by Kali Argent
After finishing her watch, she’d snuck over to Rhys and settled down at his side. Silently, she’d taken his big, rough hand and leaned her head on his shoulder. When he was ready, he’d tell her about his mother, but until then, she wouldn’t push. With his hand still clasped in hers, she’d slept, falling into nightmares where her friends’ deaths played out before her eyes, each of them killed by Ravagers who looked like Rhys.
Thea awoke the next morning, cradled in her mate’s arms. The clouds had cleared during the night, giving way to sunshine and bright blue skies. The golden rays warmed her face, giving her courage to face the new day, and Rhys’ body curled around hers chased away the chill that lingered from her dreams.
“Good morning, angel.” He smiled down at her when she yawned. “Sleep well?”
“Not really.” Reaching up, she traced the dark circles that ringed his bloodshot eyes with her fingertips. “Did you sleep at all?”
“Not really.” His lips twitched. “The enforcers brought food. Just cold scraps from the Gathering, but it’s there if you’re hungry.”
Untangling herself from his arms, she rolled out of his lap and plopped down in the still-damn grass, stretching her arms over her head with a wide yawn. “Okay,” she said to acknowledge she’d heard him, but her stomach knotted at the thought of food. “What else did I miss?”
Rhys motioned vaguely ahead of him. “The enforcers brought more than just food this morning.”
Scrubbing both hands over her face, Thea blinked a few times, forcing her tired eyes to focus. “Damn, they didn’t waste any time, did they?”
She counted four new additions to their group. Two of the males looked human, and the third she guessed to be a vampire, judging by the pink hue to his skin and the way he shielded his eyes from the sun. The fourth, and the only female of the new group, Thea couldn’t read. The woman stood next to Zerrik, maybe three or four inches shy of the vampire’s six-two height. Lean and powerful, her muscles flexed with every movement, highlighted clearly through her simple, white tank top and cropped yoga capris the color of a tie-died rainbow.
Strawberry-blonde waves tumbled over her shoulders, the locks reaching down to her narrow waist. She swept her hands in big, animated gestures as she paced back and forth, but Thea couldn’t make out her words. Whoever she was, she’d certainly captured the attention of the males.
“Deidra O’Malley,” Rhys answered her unspoken question. “She was picked up outside of the city right after the last full moon and given the option to join the pack or take her chances in the Gallows.”
“Werewolf?” That wouldn’t have been her first guess.
Rhys nodded. “I’ve only heard bits of the conversation, but it sounds like enforcers broke into her quarters this morning and dragged her out of bed.”
“Does that mean she was let go, or that she turned in her resignation?”
“I don’t know yet.” Rhys brushed his mate’s hair back from her face, amused by the tousled mess of ebony locks. She looked adorable with her sleep-swollen lips and heavy-lidded eyes, but he doubted she’d appreciate him saying so. “I was kind of preoccupied.”
“Is that so?” Playfully, she tilted her face up for a kiss, smiling beautifully when he obliged with a chase brush of lips. “Now it’s a good morning.”
Rhys had been silent and brooding during the night, his thoughts drifting into dark places, but that hadn’t stopped Thea from trying to offer him comfort. She’d done so without being intrusive or demanding, offering compassion without expecting anything in return.
Sweet hell, he barely knew her, but he was already halfway in love with her.
When she’d fallen asleep against him, he’d carefully and gently gathered her into his arms, holding her protectively to his chest as he watched over her throughout the night. She hadn’t slept well, mumbling in her sleep about monsters. Once, she’d said his name, and her eyebrows had drawn together as she’d rolled her head against his shoulder. He didn’t know what it meant, and even in the light of morning, he was too much of a coward to ask.
Besides, he had no right to ask anything of her when he still wasn’t ready to talk about his mother and the story behind her transformation. Soon, he’d have to explain to Thea why he’d asked her to put her life in danger. He’d have to tell her how most of the scars on his body were from the woman who’d given him life, and why he hadn’t been able to bring himself to end his mother’s misery during any of the past six Gallows.
