the data.
Apparently, Manda wasn’t motivating them enough. I was quite sick of waiting. She was going soft on me. As much as I tortured her, she continued to thwart my progress. These delays were either a passive aggressive way of fighting me or a desperate attempt to try and force me to kill her once and for all.
No chance.
Standing from my desk, I turned and tugged on the painting that hung on the wall. It swung out silently, revealing the wall safe I’d had installed behind it. After punching in the code, I opened the thick steel door and plucked one of the quppa boxes from the bottom shelf. These boxes held Manda’s specific motivation. Over the centuries, I’d only had to kill off three people.
This would be the fourth. I wondered which person from her old life—the life where she’d been a queen of her people—was locked in this particular box. Would it be family? An old lover? I hadn’t opened the one with her mother yet. That would make for an interesting afternoon and certainly distract me from the disappointment of yet another failure.
Manda stirred on the floor, and I heard the telltale intake of breath that signaled she’d once again regained consciousness.
“You brought this on yourself. You haven’t done your job to the best of your ability, and you know there are always consequences for failing your assignments.”
She snarled, showing a little of the fight she used to have. The smug arrogance that led to her downfall and enslavement to me. To the enslavement of her entire kingdom and race.
“Ah, ah, ah,” I said, moving my pointer finger back and forth like a parent would warn a child. Then I pointed downward to the quppa box sitting on my desk.
She dove into a prostrate position on her knees, her hands stretched wide and her forehead plastered against the rug that decorated the center of the room.
“Please,” she begged, her voice trembling and barely louder than a whisper. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
“You were supposed to deliver two reports to me today. And now there will be a consequence for failure.”
“They weren’t done. The equipment malfunctioned. It was reading everyone incorrectly. They are working on it, I swear!” she said. The tone of her voice rose with each word. She wasn’t trying to hide her desperation.
“I warned you that each failure would result in the death of one of your people.”
“Please, just hurt me. Do what you will to me. They don’t deserve this!” She rose from her position on the floor and launched herself at the desk.
Her desperate attempt didn’t surprise me. I caught her with my magick mid-leap.
“Arthur! Weston! Get in here,” I bellowed. It was about time those two Lycan guards witnessed my wrath. Word would spread among their ranks and worked better than a threat directed at them.
Two large Lycan men bustled into the room.
“Hold her,” I said, pointing to Manda as she appeared to be floating in mid-air.
“Sir?”
I waved my hand, releasing her from my magick, and her body dropped to the ground with a pleasant thud. “Hold her.”
They both nodded and rushed forward, each grabbing her by an arm and pulling her into an upright position.
“You fucking bastard!” she screamed at me, her eyes glowing brightly, showing lavender through the contacts. “Stop! Xerxes, stop!” Her struggle was futile. The two Lycan’s were both a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier.
She was nothing without her powers. And lately, her keen mind was more of a nuisance than a benefit to my long-term plans. Still, I’d worked many years to get her into the high-ranking position of Director of Defense in the SECR human government. Manda’s very existence allowed me to control the entire SECR military without anyone being the wiser.
I picked up the little black box and whispered the ancient phrase that would release its prisoner.
“Run! Run! Run!” she screamed, over and over.
“Cover her mouth!” I bellowed.
They complied, and her warnings became nothing more than muffled moans, but it didn’t stop her from kicking and writhing in their grasp. I would enjoy fucking the fight out of her after this. She was always more enjoyable when she was riled and angry.
Risk was to be expected when releasing a being who was probably thousands of years old. They didn’t live that long because they were stupid. I had only a nanosecond to catch the prisoner between the time they materialized and the time they realized they needed to blink away from the situation.
A person materialized a few feet to my left.
It was a woman. Good. I especially like killing women. She cocked her head to the side, staring at me in confusion. A string of ancient Persian fell from her lips, and then she
noticed Manda struggling to her left across the room. But by then it was too late.
I squeezed my fist in the air and smiled as my magick tightened around the woman’s neck.
A second later, another Djinn blinked into the room. “Sir, guards in the…” His voice cut off when his gaze fell on the woman I was choking. “No!”
