Entangled

by Olivia Stocum

  “She needs a lot of work, this beast. Could be dangerous.”

  If she kept talking like that, they wouldn’t make it to Switzerland on time. Nick had suffered through a series of truly bizarre relationships with women who were more vampire than mortal. The kind of women that attracted him with their need for a pack leader, then turned out to be lying, cheating, emotional wrecking balls.

  At first he’d thought Danielle had been the real deal, but her heart was elsewhere. Vesper had scented him out then. Literally. She’d caught his scent soon after he’d arrived at the castle with Gerald and Lizzy. She’d lost her first mate and had never gotten over him. She probably never would. When she loved it was with everything she had. That really didn’t bother Nick. She had enough room in her heart for two men.

  She’d tested Nick almost immediately. He’d been raised human but Vesper made all his hidden instincts emerge. She’d bitten him, marking him with her venom. He had a scar on his arm from her. The venom had hurt like hell, but now he was a part of her; she’d claimed her territory. They would never be able to have children like she’d had with her first mate. Nick and Vesper were not genetically compatible.

  There were options. He and Danielle were compatible. And Danielle had offered up her end of the genetic contribution. Using in vitro, Vesper could have children with him. This was all Vesper’s idea. She knew she would outlive him and thought it was important to have a piece of him left behind.

  He hadn’t pictured himself a dad, not because he wasn’t suited for it, but because he knew that for anyone but Danielle he was sterile. He was already a stepfather to Vesper’s twins, and that was enough.

  He and Vesper were a bonded pair but he wanted to marry her anyway. Danielle had a fat diamond. He wanted to do something for Vesper. Unfortunately, she was the one with all the resources. What was a guy supposed to do about that?

  Vesper leaned her head back against the seat. “This car has leg room,” she said, arranging legs that went on for miles.

  He smiled, looking her over. “I want to marry you.”

  Dark brows furrowed. Then she smiled. “We already did that when I bit you.” Vesper growled.

  “Call it a human weakness I was raised with.”

  “I do not want complicated. Is not our way.”

  “I know, beautiful, but maybe when this all blows over we can go to the Adirondacks, do something simple with my parents.” He could sell his classic Chevy truck and buy her a ring. It was the only thing of value he owned. Maybe he’d lower himself to asking Lothar to use his name to get him a good deal.

  She watched him for a moment then nodded. “If it makes you happy. But on one condition.”

  “Yeah?”

  “We go through with pregnancy after wedding.”

  Maternal instincts. She couldn’t shake them. In the wild, alpha females have the pups, other wolves are there to offer support and protection.

  He nodded. “We’ll go through with it.”

  Her smile widened, reaching her eyes. He called her beautiful as a nick name for a reason. Vesper sat back getting all misty on him. Her soft side was showing. He suspected even her harder edge was really just her momma bear instinct anyway. What else could he expect from an alpha female?

  ***

  His collection was impressive. Kendra ran her fingers gently over the pages of a four-hundred year old manuscript, yellow parchment brittle beneath her fingertips. Carefully, she closed the leather and wood binding and put it back on the shelf where she’d found it.

  She knew now why Alessandro had hesitated when Father Davide suggested he show her his quarters. They were downstairs.

  And by that, she meant down in the bowels of a dank, creepy cellar. Two flights underground, where she’d been just as blind as Alessandro had after his exposure to the sun. When she had missed a step on the first flight he’d picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. Safer that way, he’d said, holding her closely, voice cuing her in on the little smile of satisfaction she couldn’t see. He may have had reservations about her being there, but touching her was no bother at all.

  “Why all the way down here?” she asked, turning from the bookshelf to see him watching from the other side of the chamber. There was a single bulb hanging from the cobwebbed ceiling. No fixture. Just a bulb, and probably only there for the use of the occasional visitor.

  He crossed over at a normal human pace, took her by the hand, and then turned her around. She leaned back against him, wishing again that he was a little warmer. They were facing a massive Victorian bookshelf overloaded with everything from ancient leather-bound manuscripts to dog-eared paperbacks.

  “Most of the inhabitants don’t know what I am. They believe only that I’m an eccentric who has chosen a life of hermitage. It’s better that way.”

  “That you hide in a dungeon?” She understood the reasons, but that didn’t mean she was happy about them. “Like an animal.”

  “Like a monster, habibti.”

  She turned her head to look up at him. “How many people do you have that you can talk to?”

  “Hunting with Father Davide is fun.”

  She’d never heard him talk about having fun before. “Hunting?”

  “In the forest. Feeding off animals helps, but I can’t live that way. He and I have made a competition out of who can make the first kill.”

  She thought about that for a moment, about the possibilities. “If we lived in a place where you could hunt at night, then that might help us both.”

  He shook his head. “I wouldn’t dare risk it, with you.”

  “Because if I was your only source of human blood nearby, you might lose control?”

  He nodded tightly.

  She cleared her throat. “So, just how many of the brethren know what you are?”

  He shrugged. “A few. Others suspect, but they don’t say anything. About twenty in total volunteer to donate blood.”

