Dominic’s words may have been nice, but the threat was razor sharp.
Amalia looked to Lennox before Yon inclined his head. “We can’t wake her.”
Dominic didn’t speak again and lifted one brow.
“She became … agitated and lashed out when we brought her here. We only put her to sleep to protect her. She hasn’t awakened, even long after the spell wore off. It was set for a few minutes at best.”
“She’s in there. Let me touch her; I know what to do.” The Three Stooges looked at each other again, and Romano hit the wall. “It’s not like I can carry her out of here and run, can I? Let me help her.”
The douche in the eat category nodded stiffly, and the wall disappeared. Romano lunged forward and scooped Kalinda into his arms.
She smelled of chocolate and vanilla, the ingredients she’d used to make her cakes, and that same old magic he couldn’t quite place. Her heart pounded strong against his chest, and he traced her pulse with his lips.
“Come on, baby. Don’t keep me worried like this.”
Her hands twitched against him, but that was all. Still, he’d gotten through.
“I know. You need more. You’re hiding, but I’m here. Follow me.”
He didn’t know why he said it, but he could only use what he remembered from Zahara. He may not have had the same magic, but he could use his essence of the wolf. He reached out to Kalinda with his wolf, letting the power rub over her as he curled around her. His wolf whimpered and licked over her skin. The human side of him followed, using his tongue to trace a heated path over her neck and toward her ear.
“Don’t be mad at me, okay?”
It would be the best he could do. Her fingers clenched into his shirt. He wasn’t sure if it was a warning or a need for help, but he knew he was moving in the right direction to bring her back.
Her heat was hotter as he nipped her earlobe and kissed his way over her jaw. He angled his body the best he could to hide the movement from the others, but he couldn’t forget they were there.
“I claim you,” he whispered against Kalinda’s skin.
His teeth punctured her skin as he bit deep, sucking against the blood that flowed and using his tongue to soothe the pain. With his saliva, he would be able to heal it, but it would be sore. He disengaged his teeth and just used his tongue, closing his lips over the wound as her arms came up and around him.
“No. Stop what you’re doing,” Lennox ordered.
Fierce triumph surged through him. His. She was his. Too late, assholes.
“He’s marked her!” Amalia screamed.
Power pulsed a moment before Romano was thrown back, ripping him away from Kalinda and sending him careening into the wall next to the door they’d entered. Thick smoke from cracked mortar burned his eyes, and he gasped, his breath knocked out of him.
A howl tore through his stupor enough to get him focused, and Giuliana crouched in front of him, teeth and claws bared.
Dominic stood at the forefront, pushing Zoey behind him as he faced off against the Trinity. “You would strike one of mine?”
Alpha power swelled into the room, pressing cement blocks down on Romano’s chest as he coughed to breathe.
“He claimed her! He had no right!” Amalia’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard. “He was only supposed to help her.”
Did she screech? The pounding in his head told him she did. Romano forced himself to sit up. This could turn deadly, and Kalinda wasn’t safe.
“I only did what I could to bring her back. She is tightly tied to certain emotions and sensations. If you dipshits saw, I tried to be nice and easy at first, but my girl likes it rough.” Romano coughed but managed a grin at the Three Douches.
Taking Giuliana’s outstretched hand, he got to his feet and brushed off the specks of destroyed wall. Yeah, he’d feel that in the morning.
A moan stopped them all from saying anything further. “Romano?”
Kalinda’s eyes opened, and she blinked a few times before frantically searching the room. When her gaze rested on him, every bone in her body went liquid and she relaxed. “You’re here.”
Damn, if that didn’t do things to him on a level he couldn’t describe. Clearing his throat before his voice cracked like a pubescent teen, he spoke. “Told you. Can’t get rid of me that easily.”
She looked up at him from the seat. Only at him. She sounded dazed and angry. “I want to go home.”