I used my other hand to reach for him, but he blinked away before I got a grasp on his essence. “Fucking Djinn always have the worst timing and no manners.” Who was the mystery woman? Apparently, the messenger had recognized her and was willing to cross me personally.
Pain shot through my back, and I gasped for breath. My magick faltered just long enough, and the other woman was gone before I could regain control. He stabbed me again and again, and I whirled, magick flowing like molten lava from my body. I fisted my hands together and then pulled them apart, using my magick to viciously separate his head from his body.
I turned from the gruesome scene to the guards where they held a now-sobbing Manda. My clothes were ruined from the stab wounds, but they were healing quickly. In a few hours, there wouldn’t even be a scar.
He hadn’t been trying to kill me, but I would’ve liked to know where he got his hands on a dragon-steel blade.
Picking it up from the floor where he dropped it, I twirled the blade in my hand. Only dragon steel could cut me. And only a dragon-steel blade forged in dragon-fire could truly hurt or kill me. Blades forged in the fire of a Drakonae’s breath left a thin coating of poison deadly only to Lamassu. This one was not the latter or I’d already be feeling the effects of the dragon-fire poison.
No. This had merely been a distraction. A sacrifice to enable the mystery woman to escape her fate. He’d died to give her a chance to escape.
I’d find her again, sooner than later. An ancient Persian Djinn who didn’t speak any other languages wouldn’t be too hard to track.
It was yet another hiccup in my day, and Manda would be punished for it.
“Strip her.”
Chapter 8
TRAVIS
She smelled so good. Sweet. Ready to mate. The sweat shining on her skin was filled with hormones that signaled her desire. A glance at my brother acknowledged that we both felt the same pull.
At first, it’d caused strife between us that Charlie had called to both our magick. Trios between Lycans weren’t unheard of, but it was rare enough to make both of us pause. We’d shared women before, but never considered Fate actually matching us in a triad.
Neither of us spoke again until the screen door slammed closed after Mikjáll and Rose exited the lodge.
Charlie whirled and backed away from me, putting herself closer to Garrett in the process. He stepped forward, and she came toward me again, trapped and wide-eyed, but panting for the same thing we all equally needed.
Release from the mating heat.
“Why are you fighting it?” I growled, advancing close.
She took a deep breath and straightened her back. Her strength and independence would make her an amazing alpha female. Unfortunately, that was probably what held her back from accepting us. The pack was everything to her, and she wouldn’t abandon them to come back with us to Sanctuary.
Garrett and I had discussed it, though, and if Charlie gave us the chance, we would stay with her and make the Ada pack our home. We’d already brought up the possibility with Rose, and she’d given her blessing. Not that we needed it, but when you lived under the protection of the most powerful being on earth, being polite was a given.
“I have to do what the pack needs. I can’t be with either of you if the pack isn’t your first priority.” There it was. She didn’t beat around the bush. “This pack has always been about helping other Lycans. Not just protecting our family, but protecting all.”
“Charlotte. We’ve done anything and everything Rose ever asked of us to protect the inhabitants of Sanctuary—Lycan or not. What makes you think we wouldn’t accept the bond to your pack if we mated?” Garrett advanced another step closer to her trembling form.
She sucked in a deep breath and shook from head to foot. “This is a lifetime commitment. I don’t want to move to Sanctuary, not unless the entire pack votes and chooses that path.”
A growled vibrated deep in my chest. “We came to make a commitment to you, Charlie. That means we are committing to your pack, too. We understand the responsibility that comes with being alpha. I would’ve been alpha in my old pack. I’m no stranger to making the right choice for the whole, instead of myself.”
“I feel the same, Charlotte,” Garrett said, lifting a hand to her shoulder.
She didn’t flinch, and I took a step forward as well, until she was within arm’s reach. Leaning down, I nuzzled her ear.
“We need you as much as you need us, Charlie,” I whispered.
“We are here for you and your pack. They will be our pack,” Garrett said, moving his head to the other side of her face. “But first we must satisfy the bond.”
She rubbed her cheek against mine and then his before a slow sigh slipped between her lips. Her body shuddered, and I placed a hand on the rise of her breast, reveling in the racing beat of her heart against her ribs.
