“Okay.”
Pasquale stood from the ground, somehow carrying her in his arms and then setting her to her feet. How he was strong enough to do that without help was amazing. By Giuliana’s heated gaze, she liked the show.
“Now we will look.” He flinched. “Is that Carlo?”
“Well, that’s sort of hot and scary as hell at the same time,” Giuliana mused. “What’s that above his head?”
“Chaos,” Fabiana supplied.
Giuliana gasped. “Did you just … Chaos? Is he going to go crazy again?”
“Again? Oh, no.”
That’s right. Carlo had once lost his mind because of the Chaos Realm and turned into a lumbering berserker when he shifted. Something no one ever talked about and they didn’t know how it even happened. The same source may have brought him back, but everyone knew of the wolf’s aversion to the Chaos Realm.
He even stuck to the Moretti Pack lands to stay away from where the Fae sometimes congregated. They’d all recently learned the Fae had a connection with the Chaos Realm, to the tune of it being the gateway to their Fae lands. They also called it the In Between, which she supposed was actually a good name for it from their perspective because it was their thoroughfare. As for the mages and paranormals, Chaos Realm fit because its power was dangerous and terrifying to them.
“So he’s not crazy? Because I’ve never seen a wolf shift like that except for that movie about one in Paris,” Pasquale added gruffly.
“No, he isn’t going crazy. In fact, he’s more powerful than any wolf in Encantado, from what I felt from him. A … hybrid?”
“Okay.” Pasquale sat back, crossing his arms against his chest. “There is no such thing as a shifter hybrid.”
It was Giuliana’s turn to interrupt. “Have you heard of Isadora? Technically, she’s a tribrid: wolf, Witch Doctor, and mage. Oh, and she shifts just fine.”
“But can she shift like that? We’ve seen her wolf, and it’s just like ours. Yes, she has an ability to shift portions of her body and hold it, but even that isn’t this sort of thing.”
“Pasquale is right, Giuliana.” Fabiana shrugged. “In the vision, I see him completely as both. I just painted it this way to get the imagery. He can walk on two legs and grows even taller than his seven feet, and he’s a terrifying killing machine. Or he can transition to a glittering version of himself, but when he’s trapped.”
“Come again?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, brother. It’s like he can’t move. He’s on a throne, and he’s directing the Chaos itself outward.”
“I guess having to be stuck on a throne without moving is a small price to pay to throw out Chaos,” Giuliana mused.
“It is a double-edged sword.”
“What do you mean, cucciola?”
“It can pull on him just as much as he directs it.”
“You mean it’s a trump card. He’s gotta be careful or he could lose himself.”
“Exactly. The were-form is much more powerful than his standard shifter form, and that one seemed less dangerous to him.”
Pasquale shook his head. “We’re talking about this as if it’s already a thing. Carlo won’t accept anything to do with the Chaos Realm, even enough to deny his mate because of it.”
They had told Fabiana what happened with the Past Norn, as they would soon move her from the house into Dominic’s main home so they could be together. Eiravel, Cynes, and some other wolves would be there on security detail for Isadora, Zoey, and Fabiana.
“You know what my paintings mean, brother.”
“Yes.” Pasquale sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ll call Dominic. I suppose it’s time we—”
“No, we can’t share it with everyone.” Fabiana wasn’t sure why she knew, but there was a warning flaring inside her. Everyone couldn’t see this, wouldn’t understand. They would use her, take her and see what she could show them. She felt it in her bones.
“Cucciola, be calm. It will be okay.”
“No!” She wouldn’t be taken. They would never make her bow and strip her of everything she was. She couldn’t take it.
“Shhh, sis. It’s okay. We can just call Carlo, okay? He and Nanshe need to see this. Remember? I told you about Nanshe.”
“You won’t tell? They won’t take me?”
Fabiana’s plaintive wail made Giuliana flinch, but she didn’t look away. “No, sister. No one will ever take you again. I swear it. Pas, just get Carlo on the phone and don’t leave this room.”
Pasquale didn’t argue, gripping his phone from his pocket to do as he was told. It helped to be able to hear who he was talking to as she used her heightened hearing to listen to his conversation as he stood across the room. She didn’t want to seem like she didn’t believe her brother, but she needed it right then.
Carlo was nearly too big in her salon. He stared at the painting of him, his eyes intent on the halo of Chaos above his head. But he didn’t tell Fabiana she was crazy. Based on the other paintings he’d seen tonight, this was serious. Giuliana and Pasquale standing beside the smaller woman in a show of protection screamed the gravity of the situation.
He also couldn’t deny she hadn’t been part of the conversations and he knew neither Giuliana nor Pasquale would have broken that confidentiality. He had to believe it. Fuck, Nanshe was standing beside him, a hesitant smile on her lips as she looked over the paintings. She kept sneaking looks at Fabiana, but kept her knowledge sealed behind a soft gaze.
“That’s me.”
Giuliana snorted. “I thought we had settled that already.”
“With Chaos,” he growled.
“Watch your tone with my mate, Carlo.”
“Then she should know not to play with me and Chaos.”
