by Kiki Howell
“I agree.”
Someone pounded on the front door downstairs.
“Who could that be?” I asked him. The pack would not pound on the door like that, even if there was an emergency. Plus, I could not feel the pack nearby.
“Get dressed,” he ordered and went to do the same. Something wasn’t right. Something was very, very, wrong. Who even knew we lived here? We kept our home location a secret to ensure we stayed safe here, even from other werewolves.
Tysen grabbed my hand and led me down the stairs and to the front door. He looked out the peephole and growled. “It’s your ex.”
“What? How did he find us?” I asked nervously. I never ever would have told him where Tysen lived and I had not visited here when I was dating him.
“Go to the kitchen,” he ordered me. “Stay out of sight.”
“He’s only a human,” I reminded him. Although he could hurt me, there was no way that he could hurt Tysen.
He turned to face me and gave me the Alpha stare in silence.
I raised my hands up above my head in surrender and did as he asked. It was best to do what he wanted in situations that might possibly be dangerous. Although I did not see how this could be dangerous. Tysen could overpower him easily and toss him out of the neighborhood.
I strained my ears to hear what was going on since I was forced to be in hiding. The front door opened.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Tysen snapped.
“You think you could keep her away from me?” Jon asked angrily.
“It’s over between you two,” Tysen said defiantly.
“Our contract has not been fulfilled and I will not let her get away without completing our contract,” Jon said.
“Contract? What are you talking about?” Tysen asked.
Evil power with a murderous intent blew in from the front door. That was a feeling I had experienced once before. The day Tysen had almost died in the caves. Beleneth, the Demon of Sorrow.
Running into the living room, I stepped in front of Tysen, shielding his body from the demon who was in a human’s body, Jon’s body to be exact.
“Why are you back?” I asked.
Tysen grabbed me and backed us up.
“You forgot, didn’t you?” Jon/Beleneth asked.
“Forgot what?” I asked nervously. There was something in the back of my mind that tingled, but I couldn’t coax it out.
“Why are you in that body?” Tysen asked.
“Let me show you,” Beleneth said. He blew a black smoke towards me and it spread out in front of us.
I lay on the ground, covered in blood while Tysen battled Beleneth in his true form. Tysen fell, the demon’s sword cutting him from hip to shoulder. There was no one else to save us. The pack members were spread around the cave, all covered in blood and unconscious, if not dead. Even though I was only human, I had to defend them. There had to be some way for me to protect them from being killed. I could not let Tysen die. I stood on wobbly legs and begged Beleneth to spare them.
“What will you sacrifice for them?” Beleneth asked with a wicked smirk on his face as he wiped blood off of his sword.
“Anything,” I answered immediately. If I looked at Tysen, I might break down. I had to focus on Beleneth and saving them.
“Five years of your soul,” he ordered. “You will allow me to feed off of your soul and misery for five years.”
“Done,” I answered without thinking. “As long as they live and you don’t bother them again.”
Beleneth held out a clawed hand and we shook, sealing the deal. All of the pack took a breath, alive and healing. To keep the pack from finding out, he possessed a human form and posed as my boyfriend.
The memories faded and the living room and the present returned.
“No,” Tysen whispered.
Why had I forgotten? How could I forget something like that?
“Everything was perfect, but I left this body for a few days and the moron managed to fuck it up completely,” Beleneth spat. He looked at Tysen and said, “I’m surprised you only broke his arm and not his back.”
“I considered it.”
Beleneth smirked. “I bet you did.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered and looked at Tysen. “I had to save you. I had to save the pack.”
Tysen hugged me and kissed me. “I love you.”
I sobbed once, bit my lip to keep from sobbing more, and then whispered, “I love you too.”
“You can have her back after our term is up,” Beleneth told him smugly.
“If you were going to keep her the entire time, why did you destroy her soul so much?” Tysen asked him.
“That was an unfortunate side effect. It was not intentional on my part. Come, Jess, it’s time to go.”
“Why does she have to leave?” Tysen asked and grabbed my wrist as I tried to leave. “Why can’t you feed from her while she is here?”
“The power is much greater when absorbed directly from the source and while she is away from you, her despair is immense and delicious,” Beleneth explained with a savage smile.
“You can’t have her,” Tysen growled. Claws protruded from his fingertips and his canines extended as his anger grew.
“You’re no match for me, boy. I would have killed you in that cave if Jess hadn’t bargained with me.” Beleneth scoffed.
Tysen charged Beleneth, knocking him down and tore into his chest and stomach. It was too much for me to watch. I turned away, but the sound of Jon’s screams were too loud to block out.
They stopped and when I turned around, Beleneth stood in an incorporeal form, a ghost floating near the body. “Her soul is mine,” Beleneth yelled and then snapped his fingers.
Icy coldness surrounded me and froze my limbs. My body crashed to the floor, but I could not move to protect myself or catch myself.
“Jess!” Tysen yelled and ran to me.
Beleneth laughed as he disappeared.
My eyes were open, but I couldn’t move. Every part of me felt like I was frozen. I felt the pack rushing over from their duplexes to ours to see what was wrong.
“Jess!” Marco yelled as he ran in the front door.