“Where’s your room?” I asked.
The energy building within her body was nearly ready to burst. She’d been able to control her heat cycle with us a few hours away, but now… Her wolf would have what it wanted.
Us.
“Upstairs,” she breathed. “The blue door at the end of the hallway.” Her arms encircled my neck, and she squeezed tight, lifting her lower body and wrapping her legs around my waist.
Garrett growled excitedly behind her, and I caught his hungry gaze over her shoulder. He nearly took the office door off the hinges as he yanked it open. I followed directly behind him, carrying her easily across the mostly empty living area. I caught some quizzical looks from a few pack females, but no one questioned that we were obviously taking their alpha female upstairs to claim.
My feet pounded on the stairs after Garrett’s. A few moments later, we were standing in her bedroom, taking in the gravity of what we were about to do. She was right. Taking on the mantle of alpha for a devastated pack wouldn’t be a picnic, but he and I had seen our fair share of horrible. Whether she knew it or not, we could and would support her and the pack through this transition.
I could only hope that assisting her pack would also help heal the wounds I buried in my heart from failing my family—my whole pack. Garrett’s wounds ran deep, but he hadn’t been preparing to be an alpha back then. Still, the pain had been so profound that neither of us could stay together. We’d separated for decades, only just recently reuniting in Sanctuary this past year.
Now we’d found our Fated mate. Both of us. Together.
“Stop thinking, Travis, and start stripping,” Charlie said, sliding from my grasp. She tugged at the hem of my shirt a moment later. “You, too, Garrett,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. “I need you both so badly my body will literally come apart at the seams if I can’t have you right now.”
“I’d hate to keep my mate waiting,” Garrett answered, a grin splitting his face in half.
The hard dick in my pants agreed with both of them.
After chucking my shirt across the room, Charlie grabbed the bottom of hers and pulled it over her head, revealing a black lacy bra and the most perfectly rounded breasts I could’ve imagined. I wanted to taste them, and she could tell. Her eyes glinted with excitement and desire. My hands moved even faster, divesting my body of any scrap of clothing I’d been wearing.
She shimmied out of her jeans and panties. Garrett’s hands made short work of the hook on her bra while she stepped out of everything. The bra fell to the floor, freeing her breasts from their lacy confines.
A slight gasp slipped from between her lips as she stood, baring herself proudly to the both of us. We approached, one on each side. She turned to Garrett this time, caressing his face as I ran a palm down the side of
her hip and over the round globe of her ass.
Slipping my fingers between her legs, I pressed through her folds, pleased to find her slick and wet and needy.
“Hmmmm,” she moaned, arching her backside against my raging hard-on. It took every ounce of willpower not to bend her over the bed and take her in that moment. But she wasn’t just mine.
Garrett and I had shared women before, but Charlie was different. She wasn’t just a fuck. She was our mate. We would love and treasure her above everything else in our lives.
She was ours. Only ours.
“Is she ready for us, brother?” Garrett asked, his eyes hooded and flashing gold.
I raised my eyebrows and smiled. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Chapter 9
CHARLIE
Energy coursed through me with each caress and nuzzle and breath that touched my overheated, magickally charged body. My lady bits dripped with my arousal, and my heart raced in my chest, threatening to leap free from the confines of my rib cage at any moment.
I needed them. Desperately.
Amidst everything, guilt coursed through my mind. I was about to have sex with two of the sexiest Lycan men I’d ever met. The first hint of their crisp, spicy scent in the lodge had sent my body careening back into a full-blown heat.
Xerxes had Lycans in Ada trying to convince the pack to surrender, instigating disloyalty from my uncle and cousin and probably others. And here I was, focused solely on getting ‘busy’ with the two men who were supposed to be my mates.
I tried to convince myself that this was what needed to happen first. That all three of us would be worthless to the pack until we sated and sealed the bond burning between the three of us.
Fate did not like to be denied. And I wasn’t about to fight her any longer. Staying away from Travis and Garrett had been torture. But asking them to take my pack on--our problems, our wounds--as their own was a lot.
They said they were up for it, but I still wondered how committed they would be over the long haul… or if we would immediately go back to fighting about moving to Sanctuary.
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