by Fel Fern
Taking a deep breath, Max’s eyes bled back to his usual color and he let go of her. His control, like always, impressed her. She didn’t know any other shifter who was capable of instantly calming his beast like Max.
“Very well. Let’s talk in my office.”
Dom was reading this morning’s paper when they arrived. He only took one look at the two of them and then sighed. “Really, another argument?”
Sensing the fight they had was of a different and more serious sort, he carefully placed his paper down, looking from Max to Aubrey.
“What happened?” he said quietly.
“Later. What do you want to discuss that was so important?” Max asked. He didn’t sit at his chair, but settled for leaning against his desk.
Aubrey crossed her arms, not sitting either, and began talking. She was glad her tone sounded even, objective, and professional. It lacked any indication of how unsettled she was truly feeling.
The jealous way Max reacted minutes ago told her he wasn’t ready to let her go. Normally it would give her some measure of satisfaction knowing she had some edge, some ammunition. She could bait him with in the mind game they’d played over the years, but now it only made her hollow inside.
Studying the two men, the ache in her heart only worsened. Knowing a colossal monster of that scale was on her heels, she knew even Max and his mate wouldn’t even stand a chance. Demons didn’t lie. They didn’t need to, so Aubrey left out the important details in her report.
“This is troubling. If you say this shaman this dangerous, then the Vivaldi truly have gotten serious and Connor is in deep trouble,” Max mused, looking deep in thought.
Aubrey watched him head back to his desk, shifting through the thick files there, their previous fight forgotten. House Scavos always comes first, Aubrey thought bitterly. Everything else comes second.
Feeling something large press against her back, Aubrey tensed, but relaxed when Dom’s familiar scent and warmth washed over her. She didn’t pull away when he brought her to him. His touch danced between friendly concern and the promise of intimacy. Aubrey could almost taste his painfully constrained control, his constant struggle.
“Aubrey, why so anxious?” he asked quietly against her ear, his breath warm.
Remembering the way he looked at her months ago under the sway of the full moon, like she was most desirable thing in the world, she shivered. No. This is unbearable. This hurts too much.
“What else aren’t you telling us?”
“Nothing. That’s all I know.” The lies spilled out of her easily and without skipping a beat. They had trained her too well, but it hurt using all she learned to deceive them.
“You’re lying. You can lie your way through anything, but you can’t lie from me.” Dom bit down on her earlobe, wrangling a soft sound of protest from her lips. The more he touched her, the more she lost composure, and she didn’t like that one bit. “Always calm and cynical on the surface, but underneath you’re a storm, a mess of emotions.”
Aubrey tilted her head, looked him in the eye, and hit him where she knew he’d hurt the most. “Max and you made me this way.”
Dom retreated from her, stung, making Aubrey regret her words, but it was too late to take them back.
“Stop bickering, you two. I don’t have time to settle domestic disputes. I need to concentrate.” Max growled. He had his cell on one ear and sheaths of reports scattered on his desk.
“Then if there’s nothing else, I’m leaving.” Aubrey turned to go but Dom caught her arm.
“We’re far from done, Aubrey.”
Dom was right. She really was a tumult of emotions underneath, and she hated the fact he knew her so well. Aubrey didn’t think she could stand being another second in the same room with them. Staying with them wasn’t an option, and while Connor’s offer was sweet, it was unrealistic.
Aubrey couldn’t really say all her memories growing up in House Scavos were warm and fuzzy ones, but House Scavos was the only home she had ever known. There were good times too, quiet moments spent with Max and Dom before the awkward gap and sexual tension between them began to grow.
She’d already made up her mind. Although she promised them years ago that her life belonged to them, she could no longer just stay put and place them in danger. They’d already saved her once, and besides, they no longer needed her. Without her in the picture, they were better off. The other Scavos wolves would no longer question their position.
“No. We’re done.”
The grip on her arm loosened. Dom frowned, his eyes searching. “Why do your words sound like a good-bye, Aubrey?”