“What happened?” Lucas asked and knelt beside me. “Her skin is like ice.”
“He froze her soul,” Tysen wheezed.
Was he hurt? Had Beleneth hurt him?
“Why? Why was he here?” Marco demanded.
“She sold him her soul for five years to save us,” Tysen explained. “She was the only reason we survived the cave that night.”
“How do we fix this?” Lucas asked.
Tysen whispered, “I don’t know.”
Lucas growled angrily and disappeared from my view.
“There has to be a way to save her,” Marco whispered.
“Don’t worry,” Tysen whispered into my ear and pet my hair. “I’ll find a way to fix this. I won’t abandon you.” He was trying to be strong, but I felt his worry and fear through our bond.
I COULDN’T TELL HOW much time past, but one of the boys was with me at all times, talking to me and telling me stories. They would periodically trade out, but I was never alone. I wanted to talk to them, but my body wouldn’t move. Would I die from this?
Beleneth was most likely doing this to feed off of the entire pack’s despair. How do you beat something like him? Was there any way to get free?
“It makes sense why you left like you did,” Lucas whispered as he took a turn sitting with me. It was the first time I had seen him since my soul was frozen.
“I couldn’t believe that you didn’t love Tysen anymore. We could all see that you loved him. Knowing that you sacrificed yourself for us, makes this so much harder. I’m useless. I can’t do anything.” He growled and then set his hand on my forehead. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but we all love you and we will find a way to save you.”
He sat still for another moment and then asked, “Do you want to hear a story?”
I couldn’t move to reply, but he began his story after another moment.
“When I first saw you with Tysen, I was terrified that you were going to end up exposing our secret. I never told anyone what I was and I didn’t want you to tell anyone either. I liked my secrecy. Then after I met you and saw how you interacted with Tysen, in wolf and man form, I became incredibly jealous. I didn’t even want to be around you two because of how jealous I was. You’re beautiful and smart and you’ve never done anything bad to anyone. I’d been hurt by women before and seeing that there were incredible women out there like you, made my soul hurt. How could I find a woman like you without revealing my secret and then when it was time to reveal it, keep her? What if I never found a woman like you? What if you were one of a kind and Tysen happened to snatch you up? You really are one of a kind, Jess. However, now that I have gotten over my jealousy, it makes me so happy to see you two together. Watching Tysen mope around after you left him was worse on my heart than being dumped myself. I didn’t even want to talk to you for that first month after you had done it. I was so angry at you. Now...now I just want to hug you and apologize a thousand times for being such a jerk. We don’t deserve you. The pack doesn’t deserve to know you.”
My heart hurt with his honesty. How could he ever think they didn’t deserve me? I didn’t deserve them. Nobody deserved this pack.
“I’M RUNNING OUT OF options,” Tysen whispered to me. He lay down beside me, spooning his body to mine. “This is the second time that I have failed you.”
No. He didn’t fail me.
His soft fingertips stroked from my forehead, down my temple, and to my jaw. Once to the bottom of my jaw he ran his fingertips back up the same path. “The first day that I saw you, I was astonished by your beauty. On top of your beauty, you were incredibly kind and then you found out I was a werewolf and instead of freaking out, you squealed in excitement and bombarded me with questions. Every day with you was like being in heaven. You brought so much joy and light to my life. After that battle with Beleneth, when you told me that you were leaving, I didn’t know what to say. I thought you were leaving because I had put you in danger. I thought you were leaving because I had failed to protect you. I didn’t try to stop you because I agreed. I had failed and I had put you in danger. It hurt to be away from you, but if being away from me meant that you would be safe, I would do it. I had no idea how much it would hurt. The day I saw you with Jon, I wanted to kill him. I wanted to tear him to pieces and went into a blood rage. The pack had to subdue me and lock me in the basement for two days.”
Two days? He had always been so in control of his rage before. I had caused him to lose it.
“I started taking trips out of state to avoid you. It didn’t keep me from thinking about you though. When they told me that you had a bruise from being hit...” He paused and ground his teeth together. “I flew back as fast as I could and despite wanting to go straight to that piece of trash, I needed to see you. I needed to check on your soul. Now look at you. I attacked him like an idiot and now your soul is frozen.” He bent down and pressed his forehead to mine. “I promise that I will free your soul. I promise that I will do everything that I can. You’re my mate and I love you more than the light of the moon.”
TYSEN LAY WITH ME, about to fall asleep. No matter what he did during the day, he always returned at night to sleep with me. “One day, I was out looking for Yule presents for everyone and I saw this beautiful diamond necklace. I wanted to buy it for you because I knew that as soon as you saw it, your eyes would light up. I was about to pick it up when I realized that you and I weren’t together. The pain I had been suppressing returned and I had to leave the store and come home. Even home had many memories of you though. There were times that I swore I could smell you. This Yule will be the best one ever. I’m going to spoil you rotten and show you how much I love you.”
He leaned down and took a deep breath with his nose buried in my hair on the top of my head. “Your smell is intoxicating. I want to cover myself in your scent, from head to toe. The amount of cuddling that we will be doing is definitely going to prevent you from going to work.”
