by Lan Chan
“You’re demented. I said no.”
He dropped his head farther so that his breath heated my cheek. “So I heard.”
What. The. Hell.
“You’re supposed to back off. Pack law dicta–”
He bit me.
Right at the juncture between my collarbone and my ear. Unbearable heat throbbed between my legs and savaged its way into my gut. He used blunt, human teeth, but the possessive aggression in it caused my nerves to spasm. My legs felt weak. Before they could give way, he slid his arm around my waist, holding me securely against the tree as he eased his mouth away with a languid flick of his tongue. Desperate in the way of a trapped animal, I latched on to anything that would help me hold him at bay.
The memory came unbidden, a weapon I kept to help me weather this emotional storm. Lex had just won the Unity Games. The elite guards had bundled her off for medical inspection before they began the award ceremony. The seed of a connection hummed in my chest. Feeling elated, I had left Lex sitting contentedly with a glass of ambrosia and had gone in search of Max to make sure he was healing from the wounds inflicted by Chanelle.
Raised voices carried through the tunnel as I neared the stadium’s infirmary. Max’s low rumble and Chanelle’s high-pitched snarl. Something in me had urged me to use caution. Throwing an invisibility circle around myself, I had flattened myself against the wall away from any draft and pricked my ears to listen.
“...seriously deranged,” Chanelle laughed. “I thought you would have done better but you’re just like the rest of them.”
Something shuffled in the room. “Give it a rest, Nelle,” Kai’s voice warned. “You lost. Don’t be sore about it.”
She whined in the back of her throat. “You went easy on her. On all of them. That’s just shameful.”
Max huffed. “You want to talk about shame? How dirty were you thinking of playing this?”
“At least I didn’t lose my head over some insignificant human!” she shouted.
“Watch your mouth,” Max shot back, his tone much quieter. Deceptively calm.
Chanelle laughed. “Or what? What are you going to do, Maximus? It’s pitiful that Max Thompson, future lion clan alpha, is being led by the balls by a little human. Does she realise what mating with you will entail? Have you told her what she’s in for? Or has she got you so thoroughly tamed that you’ll make yourself lesser so you don’t frighten her?”
“Nelle!” Kai yelled. “Shut up!”
I had felt it then. The first wave of an anger so deep it was a physical thing that permeated the walls and scraped up my skin. Chanelle battered it aside like she did with anyone she considered insignificant.
“What happened, Max?” she said, her tone now cajoling. “You know what you need. After ascension, your Thracian bloodline will be freed. It won’t allow for a submissive mate, and you know you’ll lose your mind if she’s in danger. Look at what happened in the arena. If you hadn’t lost your head, you would have seen it was impossible to hurt her from inside the ring. All I had to do was point in her direction. She’s human. They’re immensely breakable, and your Sophie in particular is soft as hell.”
Feet scraped against cement as though she was pacing. “I know everyone loves to see me as the villain but I’m saying this for your own good.”
And then, he said the words that would forever be etched in my mind. “Sophie will understand.”
Sophie will understand. Said with the iron-clad assurance of an alpha. Like it was the only possible outcome. Sophie would understand because she had to. Sophie always did what she was told. Because I had no choice in the matter. Mating with him meant submission to his will. Like hell I would understand.
Chanelle’s laughter dripped with sarcasm. “Uh huh. Humans don’t seem to have a great track record of being subservient. Especially ones of African descent.” She cackled. “You know what would be the icing on the cake? If the mating link manifested between the two of you. Your Thracian heritage will make you crazy. And when she inevitably puts herself in danger, you’ll lose your mind completely and...” She made the sound of an explosion and her laughter echoed in the long corridor. It had only been cut off when something grabbed hold of Kai without his consent and he disappeared from the dimension.
The memory splashed an icy resolve around me, dampening the fire his presence ignited. “I said leave me alone. I won’t ask again.”
Drawing on the alchemy, I bit my bottom lip and prepared to use blood. He saw the conviction in my eyes and his top lip curled. There was just the slightest hint of fangs. “What are you going to do?” he scoffed.
I looked him straight in the eye. “What I have to.”