Logically, he knew he’d never get her back. Once a wolf turned feral, gave into that part of themselves that brought forth the Ravager, nothing could recall their sanity. The goddess above knew he’d tried. Every full moon, he’d find his mother in the Gallows, subdue her, and try to talk her back to reason. He’d tell her stories of his childhood, memories he had of her and his father. For hours, he’d split his time between fighting off attacks and trying to garner some kind of response from his mother.
It never worked. She never showed any signs that she recognized him or remembered anything from her former life. Every time, it broke his heart, and he’d finally had to admit to himself that she was lost to him forever.
“Hey.” Caressing his cheeks with her fingertips, Thea arched up for another kiss. “You look a million miles away.”
He wouldn’t lie to her. “Just thinking.”
“About your mother?” She nodded, seemingly taking his silence as confirmation. “I’m sorry, Rhys. I hope one day you’ll tell me about her, about what happened.”
Anyone else would have demanded answers, and Thea had every right to do the same. The fact that she didn’t only made her more special to him. “Do you have any idea how amazing you are?”
Her lips parted, likely to say something sarcastic that would have made him laugh, but he didn’t give her the chance. Tangling his fingers in her hair, he slanted their mouths together, delving his tongue between her lips to taste her. His heart pounded and his blood roared, drowning out everything except the sound of her sweet, needy moan. She kissed him back, not just with her mouth but with her whole body, leaning into him, rubbing against his chest, her fingers gripping his shoulders to pull him closer.
When she sighed his name, he nearly lost his damn mind.
Several feet away, someone cleared their throat, dragging him out of his lusty haze and reminding him they weren’t alone. Reluctantly, he withdrew, but he still held her close, his fingers gripping her jaw as he rubbed their cheeks together, covering his mate in his scent. He couldn’t claim her, not yet, but everyone would know she belonged to him.
“I guess we should join the others,” she said when minutes had passed and he hadn’t moved.
“You need to eat.”
Leaning away from him, she returned her attention to the rest of the group, worry lines creasing her forehead as her eyebrows knitted together. “I will, but I want to find out more about this werewolf first. Do you trust her?”
Deidra had only been with the pack for a couple of weeks, and Rhys hadn’t exactly had the opportunity to interrogate her. “I don’t know her.”
“Fair enough. She’s certainly colorful.” She scoffed when Zerrik laughed at something the she-wolf had said. “The rest of the guys seem to like her.”
“It’s the accent. Females aren’t the only ones susceptible to the charm.” Thea spoke with just a hint of a Philly accent, and he found it cute as hell.
Deciding to investigate for herself, Thea rose to her feet, dusted the dirt and loose grass from her backside, and sauntered over to the rest of the group. She found Kamara sitting on a smooth rock with a flat top, a peculiar expression on her face.
“Something up?”
“Not exactly.” Kamara nodded toward the werewolf, and her chocolate brown eyes clouded with wariness. “What do you think of the new girl?”
“Don’t know yet. That’s why I’m here.” She waited for Kamara to join her before approaching the rest of the group. “Guys,” she called, motioning tow
ard the female at her side, “this is Kamara, but you can call her Mulan.”
Kamara arched a brow at her. “I’m Japanese.”
“Yes?” Considering her last name, Thea had assumed as much.
“Mulan was from China, Han Dynasty.”
“I’m aware. She was badass.” Thea didn’t understand the problem. She could just as easily have compared Kamara to Joan of Arc. Nationality had nothing to do with it.
Kamara laughed. “Whatever.” She shook hands with Zerrik, then Cade. “Call me Mulan, and I’ll rip your dick out through your navel.” Her smile brightened pleasantly. “Got it?”
Zerrik nodded, but Cade mirrored her wide grin. “I like you.”
Backing away a couple of steps, Kamara tucked her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants. “That seems to be going around.”
