Beast Rising: The Order of the Wolf, Book 7

by Angela Addams

  Mayhem glanced at her hand but otherwise ignored the gesture, crossing his arms instead. “And what will you do to help us get our people back?”

  Ariana sighed, dropped her hand just as Lance had moments before. “Saska is dangerous but from what I’ve heard from Kelly, she’s not an immediate threat to your people. Is it true that she’s been training your spell casting Huntress?”

  Aubrey snapped her eyes to Ariana. “Did Kelly tell you that?”

  Ariana nodded. “Yeah, she said she saw a vision of Saska helping a dark-haired Huntress cast a portal a few days ago. She’s just putting the pieces together now. Her visions…sometimes they come out of order or days ahead. It’s not a perfect science.”

  And vague as all hell.

  “Yes, she was training Darcy,” Mayhem said.

  “And when she opened the portal, did Darcy go willingly?” Ariana asked as if she knew the answer, or perhaps knew a version of the answer, depending on what Kelly had seen.

  “She was forced, I think,” Greer said. “She didn’t look like she wanted to leave.”

  “Not without Raven anyway,” Mayhem said with a rough sigh. “She is definitely sympathetic to Saska and was pushing me to let her join our pack. Raven, on the other hand, wouldn’t have gone willingly with the woman. He didn’t trust her and was having trouble convincing Darcy to see it any other way. So, yeah, Darcy didn’t go willingly but she didn’t do much to stop it either.”

  “Okay, until Kelly tells us otherwise, I think that your people are safe with Saska. There wasn’t hostility between them when they left,” Ariana said as she glanced at Lance.

  “Kelly is on her way from Canada. She’ll be able to read things better the closer she gets. She’s been getting fairly consistent images for the past few days now so there’s a good chance she’ll be very helpful in tracking your pack members,” Lance said.

  “And in the meantime? What? I’m just supposed to sit around and have some get-to-know-you chats?” Mayhem growled.

  “May, this would go a lot smoother if you’d just set aside your prejudices for now and be open to an alliance, if only temporarily while we sort this shit out. Things have changed both with the Order and with Ariana’s tribe,” Aubrey said.

  Mayhem’s ever-present frown deepened. “What has changed?”

  “We know you’re not the bad guys, despite the fact that you’re furry,” Ariana said with a smile.

  “The Order as well. Your band was being monitored for years. One of our Hunters, Allan, Hannah’s mate, was tracking you as a side project before he knew that you’d be connected by your Huntress.”

  “Right, and then he kidnapped my mate,” Mayhem growled. Hannah stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  Lance lifted his hand. “You know how it is when you find your mate, right, Mayhem? Rational thought sometimes goes out the window.”

  “In any case, the belief among the Order is typically that the young wolves who have not yet come into their beasts are less of a threat to humans. With time and age, that can change. The only pack we’ve known has been Lazarus’s though, and his minions didn’t stay wolves for long. He instigated the change to beast as part of their indoctrination into the pack; failure to do so typically resulted in death,” Ariana said. “The bottom line is, we know that you haven’t aggressively sought out any trouble. Anything that has happened, any deaths, have happened because the Order interfered with you. That’s not feral behavior. That’s self preservation and no one is going to hold that against you.”

  “So I’m off the hook for killing a Hunter?” Mayhem’s tone still held a hard edge. “Hunters have died under my fang.”

  Ariana nodded. “Talia’s mate, yeah, we know. Again, your pack was threatened—you did what you needed to do. We aren’t concerned with that. We won’t be seeking war with you. We want you on our side, fighting against a common enemy.”

  “Saska?” Mayhem’s tone changed. It was subtle but Aubrey heard a difference. He was listening. He was interested.

  “Yes, she’s dangerous,” Ariana said with a shake of her head.

  “And now she has my sword,” Greer growled.

  “Why is that sword so special?” Aubrey moved to Jay’s side again, her hand absently on his nape, stroking the soft fur there.