MY FOURTH DAY OF STATUE modeling came and instead of Tysen, Marco sat next to me. “I’m not going to lie,” he whispered. “I was so mad when you left Tysen. I wanted to pull you out of the office and slap some sense into you. I could see how you looked at him still when you thought no one was looking. I could see the love you held for him. Yet, you were being stubborn, a trait you have mastered, and refused to be with him. I thought it was because he was a werewolf and it hurt because that meant that you didn’t like us either. Yet at work, you didn’t change how you interacted with us.”
He laughed bitterly a moment and said, “Tysen flipped his lid one day. He came in and you didn’t hear him. You were in the back with us, teasing us like always and laughing. He froze in the doorway when he heard your laugh and then rage took over and he fled. I almost ripped off that scrawny piece of shit’s head off when I saw him pick you up one day. We all knew he wasn’t good enough for you. Once your soul started dying, we all panicked. Tysen stopped coming around, thinking that seeing him was one of the reasons. I knew. I knew it was that loser you were dating. I wish I had known the truth then. I wish I had known that you had sold your soul for us. You are better than all of us, hermana. I will never doubt you or your loyalty again.”
FIVE DAYS AFTER BELENETH’S visit, the entire pack had gathered and sat around my body in a circle. If I could have cried, I would have. They were including me in their discussions even though they weren’t positive that I could even hear them. It was one of the reasons I loved this pack so much.
“What about a witch?” Marco asked.
“Too risky,” Lucas replied immediately. “They might curse us all instead.”
“He’s right. They’re dangerous on their good days,” Tysen replied.
“Shaman?”
“Even worse.” Tysen scoffed. We had had a run in with a shaman before and it had not ended well.
“I might have an idea,” Lucas whispered.
Everyone waited silently, knowing that the wolf of few words, Lucas, would speak when he was ready.
“The Gods.”
“They’re a little busy to help us,” Marco muttered.
“There might be one god who could help us,” Tysen whispered.
“Are you sure? He could just as easily trick us as help us,” Lucas growled.
“Which is why he is the best God for the job.”
“If you’re sure...” Lucas said.
“I am.”
Most of the pack left except for Lucas who stayed with me. “I hope this works,” he whispered. “I understand why you sold your soul to the devil...demon. To get you back to us, I would sell my soul.”
I was actually glad that I could not cry in that moment, because if I could have, I would have been a blubbering baby. He didn’t talk much, but he was one of the most caring of the pack. When I was sick last year, he had brought me soup to work. He didn’t say a word, just dropped the soup on my desk and went to the back of the office.
Immense power unlike any I had felt before suddenly appeared. It wasn’t evil, but it also wasn’t pure. The presence made me want to cower, but being frozen meant I could do nothing. The presence moved closer and Lucas crouched in front of me with claws instead of fingertips.
“Easy,” Tysen ordered him.
A man with black hair and strange leather clothes squatted at my feet and peered at me with squinted green eyes. His eyes roved up my body and rested on my eyes. A smile splayed across his face and it was reassuring and sexy at the same time. “Hello, beautiful. Got a bit of a cold going on?”
“Can you cure her?” Tysen asked, his eyes lit with hope.
The smile melted away and the man, no God, shook his head.
Who was he? Why hadn’t they introduced him to me?
“Please, Loki,” Tysen begged, “I’ll do almost anything.”
&n
bsp; “Careful,” Loki, Trickster and God, warned him. “You need to be very careful what you say to Demons and even, no, especially Gods.”
“Can you help us defeat the Demon? He’s too strong for us to defeat by fighting. That’s how we got into this predicament in the first place,” Marco explained.
“Tell me what happened,” Loki ordered them.
“We were camping in the mountains and exploring one of the caves,” Tysen began. “While in there we ran into the Demon, Beleneth, and with all of us there, he defeated us easily. We didn’t stand a chance. It wasn’t until he came to collect her that we found out she had bargained for our lives by selling her soul and suffering to him for five years.”
Loki laughed and then looked down at me. “That’s quite a woman you have.”
“I know,” Tysen agreed.
“I’m sorry that I cannot cure her, but there may be something I can do,” Loki said with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“That’s not ominous sounding at all,” Lucas whispered.
“Come, let’s go talk outside,” Loki ordered Tysen.
“Lucas, stay with...”
“On it,” Lucas replied before Tysen could finish the order. He sat down next to me and smoothed my hair down around my head.
Loki looked at us a moment and then spun on his heel and headed out the back door.
“I hope he has something that will work. As soon as you are back and moving, I’m going to give you the biggest hug you’ve ever had,” he informed me with a smirk.
Lucas began to sing softly in a language I had never heard before as he braided my hair. What was it? I wished I knew what the words meant, but it sounded like a lullaby. Did Lucas have a family? Or had he? There was so much I didn’t know about the boys. I would find out everything about each of them when I was free. I would be free. Tysen would save me. Somehow.
Lucas stopped singing and then the back door opened. Tysen sat down next to me with a wide smile. “We’ve got it.”
“Got what?” Lucas asked.
“The thing we need to save her. Loki is a trickster, true to his name, and he’s going to help us trick Beleneth.”
