Bonded In Shadows

by Eden, Tigris

  Alliances had been made and bonds were now broken. Draven’s wolf stood on all four, at his full height he was the same size as an SUV. Plumes of breath exited in rapid succession as the wolf prepared for attack. Chaos erupted at that point wolves were fighting wolves and Jesminda was fighting Antony. Ronin couldn’t get a read on the alpha wolf, and normally he’d chalk it up to having a bad day but he knew that was not the case this time. There was something wrong. He just couldn’t put his finger on it yet. Knew it was staring him in the face, and the moment it broke wide open, he would realize there had been signs all around.

  Jesminda took a claw to her back leg causing her to limp. Dust from the ground was kicked up in a brown cloud as Draven and other wolves surrounded her in a protective stance growling at her attacker. Antony leapt out of the way making room for his wolves to go on the offensive. The wolves were single mindedly focused on Jes and Draven. They weren’t concerned with Ronin and his family. That was fine with him, but if anyone thought for a moment he wasn’t going into the fray, they were fucking crazy. He and his brother along with Belinda made their way in between Draven and his wolves to help Jes.

  “Belinda, you take Jesminda back to the compound where Cyrian is with Faith.”

  “It’s safe to say our vacation is fucked.” Royce said over the din of chaos.

  “Yup.”

  Ronin placed a hand on Belinda to assure her everything was going to be okay. He could feel the anger rolling off of her as she helped Jes stand once she shifted into her normal form. Antony’s wolves were growling but didn’t move into action as they watched Jes lean into Belinda for help. Draven and his wolves still kept a tight circle around them as Belinda supported Jes’ body weight.

  “Alright handsome, be careful. One scratch and I’m burning the lot of them down.”

  Ronin threw his head back and laughed before rushing into the fight. He loved his Deva. She was always concerned about his welfare. As he watched her leave, a rusty colored brown wolf charged him, throwing his entire body on top of him. Ronin quickly subdued the wolf and changed position before it had a chance to do any serious damage. In front of him, he saw Draven and another chestnut haired wolf facing off against the three that were meant to take Jesminda down. Next to him were his brother and a grey wolf. Sam. It was Draven’s father second in command who was now facing off against his alpha’s charges. To his right he saw Mara growling as three more wolves walked a close circle around her. They weren’t with Draven, which meant they were with Antony.

  “Help Draven and Sam.” Ronin thought to his brother. “I’m going after Mara.”

  Ronin walked around the rusty colored wolf lying on the ground in pain. He was careful as he walked by, staying clear of its paws. He’d not gone full Feral and knew if he did, things would get really bad. He’d almost reached Mara when he felt a sharp stab of pain on his left calf. Fire engulfed his insides. The pain was just bearable. He turned to face his attacker and realized too late his mistake. He’d left himself wide open for another direct hit. His knee caught the ground. The rocks digging into his skin only serving to piss him off further. He’d been so worried about getting to Mara, he hadn’t been on full alert. Ronin ducked at the last minute and was clipped on his shoulder, hot blood spraying him on his cheek as the wound bled freely. Looked like wolf was on the menu. Belinda would be pissed he got blood on his clothes.

  Chapter 13

  If there was ever a day to be a Feral, today was one of those days, Royce thought to himself. He’d been jonesing for a fight. He needed to let the darkness out. He’d been bullshitting his way through his therapy with Ann. Ronin knew, but no one else. They wouldn’t understand what it was he was going through. They didn’t get that sometimes the darkness needed to be set free. It was a type of cleansing and if he tried to resolve his issues or bottle them up for later, it just made things that much worse.

  So when the chance came to get down and dirty with the wolves. He took it. Let his ugly fly free and decimated everything in his path. He gave every wolf that approached him a chance to take the easy way out, but apparently, they were too stupid to recognize mercy when it was offered.

  Dumb fucks.

  He looked to his left and noticed his brother had a wolf by the neck and another one at arm’s length. Its paws clawing his chest to shreds. Blood ran in thick rivulets down Ronin’s chest and the entire time his brother had a smile on his face. Wolf was definitely on the menu. Royce stood to his full Feral height of seven feet and returned to kicking ass. He wanted to feel sorry for those that came underneath the crushing power of his fists, but he had given each wolf fair warning. He wouldn’t offer them the chance to run again.

  # # #

  Draven’s wolf had finally done it. He knew now it would have always come to this. It would always have been about defying a man that up until this very moment he’d respected. The alpha wanted to not only control the pack, but the outcome of their lives. To be an alpha was to shepherd the pack. Council them, but to rule them in all things? That was a misuse of one’s power. The alpha had wanted him to take a second mate, and a second cub that he now knew was not of his seed, but the alpha’s. Draven’s wolf was bound to one female and one female only. He would live and die for her. She was what really mattered, she and her cub, his true family.