  “It locates Huntresses, even unmated ones. Young girls who may not know of their heritage,” Ariana said. “Lazarus used it to locate and then kill them. All the ones who weren’t his brides, that is. Those he spared long enough to see if they would take his seed. Saska and her sister Thia crafted the sword and then used it to help him find the Huntresses before the Order could. We lost a lot of girls that way. Now that she has it again, she’ll be able to find Huntresses.”

  “And kill them?” Hannah’s voice broke a bit. “But why?”

  “Because a Huntress’s death fuels her powers, amplifies them so that she can open the gate to Tartarus and get what she wants.” Greer clenched her fist, spitting her words like they tasted vile.

  “Which is what exactly?” Mayhem asked, finally calming enough to sound civil.

  “Lazarus.” Ariana closed her eyes briefly as if bracing for the reality of her words. “She wants the king back.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jay managed to calm himself enough to take back control a few hours before sunrise. Aubrey was curled into him, snoring away after having fallen asleep nestled next to his wolf.

  He was proud of her. She was a fierce warrior, so determined to make this unity thing work. He knew it was partly so that she could be with her family—to make things easier between the groups but also because she believed what Ariana had told her. It was only with a united front that they’d be able to defeat whatever evil came at them. Time to bury the hatchet so to speak and work together. Now more than ever.

  He kissed her shoulder, his heart pumping harder for her. Even though he still had trouble with the words, he loved her more than anything, even Mayhem, and that was a huge deal. So it was a good thing that she wanted everyone to get along.

  Saska might have snagged Raven and Darcy into her portal, but there was no way she could keep them with her if they didn’t want to be. Raven was a scary dude when he was mad, especially if Darcy was in harm’s way.

  Jay hadn’t followed much of the conversations that had been going on while he was a wolf and he’d freaked out a bit at having so many Hunters near his alpha. But he took his cues from Mayhem and as Mayhem had calmed, so had he. Raven would put a stop to whatever nonsense Saska was working up, then he’d give them a call and they’d go pick him up.

  He wanted to believe that. He really did. But he had this nagging feeling that things just wouldn’t be that simple. For the moment, there was nothing they could do to get Raven and Darcy back to the mansion. Not yet. The Huntress with the ability to see the future, or whatever she did—Kelly—was on route and apparently trying to meditate her way into another prophecy, or so said Ariana. The rest of the group was worn out and everyone had scattered to get some rest.

  Now he was lying with his woman and she was hardly dressed, just wearing panties and a tank top, and he was as hard as fuck. He curled closer to her and nudged her with his dick. She moaned a bit in her sleep, not taking the hint at all. With a grin, he whipped off his boxers, then curled in close once again, sliding his hand over her waist, loving the silky softness of her skin as he trailed over her belly and down to her panties. She moaned again, this time sounding a little less in dreamland.

  “Hey, baby, I’m gonna make you whimper,” he whispered against her ear as he slipped his fingers into her panties, gliding over her pussy lips, and coating himself in her juice.

  “Oh, yeah?” She spread herself a little wider, scissoring her legs to give him better access. “Is that a line from one of your songs?”

  “I’m gonna make you scream,” he said as sh
e rubbed her hard little clit.

  She giggled. “Uh huh.”

  He pulled his fingers out long enough to snap off the tiny little things she called panties. “You don’t think I can?”

  “Oh, I know you can. I’m just wondering when you’re going to get around to it.”

  He gave a low chuckle as he smacked her ass, leaving a handprint. “You want my dick.” He nudged against her, prodding with his cock. She opened her legs and shoved her ass back, giving him access to slide home. He let out a long moan when her wet pussy gripped him tight. “Feels damn good, baby.” Sex at her folks’ place had been quick and quiet. He planned on making this round long and loud.

  She nodded as she arched into him, moving her hips to match his thrusts, reaching back to grip his ass and urge him deeper, faster. He slipped his hand to her clit again, rubbing her as they moved together.

