by Zara Chase
“Yeah, I guess not.”
Vadim stood in a half acre of open land littered with kids’ climbing frames, swings, and other stuff designed for use by kittens of all ages. He had twenty male shifters standing in a loose circle around him, grim-faced, awaiting instructions. Twenty more were holding the perimeter of Impulse, away from the immediate action. Others still were in less conspicuous locations. All of them knew what they had to do even though they couldn’t pheromone updates for fear that their communications would be intercepted by the wolves. The only upside was that the same premise applied to the invaders. Besides, cell phones worked just as well and the wolves swimming to shore wouldn’t be able to keep them dry. Score one to the good guys.
“They’re coming,” Zayd said softly.
“No moves unless they attack first,” Vadim said tersely. “Let’s see what their demands are first.”
A group of men sauntered up to the playground. Talia tensed when she saw who was leading them and Vadim knew he’d lost her attention. A tall, good-looking man in his midforties with a full head of silver-gray hair and piercing gray eyes offered her a full-wattage smile. He exuded charm and confidence, like he knew he had the upper hand.
“That’s Wilson,” Talia said out of the corner of her mouth.
Vadim nodded. He’d never met the guy but recognized him from the Internet intel they held on him. He watched Wilson cast a scathing glance round the group of feline shifters gathered there with Vadim. It became apparent that they were comprehensively outnumbered as more and more wolves joined Wilson. Giron’s estimate of the number who’d sneaked in overland had obviously been off. This wasn’t looking good.
“Ah, Mr. Vadim Fyre, I believe,” Wilson said with an arrogant sneer. “I thought you had an appointment elsewhere.”
“I heard you were planning to come to me, so I hung around.”
“Talia, my dear, come here.” He beckoned to her, seemingly expecting Talia to comply with the authority in his voice.
She tensed and took a step forward, thought better of it, and moved back again.
“In your dreams, buster.”
A fleeting scowl graced Wilson’s features. “Oh, I’ve had many erotic dreams about you. You have no idea.”
“Thank God for that.”
“Don’t blaspheme, Talia. It doesn’t become you.”
Talia lowered her eyes to the ground. “Sorry,” she said meekly.
“That’s all right. You’ve had a difficult time of it. But I’m here again now and everything will soon be all right.”
Vadim understood what was happening. Wilson thought he still had control of Talia’s mind. Vadim and Zayd had unblocked it, but they had no idea how deeply seated Wilson’s control of her actually was. They hadn’t thought to delve that deep. Vadim sensed she was fighting Wilson, but did she have the strength to overcome his influence? Vadim willed her to stand firm.
“Your mother sends her love,” Wilson said in a hypnotic voice that Vadim could see was getting to Talia. “She’s very happy with her new gentleman friend.” He paused. “For as long as I wish her to be.”
“The bastard!” Zayd hissed beneath his breath. “He’s manipulating her by demonstrating his power over her mother.”
“She’s fighting him,” Vadim whispered back.
“For how long?”
“We’re about to find out.”
This was weird, to put it mildly. As a human, Talia shouldn’t be anywhere near the front line of a shifter fight. And yet Vadim had allowed her to come without putting up any objections. Had Wilson somehow inveigled him into doing so? It didn’t seem credible, and yet he’d managed to get a bunch of his people past Vadim’s guards. Talia was wavering beneath the focus of Wilson’s considerable power. What the fuck was his interest in Talia? Vadim had no idea but wasn’t prepared to let the situation slip any more out of his control than it already was, what with him and Zayd being the only two alphas present.
“What can we do for you today?” he asked.
“I’m glad you raised that subject,” Wilson responded. “But in actual fact, it’s rather more a case of what we can do for you. As you can see, we have you substantially outnumbered.”
Vadim glanced around, doing what he could to hide his disquiet when further shadows emerged from the edge of the playground. The Impulse shifters were now outnumbered at least three to one.
“You’re forgetting one small thing, Wilson. Impulse is our territory. We can still beat you hands down.”
“We’d be happy to put that theory to the test, but I have an alternative suggestion that will save a lot of bloodshed, mostly yours.”
“I’m listening.”
“You leave Impulse to us. Oh, and leave Talia behind as well. That’s nonnegotiable. She’s destined to be my mate.”
His words seemed to jolt Talia back to reality. She made a scoffing sound at the back of her throat. “Get real!”
“Sorry,” Vadim said easily. “No can do.”
“Oh, I think you can. I’ll even let you take all the women and children you have hidden away beneath the Wolves’ Den. Oh, sorry, you know it as the Cat’s Whiskers, but it’s about to have a change of management.”
“You realize Talia has shifter blood.”
“Yes, that’s what we agreed she would tell you.”
“What!” Talia cried, looking bewildered.
“It’s killing you, ain’t it,” Wilson taunted, ignoring Talia’s interruption. “You want her so much you can’t think straight. We were counting on that to get us past your defenses. Leave it to an attractive woman to distract an alpha.” Wilson leered. “You can’t think about anything other than sinking that puny cock of yours into her sweet cunt, can you now? But you can’t—won’t—do it because you’re a slave to duty and can’t take that risk.”
“Nor can you.”