She looked away from his gaze. “Maybe it is.”
“Connor and Jace are in danger. Don’t you want to help them? See this episode through at least.” Dom’s blow was low, but effective. Aubrey hated hearing the desperation in his voice. A powerful beta of House Scavos shouldn’t be begging an insignificant crow shifter like her for anything.
Don’t look at him. If you see his face, your resolve will shatter, Aubrey chided herself.
“Is this really how you’re going to do this, Aubrey?” Max said. His tone was unreadable, but even at this distance, Aubrey could sense his cold anger rippling underneath. “I’m warning you, Aubrey. Once you walk past out of here, don’t bother crawling back to us.”
Her own anger rose inside her, but she quelled it. Shutting her eyes for a moment, Aubrey let the silence stretch on until she calmed down. Her hands shook as she pulled off her dress. The windows of Max’s office were open, beckoning to her. It wasn’t freedom awaiting her out there though, only another cage.
She turned to see the intense and dark gazes of the two men. Even though it hurt, she forced her lips to a smile. For once she didn’t coat her words with sarcasm or lies.
“Max. Dom. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, but it’s time for me to move on.
Staying long enough to hear their reply was too hard, so she simply shifted. How many times has she flown out Max’s window like this? This time though, she wouldn’t be returning.
She flew past House Scavos’s enormous property, past the woods surrounding the mansion, and past the high walls. The familiar sights and smells of Stocoma City hit her as hard as any bullet.
Aubrey knew every nook and cranny of the city. It was her playground, and it would pain her to leave it. Corrupt, crime-ridden, and run by the three shifter-mob families, Stocoma wasn’t the most ideal place to live in, but like House Scavos, it was the only home she’d ever known.
* * * *
Aubrey took twice as long getting to the warehouse where she first spotted the Vivaldi goons. She didn’t think her new owner would care. He had all the time in the world, after all.
“Crow child, I was expecting your arrival much later.”
The shaman smiled, flashing his sharp ebony teeth at her. He was sitting cross-legged on the dusty floor, surrounded by a magical circle with his staff in front of him.
Aubrey shifted. Unnerved by his calculating inhuman gaze as it swept across her naked body with scientific interest, she crossed her arms over her breasts and tried not to appear afraid.
“You said the affairs of the mortal world don’t concern you. So you won’t carry out an attack on House Scavos?”
He let out mirthless laugh, and the sound echoed around the empty space. A cold chill crept down Aubrey’s spine.
“As agreed, I will leave your wolves alone, crow child, but this city interests me a great deal. If they interfere in my plans, then it is unfortunate. What do you mortals call it? Ah yes. Collateral damage.”
Fuck. Did she really think she could outmaneuver something this ancient? She had a feeling beings like this couldn’t be swayed or persuaded by arguments.
“And me? I’m just a simple crow shifter. What do you need me for?”
Those black-on-black eyes fastened on her eyes, and every one of her paralyzed nerves was screaming at her to run. She wasn’t going anywhere though.
Aubrey had no place to run to anymore.
Frozen in place, she could only watch the shaman approach her. She cringed when he reached out to cup her cheek. His touch was slimy somehow, unpleasant like his corrupted aura. His hand went lower, lingering on the sunburst on her neck.
“Now don’t sell yourself short, crow child.”
Something alien and heavy began pressing at her consciousness. The creature’s will. She growled, trying to fight it, but it was too much, too immense for a mortal’s will to suppress. True despair began to fill her when the realization dawned on her.
“You’re not a demon. You’re more than that.” Aubrey’s eyes flew wide, unable to continue.
Deep in the recesses of her mind, the image of a dark and dank underground dungeon rose to the surface. Smelling of death and pain, the prison was covered in ritual runes—runes that their captors were hoping would bring forth a dark god into the world.
None of the kidnapped children believed they would come back out alive. They were the misfits of society. The orphans and the disposables no one would miss. Even Aubrey’s junkie birth mother had sold her to the ring without a second thought.
