Phoenix Crossing

by Cara Carnes

  Interesting. Maybe the upset within the demon ranks would work to my advantage and give me an extra few days with Uncle. I couldn’t very well infiltrate them if they were on high alert. Neither could he.

  “Oh. I bought you an outfit for tomorrow while we were out yesterday. Riles took me shopping for my birthday. I wanted you to go with, but you’ve been so busy I knew you’d forgotten all about it. It’s okay, though. Training is important. Anywho, it’s in the closet and we’re leaving here at nine sharp. Macen says punctuality is important, so don’t be late. Oh! I know! Since you didn’t get me a present, let me do your hair. Please?” She pounced on the bed, her mocha eyes widened with anticipation.

  Outfit. Leaving.

  The pleasure in her face wilted slightly as the silence hung between us. Damn. Letting down the omega wolf was worse than kicking a puppy. Her need to please others sickened me, yet she was so much like my sister in her naive trust and blinding adoration of everyone, I wanted nothing more than to keep the smile on her face.

  “Sure. Looking forward to it.” Whatever the heck it was. “Who all’s going?”

  “Everyone!” She jumped off the bed and started buzzing about the room faster than a bee drunk on a gallon of honey. “I didn’t think the warriors would take time out. I mean, it’s only my birthday party, but Lane told everyone they could go. Isn’t he awesome? Riles says Macen said there’ll be so many wolves there we’ll probably take over most of the lower level of Sanctuary. I can’t wait! Oh. My. God. You should’ve seen Stacy when she heard how big my party was gonna be. You know, her birthday was when Riles had her whole thing go down at Sanctuary and the pack didn’t do hardly anything for her. And she’s Alpha female.”

  The expectation in her gaze made me nod while my brain sorted the deets. Lane and Macen had apparently worked hard to make tomorrow night secure for Riles, yet safe without the omega guest of honor knowing. Smooth. Classic.

  All Lane.

  My body hummed its approval for the fierce protectiveness encased in such unforgiving warmth. He treated those he declared his own right. My pulse knocked a few times when I realized he intended to make me his, even if only for a few moments to quench his lust.

  Vira’s words from earlier boomeranged into my fantasies. Did he really enjoy his women wild and his sex rough? My phoenix rumbled her approval—the hussy. Even my angel flexed her wings. Clearly, they’d been hanging around one another too long. Bitches.

  I envied Vanessa. She didn’t have two warring creatures within her. She handled one who’d probably never have a care in the world beyond what shoes to wear with the perfect birthday outfit she tugged out of an overfilled closet and shoved in my face for my approval.

  The barely there material was see-through except for a small band across the chest and one at what I assumed could pass as the hip area. I wasn’t sure, though, since not much material hung below the dark band. “Wow, you’re really going to rock this. It’s perfect.”

  “Yay! I knew the dresses were perfect for us.” She jumped in place a couple of times.

  “Us?”

  “Yes! How kismet is the fact we walked into the store and I saw this one and knew the color was me because everyone always says I look gorgeous in blue because of my skin tone. I yanked the dress off the rack and perched right behind it was a white one I knew would be perfect for you. Riles seemed to think you’d want something different, but it’s so you. I can’t wait to show these puppies off on the dance floor.”

  Great. I forced a smile on my face and resigned myself to dancing tomorrow night away while wearing little more than a few bandage-size strips across my unmentionables. I’d never been a prude, but the little omega tested my boundaries whenever she got the opportunity. Little Vanessa was an exhibitionist.

  “I hope I can get the perfume perfect by then. I really, really need to.” She chewed on her lower lip. “Cone of silence?”

  Ah, jeez. Here we go again.

  The cone of silence was new to me—an inescapable girlie bonding moment she’d enacted a few times the past few weeks. Most of the shared whispers while in the said cone were little more than gossip I’d heard a hundred times about campus. But the way she chewed her lower lip and fidgeted from foot to foot while waiting for my agreement made me curious.

  “Of course.”