Wilson chuckled. “Oh, but I can. I implanted that business about having shifter blood in her subconscious so that you wouldn’t risk despoiling her. That’s my privilege.”
“And she has no say in the matter, I suppose.”
“She knows, deep down, that I’m the only man for her.”
“That’s why she looks so happy to see you,” Zayd said.
“She will be when things are restored to normal.”
Vadim looked at Talia, who still appeared dazed and hadn’t said a word for quite a while. Could it be true? Was she pure human? Her mind had been tampered with, but Vadim had sensed shifter blood in her when she first arrived. This was getting odder by the minute. Wilson certainly appeared desperate to have her for himself.
“If she’s so important to you, why risk sending her here? You had her at your mental mercy in Venice, which is just about the only way you’d get her to have anything to do with you.”
“Ah yes, I could have bent her to my will, but I couldn’t keep her a mental slave indefinitely. I figured she probably wouldn’t manage to kill you, although one could hope.”
“You were more likely to kill her, throwing her off that boat.”
“Not a chance. Not with you riding to the rescue.”
Vadim sent him a damning glance. “You seem to rate my powers very highly.”
“I never underestimate an enemy. That’s the surest way to an early grave.”
“And so you sent Talia here to kill me, never expecting her to succeed, and so why—”
“I figured she might just fall for your particular form of feline charm. Women tend to for some reason that escapes me.” He gave Talia a long, considering glance. “It seems I was right about that. And so here’s the deal. If Talia agrees to remain here in Impulse and voluntarily mate with me, I’ll allow all of you pussycats to leave and none of us will lay a paw on you. In other words, I won’t kill you if she agrees to stay.”
Vadim threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Nice try, but no dice.”
“Seems to me you don’t have a lot of choice.”
“Sure I do. You and me, Wilson.
We fight to the death for Impulse. No one else interferes.”
“No thanks.”
“You’re turning down a fight?” Vadim narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t have you pegged as a coward.”
“I hold the upper hand. Why would I want to fight when it’s unnecessary?”
“Come on, Wilson. You know I’m weaker than you are.”
“What I know is that you’re stalling for time, waiting for Rafe and the other alphas to get back here. But it won’t work. You have one minute to decide. Cede Impulse, walk away, leave Talia with me, and you all get to live your miserable lives out in peace.”
Talia grabbed his arm. “Do it!” she said urgently. “He means it. I’ll stay.”
“Like hell you will!”
“Vadim, I need to do this for you.” She glared intently at him. “You know why.”
“And I love you for being prepared to make the sacrifice, but—”
“Sacrifice has nothing to do with it. You know I can overcome him physically anytime I like when he’s in human mode.”
“Not before he messes with your mind and gets you into bed,” Vadim snarled.
“That ain’t gonna happen.”
“No, it won’t, because you’re not going with him.”
“But Impulse, I can’t be responsible for your losing it.”
Vadim winked at her. “Just trust me.”
“Time’s running out,” Wilson said in a singsong voice. “What’s your decision?”
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
Wilson shrugged. “It’s your funeral.”
“Perhaps, but not today.”
At a signal from Vadim, all the Impulse shifters moved into the center of the circle. The wolves closed in on them, crowding them, grinning because they thought they’d won the ultimate prize of Impulse without any blood being shed. So much for not underestimating the enemy, Vadim thought with a wry smile.
He led his feline shifters onto the merry-go-round. Zayd waited until the last of them was aboard and brought his clenched fists down hard on a large stone button in its center. The merry-go-round slowly started to go down like an elevator.
“What the fuck?” one of the closest wolves shouted. “They’re getting away. Do something!”
The wolves, temporarily stunned into immobility, moved forward to attack. Vadim extended his claws and waved to them, at the same time sending a pheromone to the two Impulse shifters concealed behind a stand of trees on the perimeter of the playground.
“Now!”
They lit a beacon and a spectacular ball of flame ignited around the edge of the playground. Vadim knew the wolves feared fire and heard their panicked screams as the merry-go-round finished its descent into the man-made passageways responsible for the rise in the ground. He sent a pheromone to Giron.
“Make sure they get away in their boats, but capture two of them. I need to know what they did to get past our mental barrier on the landside of Impulse.”
“I’m on it.”
Vadim then sent another pheromone, this time to Wilson.
“There’s just one way out for you,” he said, referring to the escape route they’d left that led directly to the shore. “This isn’t over. It’s still you and me. I’ll meet you on the beach. Same rules. We fight to the death. No one else interferes. Remember I could have let you all fry but chose not to. You decline the fight and I’ll make sure every shifter in the world knows you for the coward you are. Hasta la vista.”
Chapter Thirteen
“What is this place?” Talia asked, clutching Zayd’s hand as they dashed through the passages.
“That rise in the ground you noticed,” he replied. “Previous generations of Impulse shifters had the idea for subterranean passageways, just to give us the edge over our enemies. We’ve added to it over the years.”
“No wonder you didn’t seem afraid out there,” Talia said. “You might have told me. It seemed like impossible odds and I was scared out of my mind.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet.” Zayd gave her a smacking kiss.
