by Hettie Ivers
I swallowed and shifted in my seat as Alcaeus’ eyes found mine. I knew Alex’s parents had died when he was five years old.
“Unbeknownst to us, or to the young human woman in question, for that matter, she had fallen completely under the control of several powerful Salvatella family members,” Alcaeus explained, “as they had at some point gained access to her and conjured a means that would allow them to use her as a vehicle through which to channel their powers when the opportunity was ripe to attack.”
I felt nauseous as my brain wrapped itself around this disturbing intel.
“In that sense she was the perfect envoy and agent of destruction, because while we were vigilant about the human help we allowed near Alex, we also viewed them as far less of a threat than werelock and werewolf staff, due to the simple fact that a normal human wouldn’t have possessed the means to damage five-year-old Alex.”
Alcaeus’ smile was rueful. “And certainly not this quiet, sweet human girl who had fast become Alex’s favorite playmate.”
My insides twisted in revolt at the direction I suspected this story was going. I regretted eating so many cookies now.
“Controlling a human is not as simple and straightforward as Remy makes it look with his bevy of sexy pets, however,” Alcaeus said with a halfhearted smirk and a wink at me. “And it becomes messier long term if emotions are complicated and conflicted.”
“Fuck’s sake, I do not control them and you know it!” Remy leapt from his seat. “And most certainly never in the manner the Salvatellas were controlling and using poor Luiza,” he protested, appearing thoroughly appalled at the implication any similarities might exist between his methods for compelling humans and the Salvatellas’—causing me to wonder if he even realized how well his second statement contradicted his first declaration.
“You have never understood, Al! You and your fucking rudimentary comprehension of human emotions—”
“Okay, okay.” Alcaeus held his hands up in surrender. “Just trying to lighten the mood for Milena’s sake. Pray excuse my sophomoric sense of humor and underdeveloped emotional intelligence.”
“Ah, go fuck yourself,” Remy grumbled under his breath as he reclaimed his seat, growling quietly to himself as he gripped the armrests of the wooden and leather armchair he was sitting in in a way that exuded barely suppressed violence. I was learning that Remy had a major hot button—and it was everything and anything to do with the Salvatella clan.
Alcaeus chuckled before clearing his throat and plastering a more serious expression on his face as he returned his attention to me. “Remy inherited his touchy-feely skills from his late mother, Renata, whose ability was quite remarkable, in fact.
“And it was most likely Renata’s gift of emotional awareness that saved Alex’s life, as we’ve come to believe she must’ve sensed the confusion and emotional conflict within Luiza when she was called upon to carry out the Salvatellas’ latest assassination scheme, and that Luiza’s strong emotional response was what awakened Renata from her slumber and prompted her to rush to Alex’s room in time to intervene.”
A loud cracking noise and splintering of wood drew my attention to a fuming, feral-eyed Remy, who’d torn the armrests clear off of his chair. He looked murderous—not at all like the Remy I was accustomed to.
But Alcaeus ignored Remy’s reaction, as if nothing was amiss and Remy hadn’t just destroyed a very nice piece of furniture. Alex remained motionless at the mantle, still staring trance-like at the floor. Kai, who was sitting closest to Remy in a matching wooden and leather armchair of his own, and who had been looking rather distracted himself this whole time, raised his eyes to the ceiling and shook his head ever so faintly.
“Unfortunately, upon confronting Luiza, Renata became the replacement target for the lethal magic the Salvatellas were channeling through the human girl that was intended to kill Alex,” Alcaeus reported. “My father heard Renata’s scream, followed by Luiza’s, but by the time he and the guards entered Alex’s bedroom moments later, Renata and Luiza were both dead, and five-year-old Alex was still furiously dismembering his former favorite playmate and unwitting Salvatella pawn.”
I gasped aloud before I could quash the reflex, and then proceeded to cover my mouth with both hands when the entire room turned to look at me.
“I doubt Renata ever even saw what was coming until it was too late,” Alcaeus appended quietly.
“None of us would’ve seen an attack like that coming!” Remy vented. “Not from a powerless little human girl. No one had ever devised an attack of that magnitude through a human puppet before.”
