by M. L. Briers
“Trouble’s coming. It’s like a coiled spring inside me and as he gets closer it gets tighter. If I had something personal of his I could do a locator spell, but there’s nothing…”
“You’re sure he’s coming?”Aidan asked. He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him. He was sure that her eyes glinted like diamonds in the light. He’d never seen that before.
“Certain. He’ll be here in a few hours.”
Aidan took a step back from her. He reached up with one hand and ran it through his hair, considering his options, or lack of them. What Lacy had told him left a sour taste in his mouth…
“You’re asking me to put you in danger…”
“I’m asking you to trust me, Aidan.”She saw his top lip quiver as his fingers tightened within his hair. This wasn’t his way. She could see the battle that was going on within him. But she needed this…
“Is your magic as strong as Lacy claims it is?”
“Do wolves crap in the woods?”He twisted his head to the side and stared at her…
“Yes…”She chuckled. “To both of those questions.”
“Then I trust you not to put yourself in unnecessary danger…”Dee’s face lit up with the smile of pure happiness. It wasn’t just the fact that she was going to claim her vengeance, it was so much more. Her Alpha had swayed in the breeze of reason, not stayed rigid, and not broken under her insistence.
He’d listened to her. He was trusting in her abilities. All of that said more to her about the kind of man he was than any words ever could.
“You can’t do that…”Evan growled out. His eyes had turned ebony as he paced the short distance back and forth in between the kitchen counter tops, while Tanya sat on a stool at the counter and looked unimpressed.
“Watch me...”Tanya offered. It was that simple, to her at any rate. If Dee was allowed to go out there and face Billy down then so was she.
“That’s my pup and…”Evan growled out, pointing an accusing finger towards her stomach.
“This is my body and it’s coming with me…” Tanya assured him. It was simple and he was going to have to get over it. She saw his eyes snap towards the kitchen door a moment before the door was pushed open and Dee strolled in followed by Aidan.
Evan lifted that accusing finger and aimed it at Dee. “This… this is your fault…”Evan growled out as Aidan narrowed his eyes at his Beta and growled him a soft warning.
“What is?”Dee shot back defensively, ignoring her mate as he took a step between her and his Beta, protectively.
“She…”Evan turned that finger back to his mate, who grinned with her amusement. “Wants to go out there and face down the wolf…”He swung his arm as if conducting an orchestra as he spoke. His hand hit his thigh in frustration when he was done. Dee shot Tanya a look of disdain.
“Seriously? You think you’re going out there?”Dee demanded. Her hands went to her hips as she took her friend in. She saw Tanya’s smile slide from her face as she narrowed her eyes back at her.
“Yes. And traitor.”Tanya spat out, as her mate’s palms hit the counter top and he leaned in towards her.
“Over my dead body.”He growled and Tanya’s head snapped towards him.
“Done.”She bit down on her annoyance. What was with everyone? Ok her mate was anally protective and paranoid, but Dee…?
“You’re not going.”Dee assured her and caught the glare in her eyes as she whipped her head around again.
“But you are?”Tanya wasn’t in the mood for this. Her mate she expected to act like an idiot, but she wasn’t prepared to defend her actions to Dee as well.
“I’m not pregnant.”Dee offered her the only explanation she thought she needed too.
“Well, we don’t know that do we?”Tanya felt the need to play dirty, and it worked, Aidan’s low growl greeted Tanya and she smirked back at Dee.
“Dee…?”Aidan looked down at her as if she was trying to keep something from him, and she felt the irritation rise within her.
“You’d be able to scent the change in me…”She offered back up to him. Trying to inject some rationality into the situation that Tanya had placed her in.
Aidan took a step towards her. His arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her gently towards him. Leaning down he nestled into her neck and took in her scent. He was immediately hard with wanting her again, but he couldn’t scent a change in her, and satisfied that she wasn’t pregnant he drew back again.
“Told you.”She snapped up at him and then as he stepped back she shot Tanya a look of disapproval. “As for you…”
Tanya held her hands up in front of her and shrugged. “Fine. So you’re not pregnant, but that doesn’t mean you should get to go out there and I should stay cloistered in here. This isn’t the middle ages…”Tanya growled out with a dirty look towards her mate.
“How about the fact that your magic isn’t as strong as mine, and what with being pregnant, who knows what that little minx could do to your magic…”Dee pointed to Tanya’s stomach. Tanya lifted her hand and swept it over her belly, pouting out her need to be outside and knowing what the hell was going on, and not shut indoors waiting… again.
“It’s so not fair.”Tanya finally ground out and she heard Evan sigh with relief and gave him another look that could have dropped him on the spot had she thought to put some magic behind it.
“Yeah well, that’s life, get used to it.”Dee shot back. She wasn’t going to give into Tanya’s pouting, not this time. Lacy had already taken a beating that she shouldn’t have, if Tanya put herself and her pup in harm’s way and got hurt, how could she ever forgive herself that one?
“You can be such a bitch…”Tanya whined as she shook her head in disgust and Dee grinned at her.
“Takes one to know one, and stop pouting, you look like a trout.”