They went around from there, introducing themselves to the humans, shifters, and vampires gathered by the smoking remains of the campfire. Thea couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t take any of them for Revenant, though she felt Kamara and Duncan—a human male with mocha skin, a shorn head, and muscles the size of mountains—would make good additions.
Duncan Atmos had also been a police officer before the Purge, assigned to the Boston Police Special Operations Unit. As former SWAT, Cade immediately took an interest, and the two digressed into a series of stories mostly designed to one-up the other. Thea left them to their conversation and finally turned to the female who had captured her interest since she’d first awoken.
“Thea Mendez,” she said, but she didn’t offer the werewolf her hand. “Rhys says you were an enforcer with the pack until this morning.”
“Aye, too right he is.” Her Irish accent wasn’t as thick as some Thea had heard, but it wouldn’t necessarily be considered a lilt, either. “Waltzed right into my quarters and tossed me out of bed and onto my bloody arse. I fought back, and got a needle in my neck for my troubles.” Pausing, she sucked in a deep breath and shoved her hand toward Thea. “Warden Deidra O’Malley.”
So, she’d been Coalition before joining the pack, assigned to the protection of one of the royal families. It made sense. Hesitantly, Thea took the female’s hand, gave it a brief shake, then pulled away. “You’ve only been here for a month.” It wasn’t a question, and she wouldn’t insult either of them by pretending it was. “How did you end up in St. Louis?”
“I was sent here to find Sergeant Rhys Lockwood and report back to my captain,” Deidra answered bluntly. Piling her hair high on her crown, she tilted her head and tapped a small Revenant tattoo just behind her left ear. “Zerrik already filled me in, and it’s an honor to meet you, Corporal. I’ve heard good things about Trinity Grove.”
Thea released the breath she’d been holding since Deidra had announced herself as a Warden. Many of the Revenant guards were Coalition soldiers as well, herself included. It gave them access to otherwise restricted areas and information, making it easier to move refugees without being discovered.
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure how much of it is left.” Captain Deke Collins and the others would be halfway to Kansas City by now, unaware of what was happening in St. Louis. Thea hoped they made it. “Where were you coming from?”
“Valley Falls, Kansas.”
Shifter territory. “Which family?”
“The Dresdens, lion shifters.” A smirk lifted one side of her mouth. “They’re not what you think. Cameron Dresden is my captain.”
Thea gaped. “A royal family is part of the Revenant?”
Deidra nodded, seemingly pleased she’d elicited such a response.
“Will they send others?” Thea hated to admit a situation existed she couldn’t fight her way out of, but that was exactly where she found herself. If help didn’t come and soon, many of them likely wouldn’t see the next sunrise.
“Doubtful, love.” The smile slipped from her mouth. “I checked in last night. Captain Dresden won’t be expecting to hear back from me until next week.”
“How did you contact them?” Zerrik demanded before Thea could respond.
Having a form of communication between state lines had been little more than a pipe dream since the Coalition had taken over, but it could be the advantage they needed.
“There’s a guy in Valley Falls who used to work for some big communications company before the Purge.” Deidra shook her head and waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t ask me the details, because I don’t understand a word of it. I just know he hacked a bunch of mobile phones, put them on a different frequency, something like that. All I know is they work.”
They spent the rest of the morning discussing the royal family in Valley Falls, the Revenant occupation there, and how long they’d known about the pack in St. Louis. Apparently, the eight soldiers who’d managed to escape the bunker on the highway had sought refuge in Valley Falls after the attack.
“I kind of assumed they’d headed west to Kansas City.” Hell, Thea hadn’t even been aware of a Revenant occupation anywhere else in Kansas.
Rhys wandered over and lowered himself onto the stripped log beside Thea. “Lieutenant Anders lived in Valley Falls before the Purge.”
Deidra nodded. “Aye, he’s good people.” Her gaze cut to Kamara, her jade green eyes twinkling with mischief. “For a human.”
Kamara barely glanced at her. “Eat me, Rover.”
“Oh, this one bites.”
Getting them back on topic, Thea asked, “So, where is this cell phone now?”