When Max and Dom saved her from that hellhole, she swore she’d live her life for them, but now that her past came back to claim her, she just hoped Max and Dom would be smart enough to stay away.
“That’s right, crow child. Be honored. The wolves are no longer the masters of you. You have been elevated to become the servant of a god intent on taking this city for himself.”
Chapter Four
“Fine. We’ll look for the bitch if it stops your whining. You should be ashamed for acting like this, Dom. It’s unbecoming of my beta,” Max eventually snapped.
Only an hour had passed since Aubrey’s departure, but Dom badly missed her presence. Knowing she wouldn’t be knocking at the window or settling on his arm in her crow form, or provocatively tempting them when she shifted to human form fucking hurt more than he realized.
Her words haunted him. So did the expression on her face when she said her good-byes. Dom had never seen her look so vulnerable before, and the truth and genuine honesty in her simple words clawed at him.
“You can act like you don’t give a fucking damn all you want, Max, but I know you. The last thing you’ve expected was for her to leave, and you’re pissed. I get that, but you need to get your anger out of your system.” Dom let out a breath.
Why didn’t he try harder to convince her to stay?
Dom pressed on. “The longer we linger here, the harder it’s going to get to find her. You’ve taught her too well, Max. It’ll be difficult to find her once she decides she doesn’t want to be found.”
Dom let his mate unleash his anger on the room for a while. Max needed it. By the time he was done, most of the furniture was wrecked and riddled with claw marks.
Max took a deep breath, beginning to straighten his slightly rumpled suit.
“I’m not thinking clearly and you were right. She was lying about something.” The frown on his face deepened. “Come to think of it, there was something that pushed her to say she was leaving. Knowing Aubrey, she wouldn’t have abandoned a task unless it was done, and Connor and Jace mean something to her.”
Sensing the bitterness in Max’s tone, Dom asked him what happened before.
“Connor’s just messing with you, Max. He’s not interested in Aubrey that way. He sees her as a sibling,” Dom pointed out.
“Maybe,” Max grudgingly admitted. “Come on. Let’s find her.”
After shifting to wolves, it was easy for them to follow Aubrey’s trail. Over the years, her scent had been imprinted on both of them so intimately that it wasn’t hard tracking her down. Night had fallen by the time they entered the slums. They kept to the shadows and corners, relentless in their pursuit.
Max ran forward, leading them to the entrance of an abandoned warehouse. The tainted aura surrounding the place instantly hit Dom like a bag of bricks. Werewolves were especially sensitive to magic, and the entire place reeked of it. Just what kind of trouble did their crow get herself caught up in?
Further investigation revealed most of the warehouse’s walls were painted in what must have been dozens of runes and symbols. Dom didn’t know what they meant, but a bad feeling had settled deep in the pit of his stomach. They didn’t linger long inside. It was unbearable being in the warehouse too long, as if the spells casted there were leeching into their bones, interfering with their shapeshifting magic.
Outside the warehouse, Dom shifted and breathed in the clean night air.
“Max. Her trail ended here. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t fucking like it. Those symbols, didn’t they look familiar to you?”
Dom frowned. “Should they?”
“We saw something similar to it long ago. Deep underground where victims were being sacrificed for ritual magic.”
Dom’s mind unconsciously took him back to the past, to a memory he didn’t particularly care to relive. Being a beta of House Scavos, Dom had done his share of dirty work. He’d witnessed the worst parts of humanity, sometimes even participated for the sake of House Scavos, but nothing could ever quite trump the night they found Aubrey.
Kids. They fucking used kids, Dom remembered thinking. What those mortal men did was beyond despicable. They were scum, even worse than the real monsters.
“Are you certain?” Dom asked carefully.
Max suddenly looked tired. “I’ve never told you this, but I’ve researched some of the symbols in that room, even got a specialist to look at it. Those ignorant fools didn’t know what they were getting into. If they’d succeeded, well, I’m not sure the city would have lived to see another day.”