“If you tell me you’ve changed your mind and you don’t want to do this, you’ll make me a very happy man…”Aidan growled down gently at her. Standing there in the middle of the woods, stark naked and looking like a feast she could quite easily gorge on, Dee noted the puppy eyed look he was giving her, and she couldn’t help but feel that look right down to her damn toes as they curled in her trainers.
“That look might have worked on other females, but I can assure you that I’m immune to such blatant forms of manipulation.”She lied and he sensed it immediately.
The slow smile that spread over his face and lit his darkened eyes made her clench her inner muscles in longing for him to be with her… damn, but he was good at this manipulation thing.
“Still not working…”She lied again and then looked away from him. Anymore of those looks and she wouldn’t be held responsible for her actions, even with half of the males in the pack out tonight in readiness for Billy’s appearance.
Aidan closed the small distance between them and she could feel the press of his arousal against her thigh and wanted to moan with her need for him. The feel of his breath against her cheek was more than enough temptation for her to roll over and offer herself up to him… Damn that mating pull, she ground out within her mind.
“Liar.”He whispered against her ear and then she felt the cold embrace of the night about her as he vanished into the woods and left her standing there bereft.
“And then some…”She ground out before trying to shake off the effects her mate had on her body and her mind.
Billy was coming and he was closer than she’d anticipated, or maybe she’d just not been paying enough attention to the Billy situation, given a naked mate was a more appealing thought to her right then.
Her insides twisted into a tight knot as she reached out with her mind to locate Billy and found him close, but not close enough yet. The damn wolf was being cautious on unfamiliar territory. He’d shifted from human to wolf as he scented the boundary to pack land, and was now carefully picking his way across their territory.
Dee lifted her hands to waist height and pulled on her magic, taking the very
essence of her scent and sending it out like a beacon for Billy to find. She wasn’t content with just waiting for him to stumble across her. She was going to bring him in. She was going to lead him right to her feet and then give him a taste of what he had given Lacy.
It wasn’t entirely the plan that she had discussed with Aidan, she was adlibbing slightly, or a variation on a theme as she liked to think of it. He’d wanted her to bring Billy in and then to step back and let the pack take care of him. But she had a score to settle with the beast and she intended to see it through.
Dee reached out with her mind, looking for the lone wolf. It helped that she had lay with him, knew him intimately, and she found him in the midst of the woods. The pack wolves were circling the land, but he was managing to evade them, and she wondered how her scent was affecting the other wolves from picking up on his trail.
All the better for her. If she could keep the pack at bay and yet bring him directly to her then she would have what she wanted, uninterrupted access to him. She wouldn’t need long, but then it could never be long enough…
Aidan scented the air again, but all he could find was his mates scent. It was crazy how his body was attuned to her and just her. The damn mating pull was putting his mate in danger by not allowing him to find the lone wolfs scent.
‘Aidan, I don’t know what your mate is playing at but she needs to pull her damn scent back…’ Evan growled out into the collective and Aidan stilled in his tracks. It wasn’t the mating pull and it wasn’t just him…
‘I thought it was just me…’ Aidan growled out. She’d asked him to trust her, now she was abusing that trust by not letting the pack do their duty.
Aidan dug his claws into the earth and pushed off towards his mate on fast paws. Obviously circling the perimeter around her would be futile if she was covering the lone wolf’s scent with her own. He couldn’t protect her that way and she had to know that.
He still had his other senses. He could spot unfamiliar tracks and listen to the sounds of the woods around him, but what would be the point in that if his mate had already engaged with the beast?
If she got out of this alive he was surely going to kill her himself. How could she ask him for trust and then deceive him this way? Did she know what she was doing? Did she have any idea how her magic was affecting his pack?
He made the clearing where his mate stood and ventured inside. The sound of a snarl off to his left caught his attention and he rounded on the beast in an instant.
The Lycan was as close to rogue as he could be without actually crossing over the last divide between man and beast. He could sense the rage within the animal, sending him wild with a bloodlust for Aidan that he knew was due to the wolf scenting him on Dee.
Billy was challenging the Alpha to death for his mate.
Aidan pulled back his lips and snarled at the beast. All common sense left him as his wolf took over the rational part of his brain. A challenge to the death would be answered here today…
Dee raised her hand and pulled on her powers, with a flick of her wrist she lifted the wolf into the air and tossed him against the nearest tree trunk. The sound of his body connecting with the unforgiving wood in a dull thud sounded out into the night air and filled her with satisfaction.
The whimper from the wolf as the pain tore through him was even more satisfying, but her mate’s deep growl brought her attention towards him as her eyes narrowed on Aidan.
Maybe she should have damn well bonded with him before this, at least then she would know why her own mate was growling at her.
Dee heard the sound of a branch snapping off to her left and turned her head sharply to see Evan coming through the trees, naked and as angry as hell as he stalked across the clearing towards her.
“Don’t intervene.” Evan growled out at her, and she looked at him as if he were a mad man…
“I have a right …”Dee started, but Evan held up his hand to silence her.
“The wolf has challenged the Alpha to a battle to the death over you…”Evan growled out his anger as his eyes flicked from Dee to where the lone wolf was slowly dragging himself back onto his paws.