Romano looked to Dominic, who shook himself enough to speak normally. “We’re done here.” There was a bite to his tone as he addressed the Trinity. “You struck one of my wolves who offered you help. As of now, Kalinda is a member of the Lombardi Pack and needs her pack to survive her First Shift. Any further discussion of whether she chooses to join the Council will have to wait until then.”
“Out of the question. We have access to the best healers in the lands, and we will make sure she receives the no-shift potion as well. She will not be a wolf,” Lennox promised with a little too much disdain in his voice.
“She is my mate, and Magic Law states a mate bond is sacred. This isn’t a situation where she was forced to turn by a random bite.”
“It is a random bite by someone who wanted her power,” Lennox countered.
“I don’t want her for her power. I want her because she’s Kalinda.”
Romano said the words to the Trinity, but he was looking at her. Their gazes locked as he took a step forward. “She has a choice in joining the Council, and that will wait until you can explain to us exactly what that means, but first, she is my mate, and that takes precedence.” He put heavy emphasis on the word “us.” She wasn’t alone in this.
Dominic’s voice boomed through the air. “Denying a pack member’s claim to his mate means turning your back on all shifters who gave sovereignty to the Council to be part of the Enchanted Zones and live freely. Remember, our kind are not ruled by the same laws of magic.”
Romano had never head of that, but Dominic’s words rang true and loud.
Yon narrowed his eyes at Dominic. “She isn’t permitted to leave until she understands what turning down a Council position means, as that is our law. But in deference to your customs, her mate can remain with her until her First Shift and the choice she will have to make.” Yon grimaced as if the words were distasteful to him.
“Hello? Can everyone stop talking about me like I’m a piece of furniture and you’re trying to decide which room you’re going to put me in?” Kalinda snapped. “I don’t want to be on the Council. End of story.”
Lennox, the smug bastard, never looked at Kalinda but only at Romano as he spoke. “Turning down a Council appointment is not a viable option, as we’ve told you. But perhaps I should clarify. You may refuse the appointment and the controls therein, but to do so would mean your gifts are dangerous to us. We learned that with one who said no and caused irreparable damage. She is alive to atone for it, and for no other reason.”
“I don’t have time for games. Say what you are trying to say,” Dominic raged.
“He’s saying Zahara was the mage who said no, and the only reason she is still alive is because she is doing work to make up for what she did. And if Kalinda says no, she dies,” Zoey clarified.
“Ah, and they say an old dog can’t learn new tricks,” Lennox jeered.
Yeah, I’m killing you the minute I get Kalinda clear. And I’m going to enjoy it so much.
So. Fucking. Much.
Chapter Nine
Romano wasn’t going to sit there and let them pull the group apart. The Council knew just what they were doing. They wanted to keep him there with Kalinda— separated from his pack and Alpha—and beholden to their magic and spells he couldn’t hope to break. Staying here would only ensure they’d keep Kalinda right where they wanted her and under their control.
That didn’t change the fact the Council had the upper hand and they were trying to get her away from them. He never got the story from Zahara about how she’d escaped the C
ouncil, and from their hint, she was paying for it in some way. He was sort of really pissed his wolf tried to eat her and still got uncomfortable when she was around.
Kalinda wasn’t holding on. Trapped on the chair with him unable to get to her, she lashed out again, slamming into an invisible all.
“I want to go home. You can’t choose this for me.”
“You’re a child, but soon you’ll learn. Sleep.”
Romano roared, feeling helpless he couldn’t do anything as he watched Kalinda slump over again when Lennox waived his hand in her direction.
“You piece of shit. You couldn’t wake her last time, and then you do it again? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Romano,” Dominic warned.
Romano was over it. Over them. Over their heavy handedness. Over. All. Of. It. “She doesn’t deserve to be treated like this, and all you’re doing in ensuring she won’t ever choose you. You’re making sure she chooses death because she’d rather do that than take what you’re force feeding down her throat.”
