Aaron’s mouth slams closed.
“What?” I say. “You can fuck me in front of your crew but you can’t tell me how you feel?”
The kind of silence so heavy it can stifle a breath settles over the entire Pureblood pack.
Perfect. So now we’re that white-trash couple having it out in front of the trailer while the neighbors gather to watch. Good thing I don’t give a shit what the Purebloods think. They’re not my kind. But it rankles to see Mia’s lips twist upward in smug satisfaction—
You are your own keeper.
My animal’s right at the surface of my skin, hissing to let her bloodmate take me. We marked one another. That bond is sacrosanct in the wilds. I scowl and fight her down.
The cock-whipped little bitch.
She might have accepted the wolf as her alpha. But I’m still me. Lily Thompson. I need to stay firm. For my own sense of dignity and self-worth.
“Go on then,” I snap. “Say it.”
A collision of emotion twists Aaron’s face. He swallows hard, squeezes his hands into fists. Every second he doesn’t speak drives another wedge between us. The warmth in my midsection is gone, leaving a horrible hollow feeling that dries my throat, makes me hug myself in the suddenly frigid air.
Say something, you fucking fool.
But he doesn’t say a word.
Instead he grits his teeth and walks toward me, each step measured and determined. I take an involuntary step backward. Shake my head no. I’m being torn up inside, pierced and bitten, my animal demanding forgiveness and the human in me too stubbornly invested in her own misery to listen—
Aaron’s right in front of me now. So close I feel our animals reaching for one another. Opposite poles linking along invisible lines of force.
Aaron’s face crumples.
I can almost hear something snapping inside him.
Then it hits me. I know what he’s going to do.
What he’s going to offer in sacrifice for our love.
“Aaron, no…” I whisper.
“All I wanted was to hold you close,” he says, his voice low and rough. “Protect you. Keep you safe. But every time you hurt…it’s because of me. I thought I could keep it simple. Live a straight line. But I can’t. Somewhere along the way…it all got tangled up.”
“Tell me about Phoenix. What you were thinking.”
“Phoenix was…I just…” Aaron presses his fists to his eyes, then says, “I thought of you in the forest. When you told me about giving up our son and I went…wild with anger. I thought about how you hurt yourself, and I…I’m fucking worried about you, Lil. Seeing you hurt like that…I can’t stand it. And now this war, and you’re carrying our child…I don’t know. It seemed like the right decision. It wasn’t. I’m sorry.”
“I decide what’s best for me, Aaron Arud. Not you.”
“I know.”
“But sometimes I do need…protecting.”
Shitballs. I so did not mean to say that.
Not yet. Not here.
“You do?” Aaron says, his face brightening.
“Yeah. But you need to trust me enough to choose when. You need to give me that space.”
“I can do that, Lil. But I need to simplify. There’s too much other shit…” Aaron casts a quick look at the Purebloods. Draws a shaking breath. Peers into my eyes.
There’s a question lurking in those icy depths.
Would you roll with me, without the MC?
Every bit of me burns to forgive him.
Toss myself in his arms and say it’s all right, we’re fine.
But it’s a lie. We’re not fine.
He schemed behind my back to leave me behind, and then he downplayed it. Made me feel like I was in the wrong. I never wanted it to come to this. My animal always knew it would. I ignored her warnings. Thought maybe she was wrong. Maybe it would all work out. What have I done? Driven this lovely man to the edge, then pushed him over it.
Selfish. Blind. I should have ended this long ago.
“They’ll murder us,” I say, eyeing the Purebloods, so quiet I’m not even sure he hears me. “We have a son…”
I’m thinking of Vuk and Anik and Pimniq as well.
Truth is right now we need the Purebloods on side.
Aaron hears me. Almost smiles at the thought of our unborn boy. Then he presses his fists together at chest-level, so hard every muscle in his torso stands rigid. “I got these two things that make me who I am. Two loyalties. Two loves. I thought I was strong enough to bring them together. But I’m not.” He slowly pulls his fists from each other, staring at them as they part. “I’m not strong enough to lead and love. I choose you, Lily. You over everything else. I want you at my side. Forever.”