  She pulled away from him, rubbing her arms. Kendra moved closer to the lightbulb in the vain hope of getting warmer. “How many spend time with you as friends?”

  He must have been avoiding that particular question out of confusion. It was written all over his face now that he was out of ways to avoid answering it.

  She waited patiently for him to get a clue.

  “This is a place of solitude,” he said finally. “I am no different than anyone in that regard.”

  Vampire or not, his brain was distinctly male. “Yeah, I get it,” she said. “Who needs companionship?”

  “I wouldn’t find what I was looking for here anyway.”

  Neither of them said it out loud, but she knew where he was going with that; no females.

  Kendra moved on, looking his desk over. It was rough oak, probably over a hundred years old. “How do you keep your computer from freezing?” she asked, wondering out loud.

  She looked up to see his brows drawn in question. Smiling then, he rubbed her arms. “It doesn’t get cold enough down here to freeze anything.”

  “I’m freezing.”

  “I’d gathered that,” he said dryly. “Do you want to go back upstairs?”

  “I’d rather we be alone. I’m a little out of place here in case you haven’t noticed.” She lowered her voice. “I’m wearing pants.”

  He frowned over that one. She’d confused him yet again.

  “I used to visit a monastery with my mom,” she said. “We always wore skirts and covered our hair.”

  “I’m sure they’re surviving the torture.” He stopped then, looking her over. “Although, perhaps they’re not. You might be the cause of some serious confessions.”

  She eyed him. “Oh, how not funny you are.”

  “You’re here with me. They’ll make an exception to the rules. We should probably sleep until Father Davide is ready for us.”

  She wouldn’t be getting much during the night is what he meant? For not the first time she wished she had more control over her reactions to him. Her breath hit
ched, and then their hearts raced in tandem. She focused on her breathing until things simmered down.

  At sunset they would drive to the hotel where they’d already booked the biggest suite, the bridal suite. She was relieved to know that Nick and Vesper would have their backs and all tonight so they could focus on other things, but facing Nick again would be painful to say the least. She’d rather jump in an icy lake.

  He took a monk’s robe off a hook on the wall and came to her with it. “Arms up,” he said.

  She did as he asked and he pulled it over her head. It was huge, draping heavily over her in folds of excess fabric. She held out her arms, unable to see her hands at all.

  The robe smelled like him. “I’ve made a monk break his vows,” she said.

  He laughed at that. “I was a guest, and I never made any vows. I left on my own volition because it was time. One can only hide for so long.”

  “What’s a hundred years, anyway?”

  “A lot, with you.”

  She was feeling warmer already. He scooped her up off her feet.

  “Better not walk around in this too much,” he said.

  She straightened her leg, looking at the hem hanging off her foot. “Probably not. I see a broken nose in my future.”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  He lowered her onto a bed hardly big enough for him, much less the both of them. He frowned at her for a moment, then smiled and scooped her up again quickly. A second later she was catching her equilibrium as she lay belly down on his chest. She wondered if the frame would hold their combined weight as it creaked ominously.

  He hooked one leg through hers. Kendra was all too aware of the, um, shape of him beneath her. Yeah. Just a few more hours and he would be hers.

  “I’m wearing a monk’s robe, you know,” she said.

  “Yes. My robe.” He slid his hands down her waist. “Marriage is a sacrament. A holy vocation.”

  “I can,” she cleared her throat, “see why that is.”

  “Sleep, habibti.” He eyed her. “Assuming you can.”

  “Arrogant brat,” she muttered, settling in and closing her eyes. She could hear his heart as he dozed off, beating more slowly, conserving energy.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alessandro didn’t tell Kendra, but a few hours later he found himself questioning his own motives. He wanted to give Kendra whatever it was from him that she needed, but to ruin the rest of her life for it? No. If she felt so strongly about marriage and sex, then he doubted divorce was on her agenda.

  ’Till death do us part.

  But he was already dead, not even human, hardly even a man, save the remnants left in him so long ago by his mother and Sha’re.

  He knelt with Kendra in a dimly lit stone chamber just before sunset with only Father Davide and a life-sized wooden crucifix standing witness to their vows.

  Yes, she would take this seriously. The crucifix alone assured him of that. He would keep her for as long as any immortal could—his fragile human mate. Maybe, God would even see it in his mercy to forgive him for this final sin. The one of loving a woman too much.

  He slipped Kendra’s ring over her finger. Her mouth dropped open. He didn’t know why she looked so surprised. It was only two and a half carats.

  When it was her turn, she gifted him with a heavy platinum ring set with a blood red garnet held in the wings of angels on either side. She was right about the angels. He needed all the help he could get.

  Father Davide finished and they stood finally, Alessandro given leave to kiss her. She shivered as he took her into his arms. He was cold and getting colder by the minute. He kissed her quickly and backed away, releasing her from the inhuman contact.

  Father Davide took her hand in congratulations. “Come and visit me,” he said to her. “Maybe you could even bring Alessandro with you.”

  She laughed nervously. “Well, we’ll see about that. I might just leave him home.”

  Davide embraced him next. “May you be richly blessed, my friend.”