There it was. The first signs of true unease. “That’s right, Max. I might be human, but I’m not some pushover who’ll do whatever you want. I’ve done things that will make your skin crawl. Now move before I lose my temper.”
He studied me for a moment, the red in his eyes receding to leave the glowing warm gold. “Remember that day in the fens when Lex saw that big rat?” he asked. I frowned, wondering why he would bring that up now.
“She screamed bloody murder and skewered it with her demon blade before running away in the other direction. You went back to retrieve the demon blade for her. You brought tools to bury the rat instead of just throwing it into the water like anyone else would.”
He reached up and grazed the back of his hand down my left cheek. I froze, too terrified to move. “You were crying when you buried it. Like you cry sometimes in the kitchen garden shed after Professor McKenna makes you dissect frogs in Potions class. So tell me, oh frightening one, how does someone whose heart bleeds for lower creatures kill another person just to take their magic? I call bullshit.”
Swallowing past the apprehension in my chest, I managed to say, “I know you can scent the necromantic magic in my blood. You have no idea what someone is capable of when they’re desperate.”
A humourless laugh rattled in his chest. “I know exactly what you’re capable of, Sophie darling.”
My nose scrunched. “If you don’t believe me, why didn’t you say something to the Council? They all believe I’m a murderer.”
He splayed his hand over my throat and pushed my chin so that he looked into my eyes. “Do you think I give a shit what the Council thinks? Do you think it matters to me whether they approve? They can think what they like. I know the truth.”
I. Me. What I want.
What a lovely proposition.
And yet I couldn’t help asking, “The pack circle–”
“A formality.”
“I...”
He pressed the pads of his fingers gently against my neck. “I let you go once,” he said, voice rough. “It won’t happen again. So you can get with the program or this is going to be very painful.”
With that, he pushed off the tree and started walking again, leaving me there with my head spinning.
9
Keeping up with him became a struggle. Anger radiated from him as he increased his pace until I was almost jogging. There was no time to catch my breath before we barged right in on a small clearing in the close hush of the Australian bush. Suddenly, I was surrounded on all sides by beasts in human skin. A literal circle of death.
The gap we’d stepped through was barricaded by two huge shifters I knew. Jeremiah of the bear clan and Harris of the primate clan. Both of them were second-in-command of their respective clans. Both now loyal to Max while Durin and their alphas were unavailable.
Leaving me to gape at the ring of hostile shifters, Max stalked to the gap between where Ari stood beside Gwen.
My heart beat wildly. I tried to get a measure of those around me. The once-friendly faces stared back at me with caution at best and outright hostility at worst. I didn’t even want to unpack the dark thing lurking behind the Blonde Shifter’s eyes. Or that of the two females by her side.
I was about to contemplate running when a familiar face appeared at the edge of the c
rowd to my left. Yolanda, or a wraith of Yolanda, was led into the clearing by a female shifter.
The sight of the once-proud alpha female caught me by the throat and shook me. Her shock of blue-black hair hung dull and limp around her withered frame. What had once been enviable tanned skin was now lined with wrinkles and sunspots. Blue veins crawled up her forearms and under the sundress she wore, appearing again as a web against her throat. It was as if a parasite had crawled inside her body and was sucking the essence out of her.
The shifters around her moved aside, creating a seat for her out of a fallen log. They piled their coats on it to make her comfortable.
I blinked rapidly to stop from crying. Hating that crying was always my first reaction, I flared my nostrils and took a long, deep breath.
And then she spoke, “You may begin.” So hoarse. Like she was choking just to get the words out. I swiped away the moisture from my eyes and ignored the way Blonde Shifter rolled hers. Thankfully, everyone’s attention moved to where Max stood.
I couldn’t help marvelling at the contrast. Where Yolanda was a husk of her former self, Max was a picture of shifter health. Beside him, even Ari and Gwen seemed plain. Thanks to their mother’s blood, Max and Charles were somewhat immune to the effects of magic. It made it possible for them to withstand the power of the malachim enough that they could fight back. Now, more than ever, the shifters needed a beacon of power.