Pasquale tensed. “She could stab you with a knife made of Chaos and I’d still tell you the same thing. Watch. Your. Tone.”
Cold Alpha call unfurled in the room. It wasn’t directed yet, but it was a warning of what was coming.
Carlo’s gaze slid to the puffed-up wolf, and he smiled with deadly intent. “I’ll back off your mate, but don’t ever give me an order, pup. Be aware of your status.”
For a moment, uncertainty passed Pasquale’s gaze before he nodded his head. Yeah, it wasn’t always a nice thing to remind the wolves they were also Mafia, but the Family relied on the hierarchy working. Carlo had been a Made Man far longer than Pasquale, and he was also second in command to a stronger Alpha. He’d never give Pasquale orders, per se. Pasquale was an Alpha in his own right, and the wolf inside Carlo wanted to acknowledge that. They weren’t in the same pack, but Familywise, he could deny him to a point.
“I apologize to your mate. You can understand how this could make me … unsettled,” Carlo added, removing the sting of the powerful reminder. He wasn’t an asshole.
“That remains to be seen.”
Yep, he wasn’t answering that.
He looked to the picture once more, and it rolled over him. “Tell me again what your vision was.”
Fabiana sighed and repeated what she’d told him about his power over Chaos and the ability to transform into a were-form.
“That’s not something I can do. Doing a shift on just one body part is one thing, but this form? I’ve shifted recently, and nothing near this happened. This is almost a hybrid shift of the entire body and not the normal form of a wolf. I mean, this looks like those werewolves in the movies humans watch.”
“But the visions are of the future, and while it may not be happening now, it doesn’t mean it won’t. Besides, it seems like Chaos is important,” Giuliana added.
“Then it won’t happen. It looks like it has something to do with Chaos within me.”
Nanshe cleared her throat. “Your mate is attached to Chaos.”
“A mate that I haven’t, and will not be, claiming. I will protect you for now, and then you will go back home.
Pasquale and Giuliana looked at one another and burst out laughing.
He growled at them. “What the hell is your problem?”
“Oh, we said that too,” Giuliana gasped out. “And look at where that put us.”
“Quite mated,” Pasquale agreed with a soft smile.
“That was your decision.”
The bastard wolves laughed again.
“Oh yeah, because we had a choice in how much we wanted to fuck the other. Sorry, sis,” Giuliana whispered to Fabiana.
“Gross. That is an image I did not want.”
“Fucking and mating are two very different things,” Carlo argued.
“Oh, is it?”
Stop it.
“What’s in that painting is important.”
“Well, we’ll find another way,” Carlo bellowed.
“Find another way to have sex? Like, a position? ’Cause I can get you the Kama Sutra if you need help with that.” Giuliana laughed.
“I promised your mate I wouldn’t threaten you again, so I’m going to leave.”
“I am intrigued by this. We shall hear more of it.”
“We’re leaving. Keep the picture put away. For now, I’m going to leave it as it was a possibility, but I’m not mating just to gain more power. Period.”
“Even to see my Lotus?”
He swallowed.
Chapter Six
Nanshe couldn’t deny her destined mate was a magnificent specimen, even if he was denying what they could share.
He was a giant among men, measuring a smidge above seven feet. His dark hair was wild around him, as if it could barely contain the energy leaking from his body. His broad shoulders bunched with tension as he stalked through Arturo’s compound. His steps echoed as he moved, and she thought perhaps she should say he stomped.
But even that was glorious.
She’d been in Ashes, the tower belonging to her domain within the In Between, for thousands of years, and had seen more beings than most could ever hope to. And none of them held a candle to the angry male.
Well, she couldn’t call it “anger.” He was terrified, and she understood.
“Carlo,” she began.
“Wait until I get you to your room.”
She snorted. “This isn’t the direction of your lodging.”
“Because that’s not where we’re going,” he growled, tossing a dark glare over his shoulder.
“Then you’re wasting your time. I won’t stay anywhere except with you.”
He stopped and whirled, forcing her to jerk to a halt to keep from running into him. “Not happening. I’ll protect you and that’s all. We can’t do this. You know why.”
“You don’t understand. I have to.”
“Why?”
How could she explain? “Carlo, the past is stronger than most people realize. There is a saying among this era: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.’”
He sighed, and his gaze turned thoughtful. “What are you telling me, Nanshe?”
A shiver raced over her and her heart stuttered at the sound of her name coming from his lips. He mimicked the way she’d said it to perfection, adding the hint of Sumerian tongue, and it filled her with memories she’d long ago pushed down.
Memories of the taste of salt on the air, golden statues, and when the gods were close enough to touch.
“The past repeats.”
He frowned, and she ached to soothe the furrow of his brow.
She’d known his face for eons. Nanshe had seen it with different eyes, or a slightly different formation of his mouth, but she’d know him anywhere. The largeness of his laugh, the way he was fiercely protective and even more passionately loving.
He’d battled, over and over, against threats no one could fathom, and each time … he’d failed.
The past repeats, and they all had to play their part. But this time, Nanshe wanted things to be different. She needed a chance to change what was supposed to happen and maybe, just once, hold on to the happiness she’d always wanted.