  The wolf looked over to where the alpha tried subduing his own mate. He could feel the betrayal course through his mother’s spine, her front paws slouched forward, her back raised in warning as she howled in pain. She now knew the extent of his betrayal. Images his father could no longer hide leaked into each wolves conscious. Even if he’d severed the ties with his father, he still hadn’t severed ties with his mother and now through them both, the entire pack knew the extent of the damage the alpha had caused. His father had not only broken a sacred law, he’d done it with a minor, who’d willingly gone to his father. Their union produced a cub. Not only should his father step down as pack leader, but by the old laws, he should have been put to death. Disgust made his stomach roll, threatening to empty the contents of his meal, pain and embarrassment were next as his mother continued to howl in outrage. But those who were truly loyal to his father didn’t seem to mind that a law had been broken. An alpha could take another mate, but only after the alphas prime mate was made aware of his intentions. Everything Antony did had been done in secret.

  Draven’s wolf took down wolf after wolf to get to the alpha’s mate, his mother. He refused to kill his pack brothers and sister, but injuring them would be no hardship, if they didn’t bow out of the way, he broke a leg, or sank his teeth into their necks until they were immobile from too much blood loss. They’d heal, but not quick enough to stop him. When he finally reached her, he walked a quick circle around her, letting her and others know she now had his protection. She whimpered not for herself, but for his own safety.

  But his wolf wasn’t worried.

  He looked to his left, then his right, realizing those who wanted to walk with him stood behind him, shielding his mother. But there was also a good number of other wolves behind his father. He remembered he also had two males that were more animal than human, who stood on either side of him. Both breathing harsh, bellies full with members of his pack. It was shaping into a dance of death. He knew that only one of them would walk away, that there could not be two alpha’s and that his father’s corruption had run too deep.

  But his mother had other plans. She walked forward through the throng of pack members now divided, walking past him to stand between father and son. The howl that left her was more of a wail than anything else. She was heartbroken, torn between the two. She looked over her shoulder at Draven’s wolf, her green eyes, even in wolf form were filled with sorrow and pain. She stood before his sire and fell to her stomach, paws up and rolled to present her belly.

  No one moved. The wolf could feel the human part of him screaming for her to turn back, that she’d be accepted into his fold. But he knew she would never aba
ndon her mate. Jesminda was his mate and he’d walk through hells fire to be at her side, even if the side she chose was the wrong side.

  Draven’s wolf watched as his sire put his mouth to his mother’s throat making the female wolf whimper before he allowed her to get up and amble over to his side. What could he do? Nothing. He was no longer part of his sires pack.

  The alpha of pack Stone returned to his human form and spoke with nothing but pure hatred in his voice. “I’d hope it wouldn’t come to this. But you have made your choice. You have split the pack and in doing so, you make us weaker. You have two hours to leave. Never return. You are dead to me. The next time we meet, it will be to end the other.

  Draven’s wolf watched the other man leave, his half of the pack following. When he felt there was no more danger, he shifted back into his human form.

  “Fuck.” He heard Royce say. “I don’t think we have enough room in the RV for all of you.”

  “They have their own vehicles, and the ones that don’t we can split between the RV and the SUV,” was Draven’s response. They’d make it all work somehow, he just hoped Dravaggio wouldn’t mind the new tenants.

  # # #

  “Who is Eremiel?” Jes asked Cyrian. She’d healed and was no longer limping but she was still in pain from the attack.

  “How do you know about Eremiel?”

  “He came to Faith on her spirit walk. She also said something about a Sahidic?”

  “Why would he come to her?” Cyrian asked more to himself than to Jes.

  Jesminda looked to her friend Belinda who was giving her daughter water. Faith had woken up and her silver wolf was now nowhere to be seen. Jes knew the wolf was now a part of her daughter. A silver wolf. She knew from her talks with Draven that silver wolves were spiritual in nature and had great healing powers. She was happy that her daughter would have that in her life.

  “Faith, honey,” Jes said to her daughter coming to stand in front of her. “Tell mommy what you saw.”

  The little girl looked up at her mother and tried explain.

  “I saw you, and daddy fighting. You were fighting these things, and I saw aunty and uncles, all of you. Even Cyrian. You all were fighting and some of you were dying. That’s when he showed up and said that the bad man was coming for us unless we find the Shee-“

  “Sahidic?” Cyrian cut in.

  “Yes.” Faith nodded her head and took another sip of her water.

  “What does she mean Cyrian?”

  Cy paced the length of the kitchen before he stopped and began speaking.

  “Eremiel is the Angel of un-veiling. Aptly called by most the Angel of the Apocalypse.”

  That didn’t sound good at all. Jes thought as she pulled Faith into her lap.

  “And the Sahidic?”

  “It’s an ancient text that’s in a language that is no longer spoken. The actual text itself has disappeared. No one knows where it is or how it was lost. It used to be housed in the temple of Thebes. But it disappeared.”

  “And we’re supposed to find this how?” Bells asked.

  “Honey,” Jes said to Faith. “Why don’t you go and grab your Buzz Light Year backpack. It’s time for us to leave.”

  “Yes mommy.”