Lennox’s gaze was hard. “Do you think any of us had a choice? Do you think being high-level mages means we can live life any way we see fit? We have responsibilities too, or we could be dangerous. She’s created situations, though small, because she cannot control her magic. You can’t deny that. And there are those who would want to use her against us as well.”
“The Viscount Pride,” Romano guessed. “I wonder how they knew about her in the first place.” Yeah, his tone was sarcastic, but he didn’t give a shit.
“What’s done is done. She turned an entire pride into an orgy, and by the time we came for her, she had two more locked into her magic. Without control, she could cause entire wars or manipulate people without even trying,” Amalia explained.
“Her places as an Ales is at our side, it is what it is,” Yon finished.
“There is nothing to fear by allowing her to come home to her pack and heal until after her First Shift. You do understand she was bitten by a Born Wolf and is, by your definition, a Level-9 mage?”
Thank God Dominic had thought of that, and his words were enough to give the Council pause. Shifters had decided to give sovereignty to the National Council in order to live publicly and have protections against humans who wanted to try to hunt them. It was stupid, but it happened. Instead of all-out war, non-mages—paranormals like vampires and shifters—agreed to follow mage rule if their rites were respected by the Council. For shifters, those were things like mage-bites, shifting phases, and pack-specific needs their animals called for.
A Born Wolf could change mages and non-mages, but typically, non-mage humans didn’t survive the transitions, as was nearly the case for Dominic. But it also meant the change, if completed, could give the surviving wolf extra power in specific regards. Dominic was nearly indestructible, something that helped him within the warrior class.
What Kalinda would be was anyone’s guess.
Lennox gritted his teeth. “Exactly why she needs to stay here so we can monitor her.”
“Can you perform the position of Alpha and call her wolf to heel when it’s trying to rip its way out of her body because its terrified?”
“She will not be a wolf at all when she is given the no-shift formula. None of that matters.”
“And you can’t give it to her without her choice. She isn’t lucid right now, and she has to give her consent to take the potion. You know these laws.”
Romano could see nothing Dominic said was getting through to them. They wanted Kalinda any way they could have her, and it didn’t matter what rules they broke.
“Is this worth breaking ties with the shifter community?” Romano stood tall, his gaze directly on Lennox.
“I could ask the same to you, wolf. Is taking her, against what we’re telling you, worth being excommunicated from Encantado?”
Fuck. Yes. She was his despite how it happened and his fears. He couldn’t turn over his mate. But … he had to think of his people too. The pups who lived safely within measure within the portal cities.
“Look, all we’re asking for is twenty-eight days to work with her and teach her to be a wolf. To be with her at her shifting and see her through. No one is saying anything about her not joining the Council. We understand your warning that for her to say no is a death sentence. But she should choose.”
“Some of us are not given a choice, Dominic. He took the choice away from her when he bit her without her consent,” Amalia countered, looking pointedly at Romano.
Well, hell. She had them there. His wolf howled, wanting his mate but also confused about the emotions coursing through him. A shifter mate wasn’t always about choice when the wolves were involved. Hell, he’d seen his own parents destroyed by what their wolves had chosen for them when they hadn’t followed emotionally. Was he repeating the same mistake they had?
Was something wrong with his blood?
He didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to let them keep her. They could figure out the rest later. But what could he do? They stood against three of some of the most powerful mages in the world. Romano wracked his brain, trying to come up with anything. He was still separated from Kalinda, and she was groggy, going in and out of consciousness. At least she didn’t seem as trapped in the Chaos Realm as before, but he needed to get his hands on her and get them out.
“Her place with the Council … what is it?” Romano was sick to death of being in the dark. “What does it mean for her to be an Ales?”
Amalia turned toward him. “It means she’s the balance of the Trinity and, as such, must be with the Council. It means her bloodline is old enough to command great respect and responsibility to the magekind. She must be under strict guidance and the instruction of the Council and National Council to be safe. The rest is for her to understand.”