“Al was only making an observation, Remy,” Kai jumped in and moderated, “a supposition of events as we believe they occurred. It was hardly intended as a criticism of Renata’s abilities or any perceived lack thereof.”
I got the sense from Kai’s calm intervention that this line of demented discussion had perhaps played out a few times before.
“Exactly,” Alcaeus chimed in. “We’ve all always been in complete agreement that Renata’s actions saved Alex’s life.”
Remy tossed the broken remains of his wooden armrests onto the floor. “Well, I should think so! Considering your mighty Alpha Antonio was MIA and did absolutely nothing to save Alex’s life or the life of my mother despite his legendary power and his sworn duty to protect them both.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ, why can’t you fucking get over it already?” Alcaeus threw his hands in the air at his stepbrother, hackles clearly raised in affront at the attack on his late father. “He was a heavy sleeper for a werelock, okay? I think he fucking apologized and suffered enough for that tragic flaw in the brief space of time between mourning the loss of his mate and dying of grief himself!”
“Because you still don’t get it!” Remy roared back, arising to his feet again. His golden eyes flashed with sudden savagery. “None of you do! One hundred and thirty-six fucking years later, you and your whole pack still consider my mother’s abilities a joke and view her as the weak link mate whose death killed your precious Alpha Antonio.”
“Nobody views it that way, Remy,” Alcaeus hissed.
“No? If you truly valued my abilities and my mother’s you wouldn’t persist in referring to them as our ‘touchy-feely skills,’ ” he challenged. “You wouldn’t state that it was ‘most likely’ her abilities which saved Alex’s life when you know without a fucking doubt that it in fact was!”
I wasn’t sure where all this venom and bitterness was coming from all of a sudden, but I had to hand it to Remy, he was kinda sorta making some good points here, near as I could tell.
“Even Alex views our mother as the weak link who cost him both of his parents.” Remy laughed derisively. “When our mother’s ability was what saved his life! If he didn’t, he wouldn’t steadfastly ignore and deny her powers that we all know had to have passed to him, because they sure as shit didn’t pass to me! My abilities have never increased since her passing.”
Yowza! He seemed especially resentful about that last part.
But … wait a fucking minute … was he saying Alex had inherited touchy-feely skills from his late mother? In what alternate universe?
“And he wouldn’t have so callously rejected and despised Milena at first sight for being a mate he considered abhorrently weak and who he feared could only get him killed the way our mother did his father,” Remy deduced.
“That’s not true,” Alex finally spoke up in an emotionless monotone I couldn’t help but find outrageously ironic, given the circumstances and charges so passionately being thrown about by his enraged half-brother.
“Shut up, Alex!” Remy snapped. “I recognized Milena as special from the start,” he proceeded to claim, smacking his fist against his chest. “I knew something was wrong with her earlier in the gardens before Alex even had a fucking clue!” he professed to the room. “I am always the first one to sense the major events approaching and to feel what danger lurks ahead. Just like my mother! And yet Alex get
s to be Milena’s mate? And Alcaeus gets to hold her amazing powers and guide her transformation?”
“Do you have a goddamn point you plan on making anytime soon?” Alcaeus snarked. “Because we have slightly bigger issues to discuss this morning than your ongoing Jan Brady complex.”
Kaleb stifled a bark of laughter at the Jan Brady quip. He was definitely American, I decided. And this family feud unfolding had all the makings of a Jerry Springer episode … but with werelocks, and more expensive chairs broken.
“My goddamn point,” Remy seethed, stalking closer to Alcaeus and Alex while gesticulating wildly, “is that poor Milena is doomed if all she has is the two of you insensitive, emotionally stunted Neanderthals to look after her and protect her from the Salvatellas! Never mind the fact Gabriel Salvatella’s abilities more closely resemble mine than they do either of yours. Neither of you know how to handle a human female. Alex, you managed to bruise Amy practically everywhere you touched her, every single time that you fucked her, and you never even realized you were doing it!” he charged.
“Fuck you! I told you before it was practice for Milena! I never claimed to be perfect at handling human females,” Alex defended, his face abruptly flushing the most shockingly dark shade of … embarrassed Alpha?