  Faith ran upstairs and Jes could hear her grabbing her things.

  “We aren’t going to wait for the others?” Cyrian asked.

  “They’ll be here. While we wait I need you to tell me what you know about the angel and the text.”

  “Not much, but I know someone who will.”

  “Who?”

  “Isaiah and his brothers.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Seraphs.”

  Like that explained everything. She raised a brow in question and Cyrian grinned.

  “They're warrior angels, not of this realm. I have some connections down below that can get their attention.”

  “Why can’t you do it?”

  “Babe, I’m a broker demon. I can’t connect with that crowd anymore.”

  Right. Like she knew that. Her hip started to grow warm at the site of her mark right before the door burst open and Draven stood with the twins and Sam.

  “Pack your shit. We’re leaving this place.”

  “About fucking time.” Bells whispered.

  Draven looked around and when he didn’t see Faith Jes explained. “She’s grabbing her stuff baby.”

  Others of Draven’s pack walked in and for a second she was worried.

  “They’re with me now Jes.” Her mate said as he walked over to her and turned her from side to side, checking her for injuries. She still had some fresh wounds on her chest but for the most part she was healed.

  “I’m good baby. They’re only scratches.”

  He pulled her into a hug taking a deep breath.

  “We gotta go and they,” he nodded in the direction of thirty or more pack members, “are coming with us.”

  “We all need to get on the road. Head back into Texas and figure out where we go from here.”

  “Dravaggio will have room for them to stay on base. We have plenty of space.”

  “Great, one big happy hairy family.” Royce said as he gestured for everyone to head outside.

  Faith came running down the stairs and the first person she ran to was her father.

  “Daddy did you see my wolf?”

  “Yeah Angel I did.”

  “She’s silver and she said I could call her Sylvie.”

  “That’s great baby. Now we gotta go.”

  “Yeah, we gotta find the text.”

  “The text?” Draven looked to Jes for answers.

  “We can talk about it in the car.”

  Chapter 14

  Two days later.

  Dravaggio looked on from the back of the room at the double ceremony. Bonded, the two couples would now be tied together even in death. There was no reneging on this deal.

  “Has the courtship completed.” Sam asked the two couples standing before him. They were back in Texas and in the safety of the Units building. Sam was officiating the mating ceremony of both Draven and Jesminda, and the twins and Bells. Sam was now Draven’s second in command. Why the women wanted a double ceremony was not known to him. Dravaggio watched as they repeated the words given to them.

  “It has.” The males all said together.

  They’d all received their bonding marks. A universal mark shared among all mated immortals. One Dravaggio didn’t have and would never receive. For Jes and Draven it was one set of interlocking infinity symbols. Jes received her mark at the base of her neck. While Draven had his wrapped around his bicep. Belinda’s mark was at her hip and the twins carried their marks on their wrists, three sets of interlocking infinity symbols that represented their triple union.

  He’d open the base up to Draven’s pack, or what was left of the pack that had deserted his father. The building could house more than its fair share of immortals especially below the building. Dravaggio watched as both women offered their wrists to their mates. The exchange of blood always made him antsy. It called to a deeper part of himself that he’d hidden from the others for far too long.

  He was not about to share it now. Getting the attention of the fallen angel or demon broker as he like to call himself, that sat to his left, he quietly slipped out as the blood exchange continued. First, the males would drink from their females and then the females would do the same of their males. Cementing their bond in not only this life but also the next life.

  “Has your contact made any lead way on contacting Isaiah?” Dravaggio asked Cyrian.

  “Not yet, but I’m sure we will hear from him soon.”

  “We’d better, the council is asking questions and if the Agency gets a hold of this information, they are going to cause more trouble than they’re worth.”

  “I thought they were harmless.”

  “They are, but someone’s been feeding them information.
How else did they know to follow the twins and Bells out of state to Draven’s family compound?”

  “Damn good question.”

  They needed to get in touch with Eremiel as well and find out any and everything they could on the Sahidic. Dravaggio too had heard of the relic but thought it was a story told to scare little demons. Apparently it wasn’t. If they didn’t get their hands on it things would go from really fucked up, to fucked up beyond all recognition. That’s the kind of damage it could cause if it fell into the wrong hands. Everyone who was anyone would have to forfeit their way of life.

  Dravaggio heard applause and cheers coming from the other room. They were done.

  He walked back in and offered his congratulations to the happy couples and quickly took his leave. He needed to head down to the Lotus and get his fix.

  # # #

  Jes was flying through the air. Literally. Once they were finished with the ceremony, they didn’t stay and talk to their guests. It was nothing like a human wedding. There was a blood exchange, a mark that was given and then it was off to go and have some sexy time. Her body bounced once on the bed and then Draven was on top of her shredding her outfit. She’d been told not to buy a pretty dress, but hadn’t heeded his warning. Now her dress was in tatters on the floor next to the bed. Draven’s clothes were next and then they were wrestling, mouths, hands, feet, all trying to get the better of the other. Jes was panting so hard she could barely catch her breath.