They were back at square one. Romano still didn’t see a way for them to come eye to eye when their positions were opposite sides of the spectrum. The Council cared about the magic and what it would mean for the mages, and the wolves, well, they just cared about Kalinda.
An impasse could only be handled by a fight to the bitter end or retreat by one side. But even with a retreat, he’d have to make sure they couldn’t be followed. He needed a fucking barrier.
Holy. Shit.
“We’re not here to fight, Lennox. That was never our intention.”
Romano let Dominic keep arguing and inched closer to Zoey. Giuliana cut her gaze at him. Years of working together put them in good stead, and she slid forward. Wolves didn’t stalk, instead using freeze frame movements like cats. They hunted as a pack. The loudest wolves weren’t what their prey had to worry about—it was the silent ones who would kill them.
Giuliana moved forward, closer to her Alpha, and started arguing with Amalia too. With each passing moment, Romano was closer to Zoey, and he thanked his lucky stars the Three Stooges had chosen a solarium for the meeting place.
“Zoey,” he whispered. She may not have shifted, but carrying a wolf pup made her sense of hearing much better than any human’s. She twitched but otherwise made no outward show she’d heard him.
“I’m really going to need that need that poopourri stuff you can do. I’m talking Tarzan-in-the-jungle wild.”
“Kalinda?”
“Giuliana will get her.”
“Yes, we’re wolves but …”
Romano didn’t listen to the rest of Giuliana’s words to Amalia. Her stressed “yes” was her way of telling him she heard him, and that’s all that mattered. Dominic was right near his mate, and Romano caught him grabbing her hand.
Look likes it’s all a go then.
“Game on, Zoey.”
Romano grasped Zoey’s other hand in his, and … felt nothing.
Well, that’s a let dow—
Vines pushing through the ground. That’s the only way he could describe how his blood flowed through his veins. Deep, moist earth separated under the strain of new life bursting through to the sun. His flesh ti
ghtened, pulled taut with magic, and his wolf howled, welcoming a new moon.
Zoey was life, pure and simple.
And in the background, nearly so quiet he almost didn’t catch it, a pup yipped, laughter bubbling up around him.
Dominic, she’s beautiful and so strong. Dude, you’re having a girl! This is going to be epic.
A loud, fierce growl ripped him from the sensations he’d pulled from Zoey—his Alpha’s call. Instantly, Romano was back in action, dragging Zoey close to his chest and keeping their hands glued together. All around them, plants and vines shot up, bursting through the windows and filling the solarium.
“Burn it, Lennox!”
Amalia really liked screeching, but Lennox listened, his hands working fast to create fireballs. He shot them at each plant, withering them, but another grew in its place. Giuliana slipped through the foliage, leaving her heels behind.
“Romano, you so owe me a new pair of Louis.”
She snatched Kalinda up in her arms and raced back toward them. Romano looked for an escape and saw a rapidly closing hole in the wall.
“Let’s go!”
Amalia sneered. “They’re taking her. Yon, stop them.”
“I can’t. I’m grounded.”
Whatever that meant, but it worked in their favor. The group rushed toward the window and leapt through.
Dominic curled around Romano and his mate the best he could, cushioning their fall to the hard-packed earth. Zoey cried out, but Romano couldn’t feel pain through their connection, just a moment of fear.
“She’s okay,” he told his Alpha.
“Romano—”
“I wouldn’t lie to you. I can feel her. More on it later. Let’s get out of here first. I’m rubbing in your face what I just found out. You’re dead, man. Dead, I tell you.”
Outside, the carefully manicured rose bushes around the mansion were twisted and grotesque like a sideshow, massive thorns protruding into the air. The group slipped through, finding air pockets where they could.
“Fuck,” Giuliana growled.
“You okay?”
Mated to the Enforcer (Mafia Wolf Shifters) (Encantado Shifters Book 2) Page 9