“You all know why Sophie is here,” Max said without an inch of give in his voice.
Jeremiah spat on the ground. “She’s human.”
Bears weren’t known for their scholastic aptitude. Which was why Durin was a diamond amongst his species. He’d held the Reserve for longer than any other shifter alpha. Not just through sheer physical strength but because he knew how to play the game even if he mostly liked to bulldoze through his opponents.
Max bristled. “I know what she is.”
“Do you?” Blonde Shifter asked. “She’s weak. Without her sinister magic, she would crumble.”
The shifter minions beside her nodded their assent. “Anastasia’s right,” the honey-haired one said. “We shouldn’t have accepted her here in the first place. How do we know she won’t cast a spell on us? Her great-grandfather is in the Book of Beasts!”
Gwen scratched her cheek. “She’s been living here on and off for years and nobody grumbled then.”
“She was here off Durin’s good graces!” Ari reminded them. “He owed Alessia a favour. Now that she’s gone, surely that favour ends.”
The murmuring continued. “If she stays,” Harris said, “she can’t just be allowed to roam around free.” He scratched at the five-o’clock shadow on his chin.
“Noah and Charles have been assigned to guard her,” Max said. He pinned me with a flat stare. “She won’t be allowed to perform sinister magic in the Reserve.”
The vicious grin that appeared on Anastasia’s face made me want to throw something. Since all I had right now were words, they would have to do.
“What was the point in making me stay here then? This pack clearly doesn’t want me here, and I need to learn my magic. I’ll just be in the way.”
The dark-haired woman on Yolanda’s left bristled. She stood military straight. “You were already in the way,” she said. “Now you’ll be doing it under our watch.”
My jaw clamped. “So, you’re stretched enough as it is, but you’ll surrender resources to have me watched night and day?”
Her nose scrunched. “Anything that will occupy Charles Thompson so he doesn’t have time to terrorize people is worth it.”
It was a monumental effort not to allow my annoyance to turn my voice into a whine. “Your alpha and his inner circle are compromised. Aren’t you afraid I’ll put them in danger?”
It was something that I had contemplated myself. As hard as it was to accept, I couldn’t help thinking of the way the malachim had looked at me and hesitated like it was trying to communicate with me. It wasn’t the first time that had happened. Touching the blood barrier for a moment, I wondered if I was drawing the malachim to me with the signal inside my chest.
“We’re more afraid of you trying to kill them while they’re vulnerable,” Anastasia snapped.
Her presence made my words sharper than I meant them to be. “Maybe it’ll be easier if you just draw me a map and cross out the places I’m not allowed to go.”
“That’s easy enough,” Jeremiah said, taking my suggestion literally. A couple of the other shifters actually chuckled.
“I think I would prefer to be in the Dominion prison,” I said.
“That can still be arranged,” Military Woman said. Max let out a warning snarl. All eyes besides mine and Yolanda’s lowered to the ground.
“She stays here,” Max said.
After a few quiet beats, their heads began to lift, but there was no more talk of ejecting me from the Reserve. Instead, Anastasia dispensed with any cryptic messages. “She refused to mate with you.”
If I had blinked in that instant, I would have missed the millisecond when Max’s torso moved as though he was going to lunge at her. When the three minions around Anastasia gulped in unison, I knew I hadn’t imagined it. To her credit, she didn’t flinch. I could almost feel the hairs along her arms standing on end, but she wouldn’t back down.
Nobody else said a word. Even though I had expressly said I would not discuss mating, they wouldn’t be dissuaded.
One minute. Two. At the three-minute mark, I couldn’t take it anymore. Swallowing, I was about to open my mouth when a hand reached out and gripped my forearm. Turning, I saw Jeremiah blinking at me. If he were to exert even the slightest hint of pressure, my arm would snap right off. Even though they were weakened, they would always be overwhelmingly stronger than me. “Careful what you say,” Jeremiah warned me.
Prying his fingers off gently, I steeled my back. “I have no intention of mating with anyone.” In case he thought I was kidding, I held Max’s stare.
For a single beat, we just looked at each other while the world stood still.
