Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4)

by McKenzie Hunter

  “Ethos called him Derrick.”

  After a long pause, Ethan identified him as the fourth in the Ares pack, and another wolf. He took out his phone, and I could feel the anger coming off him. Ethan’s emotions were very hard to ignore, a turbulent wave that overtook the room, singeing anything nearby. I touched his hand. “Who are you calling?”

  “Anderson.”

  Ethan wasn’t very diplomatic. His skills of negotiation were often reduced to telling the person his expectation of compliance, with a poorly veiled threat for good measures. This situation was bad; I thought poking the Alpha would only make it worse.

  “I think you should wait.”

  “Wait on what, Sky?”

  “How will speaking with him change anything? He has an agenda, and you aren’t going to coerce him to change. He sees Ethos as a means to an end and that is where we should direct our attention.”

  “Ethos wouldn’t have been able to do any of that alone. Without them, how would it have ended yesterday?”

  He had a point. Were-animals’ immunity to magic in animal form made them hard to be overtaken by mages, fae, and witches. And most of faes, mages and witches weren’t skilled enough fighters to be able to win. That was our advantage and when we needed magic, we had Josh and me. But there was more to it—Ethan had subdued his anger about Sebastian long enough, and he wanted revenge. The anger that sparked in his eyes made it more evident.

  “Have you heard anything from Dr. Jeremy?” I asked.

  He barely moved his head in a nod.

  “And?”

  “Nothing has changed since last night.”

  I studied Ethan but didn’t get much from it, his stoicism didn’t reveal whether he thought Sebastian would survive. What would happen if he didn’t? Part of me wanted to hang on to the bliss of ignorance but I needed to know. “What happens if he survives but isn’t the same?”

  “Hopefully, he will step down.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Sebastian couldn’t function as anything else. Being the Alpha came as natural to him as breathing. Would he step down?

  “Skylar, you know what happens if he doesn’t,” he said, his eyes holding mine.

  “Will he accept a challenge of submission?”

  “You know where Sebastian and I stand on that. It hasn’t changed. If we can’t handle our position and someone feels strongly enough to challenge—” He didn’t finish the sentence, not because he didn’t want to, but because I was barely holding it together. I blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall.

  “You don’t have to do anything. It’s our rules, we made them and we can break them,” I said. “If you don’t feel he is fit to lead, do what you are supposed to do, support him. That’s your job. No one has to fight, no one has to die.”

  He listened in silence, his determined presence just frustrating me more. “I won’t let you do it.”

  “Sky.” The sharp edge to his tone didn’t faze me one bit.

  “No! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. Promise me you will not challenge him, no matter what. Promise.”

  “No,” he said softly. “If Sebastian isn’t able to continue as Alpha, I will only challenge if he doesn’t step down.”

  “No. No you will not. You have to promise me you won’t.” He kept calling my name, but I refused to hear anything other than his promise to me. When he attempted to take my arm I jerked it back. “You have to promise me, Ethan.”

  His voice softened, and I hated that I hadn’t been able to brush away the tear that had managed to escape. “No. I’m not going to do that. Things are the way they are. I don’t like all aspects of it, but they are our rules and nothing you say to me is going to change them. If you need to cry—go ahead, let it out. You need to scream—do that, too, but it will not change anything.”

  He reached for me again, and I tried pulling my arm away but he held on tighter, drawing me closer to him. He rested his forehead against mine and cradled my face. “This situation is black and white. I know you want it to be a gray area, but there isn’t,” Ethan said in a low voice.

  I yanked away from him—he would not ease me into this or charm me into thinking this was okay. I wasn’t going to accept this as anything more than what it was—murder. “Is that what you want to call it to make it easier to accept? So you just plan to ‘black and white’ the situation? Call it what it is, you two will fight until one of you murders the other,” I snapped.