“It was better you didn’t know,” Vadim said. “We weren’t sure how much control Wilson had over you.”
“None that I knew of,” she said without hesitation.
“Yeah, but that wasn’t entirely true, as it turned out.”
Talia said nothing and Zayd filled the ensuing silence.
“Unfortunately more rogues know we have this network now,” he pointed out.
“Couldn’t be helped,” Vadim said. “Anyway, it’s not the only surprise we have in store for shifters stupid enough to fight us on our own territory. I did try to point that out to Wilson, but he was too arrogant to listen, which I was kind of counting on.”
“We had a perishable pipe buried in a cement circle round the playground,” Zayd explained. “We made sure Giron had arranged to have it filled with liquid gas before we got there. Then it was just a case of—”
“Of getting onto the merry-go-round and sending out one of your mental signals to have it lit.”
“Pretty much,” Vadim agreed.
“You could have trapped all of Wilson’s people there, but you didn’t. Why?”
“We’re not murderers,” Vadim said. “The wolves won’t come back here in a hurry, which is all we care about.”
“But you’re still insisting on fighting Wilson.” Talia frowned. “Why?”
Vadim fixed Talia with a speaking look.
“Oh no, not because of me! I won’t allow it.” She shook her head. “What he said about me. It wasn’t true. I do remember my own grandmother, for goodness’ sake.”
“I wasn’t going to dignify his comments by asking you,” Vadim said, scowling. “He’s messing with your head, and threw me a curveball to try and knock me off-balance at the same time.”
“Part of me really wanted to go to him back there,” Talia said, sporting a scowl to rival Vadim’s. “And I hate him. I hate him even more for trying to manipulate me. Why is he so keen to have me?”
“That’s what we’d like to know,” Zayd said.
“It’s also why I need to fight him. He won’t give up on you.”
“Oh men!” She swirled in a circle and blew air through her lips. “Fighting’s all you ever think about. But I refuse for you to lose Impulse just because of me.”
“This isn’t for Impulse now. They lost that option when we literally smoked them out.” Vadim ground his jaw. “This is personal.”
“You’re not strong enough to fight him,” Talia insisted. “It was bad enough when you had a good reason to do it. Now it’s just plain lunacy.”
“He has to do it,” Zayd said softly, pushing open a trapdoor that led them directly into the bar at the Cat’s Whiskers.
“No he doesn’t, and I’m asking you not to, Vadim.” She laid a hand on his arm. “If you think anything of me at all, please don’t do it.”
“I can’t back down now, babe. I’ve issued the challenge.”
“Then get yourself killed. See if I care.” She took in her surroundings and stubbornly changed the subject. “Now I’m starting to see why this place is so important. It seems to be the hub of everything that happens in this town.”
“It is, pretty much,” Vadim agreed. “And we’re not ready to give it up yet.”
“Too right.” They turned to see Rafe and the other alphas standing in the doorway. “How did it go?”
Vadim explained. “I’ve asked Giron to keep a couple of them back. We really need to figure out how they got those shifters past our safeguards.”
“Good plan.”
“And Vadim’s still insisting on fighting Wilson,” Talia said, looking to Rafe for support.
Rafe shrugged. “I guess it’s something he has to do.”
“I’m sure it is,” she said sweetly. “If you’re pigheaded and have a death wish.”
“I’ll let the women out,” Vilas said, chuckling. “I guess it’s safe enough for them now.”
“No, leave them,”
Rafe said. “At least until Vadim’s fought Wilson.”
“Talking of which,” Vadim said. “It’s time.”
“I’m coming with you,” Talia said.
“He’ll try and mess with your mind again,” Zayd warned her.
“There’ll be enough of us there to block him,” Rafe said. “But it’s your call, Vadim.”
“Let her come,” he said, running a finger gently down the curve of her face.
Talia didn’t know whether to kiss him or land him on his ass with one well-aimed kick. The touch of his fingers, the searing expression in his gaze as he fixed it on her face, decided her. There was no point in making matters worse for him. He was going to do this, whatever she said to try and convince him otherwise, and there was nothing more to be said.
She reached up and kissed his cheek. “Good luck, you idiot,” she said softly.
“With you there, I’ll have all the luck I need.”
“How do you feel?” she heard Zayd ask him as a whole posse of male shifters, Talia in their center, headed for the beach.
“Actually, fit and ready. I can do this.”
Zayd slapped his shoulder. “I know you can, buddy. I know you can.”
They reached the beach to find Wilson there with just three wolf shifters at his back. One boat remained anchored offshore. Giron had obviously made sure that all the others hightailed it out of there. A full moon had broken through the cloud cover, bathing the beach with its light. Wilson stepped forward when he saw Vadim approaching.
“That was a neat trick you played on us back there,” he said.
“So much for never underestimating your enemy,” Vadim replied. “You should have waited for me to come to Venice, then you’d have had a chance.”
Wilson curled his upper lip. “I might have lost Impulse, at least for now, but I can still win what’s really important.” He nodded at Talia. “Get ready to come home with me, darlin’.”
Rafe placed a hand on her shoulder. Zayd took her hand. Between the two of them, the compulsion she felt to respond positively to Wilson diminished.