  She expelled her relief in a heavy sigh as she started pacing in front of the vanity where her perfuming menagerie swallowed the scant space in the room. “Okay, so no one can know, but I sort of have a thing for one of Lane’s guys.”

  “And that is bad because….”

  “Because Stacy would rip my throat out. I mean, she got struck down by Macen and Lane after going a few rounds with them, and even though she still has her claws set on Lane, she needs a backup.”

  My beasts growled when I thought of the jezebel female wolf who’d done her best to make Riles’s life chaotic. I didn’t want the bitch anywhere near Lane. “The guy you have your sight on is her backup?”

  Vanessa sighed. “I think so. I mean, he’s strong and kind and so funny and sexy and he looks at you as though he knows every little naughty thought you have and makes you feel good about having it. I can’t even talk near him I get so edgy.”

  “Sounds like more than a thing.”

  She shrugged as she looked at me through half-hooded eyes. “Maybe.”

  “Well, fuck Stacy, then. Tomorrow night is yours. Riles and I will have your back.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course. That’s what roomies are for, right?”

  “Oh my God! I’m so excited. I can’t wait. What if he doesn’t show up? Oh my God! You’ll help me get him to dance, right? I mean, he’d never, ever dance with me. But he would with you. You’ll help me, right?”

  The hope and desperation in her voice made me want to throat punch the asshole, and I didn’t even know who he was. “He’s an idiot if he won’t dance with you. You’re beautiful and a perfect catch for anyone, Squirt.”

  She beamed. The first time I’d used the nickname she’d nearly imploded with delight. Apparently, monikers in her pack signified importance and no one outside her immediate family ever gave her one. She missed the insult factor, which was why the name came to me. She was barely a hair higher than my chest and lucky to hit a hundred in the weight department. Guilt crawled through me every time I used the nickname—which I made sure to as often as possible.

  Annoying or not, she’d sacrificed the warmth and security of a cozy pack dorm to crash with me in the condemned interior of Badger Hall. Tomorrow night, I’d figure out exactly which of Lane’s guys was her crush and make romance happen somehow.

  “I’ll see you. I’ve gotta go track down Riles.” I stood to leave.

  “Oh. You don’t want to find her now. Maybe in an hour.” Vanessa glanced at her watch. Her gaze widened. “This is their nap time.”

  Ewww.

  I could’ve lived several millennia without envisioning my sister and her sexy mate napping. The fact I’d spent too many sleepless nights thinking of doing precisely the same thing with Lane didn’t appease the restless energy firing my pulse into a hastened frenzy.

  “Fair enough. I’ll give them some time and handle my other business. See you around, Squirt.”

  A couple awkward hugs later, I hit the sidewalk outside Badger Hall with renewed energy and a mission—find one of the two resident Alphas and kick his ass. Despite having the entire pack at Vanessa’s party, the location was too much of a threat. The fact they didn’t find somewhere else irritated me. Coupled with the blinding fact I needed to enlist their help without drawing attention. The party tomorrow night was the perfect ruse, or the start of one at least.

  Since one of the two men drawing my ire was currently napping, I was left with one option. The vibration within my veins quickened until my skin undulated with the need to shift, expel the raw energy flaring beneath. My body practically hummed in anticipation.

  I tromped on the plush green grass
behind the library and headed toward the training fields used by Lane’s wolves. I didn’t have a firm plan in place until my gaze took in the scene.

  Sprinklers blasted cool moisture into the air, a refreshing dewy burst in an otherwise hot day. I’d observed the location enough the past few days to know other shifters cavorted in the area, but vacated when the wolf warriors barreled from class and plowed into one another in a heightened frenzy of frustrated energy. Classroom life sucked for everyone, but the forced confinement aspect sucked hard for active shifters. I got their feral need to pound one another under the guise of practice. My beasts grumbled and flexed with a need to join the frolicking. Too bad I hadn’t been invited.

  I hung on the periphery across from the smaller-species shifters cowering in the shadows of several oak trees and allowed my brain a few moments to formulate my strategy.