Oh, my God!
He cursed and ran a hand over his face, anxious, repentant eyes seeking mine for the briefest moment before darting away to spit fire at Remy again. “Which is why I needed to practice on Amy first.”
Umm … what? He’d “practiced” on Amy?
Alcaeus frowned. “Who the fuck’s Amy? Can we just get back to the Salvatella discussion, please?”
He’d practiced on Amy … as some sort of preparation for handling me? Eww!
“Amy is Milena’s doppelganger,” Kai supplied, not bothering to glance up or break focus from whatever he was busily thumbing into his iPhone.
It was so utterly twisted … so completely disturbing. And yet … strangely … thoughtful? No! Oh, no, no, no! I refused to listen to the lovestruck rationalizations of my vapid inner she-wolf right now.
“Milena has a doppelganger?” Alcaeus’ eyes lit up with interest. “Where?”
“Idiot!” Remy said with a disgusted eye roll at Alcaeus. “You met Amy just yesterday in the gardens.”
“Alcaeus fucked Amy too,” Alex tattled to me. “Way more times than I did!”
My mouth gaped open in a silent gasp of horror. All three of them had fucked my doppelganger?
“Right,” Remy snorted. “But only ’cause you were so wound up after bathing Milena you lost patience with how delicate Amy was and had to move on to fucking your own kind for a while first.”
“It was practice!” Alex shouted.
“That was Amy?” Alcaeus questioned, looking confused. “Huh … I was calling her Allison the whole time.” He shrugged. “Whatever. That girl looked nothing like Milena. And aside from an innocent handprint or two on her ass, I definitely did not bruise her. Why am I getting lumped in with Alex’s performance shortcomings?”
Oh, that was it! I forced my jaw back into place before turning and scowling directly at my chair companion. “How ’bout you? Did you fuck Amy, too?”
He swiftly shook his head in the negative.
“Kai? Did you fuck my doppelganger?” I yelled across the room, loud enough to disrupt the brothers’ bickering.
“Nope,” Kai answered readily, still fussing with his iPhone, “sure didn’t.” He didn’t look up or comment further, but his lips twitched and curled at the corners.
Alcaeus roared with laughter and bum-rushed me a split second later, tickling me into the leather chair until I begged for mercy. Then he snatched me up by the waist and flung me none-so-gently over his broad shoulder.
“Aw, Milena, Milena,” he sang, “I’d adore you even if you weren’t the hottest vessel in half a millennia and holding the key to our entire future existence.” He swung me around a few times before marching back toward the center of the room with me still dangling upside down over his shoulder and protesting that fact with my fists.
“In the first place, Remy,” Alcaeus argued, “Milena is no longer a fragile human female. And in the second, check this cool trick out …”
Before I could blink he’d pulled me back over his shoulder and down the front of his hard body, drawing my thighs open around his waist and imprisoning me securely up against him with a hand splayed intimately beneath my backside. Whoa! I was about to let squeal my disapproval of his most unexpected manhandling when he forced my head to the side with his other hand, sweeping my disheveled hair out of his way and lowering his mouth to my neck.
“Ooh, ah, oh!” I emitted rather lamely in my startled bewilderment as his hot tongue swirled over my skin. “Al-cae-usss!”
I squirmed against him as a cacophony of protests, curse words, and loud, vicious growls erupted throughout the room from all sides. I shrieked in objection, even as my eyes crossed and glazed over, when Alcaeus drew a sizable expanse of my tender flesh into his warm mouth and began sucking erotically. Sweet Jesus!
“Ooh … ahh … Aaahlcaeus … Ssstopit!”
The sounds of furniture breaking and bodies barreling and smashing about the room around us assailed my ears. And yet I moaned in bliss, my eyes rolling back and fluttering shut as a freakishly delightful pulling sensation bloomed in the pit of my belly. Glorious tingles spread throughout my body. I was still struggling—albeit weakly—as a peculiar sense of apathy and lethargy pervaded my system.