  And may God have mercy on his soul, what was left of it, for possessing this innocent for his own. She was older than either Sha’re or Tessa had been, but her heart was very young. He’d sworn on Tessa’s grave that he would never bury another woman he loved.

  And yet he would.

  They drove, leaving the monastery quietly behind as if they’d never come at all, Alessandro, as always, cautious of his son’s many Slaves. He’d known Theron had planted them in various locations, laying low, quiet, waiting to enact some kind of revenge. What Alessandro still didn’t know, was why.

  Lothar guarded that secret. Alessandro had his own, so he hadn’t pressed the werewolf. They all had their personal demons to face. Theron just happened to be one that Lothar and Alessandro had in common.

  He pulled up to the inn, aware of Kendra’s stress from the other side of the car. The blood tucked away in their bag, her knowledge that he could smell it, and their wedding night, were sending her to a whole new level. And as if that wasn’t enough, her first husband’s biological brother was out there somewhere with his shapeshifting mate.

  Kendra turned to him, face paler than usual in the light from the inn, less like ivory, more like fear. “Can you smell Vesper yet?”

  He forced a smile. “Let me get out of the car first. They make these machines virtually airtight.”

  “Okay.”

  The valet came to park the car but Kendra caught Alessandro’s arm before he could get out. “I should talk to Nick.”

  He had assumed that she would. “If it’s safe, I’ll take you to see him.”

  “What about you and the wolf? Lothar swore she wouldn’t get near you, but she’s been trained to kill you guys.”

  He reached out, lifting her chin to him. Kendra looked him in the eyes. “She is one wolf. One.”

  “All it takes is one bite.”

  “Yes, she and I both need to be on our best behavior.”

  “Let’s hope she remembers that.”

  He turned from her, getting out before she could stop him again. A valet opened her door, welcoming her warmly. Kendra was rich, beautiful, and it was her honeymoon. She would be treated very well indeed.

  Their bag was removed from the back and gratuitous tips left in happy pockets. After the car rolled off, Alessandro looked at the bellboy waiting to show them to their room. He smiled politely and spoke in Swiss German. “My bride has spent most of the day on the road. She would like to get some air. We will be in shortly.”

  He touched Kendra’s arm as the young man excused himself. “Your bother-in-law and his mate are just out of sight, in the woods. I can’t smell any vampires.”

  She took a breath. “Okay. Here goes nothing then, huh?”

  “Better to pull the bandage off quickly, or so I’ve been told.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  Kendra walked under the shadows and into three inches of snow with Alessandro. She was the only one who couldn’t see very well in the dark. He, Nick, and Vesper all had that advantage. They had a lot of advantages. That didn’t necessarily make them better. It just made her vulnerable.

  A young man in jeans, black biker boots, and a leather jacket with a baldric of ammo slung across his shoulders walked out of the forest to meet her. He was easily six foot two. He held a high power rifle in one hand.

  Nick Shephard. Although twin werewolves were rarely identical, often they shared many traits. Through him Alessandro had a glimpse of what Jason had looked like. Whether she acknowledged it or not, Kendra had a taste for powerful men.

  Behind Nick came a sleek black wolf. Vesper stood as tall as he did. She moved like a wild animal, haunches bent and ready to spring. Kendra stiffened next to him as Vesper watched all three with eyes like onyx cabochons.

  *

  Nick knew there was something wrong the moment he laid eyes on her. She was gorgeous as always, so it wasn’t that—at least not in and of itself. There was something more.

  Once u
pon a time, he’d been envious that Jason had gotten to Kendra first. Over the years he’d come to see her as a sister. Unfortunately, that meant he wanted to protect her like one too.

  Tonight, she was too white, like alabaster, too gold, like the sun back home when the leaves changed colors and bathed everything in molten metal. Vesper growled and he knew she saw it too. She stood waiting, under orders from her brother not to engage Alessandro.

  Kendra looked to the vampire as if reluctant to leave his side even to talk to Nick. He and Kendra had once been family. Now what were they?

  She pulled her hair over to one side of her neck and started toward him with unnatural grace. Nick smelled the air as she stopped in front of him. She was still human, but there was something more... Vesper would know. He’d have to ask her.

  Nick could smell Alessandro on Kendra. Apparently, she’d made it her new practice to cling to the repulsive creature.

  “Hi,” she said timidly.

  He glanced at Alessandro first. The vampire was tall, very tall, long black hair and the look of Middle Eastern royalty. He hung back, watching them with defensive eyes.

  Nick didn’t touch Kendra. He knew better. “Hey,” he managed, trying not to sound alarmed. “How you holding up?”

  “I’m okay.” She ran her hand over her hair. It was longer than he remembered her wearing it. “Did you tell Greg I’m all right?”

  “Yeah, your brother knows you’re good.” Or something like that, he finished to himself.

  “My parents?”

  “Your brother told them you won a trip and you’re living it up in Hawaii.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And they believed it?”

  He shrugged. “Time will tell.”

  “We’ll both have to face up to our families eventually.”

  “It’ll have to be a good one.”

  She laughed. It was strangled. “Maybe we can tell them we joined the Peace Corps.”

  “That’s an idea.”