  Their unease, longing for whatever they’d been doing moments before Lane’s wolves spoiled the day, brandished my ire like a sword. Their misfortune gave me the perfect excuse to impulsively challenge a wolf and lose. I charged into the thick and waited for them to notice my presence.

  Lost in the frenzied gusto of their play, they took longer than I’d anticipated. Lane stood at the other end of the field, arms crossed. He smirked when our gazes collided. Logan stood beside him, his amusement tumbling on the wind brushing across my heated skin. I wasn’t entirely certain what the odd wolf found so funny, but there was little doubt the subject matter had everything to do with me.

  Too exhausted to wait for the fools wrestling to notice my existence, I grabbed one of them off another and tossed him a couple yards away. He landed with a thud and leaped toward me but froze mid-lunge with widened eyes when he saw who’d tossed him.

  The romping ended. Laughter ensued, along with copious amounts of heckling. Yeah, the big bad-ass wolf got tossed by a girl. I flexed my fists and braced my stance in case he decided to finish his kneejerk reaction. I hoped he did since I carried a truckload of frustration I wouldn’t mind offloading on his ass.

  I’d let Vira rag-doll my ass for too long. I’d gained no ground in the war to protect my sister, and I was officially out of time. The new plan was simple—piss off a wolf enough to challenge me. Assuming Lane was half the Alpha I knew him to be, he’d demand I train Riles if I lost.

  The plan came with an added benefit—I needed a reason to let loose on someone. I couldn’t win, but I could damn sure bruise an ego or two.

  “What the hell?” He powered forward and halted a foot away. Smart.

  “Tell you what, boys. Let’s have a little challenge.” I waited for them to stop whispering.

  Lane prowled forward, all sinewy grace and fuckable, potent power. “What do you have in mind?”

  Licking my lips, I looked around and lit on the shaded group of shifters watching with wide, expressive gazes. “You choose a champion to fight me. If I win, I get shifting rights for tonight. Alone.”

  “And when I win?” The prick I tossed sneered as his buddies thumped him on the back. Guess he’d thrown in as their champion.

  I shrugged indifference. “I won’t lose.”

  Lane closed the distance until the line between my personal space and his presence blurred in a heady infusion of glistening sweat and wet cotton molded against sinewy flesh. Heavens bless the sprinkler system. Swallowing, I trekked from his trim waistline upward, across his powerful chest to the lickable, smirking lips. Cinnamon and musk wafted in my nostrils when he leaned closer.

  “Good. You know what I want.”

  The double entendre threatened the pseudo-triviality I’d spun. A part of me hoped he wanted more of what we’d done earlier, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d choose the lust of the man over the duty of the Alpha. But it didn’t matter because he was all rugged, virile Alpha, and every inch of me wanted to sink to my knees and—

  Don’t go there. Focus.

  “You’d better lay it out, so we’re all on the same page.”

  His mocha gaze ran down me, a slow, sensuous caress molten enough to bead sweat along my brow. Awareness tunneled through me. Damn horny phoenix. She always made her presence known in the most humiliating ways. His gaze homed in on my hardened nipples, then swept upward to my face as his nostrils flared. Yeah, nothing I could do to hide my reaction.

  His hand settled on my upper arm as he leaned in. His hot breath fanned along my neck. A low rumble traversed my awareness a moment before he spoke. “If your sexy eyes keep feasting on me, I’ll strip you bare and dine on your sweetness for eternity, Xandra.”

  “Promise?”

  The reflexive respond hung between us, a challenge I had zero business tossing since the results were known. His smirk sparked into a full-on panty-melting smile. My body ached, throbbed for his full lips as he hovered so close each breath intoxicated me.

  “Let’s side wager,” he whispered.

  I nodded as I replied. “Okay.”

  He chuckled. The thick, rich sultriness glided through me and pressed between my legs in a throb. “You win, you get your night but with me at your side. You lose, you train your sister and you get your night with me at your side.”

  The fact he’d inserted himself into both scenarios didn’t escape me. The fact I couldn’t train my sister if I won also wasn’t lost on me. But I wouldn’t win. I blinked past the lust clouding my thoughts. “So, I get my night regardless. Hardly seems fair to you.”