  Ethan didn’t possess a great deal of patience and his taut frown showed that I had reached the end of his. “You want to be a child about this, go ahead, Sky.” The coarse words were forced out through a tight jaw and clenched teeth. “A pack is only as strong as their Alpha. You’ve enjoyed the luxury of being part of one that most will not consider screwing with. You’ve never been a woman in a pack that others consider weak, because then you would understand that need for a strong pack. I don’t want to kill anyone in my pack, but if they feel the need to challenge me, they see a weakness in me; and if they see it, so will others outside the pack. If you need this to feel better then fine, get upset with me and we can fight about it all night, but after today we will not have this discussion again because it will not change anything.”

  Tension filled the silence as we stood in the middle of a destroyed room, with stains of blood from a man who had orchestrated the attempted murder of our Alpha, glaring at each other. Okay, I was the only one glaring; Ethan had said what he needed, and I was fuming because I hadn’t changed anything. When someone knocked at the door, I didn’t care to answer it. I figured it was David, and I didn’t want to talk or be subjected to his questioning that would quickly devolve into him interrogating us like he was an investigative journalist.

  I wasn’t in a good place to deal with it.

  The knocking persisted, and Ethan made his way across the room to answer it. I hadn’t moved from my position of staring at the empty space where he once stood with my arms crossed over my chest. I only looked at the door when Ethan exhaled an irritated sigh and opened it, leaving barely enough room for Quell to get through. It didn’t escape me that he didn’t seem surprised that Quell was out in the daytime without turning that odd gray color that happened when vampires went outside in daylight.

  Quell stared at me for a long time, too long. It started to feel uncomfortable having his onyx eyes studying me for such an extended time. Then they swept over to the stains of blood on the floor, the cracked wall, the jumbled furniture that we hadn’t gotten around to rearranging. Next he regarded Ethan until Ethan’s eyes narrowed on him.

  “What?”

  “You failed and let her get hurt,” Quell said, his voice as dark and cold as his eyes.

  I really don’t need this.

  Ethan quickly closed the distance between him and Quell; I had to run to get between them. I felt like I was trying to move a parked car as I pushed into their chests trying to separate them. “You go over there and you over there,” I said pointing to opposite sides of the room.

  Why in the hell did I think that was going to work? Neither one of them budged: instead they locked their eyes on each other. “Fine, I’ll leave and you two can have at it. I don’t have time for this,” I said, starting for the door.

  Quell was the first to move, slowly backing several feet away but nowhere near where I wanted him. Ethan remained in the same spot. Stubborn bastard.

  After long drifts of silence, Ethan was the first to speak. “Are things with Fi going well?”

  Quell nodded slightly.

  “Then why the hell are you here?”

  “I was worried about her, and rightfully so—you’ve proven to be inept at keeping her safe.”

  Yep, this day is going from bad to worse.

  “Quell, I’m fine. It isn’t anyone’s job but mine to keep me safe.” And if I said it a million times, with a bullhorn, had it skywritten, it wouldn’t have mattered to Quell. The pack, in his opinion, was to keep me safe. If I got a splinter,
he would attribute it to their negligence. He wouldn’t be happy until I was placed in a nice little bubble where I could only be viewed, never touched.

  Quell stepped closer, his nose flaring as he noticeably inhaled and then slowly looked me over; then he directed his attention to Ethan. The brackets of Quell’s frown deepened. If he were a were-animal his eyes would have been flooded with the color of his animal. But he was a vampire and glints of more black smothered any remnants of light that his eyes might have managed to possess.

  There was a noticeable change in his mood as his attention went between the two of us, and a knowing look of disgust fell over his face.

  The heat of my embarrassment ran along my cheeks and neck. Hell woman, if you are okay with doing it you damn well need to be okay with people knowing about it.

  The subtle disdain Quell had for Ethan quickly upgraded to hate as he dragged his glare away from him.

  Ethan wasn’t making the situation any better. He looked like he was ready to show Quell how effective he could be at protecting me, mainly from Quell. I wasn’t going to fix this, no matter how I tried.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked Quell. There was something wrong: he was pulled so tight it was only a matter of time before he rebounded in a fury of violence. He wasn’t usually like this. I wasn’t going to fix Ethan, either, unless I found a time machine and went back to the moment when he decided that being an indomitable stubborn jackass was his life choice.