  “You’re mine,” he murmured against her shoulder, his climax rising as her pussy spasmed around his dick. They both moaned as they came, a release that was just the beginning.

  “You didn’t make me scream,” she said with a smirk over her shoulder. “Maybe I should show you how it’s done.” She pulled away from him, then pushed him onto his back and straddled him, quickly sheathing herself onto his dick once again. “Watch and learn.”

  * * * * *

  Jay left Bree in the shower. He’d fucked her first, of course, but he needed to get down to speak with Mayhem before they went wolf for the day.

  Tension was high as he entered the gym, knowing instinctively where he’d find his alpha.

  “You still trying to go beast?” Jay snagged a towel from the rack and tossed one to Mayhem, who was coated in sweat and panting like he’d run a marathon.

  Mayhem nodded a thanks then wiped his face. “I feel like I’m almost there. Been trying as a wolf too, but it’s like something is holding me back.”

  “I guess the Hunters aren’t going to be able to help us out with that.” Jay grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and handed it to Mayhem before grabbing one for himself.

  “Doubt it.” Mayhem opened the water and took a long swig. “I’ve been doing a bit of research on my own though, taking some of what Saska told us. She mentioned some folklore stemming from ancient Greek mythology.”

  Jay pulled up one of the stools and sat. “Any luck? I mean, can she even be trusted with any of the shit she told us?”

  Mayhem nodded toward the door. “Come to my office, I’ll show you.”

  Dy was on his way down the stairs as they hit the main hall. “What’s up, fellas?”

  Mayhem motioned to follow them, which Dy did with a cocked eyebrow in Jay’s direction.

  “I got something from Ariana and Lance that’s interesting,” Mayhem said as he bypassed his desk and pulled two leather bound books from his shelf. He handed one to Jay and one to Dy before backtracking to shut the door. “They’re old. Seem to be originals.”

  Jay cracked the book open and cringed at the musty smell. “Where the hell did they find these?”

  “Ariana said that Amazon North had them in their library. She had one of her women teleport them down.” Mayhem moved to sit behind his desk and motioned for Jay and Dy to do the same. “The writing seems old, an ancient kind of phrasing but there’s a lot of truth in there.”

  “So we’re all friends now?” Dy asked, his tone wary. He’d missed the showdown with Saska and the introductions that came later and seemed to be struggling with accepting it.

  “They seem genuinely interested in helping us,” Mayhem said. “I’m not jumping in full force with this unity bullshit but they want to help us find Raven and Darcy and giving us these books is a hell of a great start in mending fences. These books can make us more powerful. I doubt Ariana and Lance would offer up such a thing if they didn’t believe we were sided with the good guys.”

  “Fair enough,” Dy said as he glanced down at the book.

  Jay scanned the page he was on, noting the picture on the opposite side. “Is that a wolf with yellow eyes?” He squinted, reading the script underneath. “Lazarus, King of Beasts. Holy fuck, who was this guy?”

  “A legend, it seems.” Mayhem reached across the desk and flipped to about the halfway point. “A lot of this we know or have learned in the past little while. Some of it, though, is new to me.” He tapped the page. “This appears to detail what Saska has been saying for the past few days. Unleashing the beast is a matter of mindset.”

  “Seems simple.” Jay frowned. “Why the hell does that one look like a raging lunatic though?”

  “Yeah, that’s the catch. The mythology goes something like the wolf is seen as a natural, more innocent creature, meant to protect and serve the Huntress while the beast is a more calculating, evil presence.”

  “Evil?”

  “Some of that indicates that it’s a matter of who bites you. If your sire is tainted by evil, then there is a tendency for that to be in any he marks as well.”

  “Yellow eyes,” Jay said as he snapped his gaze to Mayhem. “Does that mean—”

  “That you’re one of Lazarus’s brood?” Mayhem shrugged. “Maybe. Greer and Saska seemed to think that Raven was and I know that he was battling something pretty damn intense when he came into his beast. He didn’t like it. He rejected Saska’s training attempts or suggestions for him to change.”