It occurred to me I probably should have cared more as I heard an enraged Alex screaming gruesome death and torture threats at Alcaeus, and an equally infuriated Remy promising full-on defection should Alcaeus dare mark me against my will. But it just seemed easier to blow off their over-the-top, predictably possessive reactions right now in favor of enjoying Alcaeus’ bafflingly inappropriate and ill-timed public mauling session.
What the hey, right? YOLO and all that jazz …
“Mark her and die! Mark her and die!” Alex was bellowing again and again, like a deranged man.
Mark me? What? Well … duh! Yeah, this little prank of his was definitely going to leave quite the trashy-looking hickey on my neck, that was certain.
I felt the vibration of Alcaeus’ profound amusement rumbling deep within his chest as he hummed pleasantly against my neck. But when I heard handclapping and the unfamiliar cackle of a female occupant in the room, I finally forced my eyelids open and blew my hair out of my face just enough to see what sort of insanity was transpiring around me from my cockeyed view over Alcaeus’ shoulder.
Alcaeus turned us slowly in place, affording my dazed eyes a glimpse of the room and what proved to be quite the riotously chaotic scene. Alex was magically suspended high up against the wall, his face beet red, his eyes bright yellow, his mouth practically foaming in fury as he raged down at Alcaeus—every muscle in his body bursting with tension, veins protruding throughout as he wrestled in vain against imaginary restraints. I noted it was both distressing as well as a turn-on for my wolf to see him so. Hmm …
Remy was caught in a similar predicament on the adjacent wall, but he’d somehow lost all of his clothing and was completely naked, restrained to the wall. I sensed my pervy she-wolf’s disappointment over the injustice of Alex managing to stay clothed when Remy hadn’t.
Meanwhile, Kaleb was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, wincing with distress as his eyes darted back and forth between Alex up on the wall and Alcaeus defiling my neck. Guadalupe had taken my vacated seat beside him, and she was the one clapping and cackling rowdily, cheering Alcaeus on, pointing and catcalling at both Alex and Remy.
As my eyes found Kai, he paused in his texting to look up and address me directly. Only he didn’t speak aloud, he spoke inside my head. “Do me a favor, Milena?” he petitioned. “Be sure to give them a really good scream, okay?”
Scream? Huh?
Kai smiled broadly then and gave me the most hilarious imitation of an A
lcaeus wink that managed to transform his entire countenance and distract me from further pondering his bizarre scream request.
Alcaeus turned so that I was directly facing Alex again. And then he stopped. No longer threatening, Alex had switched to begging and pleading with Alcaeus, arguing that I had a choice—of all perfectly maddening things, spewing crazy talk about how Alcaeus would never understand me the way he did, never suit me the way he would. Lecturing him on how dishonorable it would be of him to abuse his power over me, and begging him not to mark the only woman who could ever be his true mate in life.
Oh, good grief! What a lot of fuss and drama over a damn hickey. A fabulously pleasurable, titillating hickey, at that, but a hickey, nonetheless. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve sworn Alex almost looked to be on the verge of tears now. Was I missing something?
“Only this, sweetheart,” Alcaeus crooned inside my head. Followed by, “I’m sorry …” as his teeth sank hard and fast into the vulnerable flesh at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, breaking cleanly through the skin to penetrate the layer of muscle that lay beneath.
My eyes bugged wide in shock. And boy did I scream!
I hadn’t a moment to process the reality of what had just happened though—much less acknowledge the certifiably insane fact that I’d just heard a wounded wolf howling inside my own head—because Alex’s face contorted in pure agony, and then he exploded.
He was a man supernaturally affixed to a wall one moment, and an enormous beast of a wolf the next. A beast of a wolf who was flying from the wall straight at me! I screamed again as Alcaeus abruptly relinquished my neck and tossed me through the air—halfway across the room into Kai’s awaiting arms.
What happened after that I couldn’t accurately say, but by the time I turned in Kai’s arms, there were two enormous wolves tearing apart Alcaeus’ living room. A naked Remy had fallen off the wall, and Guadalupe was frantically jumping up and down upon her chair, shouting in Portuguese at the wrestling wolves. Kaleb was in his Cujo form and pacing back and forth at the ready on the sidelines—looking just as awkward and unsure of what the fuck his role was supposed to be as he had while in his human form, I noted.