Dom only knew one kind of dark magic capable of such destruction. “Those assholes were trying to summon a demon?”
“They didn’t just try. Apparently they succeeded. I just don’t understand why the demon would appear now after all these years.” Max nodded to the warehouse. “And it’s not a demon we’re facing, Dom. It’s something much worse.”
A chill ran down Dom’s spine. “What’s worse than a demon?”
“A hellgod. It’s probably just the minor deity of some long forgotten culture, but it’s still a god.”
“Is it even possible to kill a god? And what’s Aubrey’s role in all this? It obviously came for her specifically, why?”
“Killing it?” Max laughed harshly. “Probably impossible, but we can attempt sending it back to where it came from. As for Aubrey, I don’t have the answers. Maybe it’s because she’s the only survivor of that massacre? But I have a feeling it’s something else.”
“She is…a little unique,” Dom admitted. “I never even knew crow shifters existed until we found her, and the fact that shifting’s so natural to her is odd. Even werewolf alphas don’t shift as easily as she does.”
“We’re wasting time standing here and deliberating. It’s time we head back to the house, strategize, and call for a family meeting.”
“I can see Connor helping, but what makes you think London will help?”
“He’ll help, and so will House Vivaldi and House Perrault if I play my cards right. The leaders will put aside the ongoing house war when Stocoma City’s at stake.”
Dom frowned. “How do you know the city’s in trouble?”
“The thing with dark gods and demons? They’re all the same and they’re so damn easy to read. Mortal affairs and politics don’t concern them because they’re beyond their ability to comprehend. They crave one thing, and that’s simple death and destruction.”
* * * *
Within a few hours, Max managed to convince his brothers to prioritize the threat about to press down on the city. Even now Dom wasn’t entirely certain how Max did it. He always knew his mate had a talent for words, and Max wielded his arguments like any weapon.
The three brothers were in deep discussion in the mansion’s main meeting rooms, with their respe
ctive higher-ranking pack members at their back, but Dom knew Max already had them.
“They shouldn’t call Max Scavos the Spymaster. They should call him House Scavos’s head of public relations,” joked Rafe Moon to his twin Rhea.
Dom was standing close enough that the twins knew he could hear them, but then again, the twins usually did whatever they wanted. Rafe and Rhea were respectively, London’s beta and gamma. Most of the wolves often wondered how was it possible that a serious alpha like London could have two jokers for a second and third, but Dom always knew their never-too-serious attitudes were just a farce so their opponents would under estimate them.
“I think Max would take that as a compliment,” Dom commented, making Rafe laugh.
“Listen, Dom.” Rafe and Rhea edged closer, until they were whispering like children up to no good. “We can’t help but notice, but where is your delightful little pet? Some of the wolves are saying Max and you finally kicked her out, but I suspect it’s the other way around, eh? A feisty and delectable little thing like that—”
“Careful of your next words, Rafe,” Dom warned, his tone becoming frosty.
Rhea shook her head at her brother. Dom had always seen her as the more sensible of the pair.
“I won’t lie, especially with the two of you. This creature, I don’t know what his plans for the city is, but he has Aubrey. Our intentions are still the same though. We foresee that this god is a threat and means Stocoma harm. We intend to keep the city safe and at the same, return Aubrey to us.”
“At least you’re honest,” Rhea said, gaze briefly shifting to Max with clear distrust. “Your alpha might spin a fine tale, but it’s impossible to convince everyone. We were about to advise London not to agree to Max’s proposition, but after hearing the truth from your mouth, we’re satisfied.”
Rafe’s blue eyes sobered and grew a little serious. “You see much don’t you, Dominic Marks? Even so, Max and you have been somewhat of a fool, letting a treasure like that go.”
“Those words aren’t the words a werewolf of House Scavos would normally say,” Dom said. Rafe’s words pissed him off, but the truth in them was glaringly obvious.