  Quell spoke, his tone nearly a whisper. “I didn’t want you to leave last night, but I couldn’t stop you from doing so.” He took my hand and ignored Ethan’s low rumble. I wished I could have said his bark was bigger than his bite. “Fiona,” he continued, his expression vacant as he looked in Ethan’s direction, “came by and I couldn’t leave to check on you. I just needed to know you were okay.” His attention returned to Ethan. “You have someone watching the house now, but where were they before, when she was attacked?”

  “Quell.” I gave his hand a little squeeze in an attempt to redirect him. Keen attention was focused on him and I wasn’t sure if I liked my position in between. “No one attacked me.” Well, that’s sort of, kind of, a smidge of the truth. This was escalating to a wildfire that I would not be able to contain if I didn’t stop it right now. “Don’t hold anyone other than me responsible for my safety. Okay?”

  When I squeezed his hand again, he opened his and linked it with mine.

  I hesitated before I turned, and when I did, I found Ethan peering out the window of the kitchen. “They aren’t part of our pack,” he said.

  Ethan headed out the door with me close behind. Four were-animals were off to the side, cloaked by the wealth of thick trees that surrounded my home providing the privacy I wanted. Noticing our presence, Anderson, flanked by another man and Derrick, stepped closer to the house until he was just a couple of feet away.

  He was as tall as he was broad, powerful-looking. His dark hair was scalp short, and caramel-colored skin was offset by cognac eyes that possessed a dark, ominous glint. His features were broad, including his lips and mouth and a striking jawline that was a good target for a punch if only to wipe off his smirk.

  “The one on the right is Derrick, the shooter,” I whispered to Ethan.

  Ethan and Anderson locked gazes and I knew this wasn’t going to end well. Surveying the area, I remembered that we were still trying to keep our existence quiet and a bloodbath in the middle of the suburbs wasn’t going to help with keeping our presence unknown. Rage pulsed off Ethan like a current; the air became hostility riddled and I knew it was a matter of time before this devolved into something so violent it couldn’t be contained. I pressed my hands against Ethan’s back and said softly, “This isn’t the time.”

  “Oh sweetheart, this is the time. He no longer wants you as the Alpha—your protection is gone,” Anderson said to Ethan as the three men advanced closer. Four animals slowly padded closer, feral eyes glowing, teeth drawn back, and just a few feet away, they paused.

  This couldn’t happen now. It was close to nine in the morning; the streets were quiet but at any time a neighbor could drive by. The last things I needed them to see were were-animals in my front yard trying to destroy one another.

  Ethan exhaled the tension, but his shoulders still couldn’t relax, jaw clenched tighter than before, and his hand balled into a fist at his side. He knew this wasn’t the right time and we would risk being exposed.

  “You all have grown soft. More concerned about your cars, your businesses, and the appearance of strength that you no longer have,” Anderson continued.

  Diplomacy wasn’t something Ethan possessed much of and he was having trouble with it now. He’d forced a relaxed position, but the gunmetal still drowned out the blue in his eyes. He struggled to ease his tightly drawn lips. A rare display of diplomacy. Ethan sucked in a deep breath. “She is right; this isn’t the time. You want to challenge me, accepted.”

  “Waiting, a coward’s approach,” Anderson said. Then a salacious smile overtook his face as he looked at me. “And the things I plan to do to you when he’s gone.” He licked his lips.

  “Why wait.” Striking my hands through the air, I threw them to the ground and leapt from the stairs and had one hand around his throat, the other over his heart. It was horrible magic, dark and lethal, and I absorbed everything the Aufero had to offer. The magic flowed into me, curdled with darkness; the vile smell lifted and presented to me as natural and pure as Josh’s magic. It felt as much a part of me as my skin, as necessary as breathing, moving with the ease of my limbs. I owned the magic as my own, no longer something I used—I had become it.