  Jay slammed the book shut, releasing a plume of nasty smelling air. “Well, fuck me.” He slumped back in his chair.

  “Hey, hang on,” Dy said as he leaned forward, tracing a few lines in the book with his finger. “I don’t think it’s as simple as switching our mindset.”

  Mayhem shook his head. “No, it’s not, which is why I’m having some issues.”

  “It’s all about control, dominating the beast—leashing it in a way.”

  “Balance.” Mayhem gave a slow nod. “If you can control the change, not make it all about instinct or reacting to a threat, then you have a better chance of ruling rather than going feral. We’ve been living as werewolves without really understanding our heritage. None of us have had any mentorship in this fucking world and for as long as we’ve existed together, we’ve always obeyed the cycles of the sun and moon, living naturally, so to speak.”

  “And now we’re fucked. Too weak to protect ourselves, right?” Jay said. He had a bad feeling deep in his gut right where his wolf was scratching at the surface ready to rule the day.

  “Not necessarily,” Dy countered with a frown, his gaze still riveted to the books. “It might be to our advantage, actually. Our wolves are strong, used to being in the natural state. If we can tap into that side while we’re going beast, we could maintain the same balance, just with more power, more strength, and the ability to rationalize and communicate better.”

  “Yeah, Dy’s right. I was wondering if I’d understood that part correctly.” Mayhem pointed to Jay. “You’re going to have to really assess how much of Lazarus is in you and how much you’re willing to give up for him. I can bring you back with my bite, but I’m not sure if that will always work. It’s going to be up to you to get a handle on shit before you attempt to go beast.”

  Jay gulped, not liking the idea at all. “Maybe Raven had the best plan. Maybe I should avoid even attempting—”

  “No, I don’t think that was the best plan either. He was suppressing and it took a lot of his energy to do that. I think what we all need to do is work on mastering the change first. Focus on getting from wolf to man to wolf, against the natural cycle, and do it with little effort before we go beast.”

  “Well, we’re all doing pretty good at that. Raven was the best though,” Dy said as he closed his book and rose.

  “Yeah, but I feel like we’re running out of time on this one. I think it’s time we speak to the wolves.” Mayhem took Dy’s book and opened to the last page, putting his finger on a diagram.
“A spell to conjure our wolves, to put us in touch so we can have a heart to heart and sort some shit out.”

  “Oh fuck. Yeah, been there, done that,” Dy said with a visible shudder. “Was face to face with mine. Hard as fuck to communicate.”

  “We don’t have Darcy to do a spell though,” Jay said, confused.

  “I don’t think we need a spell caster. I think any Huntress can do it. In fact, I think that our Huntresses can do it and be in on the conversation.”

  “Like a mediator?” Jay suggested.

  “Yeah. The wolves crave the Huntresses’ attention. I think that inviting them in to a discussion with the girls will produce some powerful results.” Mayhem stood. “You guys game or what?”

  Jay gulped. “Why now?” He was worried about what Aubrey would see. Cracking him wide open and stepping inside. “What if my wolf decides to go all Lazarus on her?”

  Mayhem snorted. “Somehow I doubt Aubrey would lose that fight.” He came around the desk and patted Jay on the shoulder. “Your woman is tough as all shit, man, your wolf will be cowering in no time.”

  Jay gave a weak smile. “Yeah, sure.” Easy for Mayhem to say when he’d be chatting it up with Ms. So Understanding Hannah. What if Aubrey poked around in his psyche and didn’t like what she found?

  Yeah, he was a goner.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aubrey had a secret. She’d been out hunting wolves with her sister while Jay had been entertaining himself with her family.

  She’d left him twice, claiming that she needed some sister time, which wasn’t a total lie. She and Corra had bonded over blood. They’d slayed seven in total. She ran her fingers over the new additions to her fang collection and smiled. They’d been feral for sure, oozing a nastiness that made her heart ramp up even now.

  She wanted to hunt again. Soon. It pulsed through her with a steady beat.