When he came at me, I was fully prepared. The circle was complete, and I was about to inject it with blood. What I hadn’t counted on was Jeremiah stepping in front of me and taking the full brunt of Max’s rage. Military Woman yanked me out of the way as Max barrelled right into Jeremiah’s chest. The momentum pushed both of them to the edge of the clearing where they landed upright, having rolled to a stop with unnatural shifter grace.
They were stationary for a heartbeat before Jeremiah opened his mouth and gave an almighty bellow that rocked the foundations of the clearing. It rattled leaves and branches from the trees. The low vibration coursed through my limbs, making me curl against where Military Woman held me. The other shifters answered his primal call with their own, splitting the afternoon air into a cacophony of terrifying sound.
Jeremiah launched himself at Max. This time he wasn’t the only one. Ari and Harris entered the fray, blocking Max’s retreat. I was still certain it was just a typical release of pent-up aggression until Ari’s hands partially shifted. Claws sliced out of his fingers and he swiped out. If Max hadn’t ducked, they would have buried in his shoulder. He responded with a corresponding blow with human fists that slammed right into Ari’s temple. As he rolled, Ari’s wolf eyes were buttery yellow, his fangs drawing blood from his bottom lip.
“What’s happening?” I asked, wincing as the crack of Jeremiah’s kick hit Max on the side of his ribs.
“The circle disagrees with Max’s decision,” Military Woman assessed. Harris went flying past in a blur of silver and black. When he landed, his clothing hung from him in strips, his gorilla form dwarfing the clearing. Breaking a gum tree in two when he used it as a crutch to stand, he raised himself on his back legs and beat at his chest. When he lumbered forward, my heart rocked in tandem with the stomp of his front paws. If Military Woman wasn’t holding on to me, I might have lost my footing. Between Jeremiah’s brown bear and Harris’s Ki
ng Kong imitation, the clearing was now chaos.
Still Max hadn’t shifted. He was bleeding from a cut on his bottom lip but the feral grin on his face said they would have to do better. And then they did. The wolves proved why they were the quintessential pack animals as they descended on him in numbers. Five of them at once. Max hammered his foot into the side of the first shifted wolf, sending it flying into the scrub. I heard yelping and then the scrape of paws trying to regain balance. He grabbed another wolf by the scruff of its neck and compressed its windpipe. I inhaled sharply as bone crunched. My blood turned to ice. I couldn’t help turning my head away from the violence.
My attention landed on Anastasia. Instead of cheering along with her squad, she was studying me with a haughty curl of her lip. “Are you that soft, girl?” Military Woman asked.
My voice was barely above a whisper. “He’s going to hurt them.” I’d seen Max kill things before, but they had always been demons and monsters. The thought of him hurting his friends, his pack, because of the crazy in his blood made mine turn cold. And I worried that when the fever calmed down, what he’d done would hurt him in return.
“This is how we are,” she informed me. “It’s not always pretty.”
I knew all about shifter dominance games. Something about this just seemed odd. And then those thoughts were flung from my mind as Gwen cracked her knuckles and stepped up to the fight. The other shifters had tried to use brute force against Max. Being physically smaller, Gwen must have known she would need another strategy. I’d witnessed her fight before when I’d arrived early for Weaponry and Combat. More than once I’d seen her take out opponents twice her size. She wasn’t just leopard fast. She also had a calmer temperament that allowed her to keep a cooler head in a fight. My appreciation of her technique did not change the fact that I screamed when she shifted and her leopard came straight for me.
I tried to move but found myself suddenly shackled by Military Woman. Gwen’s claws were a foot from shaving my face off when Max’s arm whipped out. He caught her by the throat. As he pulled back as though to toss her aside, she dispensed with modesty and shifted back to human form. With her elongated limbs, Gwen managed to throw Max off balance, and they toppled. Falling in a cat-quick pounce, she was up and sprinting for him again. With his attention focused on the naked woman in front of him, Max barely had time to avoid Ari steamrolling over him. Pushing Ari out of the way to stop his face from being eviscerated, Max found himself inside a circle of leopards. All of them female, their eyes turned hunting bright.