“Hidden.”
“Helpful.” Thea glared at the wolf.
Glancing up at one of the cameras on the retaining wall, Deidra shook her head. “They won’t find it, but we’ll never get to it, either.”
“Fine. If you were sent here to rescue Rhys, what happened?”
“I wasn’t sent to rescue him, just to gather intel and report back. I can’t really mount a full-scale rescue all by my lonesome, now can I?”
Thea resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Fair enough. That still doesn’t answer my question. What went wrong?”
“I’d have thought that was obvious, love. I’ve been found out. Though, I’m a bit surprised they didn’t just kill me.”
“Not the alpha’s way.” Rhys’ pupils dilated, and his gaze became distant. “This way is much more entertaining.”
“Well, sod it.” Slapping her palms against the tops of her thighs, Deidra jumped to her feet and stared around at those gathered. “If they want a show, we’ll bloody well give them one.”
Deidra’s arrival with the other three newcomers brought the total back up to fifteen after the deaths the previous night, though the dynamics had changed slightly.
Utilizing Kamara’s police background, Thea paired her with Abby. The same with Cade and Duncan, she paired both males with human civilians, ones without any former training, while she, Rhys, and Deidra worked with the shifters. Zerrik sparred with two vampires simultaneously, teaching them how to use their fangs, strength, and speed as assets.
Thea knew the pack would be watching, mocking their efforts, and maybe they had good reason. She couldn’t say if minimal training would be enough to keep anyone alive, but at least they’d have a chance. At least they’d die fighting rather than end up the punch line to Alpha Chase’s sick joke.
She hated that man, hated him with an intensity that seared her blood. If she survived the full moon, she’d find a way to make him pay for all the pain and suffering he’d caused.
“Good,” she choked, breathlessly bent over at the waist after the shifter sparing with her delivered a perfectly timed knee to the midsection. “What’s your name again?”
“Justin Crawford.”
“Okay, Justin, what did you do before the Purge?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “I was an optometrist in my previous life.”
“What kind of shifter are you?” It wasn’t something her kind just blurted out, the question considered rude in most circles, but she didn’t have the time or luxury to be politi
cally correct.
“Hawk.”
Thea blinked. “Why the hell are you still here?”
Dropping his head, Justin rubbed at the back of his neck, peeking up at her with a sheepish grin. “I’m afraid of heights, so I never learned how to fly.”
“You’re afraid of…”
It was like a vampire who fainted at the sight of blood. Thea didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream. In the end, she simply shook her head and walked away, not trusting herself to say anything at all.
Nearing the waterfall, a soft whistling drew her attention toward the top of the retaining wall, just as something stung the side of her neck. She tried to reach up, to touch her throat, but her arms instantly felt heavy, her legs refused to move, and her eyelids began to droop. When she attempted to call out to the others, she couldn’t remember how to make her mouth move, and her words came out slurred and unintelligible.
“Night, night, kitty,” Joseph Haymaker called, his voice far away, but it sounded like he was laughing.
Thea had the brief mental image of ripping his big head right off his fucking shoulders—then she was falling.
This time, she didn’t dream of monsters with black eyes and lethal claws. Instead, she drifted into a world of baked apple pies, homemade caramel candies, and the enticing scent of freshly prepared chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Paper doilies acted as coasters on the three, square tables lined up against the wall on the other side of the counter. Most people preferred to take their treats with them rather than sit inside the tiny shop, but a few chose to pass the time with a good book and a giant chocolate-chip cookie.
The walls had just received a fresh coat of lavender paint that gleamed in the afternoon sunlight that streamed through the wall of windows at the front of the sweet shop. Thea’s father had complained that it made the place look to feminine, but as always, her mother had won the argument. Raina had once remarked that white just didn’t feel very welcoming. Considering most of Sugar Rush’s clientele were women, Thea hadn’t seen what it mattered if it looked feminine or not.
Sometimes, she thought her dad picked fights with her mom just so they could make up later.