The one always ripped from her.
And like before, Carlo now looked at her with fear, not understanding, not comprehending what they were meant to be.
But she’d changed throughout her existence, being the only carrier of the truth. She shouldered the heavy burden alone, always knowing she’d end up with no one to rely on, unable to save those she’d come to love. This time she may fail too, but Skuld—as she wanted to be called now, embracing her new place in life—had made moves that gave Nanshe hope.
Maybe this time would be different.
“Nanshe?”
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. “We have to join, Carlo. You will understand, I promise.”
He snorted. “Trust you? Holder of Chaos.”
Ribbons of past overlaid. Different homes, enormous trees hovering on the edge of her vision. A mishmash of timelines all converging as one. To this moment, this statement.
“Trust you? Holder of Chaos.”
“I am more than Chaos.”
“The Chaos will kill me, Norn of the Past.”
“Or it will be your salvation.”
She grunted, pain slamming through her body. A vice clenched on her ribs, compressing them until their sharp edges were razors against her lungs. All to keep the past going, to say the words she’d already known would push him away.
The past repeats.
But she didn’t want to do this—face his fear and hatred—because she was the outlet to his greatest fear.
Wolf.
He was always a wolf, and the Chaos always made him loathe what he was.
Made him misunderstand what he was truly meant to be.
And she was supposed to allow it. To let the grains of time continue so the future would become past once more, a vicious cycle linking the Norn of What Shall Be and the Norn of What Once Was.
They had always been tied, two halves of a whole in opposition and seeing as far as could be seen along opposing sides of the continuum. Twins, sisters, rivals, and the creator of the other’s doom. She whimpered, her cells shrinking, the blood in her veins slowing like thick sludge.
A swell of heat crawled over her skin, burning more ashes, packing her with the memories of her failures she wore on her skin. How she wished he could shed it, release the living organism of her history.
Wasn’t that what everyone wanted?
To learn from their past, but leave the pain there?
But she could not. Always trapped, always torn to shreds.
“Nanshe!”
Choking on a gasped breath, she still fought. Not this time. She wouldn’t push him away. It didn’t matter what the past craved, she couldn’t see him walk away from her again. She didn’t care if he eventually came back, if they shared loved for just a few moments before he was ripped from her. The adage “it was better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all” was a fallacy to soothe those who’d never lost what was created just for them.
They’d never known love like the one between fused souls.
This time had been different.
Another heat surrounded her, tempered with the scent of tangy, sweet musk of the flowers on the Khalub-tree. Home. Children of the future may have deemed the tree a myth, but Nanshe knew better. Knew it had been a favorite of Inn–
No, she would not call her sister by that name here.
Nanshe took a deep breath, pulling Carlo’s scent into her lungs.
She wondered if he even recognized this part of himself. The one aroma that could soothe her. His hard arms clenched around her, and hot breath skirted over her neck.
“Here, tesoro. I’m right here. Breathe with me. Don’t tell me whatever it is.”
No!
“Trust you? Holder of Chaos.”
“I am more than Chaos.”
“The Chaos will kill me, Norn of the Past.”
“Or it will be your salvation.”
“You just want the power, is that it? Chaos always wants more.”
“The Chaos
always has what it wants, and it will chain both of us.”
“Then I will stay away, and that will include you. I will never claim you, Past. Never. You betrayed me!”
Agony forced her spine rigid, and she cried out. She’d hold on to this, her nails piercing his skin as she clung to his chest. Not these words. The conversation, held so many times, finally completed in her head. A thousand variables of Carlo, having gone by so many names but carrying the same soul, turned and walked away from her and she’d been snatched back to Ashes to see how the future would become past once more.
“Nanshe, leave it.”
“No!” she screeched.
“Then tell me how to help you.”
“Claim me.”
He growled, but even that sound sang within her. “I know you are in pain. Is there no other way to stop this? Is what you’re trying to tell me that important?”
It’s what she wasn’t trying to reveal this time. She couldn’t say anything to alter the future, but that also meant she would be punished for not allowing it to play its course.
“Will …” He swallowed. She could feel the press of his throat against her. “Tell me truthfully, Chaos witch. Will mating stop this?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
He lifted her into his arms, cradling her jerking form against a hard chest that in other moments would make her breathless for a good reason. He stalked up the stairs, closer to the space she knew was his. When he reached the door, he shifted her so he could turn the knob, and even that small movement made her feel like her skin was ripping from her muscles.
“Hold on, tesoro. Just hold on.” They stumbled into the destruction of his room and he cursed. “I’d forgotten.”
With a hiss, she flung her arm out at the space and screamed. She didn’t have to look at what that did. Carlo’s disbelieving gasp told her she’d succeeded. She was the past, and within reason, she could restore pieces of it.
“My room is fixed.”
“Not the best skill, but it helps some things.”
“You made it like it was before I messed it up.”
“Just a moment before. It doesn’t work on everything, and only if I’ve seen it before it was broken or ruined.”
Mated to the Chaos (Portal City Protectors Book 5) Page 5