  The chuckle deepened to a pounding in my blood. “Trust me, there’s a difference. You lose, I choose how we spend the night.”

  “Fine. But either way, you start respecting the other shifters and their need to use this space, too. From today forward you limit your antics to one half the area so other species don’t cower in the corner like terrified prey.”

  I threw the addition out to remind me the challenge wasn’t about whatever chemical reaction my beasts shared with his. I couldn’t let my focus be clouded by my sudden need to sate lust I’d never experienced until Lane. The known end didn’t mean I couldn’t make a point or two.

  Nostrils flaring, he studied the onlookers. “You think we bully them.”

  Disbelief and anger resonated in his tone as he stepped away from me. I closed the distance he’d put between us. “I think you fail to see how they perceive you, how a pack of massive beasts as large as you all streaming toward them would intimidate the shit out of someone who shifts into an animal small enough to carry in a sack.”

  “Disrespect was never our intention.” His jaw twitched. Growls rose around us, but I kept my attention locked on the man who’d gone from lustful to livid in the span of a minute. His voice lowered. “The fact you noticed and acted even though they have nothing to do with you irritates my wolf, Xandra. He can’t understand why you’d choose to help packs of strangers, yet refuse to train your sister to keep her safe.”

  There was the opening I’d hoped for—an excuse to edge into the next phase. Onlookers would assume I’d walked right into the argument without thought. No further dispute developed from the thin ribbons of air I dragged into my lungs. “You want her trained? Fine. All you have to do is make damn sure your champion wins.”

  “Oh, I have every intention of winning. Trust me.” A feral smile spread on his face. He dragged his shirt over his head and flung it aside.

  My mouth dried. Gaze riveted to the expansive chest exposed like a hedonist’s wet dream, I swallowed and took a protective step backward. His eyes sparkled with challenge when he stepped forward. The awkward, undeniable dance ignited the thickening sexual tension I’d managed to ignore for a few all-too-brief moments.

  Danger pricked along my spine, warning me whatever happened next I had to somehow lose, yet win enough for Lane to note. Today’s confrontation with Uncle Lucian shoved the war I’d been waging onto a new level—one I couldn’t handle on my own. Somehow, I needed to signal for help, yet lose to appease whoever may be watching. Winning ensured my death. Losing meant others would die alongside me
my sister, Lane, the pack. My training her put them at risk.

  Warriors in his pack communicated effectively with barely discernable looks. Surely I could clue him into my need for help without speaking. Right?

  Amusement glimmered in his gaze, and his lips turned into a knowing grin as his nostrils flared and he breathed the air scented with my arousal. “You want to play with me, Xan? I’m all yours.”

  Chapter Three

  “To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.”

  —Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy

  Lane

  The pack warriors shifted near me, their unease palpable on my tongue, their tension crackling along my spine as I stretched in preparation for whatever might happen next. When it came to Xandra, I wasn’t sure what to anticipate. Her arrival on the training grounds and the unexpected accusation burned awareness in my gut.

  From my peripheral vision, I noted Logan and a couple of the others speaking with the shifters to the side of the field. As my second, he’d make things right with those we’d wronged, which left my sole focus on the sultry female far too alert to be a novice. Though hesitation flickered in how she avoided eye contact and chewed her lower lip, confidence reflected in her battle-ready stance. She had no problem maintaining the lack of distance between us. Few warriors on campus had the balls to stand so close to me because the action could be perceived as a challenge.

  Tonight, I’d feel the silken touch of a phoenix angel. I’d taste her on my tongue, make her fall apart in my arms as I fucked her into a mindless existence where the only name she remembered was mine. Call me a rotten, horny son of a bitch, but all I wanted was her nails scoring my skin, her wet heat wrapped around me.

  I’d given Macen crap lately about losing his dick after he met Riles, but if he experienced even half the hunger in me, I owed him a beer. I understood his need to imprint his scent on Riles at lunch every freaking day. The feral impulse to drag Xandra off the field and make her mine rode my wolf hard, hard enough to tunnel my vision to her alone.