  His heart dragged to a slow beat. Sharp ragged breaths seeped out between his lips. His face was fear-stricken as I slowly pulled the beats from his heart and right before he drifted out of consciousness, giving into the darkness of a body that didn’t provide enough oxygen to survive and a heart that wouldn’t pump enough for survival, I stopped. Allowing the body to recover, and then I did it again.

  I found pleasure in torturing him, watching the wistful look on his face when he thought there was a reprieve and he would survive, only to have his body forced into a state of struggling to survive. My face just inches from his, I watched the struggle, inhaled the fragrance of fear, and enjoyed every moment of the power I had over whether he would live or die.

  His eyes bulged under my control, and a small voice inside me pled for his life. I ignored it. This power lust wasn’t mine. The adoration for the torture and pain of someone else wasn’t mine. The magic that I was wielding with a vengeful skill wasn’t mine. I was barely aware of Ethan on the side, keeping the other two men at bay while I tortured this man to death, in a cruel manipulation of his body. I was barely aware of Quell, who was off at a distance fighting off three were-animals that were trying to stop me from murdering their Alpha. I wanted him to beg for a life that I planned to take anyway. I had every intention of doing it to Derrick, too, and I hadn’t decided what I would do to the third man.

  Stop! The voice was louder, but I ignored it. Soon it would be drowned out.

  The voice that pled for his life tried to temper the magic, suppress the lust, fight off the desire for power. I ripped my hand from his throat and pulled myself to standing, taking several steps back. Ethos was right: Maya wasn’t dormant anymore. She was awake, and I was a fool to let her stay. She played me, showing compassion and understanding as she ushered me into a life she wanted me to have. A life that she had every intention of taking over. A pack that she would infiltrate, magic that she would harvest and use in the way she saw fit. I was screwed.

  Everything was a blur as I looked at the world through a haze of betrayal and suppressed magic. I could hear Ethan and Quell calling my name. They were close. I looked around the yard, and everyone was gone accept the three of us. Ethan’s hand covered mine and I pulled away. “Don’t touch me.”

  I started to walk away when his hand snaked around my waist, hugging me to
him. He spoke into my hair in a low soothing voice. “You’re fine. You are.”

  Ethan was wrong. I wasn’t okay; and no matter how many times it came from him, we both knew it wasn’t true. I rested against him, my heart racing. He wrapped his arms around me tighter; slow exhalation wasn’t working for me. I simply rested against Ethan and eventually mine mirrored his; slow and steady.

  I don’t recall the last time I had said anything since I tried to kill Anderson. I had just a vague memory of Quell’s concerned face in front of me talking to Ethan about something I couldn’t force myself to care about. When Ethan told me that Sebastian was awake, I cared enough to follow him to the car but the words just wasn’t there. The entire trip to the retreat, Ethan focused on me more than on the road, his hand resting over mine.

  “I want her out of me,” I finally said as we pulled into the driveway of the retreat, which was full of cars.

  “Okay.”

  “Don’t just say it. Please, I want you to do something about it.” I tasked him with the impossible and it was unfair. And Ethan would never let me know that. But desperation had made me devoid of logic. I only seemed vaguely aware that if Maya and I were linked by a shared life force, I couldn’t live without her; but what was slowly happening wasn’t something I could live with, either. Maybe I was better off dead.

  I had gotten used to the feel of the warmth of Ethan’s hand next to mine and when he released it when we got out of the car and kept his distance from me as we started toward the house, I didn’t know what to think. I expected him to take it again or at the very least close the distance that he kept between us. When I stopped walking a few feet from the house he released an exasperated breath. “What is it, Sky?”

  I chewed on my bottom lip and shook my head. I didn’t have anything to say. For all I knew, last night was just sex for Ethan; after all it wasn’t his first time. This could very well have been just a one-night stand for him and nothing more. I felt foolish to expect it to be something more. It seemed like more, but what did I know?