Love is weakness.
Aaron takes my hand. His skin is fiery hot. “Nothing can touch us now, Lil. Not the two of us united. I know where my loyalty lies. I won’t let them hurt you.”
Then he slumps to his knees.
The alpha undone.
All hell breaks loose.
***
The Pureblood pack shatters.
Blood against blood.
I’m frozen in place, listening while roars and howls and pain-wracked screams rise from the surrounding desert as the Purebloods turn on one another, each vying for position in the emerging hierarchy.
Anarchy. Chaos.
The pack gives an animal’s life meaning in a blood-hungry world.
The pack is survival.
Now? They’re mad with uncertainty. Panic. Kill-lust.
Those who accept Aaron’s loyalty to love over his pack race to surround us, forming a protective shield of fang and claw.
A cold shadow flits by my feet. Aaron’s shadow-wolves dart into the challengers, leaping onto renegade Purebloods moving in for the kill.
How many have turned against us?
A hundred? More?
Aaron jumps in front of me, still in human form, his claws glinting and eyes bright with fury as his pack dissolves around him.
Nash guts a cheetah that was making a move at Trish. Blue the Kodiac and Tate and the black panther Lonny are with us as well, and then my animal catches the scent of her, the slithering snake bitch.
Mia.
A massive snake with glittering blue-green scales rises in front of Aaron. Her cruel eyes glow green. She opens her jaws, revealing wickedly curved four-inch long fangs. The snake hisses a blood challenge. Renegade Purebloods fall in behind her, sensing her strength.
But not as many as I thought.
Maybe a couple dozen.
Aaron stands his ground. Plants his feet wide and faces the hissing snake and the insubordinate pack members rallying behind her.
“Come on, Mia,” Aaron says, his voice booming into the desert. He seems suddenly larger. More powerful. Filled with a new, unmistakeable strength. He’s sorted some shit out in his mind and spirit. Freed himself from the uncertainty that held him hostage. “This is what you always wanted. A shot at alpha. Here it is. It’s your time to shine.”
Aaron’s muscles bunch up around his back and shoulders. The shadows seems to coalesce around him, swelling him even more. My animal’s screaming for him, her alpha, her blood pounding as she scents his ancient, wildborn power.
The snake waves her head from side to side.
Opens her hideous jaws. Looses another long hiss.
But she doesn’t attack.
She scents him too.
“Ugly bitch needs a molt,” Trish mutters. “Skin getting skank.”
No one moves.
The two packs are lined up facing one another. The tension is so thick it makes me choke. A few of the Purebloods behind Mia slink into the desert. Several more collapse to their knees as Aaron’s power drains the fight out of them.
“Chickenshits,” Nash scowls.
“Nothing like a high-level blood challenge to cull the cowards,” Blue says.
“C’mon, Mia,” I whisper. “It doesn’t have to be this wa
y.”
Aaron takes a slow step toward the giant snake. His focus is laser-sharp. “I told you I’d choose my bloodmate over my pack. I was honest with you.” Aaron gestures back at the majority of his crew who remained loyal. “They’re riding with me, Mia. I still want you to ride with me too. But if not? I’ll tear your fucking heart out and feed it to my bloodmate.”
“Oh, gross,” Trish says, wincing.
The snake inches backward. Giving up ground to Aaron’s overwhelming dominance. Hesitating.
Sometime we think we want something so bad we’ll do anything for it. Then we get it, and we realize it’s not what we want at all.
That’s how Mia’s feeling. I scent it on her.
Doubt. Fear. Grief.
Like she’s making the biggest mistake of her eons-long life.
I know Aaron scents it as well.
The entire pack does.
She’s already lost the blood challenge. She thought she wanted alpha. What she really wanted was to think she could have it.
Only question now is, will her pride force her to fight, or will she yield?
I think back on the woman who commanded the New World Order. Her strength and cunning. I might not like her. But I’m big enough to know we need her, and to set personal drama aside for the pack’s greater good. “We need you, Mia,” I say.