“A what…?”Dee bit down on her anger. This was not happening. This wasn’t anyone else’s fight but hers. Trust two bloody males to screw everything up. She growled out a string of curses in her own mind to go with the ones that slipped from her lips.
“His challenging Aidan’s right to be your mate. If he wins, which is unlikely, he’d claim you…”Evan offered, his voice was still more wolf than human as he growled low and deep.
“Over my dead bloody body…”Dee ground out. In the unlikely event that Billy did win the battle she would end him in a heartbeat, which was what she really needed to do right now, before this damn match could go ahead.
“Possibly…”Evan offered her and she turned her eyes towards him.
“What happens if I end him now?”Dee growled out. Where was the harm, her mate wouldn’t have to do battle, and she would have her vengeance…
“You would shame your mate, your Alpha…”Evan cautioned her. He could see in her eyes, her stance, that she longed to strike at the wolf.
“God damn it, but you Lycans are just so damn…”She filled in the blanks within her own mind, each one worse than the last.
“Your mate is not only fighting for your honour, but his right to be your mate, most females would be honoured to…”Evan saw her eyes snap back towards the movement off to the right of her. Both wolves were circling each other…
“You mean most Lycan females. Personally I’d rather he sit this one out and let me snap the bastard’s neck…”Dee didn’t take her eyes from the circling wolves. Shame her mate or not, Dee knew that if it looked like Aidan was going to lose this challenge she would step in and end Billy.
“Don’t, Dee…”Evan had stepped towards her. His words were gentler now, and he placed a hand on her arm to still her need to strike out. “No matter what happens, he must see this challenge through to the end.”
“You’d stand by and watch him die?”Dee bit out, disgusted with what Aidan’s friend was telling her.
“He would have no honour. For an Alpha that’s worse than death.”Evan offered her an insight she didn’t have before into her mate. She didn’t much like it, but she knew that she couldn’t interfere. It was up to Aidan to save himself.
Aidan senses his mate’s distress. He had heard every word spoken between her and Evan, and he knew that his world was alien to her, but he would make her understand, right after he ripped the throat out of this challenger.
He wouldn’t just be fighting for his mate here tonight. In Lycan tradition if he was defeated by the lone wolf then he would be the rightful Alpha for his pack, and that couldn’t happen.
‘If this goes wrong and he betters me…’ Aidan growled out at Evan…
‘I’ll challenge him for the pack.’ Evan assured him, putting his mind at ease as he watched the sleek movements of the opposing wolf as they eyed each other over the short distance between them.
Aidan knew that the moment he launched his attack or countered Billy’s, this would be a fight to the death, and one that he must win. And when the wolf finally came at him, fast and furious, Aidan countered with all the speed and accuracy that he had within him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The flash of razor sharp claws caught his attention, but didn’t deter him from landing his own blows against the challenger, slicing hard and deep into Billy’s flesh, down the right side of his face and across his eye as he roared with the pain of his own wounds.
Billy’s claws tore into the flesh over his ribs as he turned just in time and took the full force of the strike on his body and not his face. The cuts were deep, but not as serious as the one’s he had inflicted upon his challenger.
There was no time to gloat over the damage he had done. Billy was turning and coming for him again. His jaws were snapping in the hopes of tearing into flesh and getting a hold on the Alpha,
but Aidan ducked low and rounded on the wolf as he committed himself to the attack.
Aidan pushed up onto his back paws and struck hard and fast, opening up more flesh along the lone wolf’s back, and finding an anchor point against his shoulder blade as he put all of his weight behind wrenching the wolf sideways and down towards the ground.
Billy’s claws couldn’t find anything in the soft earth to keep himself from being dragged down to the ground. He felt his paws slipping out from under him as the pain wracked his body from the Alpha’s claws against bone.
Billy hit the ground and tried to roll out from under the attack, but Aidan’s jaws were already locked against his neck. Not in a death blow, but he had the advantage.
Aidan had the wolf within his jaws and he knew that no matter how it might seem to an onlooker, this was him at his most vulnerable. He had a chance to finish the wolf, but he would first need to release his jaws to take the death blow. If he misjudged, Billy would be able to lock his own jaws around Aidan’s neck from below and tear his throat out…
“That’s good right?”Dee hissed towards Evan.
“Not yet…”He growled back, not taking his eyes from his Alpha, knowing just what he was up against.
“But he’s got him…”Dee hissed back and Evan growled out his annoyance, why couldn’t females just be quiet and wait for the outcome? He asked himself.
“Things happen…”Evan growled back at her.
“What things?”She hissed back and his head snapped towards her, his eyes flashing disbelief.
“For the love of god woman, discharge your damn batteries and wind down…”Evan growled. Hearing the sound of the tearing of flesh and the last gasp of a wolf that had just had his throat ripped out, and his heart stopped within his chest at the same instant as his head snapped back towards the wolves, and his eyes took in the scene.
Aidan tossed his head back and howled his victory at the same moment that Dee elbowed Evan in the ribs and his heart thumped back into existence. Even if his breath did rush out on a whimper as he curled forwards against the pain.