Aaron glances at me. “Lily’s right. We need you. Only reason you’re still alive is because this pack needs you. We’ve roamed together for too long to let it end here. Make the call, Mia.”
Aaron takes another step.
He’s only a few feet away from the snake’s lethal jaws.
But she can’t touch him. Even if she wanted to.
She’s too slow. Outmatched.
The snake curls in on herself. A shudder ripples down her length.
Mia’s standing in the middle of the road, glaring at Aaron.
“Mercy, my wolf,” she whispers.
Aaron could take off her head with a single swipe. Instead he nods at the dozen or so Purebloods who turned on him. “We need you, Mia. You and I go way back. That counts for something. But those insurrecting motherfuckers? We don’t need them at all.”
It’s Mia who kills the most.
She’s got some sucking up to do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ANIK
“SOMETHING’S CHANGED,” VUK says, scenting the air.
I cast him a suspicious glance. The Purebloods took off after Lily and Trish. I’m waiting to see what went down. “I thought your animal wasn’t with you?”
“I can’t summon him,” Vuk sniffs. “But I’m not entirely pathetic. You should take me to the pyramid, Anik. Before the Purebloods return. It’s the only way Pimniq lives.”
“Quiet,” I say, straining to hear. “Or I gag you again.”
Pimniq’s screams are growing louder in my mind. Each one makes me grind my teeth together, furious at myself for being too weak to flee with Vuk, and equally furious with Lily for insisting she return to the Purebloods when we saw the Stricken army approaching—
“A lover’s quarrel,” Vuk sighs. “How thoroughly heart-wrenching. I’m afraid this is bad news for little Pimniq, brother. When the wolf discovers who I am, Lily will be the only thing preventing him from slaughtering me. Now he’s sure to ignore her.”
“He’ll have to get through me.”
Vuk gives me an icy smile. “The Indestructible. Yes. Quite the moniker. Completely false, of course. You are mortal, Anik. Like the rest of us. Powerful, truly. But mortal. The Skins gave you that name. We predators know better. Everything dies. Immortality is a flight of fancy dreamed up by short-lived Skins. A weakness of the mind.”
“I know I can be killed.”
“Yes. But do you know by who?”
“Not you. Not right now.”
“True enough. But united with my animal…yes. I was firstborn. Lily was second. Then you.”
“Two.”
“Three. The Arud bloodline is ancient and pure. It matches the Risen’s. Perhaps even…but nevermind. Aaron Of The Mountain River is not a wolf even Tornarsuk would be wise to wrangle with.”
“You remember the wilds? The time before…”
“The Atrocity?” Vuk spits the word. “What a load of nonsense. As if the strong are not justified in dominion over the weak. But yes. To answer your question. While you spent eons struggling against your animal, fighting him down, doing everything in your power to deny your true spirit, I was imprisoned in the Cliff of Cages. Time had no meaning in the Bloodless Land. I remember everything. In stark, glorious detail. As if it were yesterday.”
I shudder, thinking of how this monster violated my mother. I don’t remember much. A flurry of half-formed feelings. But still. It’s enough to make me break out in a chill sweat.
A furious howl rolls through the night.
“Ah, Aaron. Such Shakespearean suffering. A pup no more, our alpha dog. Our sister does inspire a desire that’s neighbor to madness—”
“Silence!” I hiss.
Something’s sprinting through the desert. Some kind of animal, giving us a wide berth. Headed for the boulder-choked foothills.
“That one didn’t make the cut,” Vuk sneers. He resettles beside the Harley, wincing. “This pain. How do the Skins tolerate it?”
“Same reason I’m tolerating you. They have no choice.”
***
The roaring Harley’s grow louder.
Vuk licks his lips. “Time is running out, unchain—”
I slam the gag so deep in the fucker’s mouth he nearly chokes on it.
Aaron’s riding first, Lily on the bike behind him. That’s a good sign. I have no idea what went down, but judging by the look in Aaron’s eyes Lily told him about our infamous brother—
Aaron hits the brakes hard, leans the bike into an arcing skid, showers me and Vuk with sand and rocks and kicks up a huge dust cloud. My animal spirit rages at me, scenting Aaron’s wrath.
I step in front of Vuk.
The fucker’s moaning something. Some vile poison or taunt or barb.
Thankfully I gagged him.
Aaron leaps off the bike, Lily hot behind him. His crew form a ring around me and Vuk. Then the wolf alpha is right in my face, glaring at me, his eyes as cold as glacier ice calving into the arctic sea.
“Step aside, Anik,” Aaron snarls.
“I need him alive.”
“Step aside.”
A rumbling growl escapes my lips. Lily hooks her arm around Aaron’s elbow, gently restraining him. Vuk’s muffled laughter rises behind me.
“Shiori has Pimniq,” Lily says in Aaron’s ear. “Remember that. She has Pim. I chose to spare the Fallen. Me! He’s my brother—”
Aaron’s eyes never leave mine. I feel him…working into me. His will. Pushing me outside myself. Fear tickles down the back of my neck. I’ve never felt such power. Not from my animal. Not even from Lily’s. I try and summon the bear, drop my claws, more to make sure—
Nothing. A pit of emptiness. He’s gone.
Aaron’s gaze knifes into me.
“You feel that?” he says, real quiet.
“What have you done?”
“Step aside. Your animal’s fled. He’s smarter than you.”
I’m suddenly furious. I want to bleed him dry. Smash him down. Cut him in half—
“We both know that’s not going to happen, Anik.”
Aaron’s voice is confident. Commanding.
I don’t know if he’s in my mind or simply reading the look in my eyes. I glance at my trembling hands. My human hands—
Lily glances at me, then at Aaron, then back at me. Her mouth drops open. It’s the first time she’s seen this power. She didn’t know Aaron is capable of banishing animal spirits when it suits him, and now she’s wondering, does her bloodmate have the power to banish her animal as well? To transform her into a Skin?
“How long?” Lily stammers.
Aaron finally breaks the s
tare he’s had locked on me since I stepped in front of him. “As long as I say.”
“Jesus shit,” Lily breathes.
I have no choice. He’ll rip out my heart if I stand in his way. He’s ruthless. A wildborn apex predator at his peak of power—
Slowly, without taking my eyes off Aaron, I yield.
Five feet of space separates Aaron from Vuk. The air crackles with murderous energy. I feel the fight going on inside the wolf. The instinct to kill an ancient enemy barely held in check. How long has Aaron dreamed of this moment? Yearned for it?
Vuk and Aaron lock eyes.
Vuk’s feverish, half-dead, but his eyes suddenly narrow, glow inky black.
Aaron leans forward a fraction. Scents the air. Flings his head to the cloudless sky and screams. Not howls. Screams. “Aargh!” he shrieks, reaching up to tear at his hair. “Aargh! You fuck. You weak, twisted, pathetic fuck.”
Lily springs forward, stepping between her brother and her bloodmate. “He’s a Skin, Aaron. He needs the Risen to Become. He’s not worth it—”
“Aargh!”
Aaron bends over, picks up a huge stone, hurls it through the air, then looks at Vuk and raises his hand. His fingers end in razor-sharp claws. “Get up. Stand up, you motherfucker. Now!”
Vuk flashes that vicious thin-lipped smile. Struggles to get his feet under him. Leans against the bike, nearly topples over, then slowly rises. A wracking cough tears through his chest, nearly knocking him back into the dirt. Lily quickly removes Vuk’s gag so he doesn’t choke. When the cough finally subsides Vuk spits a mouthful of blood, turns to Aaron and says, “There’s no victory in murdering a half dead man.”
“You’re no man,” Aaron says, his face registering uncertainty, as if he hasn’t accepted it’s really Vuk.
The two men stand, silently facing one another over Lily’s head.
“Dog,” Vuk whispers. “Fetch me a drink of water. I’m parched.”
“You,” Aaron says, his voice a lethal whisper. “It’s really you.”
“Me. Well. Not the better half of me, as you know. But yes. Why the long face, Aaron? I thought you’d be pleased to see me so weakened. At your mercy.”
The All Consuming: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 4) Page 19
